Elden Ring Beginner Guide Exploration

Elden Ring Beginner's Guide | Getting Started

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Published: February 23, 2022 10:45 AM

Elden Ring is about to grace players' screens worldwide. Embark on your next FromSoftware adventure as you enter The Lands Between, a world crafted with the assistance of George R.R. Martin. In this Elden Ring Beginner Guide, we'll cover some of the important information about your flask, how you'll upgrade your character, and summoning assistance.

What More Can Your Flask Do in Elden Ring?

Returning Souls-like players will find a lot of similarities between previous experiences and Elden Ring and you'll likely think the same of your flask. With limited charges to use between Sites of Grace, you'll need to ration them to make sure you survive. Elden Ring gives you two Flasks to enjoy at the start of the game; The Flask of Crimson Tears, which recovers your Health Points, and the Flask of Cerulean Tears, which restores your Force Points. As you progress through the game you'll be able to upgrade how useful the Flasks are:

  • Golden Seeds - These seeds can be found at ethereal saplings and increase the number of charges your Flask has
  • Sacred Tears - These can be found at the different broken churches and increase the amount of HP/FP recovered from the flask.

Elden Ring Beginner Guide Flask

There is also a third flask called the Flask of Wondrous Physick that can be found in the Mistwood. This Flask only has one charge to is but by combining different Crystal Tears you find through the open-world you can alter the effect of the Flask from simply healing you, to creating large explosions or buffing stats.

Is there an Elden Ring Bonfire? Hmm, none of those in the Lands Between

The Bonfire equivalent in Elden Ring is the Sites of Grace and the less powerful Stakes of Marika. A big difference from previous souls-like games is that you don't need to rest at the Sites of Grace or Stakes of Marika, to better facilitate the open-world setting of Elden Ring these locations will unlock as you travel near them. 

Sites of Grace

The Sites of Grace will definitely be familiar as a checkpoint for players to rest at. When resting here your health will automatically fill and your flash will be replenished. Another benefit of visiting these Sites of Grace is that they may also have shining lights radiating off them in a certain direction, following this will help players find new locations of interest. As you progress through the game these Sites of Grace will also serve as your teleport points.

Stakes of Marika

These locations on your map really only serve as a checkpoint. It's definitely worth triggering them as you go by, as you can pick them as a place to respawn from if you die, but they don't have any of the other benefits you'd get from a Site of Grace.

Elden Ring Beginner Guide Resting

Elden Ring Torrent

Every warrior needs his noble steed and yours is the spectral steed Torrent. After you speak with Melina you'll get an item called the Spectral Steed Whistle. You can use this item at any time outside to summon your horse. While riding Torrent you can fight, use items, and jump up and down cliff faces or other vertical obstacles. This enhanced movement will allow you a smoother time traversing this open world.

Don't think that because you have a horse you no longer have anything else to worry about as Torrent can die just as easily as you. Torrent can get caught in the crossfire, take enough damage and he will disappear.

To bring Torrent back to full health you can perform one of two actions:

  • Expend a use of your healing flask after using the Spectral Steed Whistle to bring him back at full health
  • Rest at a Site of Grace

Summon animals to fight at your side

Through your journey you'll come across Spirit Ashes, an example of these are the Fanged Imp Ashes that you can choose as a Keepsake as you start your adventure. You can use Spirit Ashes to summon different animal spirits to assist you in battle.

The item needed to summon these ashes is the Spirit Calling Bell. You obtain the Spirit Calling Bell by purchasing it from the Twin Maiden Husks at Roundtable old, it can also be obtained as a gift from Renna the Witch. You can use this item at Rebirth Monuments which can be found in boss arenas and important locations on the map.

Each set of ashes might summon a single ally or could summon a pack of allies. These allies can all benefit from the effects of healing spells or buffs allowing you to increase their usefulness. Another way to increase Spirit Ashes' usefulness is to upgrade them using Grave Gloveworts and Ghost Gloveworts. You won't have the ability to upgrade your Spirit Ashes as soon as you start the game but after completing a few quests with the Spirit Trader this option will unlock. Upgrading Spirit Ashes can increase their attack, defense, health, and in the case of pack spirits can also increase their numbers.

Elden Ring Beginner Guide Spirits

Getting out of the way

It wouldn't be a souls-like game if dodge rolling wasn't an integral mechanic to the game. As in Dark Souls, the percentage of your Equip Load that you're wearing determines what kind of roll you get. As you'd expect the less you're wearing the faster you are on your feet and the more readily you're able to roll out of attacks. The breakdown of rolling speeds is as follows:

  • Over 100% of Equip Load  -> You cannot roll and even your walk movement will be slowed
  • Over 70%                             -> This is the slowest type of roll. You'll have difficulty using this in combat and often find yourself frustrated by how it inhibits your movement speed
  • Above 30% but below 70% -> This is the medium roll. It works well in combat and in traversal
  • Under 30%                            -> The fast roll assists you in terrain traversal, it also offers you the fastest way to get out of the line of attack in combat.

NOTE: If you increase your Endurance you'll be able to also increase your maximum Equip Load. If you find yourself in a situation where you don't want to give up your equipment but want a faster roll you might find yourself close to the threshold.


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More Info About This Game
Learn More About Elden Ring
Game Page Elden Ring
Developer
FromSoftware
Publisher
Bandai Namco
Release Date
February 25, 2022 (Calendar)
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