10 things I wish I knew when starting Elden Ring

Hey everyone, Arihead here from Electronic First. Elden Ring has been out for a while now and people tend to have mixed opinions about it. While no one can deny it is a masterpiece, Elden Ring is no different than other FromSoftware games in that it can be quite difficult. That is, if you don’t know how to break the game. As of patch 1.03, a lot of overpowered equipment has been nerfed. However, they definitely missed a couple of things, not to mention the insane Rune Farming routes have remained unaffected. It’s really easy to get strong and progress quickly in Elden Ring, and today I’m going to show you how. These are the 10 things I wish I knew in Elden Ring. Let’s begin! But first, be sure to check out the store. At Electronic First, we provide the best games at the best prices, like Elden Ring! So if any of you maidenless runts want the game at an affordable price, you know where to go!

10. Pick your Starting Class Wisely

Well, this can get quite complicated. While it is true that certain classes shine above others, each class has its pros and cons. Perhaps the most popular, the vagabond is a fantastic choice for melee builds. However, it’s not optimal for spell-casters. Likewise, the Astrologer won’t be optimal for melee players. Even knowing this, players often find out their preferred playstyle later into the game. Currently, spell-casting is extremely powerful and easily trivializes everything when optimized, so do keep that in mind. Melee builds are very powerful, but they don’t cheese bosses like the spell-casters do, whether they are intelligence or faith-based. However, the hardest part isn’t picking a strong class, it’s actually picking the class that is relevant to your build late game. When you’re a new player though, knowing what you’ll want for late game is impossible. If you’re unsure what build you want, I recommend picking the Wretch. The Wretch has balanced stats across the board and is a good option for every build imaginable. The only downside is that their stats will probably not be fully optimized for your build. At level 100+, you probably won’t feel the difference.

What if you don’t know how to optimize your stats though? You certainly won’t be able to make an informed decision.

9. Optimize your Stats

The concept of soft caps and diminishing returns often eludes the maidenless, but knowing these things is absolutely essential. So basically, when a stat hits a certain threshold, it will experience diminishing returns. For example, I generally recommend players to aim for 60 Vigor, the second soft cap. Any higher will experience significant diminishing returns. And this is a big problem with the general player base. They’ll use less than 50 Vigor and wonder why they die so much. Please, before you complain about it again, try aiming for 60 Vigor late game. The other stats have soft caps too. 

In particular, Strength, Dexterity, Faith, Intelligence and Arcane share the same soft caps, Again, I recommend Aiming for the second soft cap; 55 of the relevant stat. Endurance and Mind are the two stats you can avoid more than the others. That doesn’t mean they are less important though. Far from it. In particular, Endurance is vital for optimized builds and hits the third soft cap at just 32, with the load soft cap starting at 25. Unlike other stats, the third soft cap of Endurance is no worse than the second, making it a worthy investment. However, picking the right amount of Endurance depends on your build. Ideally, you should want just enough equip load to maintain medium weight. 

How much you will need also depends on the talismans you use. Talismans like Great Jar’s Arsenal and Erdtree’s Favor make a large difference and allow you to use some of the best armor in the game for maximum poise and absorption, without investing all your points into Endurance. Mind is easily the least efficient, but is an important stat for spell casters especially. After all, you’re not much of a spell caster if you run out of FP with just 2 spells. Suffice to say, optimizing your character is an important aspect of Elden Ring.

If you’re battle-obsessed like I am, then you’re probably fighting hard enemies all the time. All in all, I’ve concluded that fighting everything in sight is a huge waste of time and usually leads players to burning through their flasks before a boss fight,

8. You can Skip Enemies!

Need to progress quickly? Don’t fight. Need to save your flasks for a boss? Don’t fight. Need a maiden? Sorry, I don’t have an answer to that question. However, I can’t stress how important this tip really is. Before your character is broken beyond belief, it’s usually better to contain your blood lust and skip enemies if applicable, especially when the conditions are unfavorable, like weird terrain and large groups of enemies. I’ve made this mistake more times than I can count! Save your resources for boss fights and rare drops. You’ll thank me later! And if you need runes,

7. Farm Runes

We actually made a Rune Farming Guide that shows how you can get tons of runes early game. Be sure to check it out

As the great White-Faced Varre once said “Without guidance, without the strength of runes, and without an invitation to the Roundtable Hold… You are fated, it seems, to die in obscurity.

This couldn’t ring more true. Runes are used for almost everything, such as leveling up, buying items and upgrading gear. Without runes, your character is completely useless.

Now, this might be a little controversial. After all, not everyone is open to the idea of power leveling early game. It can kill the fun aspect by trivializing most encounters. If you’re having trouble like I did when I first started, then you should absolutely consider Rune Farming as early as possible. As someone that has Rune farmed a lot, my enjoyment of the game hasn’t wavered one bit. If anything, I am even more excited to play, knowing that I test out countless builds. I see no harm in it. However, without Miner Bell Bearings, items that allow you to purchase both normal and somber Smithing Stones from the Twin-Maiden Husk Shop, it is extremely difficult to upgrade your weapons.

