Elden Ring Creator Warns Against Choosing One Starting Class

Elden Ring offers players a number of different classes to start with depending on how they want to begin their adventure with different classes utilizing an array of archetypal abilities and equipment. Some specialize in sorcery while others specialize in big weapons meant for whopping enemies over the head, but among the starting options, there's one that Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki advised players against choosing: The Wretch.

FromSoftware's Miyazaki spoke about the Elden Ring classes in a blog post shared on the PlayStation Blog. He spoke of the "many options at the player's disposal" that the community will use to overcome challenges in Elden Ring, and you can start working towards those options early by choosing the class that fits your playstyle best. Choosing the Wretch, however, might not give you the best of starts, but it sounds like the appropriate choice if you're up for a challenge.

"As for a starting class, it's entirely up to the player," Miyazaki said. "It's an RPG, and they can approach it however they like and choose whichever looks the coolest to them. But I would recommend against choosing the naked one (known as the Wretch). As before, it's probably the most difficult starting class!"

Of course, if you've been around some of FromSoftware's other games like the original Dark Souls and those that came after it, you'll know that there is at least some advantage to choosing these more challenging classes. Dark Souls boasts the Deprived as the "bad" class since it comes with nothing more than a wooden plank for a shield and a club (though the club itself is a suitable weapon for many encounters). The advantage of choosing this class comes from its even stats which allot the same amounts of points towards each category instead of skewing more towards Strength, Intelligence, or any one metric. Because of that, players are able to build that class mostly however they choose without having to worry about points being unnecessarily allocated towards different stats. It doesn't work for ever build you have in mind, but it's a prime starting point for many players' visions.

That doesn't mean that the Wretch class will play out the same way, but it's worth starting with if you're not sure what you want to do and would rather come about the game's various combat mechanics organically. We'll see when Elden Ring releases in February just how well the classes stack up against each other and where the Wretch fits into those rankings.