Elden Ring: 5 Tips for New Soulslike Players

By Logan Moore

There's a pretty major video game launching this week called Elden Ring; you may have heard of it. The latest action-adventure game by developer FromSoftware is releasing across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms on February 25 and will represent a new evolution of the Soulslike genre that FromSoftware first established with Demon's Souls, and subsequently, the Dark Souls trilogy. Although these Soulslike titles are known for their difficulty, Elden Ring has reached such critical acclaim that it's bound to bring in a new audience of players who are interested in seeing what these games are all about. 

To that end, if you're one of these people who are looking to play Elden Ring as a Soulslike newcomer, we have a couple of tips that should be helpful for you as you look to conquer this vast and dangerous open world. 

Be Patient and Keep a Cool Head

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This might sound like a simple concept, but patience is going to be your friend as you look to dive into Elden Ring. Allow yourself the time to learn the game's mechanics and realize in advance that there will surely be some moments where you find yourself getting stuck, whether that be within a certain dungeon or against a particular. This is all completely normal. If you know ahead of time that you're going to have some strife, it should allow you to take this pain in stride more as you encounter it.

More than anything, though, it's important to exercise patience whenever you might be duking it out with a boss. As any Soulslike veteran would likely tell you, the biggest mistakes that you'll make in most fights will come whenever you have a boss close to death. Rather than trying to get sloppy and rush to make the killing blow, continue to use the same strategy that got you to that point and you should find yourself eliminating the enemy with ease.

Only Upgrade a Handful of Stats

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Learning how to properly build your character in Elden Ring is something that you'll have to get used to if you're unfamiliar with the process. Compared to many other video games that allow you to upgrade your stats over time, Elden Ring is a title where you're going to want to choose a handful of stats to specialize in.

For instance, if you want to deal massive damage with heavy weapons, you'll want to put a ton of points into your Strength stat. But if you're prefer to be a mage and deal out continuous magic attacks, you'll want to prioritize putting your stat points into categories that will enhance your wizarding skills.

Essentially, to create a really great build in Elden Ring, you'll want to choose a couple of areas to specialize in and continue to upgrade them over time. Rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, you'll really just end up being a master of none if you try to steadily increase all of your stats evenly when playing Elden Ring.

With all of this being said, it's worth stressing that Elden Ring does allow you to respec your stat points later on if you need to. So if you find that your current build just isn't working out, you could always clean the slate and allot your stat points all over again.

If You Get Stuck, Go Explore

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One major difference between Elden Ring and past FromSoftware titles is that the game isn't as linear. Instead, Elden Ring is set in a vast open-world that is filled to the brim with monsters to fight and bosses to hammer away at. Although there is still a main path to the game that you'll need to follow if you want to see the credits roll, Elden Ring allows you a bit more wiggle room than past games, especially if you find yourself getting stuck in one particular area.

With this in mind, if you do see yourself hitting a brick wall, just go off and explore a different part of Elden Ring's world instead. This change of pace won't only provide a nice mental reset for you, but it might allow you to beat some enemies that are a bit more manageable. In the process, you'll be able to upgrade your character and then return to the previous spot that you were stuck at and may find that it is easier than before.

Find a Weapon You Like and Stick With It

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Elden Ring is going to throw a whole lot of weapons at you over the course of the game. You'll constantly be picking up new loot, and naturally, you might find yourself wanting to constantly rotate through weapons to see what fits your own style. And while that's perfectly fine at first, long term, you're going to want to really dedicate yourself to a single weapon and upgrade it over time.

This tip also goes hand-in-hand with our previous one that involved upgrading stats. Again, if you're trying to create a character that is going to deal massive damage by upgrading your Strength to a high level, you'll want to use a weapon that scales with your Strength attribute so that you can continue to increase your damage output over time. Finding a solid weapon that you really enjoy using and upgrading it over the course of Elden Ring will ensure that you're more capable than ever when it comes to squaring off against some of the game's most difficult bosses.

Research, Research, Research

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This is something that I have always recommended to Soulslike newbies: don't be afraid to go online and look for help if you feel like you need it. When I first started playing these Soulslike games with Bloodborne a few years back, I likely would have given up if I wasn't consulting various guides and walkthroughs online. And while I typically try to avoid guides for most video games because I feel like it's almost cheating, consulting tips and other hints from the Soulslike community really made me have a greater understanding and appreciation for games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Demon's Souls.

Elden Ring is a game that is going to be all about community involvement. As this title gets into more people's hands, players will begin to share what they have found online through various wikis, guides, and videos. Consuming this sort of content will not only help ensure that you're becoming more skilled when actually playing Elden Ring, but it might reveal some secrets that you would have never found otherwise. So as long as you're fine with engaging with Elden Ring content outside of the game itself, I absolutely recommend that you do some research whenever you aren't playing FromSoftware's latest.

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