7 Things you should know when starting Elden Ring

From Software’s Elden Ring has upped the bar in terms of difficulty even for veterans of Dark Souls and similar titles like Bloodborne or Sekiro. Here are 7 tips to ensure a smooth start on your journey to become an Elden Lord.

1. Reveal your map!

In order to navigate the world of Elden Ring you need a proper map to help you out. Your world map does not get revealed automatically just by exploring, instead you should look for the following symbol to open up the map of a new area. It marks the locations of pillars from which you get a new map fragment.

2. Where to start?

Before you begin the journey to the first main story boss fight at Stormveil Castle you should explore Limgrave, your starting zone, properly. It has plenty of smaller dungeons with easier bosses that can drop valuable loot and runes to level up your character.

There is no need to rush headlong into the battle with Margit, the Fell Omen, especially if you prefer higher levels or better equipment before facing her. However in that case you should also avoid the optional bosses of Limgrave: Tree Sentinel or the Flying Dragon Agheel as they pack quite the punch.

3. Collect Great Ghost Glovewort

Elden Ring has a lot of materials in the overworld for you to gather. You can craft them to useful items and other things. But the most important material to collect are the Great Ghost Gloveworts you can find near gravesites. They are mostly located in dungeons and allow you to level your Elite Spirit Ashes.

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4. Golden Runes and Smithing Stones

Golden Runes are an important part of the game. You can often find them from skulls that are spread all over the map. You can trade them in with vendors to buy items or exchange them for Runes to level up.

Smithing Stones are also important. They are used to improve your weapon and can be found in the mines.

5. What can I buy from the vendor?

During the course of the game you will encounter a lot of vendors that offer different wares. Especially at the beginning you should utilize your Crafting Kit to create your own items. You can buy equipment from vendors if you are struggling early on, but it is recommended to mainly focus on purchasing Ashes, Recipes, Notes or Stonesword Keys.

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6. Unlock your mount as soon as possible!

When your journey in the Lands Between starts you will not immediately need a mount. But as your unlock more and more of the map it becomes very useful to not only traverse long distances but also utilize mounted attacks. To unlock your spectral steed “Torrent” you need to find and activate three Sites of Grace.

Once you have at least three, Melina will appear and make an offer to you. Accept her proposal and she will also give you the Spectral Steed Whistle that allows you to summon your mount.

7. Important items

There are three key items that you should always keep in mind and collect.

Golden Seed – You can find these spread all over the map besides smaller golden trees. Collect those and use them to increase the amount of flasks you have.
Sacred Tears – Increase the potency of your flasks and can be found most commonly around churches.
Crystal Tears – They are a necessary component for the flask of wondrous physicks which allow you to customize special buffs on demand. You can get those from the Erdtree avatar bosses beneath the prominent trees on the map.

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