Alright, so, here's the thing: in Elden Ring, you're going to die. A fair few times, in fact, unless you're one of those godlings that could finish a FromSoft game on drums or whatever. For us meager mortals, an Elden Ring starter guide could come in very handy indeed, so that's what we've prepared today!

Much as we did a few days back with Total Warhammer 3, we've singled out a few key tips and tricks for Elden Ring on PC, too. If you're a Soulslike veteran, most of what we've got to offer won't be too novel, but we've got a few advanced tricks up our proverbial sleeve still. So, just scroll on ahead and take it all in, no matter how experienced or inexperienced you may be.

By the time you're done, you'll have a way better chance of not dying quite as often as you otherwise would've. And, really, isn't that the most one could hope for?

Play Elden Ring on PC today!

Elden Ring Starter Guide

For those that are curious about the gameplay basics, we spoke at some length about those already. In short, Elden Ring is the next step in FromSoftware's gameplay evolution. It's everything a Dark Souls game had been, and then some. Indeed, it feels like FromSoft learns from its mistakes more so than any other major game developer.

And - yes - we are going to touch upon the PC launch issues later on. Specifically, we're looking into preparing a performance tweak guide, but it's going to take a bit of work on the OS side of things. Stay tuned for that - next week!

Now, without any further ado, we've got some tips & tricks to go through.

Finish the tutorial, seriously

Much as was the case with many other FromSoftware games, Elden Ring, too, has an optional tutorial section that you can play through. The catch, though, is that it can be a bit easy to miss. Especially if you're not used to these games' general obtuseness and obsession with mystery. So, when starting the game, just keep an eye out for a ghastly, wheelchair-bound presence that will tell you to jump into a hole. Then... jump into the hole.

No objective bee-lining for a little bit

We know, we know. Following the golden flying thingamajig seems like an obvious thing to do. But, we'd advise you to take some time and come to grips with the absolutely massive open-world that FromSoft has cooked up. Collect some resources, gather some goodies. There's a bunch of useful stuff just laying around, as it were. Just gotta head on over there and pick it up!

Visit Kale as soon as possible

It's hard to overstate the importance of visiting the resident merchant, Kale, as soon as possible. Kale is located near the Gatefront Ruins, just as you approach Stormveil Castle, and he's easy enough to recognize, as he's wearing a Santa Claus-looking garb. Interact with him, and you'll receive the local Map Fragment, a Whetstone Knife, and - most importantly - have the chance to purchase a Crafting Kit and Cookbook items. These are downright invaluable and should be your first major objective.

Don't miss out on Sites of Grace

You won't be able to spend your Runes (i.e. Souls) until you've met Melina, and you won't meet Melina until you've discovered three unique Sites of Grace. These are the bonfire equivalents of Elden Ring. Effectively, places to respec, resupply, and refit your gear to better tackle the upcoming challenges. Thankfully, finding three of them is easy enough, so just explore away.

Farm crafting materials by resting

Whenever you rest at a Site of Grace, enemies will respawn. Naturally. What's more important early on, however, is the fact that resources such as berries and animals respawn, too. It's easy enough to stockpile some supplies by repeatedly resting and farming crafting materials as soon as you get a Crafting Kit from Kale.

Consider sneaking around at night

It seems like an obvious thing, but if you're looking into a sneaky playthrough or just want to look around without getting ganged-up on, consider going at it at nighttime. At night, enemies have their vision cones substantially reduced, making stealth far more viable than it is in broad daylight. As we said - sensible stuff.

Familiarize yourself with the overworld map

For the first time ever, there's an actual overworld map in a FromSoftware Soulslike. What's more, too, is that it's genuinely one of the most useful tools you could have on an adventure such as this. Setting aside the fact that it looks amazing for a bit, you can (and should) put down custom map markers to keep track of what's what.

Level the right stats - seriously

Choosing the right stats may seem like a proper nightmare to total FromSoft newbie, and fair enough - there's a bunch of them that don't necessarily make sense to a fresh player. So, we've prepared a short cheat sheet for you to consider:

• Vigor: HP increases, immunity and fire resistance boosts
• Mind: FP increases, focus boosts
• Endurance: Equip Load increases, Stamina increases, robustness boosts
• Strength: Armor & heavy weapon spec, physical defense boosts
• Dexterity: Light weapon spec (Finesse), spellcasting, horse poise boosts
• Intelligence: Magic spec & boosts
• Faith: Incantations (i. e. Miracles) spec
• Arcane: Holy defense boosts, vitality improvements, better item discovery, slight boosts to Magic & Incantationsž

Decide what type of character you're going for, and spec the right stats for the job.

Take it slow and safe

As with any FromSoftware game, taking things slow pays off big time. As this is a proper open-world game, it's so easy to get jumped by enemies you hadn't even seen if you were rushing from one target to another. In fact, some mooks straight-up hide in the bushes! Go slowly from one location to another and try not to engage enemies you're not absolutely sure don't have backup hiding close by.

Avoid large groups of enemies if at all possible

Building on top of our previous tip is this one: do not go after big enemy camps as soon as you take control over your character. Unless you're a Soulslike master - in which case, what are you even doing here - it's going to take a bit until you come to grips with all the nuances of Elden Ring's combat. Crowd control, for one, does not come easy in this game, and you'd do well to avoid large groups until you're confident in your combat and/or stealth abilities.

You have infinite stamina out of combat

One of the biggest, most important quality-of-life updates delivered with Elden Ring is that the game can intelligently decide when you're in combat, and when you're completely safe. Alright, it's hardly as impressive as we've made it out to be, but the end result is that, if you're not fighting something, you've got effectively infinite stamina to run around with. Extremely neat stuff!

The fall damage caps are very forgiving, but not that forgiving

Though Elden Ring does have fall damage implemented, our humble experience has shown it to be exceedingly forgiving compared to, say, Dark Souls. Odds are good that you can fall from pretty high up before taking any damage at all. Though further testing will be necessary, this does mean that you shouldn't be too worried about losing HP whenever you jump off a ledge.

Are You Ready for Elden Ring?

As with any given starter guide, this too is - whaddayaknow - just the start of it. From what we've seen so far, we're looking at dozens of hours of consecutive game time in Elden Ring. Make no mistake! This is, without a doubt, one of the biggest RPGs we've seen in quite a long while now.

Though the PC version of the game is in a bit of a rough spot at launch, FromSoftware may already be looking into patching things up. Thankfully, it's still far from the disaster that was Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC. Perfectly playable, then. It's just pretty far removed from any sort of ideal performance, sadly.

All the reasons we were excited about Elden Ring pre-launch have worked out, too! It's simply an astonishingly good game, and it's making its way onto our list of top 100 PC games for sure.

We've got heaps more Elden Ring coverage coming up in the following weeks and months, so be sure to stay tuned!

Play Elden Ring on PC today!