Elden Ring: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Introduction — Why You Should (Maybe) Care

Alright, let’s cut the crap. Elden Ring is, hands down, the most punishing game I’ve ever loved. I’ve got 400 hours across three characters, and I still remember my first hour: I picked the Wretch, smacked a giant crab with a club for 15 minutes, fell off a cliff while running away, and then got one-shot by a Tree Sentinel that I didn’t even see. I alt-F4’d twice. But I came back. And you will too, because this game does something no other open-world RPG does — it respects your intelligence while also being a total dick about it.

What makes it special? The world. Not the graphics (though those are solid), but the way it’s built. You can ride your horse, Torrent, from the starting area straight to a late-game zone with a dragon that breathes rot. The game doesn’t stop you. It just lets you die, learn, and try again. That’s the magic. No handholding, no quest markers telling you where to go. You get a map fragment, some vague gestures, and a whole lot of “good luck, loser.” I love that. It feels like discovering a real place, not a theme park.

I’ll be real—the first 10 hours are rough. You’ll hate the Margit boss fight (everyone does). You’ll get lost in Caelid and wonder why everything has scarlet rot. But then something clicks: you realize you can just skip Margit, go south, level up, and come back to smash him. That freedom is why I’m writing this guide. If someone had told me that on day one, I’d have saved 12 hours of crying.

Getting Started / First Steps — Things I Wish I Knew

When you first step into Limgrave, you’re going to want to go straight to the big castle. Don’t. That’s a trap. The game’s tutorial is basically “hit stuff, roll, die,” but the real first step is understanding that you are not a hero yet. You’re a hobo with a stick. So here’s what you actually do:

• Pick the Samurai class first. I know, I know, you want to be a cool magic guy. But the Samurai starts with a katana that has bleed buildup, a bow, and decent armor. Bleed is busted in this game — it deals percentage-based damage. A Bloodhound’s Fang or Uchigatana will carry you through 60% of the game. I wasted my first playthrough as a pure sorcerer and ran out of FP constantly. Samurai lets you learn the combat without gimping yourself.
• Find the Church of Elleh immediately. It’s right after the first step. Talk to the merchant (Kale) and buy the Crafting Kit. You need to craft Furlcalling Finger Remedies to summon help, and some basic Fire Grease for bosses weak to fire. Don’t skip this — I spent 20 minutes trying to beat a boss without a summon because I didn’t have the materials.
• Get Torrent (your horse) before fighting anything serious. After you rest at the first Site of Grace past the tutorial, you’ll get a cutscene with a woman named Melina. She gives you the Spectral Steed Whistle. Torrent is not just for travel — you can fight on horseback, and it’s how you survive the Tree Sentinel (the golden knight on a horse near the starting area). Actually, don’t fight him yet. Just run past him and grab the map fragments.
• Upgrade your weapon first, not your level. I had 30 Vigor and a +2 sword and got destroyed by the first boss. Weapon upgrades give exponentially more damage than stat points. Rush to the Smithing Stones in the Limgrave Tunnels (the mine with the big face on the wall). You can get a +3 weapon before you even fight Margit. That’s a 40% damage increase.
• Do NOT kill Varre. The creepy guy with the white mask at the First Step. He gives you a quest that lets you teleport to a late-game farming spot at level 30. If you kill him, you lose access to that area until NG+. I killed him on my first character because he was annoying. Big mistake.

Core Mechanics & Progression — How the Game Actually Works

So you’ve got your sword, your horse, and you’ve died to a giant dog. Now what? Progression in Elden Ring is not like Skyrim or Dark Souls. It’s three things layered together: exploration, Rune farming, and build crafting. Here’s the real breakdown.

Exploration is your XP system. You don’t just grind levels by killing mobs (though you can). Every time you find a new zone, you get Golden Seeds (for more healing flasks) and Sacred Tears (for stronger healing). There are exactly 30 Golden Seeds per playthrough, and you need 10 of them to max out your flask at 14 charges. The game hides them behind bushes, on cliffs, and in the middle of poison swamps. You have to look. My advice: as soon as you see a glowing tree icon on the map, go there. That’s a seed.

Rune farming is a trap… until you know where to go. Early game, just fight things you come across. But if you want to level quickly, go to the Dragonbarrow in Caelid (use the teleporter trap in the Third Church of Marika). There’s a sleeping dragon, Greyoll, that gives 75,000 Runes when killed. Hit it with a bleed weapon from horseback — it takes about 5 minutes. I did this on my third character at level 20 and jumped to level 40 instantly. Just be careful: the area is full of giant dogs that one-shot you. Don’t engage, just run to the dragon’s tail.