6. Collect Miner Bell Bearings

When I first discovered the Ball Rune Farming Route, I was elated and leveled my character all the way to 80 with the expectation that FromSoftware would patch it out. Of course, that was before I learned there were much better and game breaking routes accessible later into the game. Here I was though, at level 80, but with mediocre level 4 weapons. I thought I would become strong by virtue of my advanced level alone. I couldn’t be more wrong! Upgrading your weapons is as important as upgrading your offensive stats. If you fail to do so, then you will surely struggle in much of the game’s content. Not only does it boost your weapon’s Attack Rating, they also increase the damage of Weapon Arts and Spells. Finding these items is the tricky part though, as the game does little in pointing out the locations. I managed to find all the bell bearing locations online, but was quickly disappointed when I learned most bell bearings required you to progress into the story, which is the opposite of what I did in my first playthrough.

5. Progress in the Story

To most, this may seem painfully obvious, but it’s easy to get sidetracked in the Lands Between. The world is so rich with content that you just wanna explore every nook and cranny. The issue is that you can’t really get stronger without progressing, as I was saying earlier. This doesn’t just extend to Bell Bearings though. There are weapons, armor, weapon arts, and spells you might want that can only be accessed after progressing in the story. Thankfully, defeating early to mid game bosses is rather easy and unlocks most areas. There is no reason why you shouldn’t do this before you explore and get sidetracked. There is one item I highly recommend getting.

4. Use the Great Jar’s Arsenal

Out of all the many talismans in Elden Ring, the Great Jar’s Arsenal is probably the best one that can be accessed rather early game. It provides a ridiculous 19% increase to your equip load, allowing you to use better armor and more weapons without significant Endurance investment. Finding this talisman is the tricky part though. You’ll need to head to Siofran Deep Well and descend into the subterranean Siofra River area. Work your way up toward this location. Then, you’ll find a giant jar creature. Talk to it, and three red summon signs will materialize. After you defeat the three duelists, talk to the giant jar again to receive the Great Jar’s Arsenal.

3. Status Effects

This comes as no surprise. People have been abusing Bleed since the start of the game for its insane damage, especially when applied with Seppuku. Don’t underestimate the other status effects though. If you think Bleed is the only one that’s broken, you are sorely mistaken. While Sleep, Madness, and Death Blight don’t affect a lot of enemies, Frostbite, Scarlet Rot, and Poison do. And they are very strong status effects in their own right. Frostbite, in particular, is among the strongest status effects you can use, especially when combined with flame, which resets Frostbite and allows you to build up frost again. As for Scarlet Rot and Poison, you could say both are similar, although Scarlet Rot is definitely better overall for its stronger damage over time. It’s mainly applied with Rot Breath or the Antspur Rapier. No matter what build you use, don’t look over status effects. In boss fights, they can be your main source of damage.

2. Ashes of War have Great FP Efficiency

Enough about status effects. Maybe you’d prefer dealing a lot of damage through more conventional means? Normally achieved through magic, here are a number of spells that deal immense damage. However, Sorceries and Incantations are not always ideal in FP cost. While building my new caster character, I first turned to sorceries. I did well, as you can imagine, utilizing popular spells like Rock Sling. However, everything changed when I discovered the Hoarfrost Stomp. This Ash of War has been nerfed to oblivion, but it easily outclassed everything in FP efficiency. Even though it is a shadow of its former self, there are still many weapon arts that deal insane damage for low FP cost. And you don’t even have to use Moonveil, which requires 18 Dexterity. That’s why I built my caster to only wield weapon arts to create a hybrid of sorts, allowing me to spend fewer resources into Mind and instead maximizing my Vigor and Endurance. Not only is the Ice Spear pretty fast, it’s also powerful, ranged enough, inflicts Frost, stagger, and easily out damages most of my spells for a fraction of the FP cost. The only real flaw is that it’s rather a single target focused. That’s where Gravitas comes in, a weapon art with insane area of effect and crowd control. Fire off this thing and watch as everything around you gets hit. It’s not super powerful, but it is very FP efficient and deals high stagger. It’s perfect for mobs, like against the Albinaurics in Siofra River. Another reason why this build works well is that I power stance Clayman Harpoon. It’s a spear you can find in Ainsel River. At first glance, it doesn’t seem very special. However, it has Intelligence Scaling, which is perfect for this build. Its L1 attacks deal a surprising amount of damage. There’s also a Faith-scaling weapon called the Erdsteel Dagger. I haven’t tried it for myself, but I’ll bet this will work well with the Golden Slam Ash of War, for what it’s worth.

1. Use the Mimic Tear Summon

It may have been nerfed, but the Mimic tear is still extremely broken. I mean, summoning in itself is game breaking, but creating a clone with no FP cost is just silly. Not only do these guys inherit your stats, but they are also able to use flasks. This skill alone trivializes the game. They can copy your spells and weapon arts too, allowing you to do way more damage than usual. I have no idea what FromSoftware was thinking when they made this. The nerf isn’t even close to being enough. I’m not really complaining though. The mimic tear only affects PVE content and the game is still broken even without it. The Mimic Tear can be found in a chest locked behind an Imp Statue Door at the Night’s Sacred Grounds, located in the Eternal City, Nokron. To reach Nokron, you first have to defeat Radahn. Only then will you be able to descend through a large hole in Southern Mistwood, leading you to the location.

Well, that sums up the 10 things I wish I knew in Elden Ring. What do you guys think? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. For everything gaming, stay with us at Electronic First, where we give you guides and info on the latest and upcoming games. This is Arihead, signing out! See you at the next one!

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