Stat scaling is not what you think. The game says “Strength increases damage for heavy weapons.” That’s only half true. Each weapon has a letter grade (E to S) for stat scaling. But the actual damage formula is: Base Damage x (1 + Scaling Factor). A weapon with C scaling at +3 is barely better than its base damage. A weapon with B scaling at +15 is a monster. So focus on upgrading first, then match your stats to the weapon’s best scaling. For example, the Bloodhound’s Fang scales primarily with Dexterity (B at +9), so put points into Dex, not Strength. I spent my first run leveling Strength to 40 with a Dex weapon. Felt like an idiot.

Spirit Ashes are not “easy mode.” They’re a core mechanic. The game gives you a Spirit Calling Bell from the Church of Elleh (talk to Renna at night). Summoning a Lhutel the Headless or Mimic Tear (found in Nokron) can turn a 10-minute boss fight into a 2-minute one. Use them. Some purists will say you’re cheating. Ignore them. The devs put them in the game for a reason — bosses like Malenia and Radahn are balanced around having a spirit. I beat Malenia only because my Mimic Tear tanked her Waterfowl Dance while I spammed Rivers of Blood. No shame.

Expert Tips & Tricks — Only Learned from 400 Hours of Pain

These are the things I figured out after getting my ass kicked repeatedly. Some are well-known in the community, others I stumbled on by accident.

• Jump attacks break stance faster than anything. The game doesn’t explain this well, but every enemy has a hidden “poise” meter. If you deal enough poise damage, they stagger and you can do a critical riposte. A jumping heavy attack deals massive poise damage (about 40% more than a regular hit). Against knights and bosses, jump-attack twice, then riposte. I used this to stunlock the Bell Bearing Hunter (a nightmare boss) at level 50.
• Fire damage is your best friend in the early game. Most enemies in Limgrave and Liurnia are weak to fire. The Flame Chariot weapon art (found on the Ash of War: Flame Strike) buffs your weapon with fire and deals bonus damage. It also sets enemies on fire for a DoT of 15 damage per tick. Against the giant crab I mentioned earlier, this reduces a 20-hit kill to 8 hits.
• You can skip almost any boss and come back later. The only mandatory bosses are Margit, Godrick, Rennala, Two Tree Sentinels (in Leyndell), and Godfrey/Hoarah Loux. The rest are optional. I beat the game on my first playthrough without killing Malenia, Rykard, or Placidusax. If a boss is too hard, just mark it on the map and go explore somewhere else. The game is huge — more content than you can finish in 100 hours.
• Learn to parry with the Buckler shield. The Buckler Parry has the most frames of any parry in the game (about 12 frames vs 8 for other shields). Practice on the soldiers at the Gatefront Ruins in Limgrave. Once you nail the timing (parry just before the attack connects), you can trivialize enemies like Crucible Knights and even Maliketh (second phase). I parried Godrick to death in 30 seconds once. It’s addictive.
• The “Rune Arc” system is hidden. When you use a Rune Arc (found randomly in the world), it activates your equipped Great Rune for one session until you die. The Godrick’s Great Rune gives you +5 to every stat. That’s 40 free levels. To use it, you need to restore the rune at the Divine Tower of Limgrave (east of the castle), then equip it at a Site of Grace. I didn’t know this until after I beat the final boss. Use Rune Arcs before tough bosses — they’re common enough that you’ll have 20+ by mid-game.
• Torrent has two health bars. You can heal him with Rowa Fruit (crafted into Singing Raisins) or by dismounting for 5 seconds. His health bar resets when you summon him again. If Torrent dies fighting a field boss, you’re locked out of riding for 10 seconds. Don’t let him die in a boss fight — I lost two fights to the Fallingstar Beast because Torrent got one-shot and I couldn’t escape the AoE.

Common Mistakes to Avoid — What Got Me Killed

I’ve made every mistake in this game. Here’s my list of “don’t be me” moments:

• Don’t run away from every enemy. I spent my first 5 hours running past everything because I was scared. You miss out on Smithing Stones, Runes, and key items. Fight the basic soldiers — they drop Armor sets and Weapons. The Godrick Soldiers near the castle drop the Lordsworn’s Straight Sword, which has good crit damage. I missed that entirely.
• Don’t ignore the menus. The game has a “Sort Items” button that I didn’t use for 30 hours. Your inventory becomes a mess of 200 items. Press Y/Triangle to sort by type. Also, read the descriptions of every key item. The Warning: Spoiler books tell you where to find secret bosses. I skipped them and missed an entire underground zone (the Lake of Rot).
• Don’t dual-wield early unless you know what you’re doing. Power-stancing (using two weapons of the same type) deals more damage but costs more stamina and makes you heavy roll. If you’re under 40 Endurance, stick to one weapon and a shield. I tried to dual-wield katanas at level 30 and fat-rolled into every boss attack. Fat rolling (heavy load) gives you invincibility frames of about 9 frames instead of 13. You’ll get caught in every AoE.
• Don’t ignore the “Greenburst Crystal Tear” in Flask of Wondrous Physick. This tear boosts stamina recovery by 50% for 3 minutes. In boss fights, that means you can chain 5 roll-evades instead of 3. I didn’t use a Physick build until my second playthrough. It’s a game-changer. Mix it with the Opaline Hardtear (damage negation) for a “I’m not dying today” combo.
• Don’t hoard Larval Tears. You find about 15 per playthrough. They let you respec your stats. I was afraid to use them, thinking I’d regret it. But by endgame, you’ll have 10 left over. If your build isn’t working, respec. I changed from a Strength build to a Bleed build at level 80 and doubled my damage output. Don’t be stubborn.

FAQ — Questions I Get Asked in Discord Constantly

Q: What class should I pick for my first playthrough?
A: Samurai, hands down. It starts with a bleed weapon, a bow, and medium armor. If you want magic, pick Astrologer — but know that FP management is painful early on. I’d recommend starting Samurai and then respeccing to a mage later if you want.

Q: How do I summon other players?
A: Use a Furlcalling Finger Remedy (crafted from 2 Erdleaf Flowers). Then look for golden summon signs on the ground near boss arenas. To be summoned yourself, place a Small Golden Effigy (found early in the game). The game uses a matchmaking system based on level and weapon upgrade. If you’re at level 50 with a +12 weapon, you’ll only match with players between levels 40-60 and +8 to +15 weapons. Keep that in mind if you’re not seeing signs.

Q: Is there a way to get more than 14 healing flasks?
A: No, 14 is the max. But you can convert some of your Cerulean Flasks (FP) into Flask of Crimson Tears (HP) at any Site of Grace. I run 10 HP and 4 FP for most of the game. For pure melee builds, go 12 HP and 2 FP.

Q: I keep dying to those giant birds in Caelid. What do I do?
A: Those birds are weak to fire and lightning. Use Fire Grease or a Lightning Ash of War. They also have low poise — two hits from a greatsword will stagger them. If you’re on Torrent, sprint past them. They can’t catch you if you’re moving fast.

Q: What’s the best early-game weapon I can get without fighting a boss?
A: The Bloodhound’s Fang (curved greatsword) is the best. It’s obtained by killing Bloodhound Knight Darriwil in the Limgrave Evergaol (southwest of the Mistwood). He’s a field boss, but you can summon a spirit ash for help. I beat him at level 15 with the Jellyfish Ashes (found in Liurnia). This weapon has bleed, good scaling, and a weapon art that backflips and attacks. It’s overpowered until late game.

Q: Does this game have a “safe” area where I can farm levels?
A: Yes. After you unlock the Mohgwyn Palace area (through Varre’s quest or a teleporter in the Consecrated Snowfield), there’s a spot near the Palace Approach Ledge-Road site of grace. The Albinauric enemies there are worth 2,000 Runes each and you can farm them easily with a bow. I do this at level 80 to get to 120 in about an hour. But be warned — these guys are tough. Use lightning damage.

Q: I’m stuck on Malenia. Any tips?
A: She’s the hardest boss in the game, no contest. Three big tips: First, use the Mimic Tear spirit ash (upgraded to +10). Second, equip the Bloody Slash weapon art or Rivers of Blood to bleed her — she’s weak to bleed. Third, for her Waterfowl Dance attack, run directly away from her during the first flurry, roll forward through the second, and block/sprint for the third. If you can survive that, you can beat her. I did it with 40 Vigor, 50 Arcane, and a fully upgraded Nagakiba. Took me 15 tries.

Q: Is there a way to respec without a Larval Tear?
A: No. You need a Larval Tear and a visit to Rennala in the Academy of Raya Lucaria. There are 18 Larval Tears per playthrough, and they’re found in the Nokron and Nokstella zones, plus some in the Eternal Cities. If you run out, you’re locked until NG+.

Q: What the hell is “scadutree” level? I keep hearing about it.
A: That’s from the DLC, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. It’s a separate progression system for the DLC zones. You use Scadutree Fragments to level it up at Sites of Grace, and it boosts your attack and defense only in the DLC area. It’s basically the devs’ way of making sure you don’t just one-shot everything when you enter the DLC. Don’t worry about it until you get the DLC — it’s not in the base game.

That’s it, Tarnished. Go out there, die a bunch, and become a lord. Or just a guy with a bleed katana. Both work.