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Things To Know Before Playing Elden Ring

We bring you a series of tips for Elden Ring beginners, perfect if you haven’t started playing yet… or even if you’ve been exploring the Midlands for a few hours already.

The long-awaited game finally goes on sale this Friday, but at Hobby Consoles we have already had the opportunity to go through the Middle Lands for many hours to prepare the analysis.

And you can rest assured because there will be no spoiling of any kind; just little tricks that will make your life easier in Elden Ring. Let’s go there!

Prepare to die

There will be times when you despair, you get frustrated and you want to leave everything, but persevere and you will get ahead.

What is the best initial memory?

As soon as you start the game when creating your character, you will have to choose the initial memory from a list of objects. They all have their uses, but if you don’t know what to choose, these are the three best souvenirs :

  • Red Amber Medallion – Slightly increases health.
  • Golden Seed – With this item, you can increase the number of uses of the Vial of Crimson Tears (to heal health).
  • Stone Sword Key (Two) – These keys are quite rare (or expensive) and are used to enter places where useful items are often found. Now, we do not recommend that you NOT use them in the Forsaken Tomb, as they lead to a very dangerous place that you want to avoid for the time being.

After completing the tutorial and exiting the Midlands, the light beam from the Place of Grace will guide you to the Church of Ellen, where Kale, the first merchant, awaits. He will recommend that you buy the creation kit (300 runes). Pay attention to him! This is the item that gives you access to item creation.

The catacombs of the Elden Ring are dark places where you won’t be able to proceed without a light source, so during these first hours, the torch is essential. Later you can buy a lamp, which is placed on the waist leaving both hands free.

Find the map!

Luckily, you can find it easily if you know how: when you press the map button in an area where you haven’t found it yet, you can see the symbol you see in the image. It indicates the place where there is a kind of monument where you will find the map of that section.

Horse fight

But you can also fight on Torrentera’s back and we strongly recommend that you do so.

The speed of the mount will allow you to close in on enemies, hit and run. A tactic that, although it can be considered creepy in other games, here is the daily bread. Not to mention that you can use moving objects.

Torrent is especially useful when fighting large enemies, enemies that are also mounted on their horses, and groups of enemies, so don’t hesitate to ask for their help whenever you are in the open world.

Break the enemy’s posture

But in Elden Ring it works a bit differently: for starters, we don’t have a bar to tell us the enemy’s posture here, so you’ll never know for sure how long it takes to break it.

What we do know is that several attacks break it more easily: the R2 heavy attack (the longer you hold it, the more damage to health and posture), the R2 jump attack, and the counter-attack, performed after blocking a hit and immediately pressing R2.

Ash summons are essential

One of the new features of the Elden Ring is the summoning of ash spirits. You will obtain the necessary object to make them from the hands of a mysterious character who is in the church of Ellen, after having met Melina and obtained Torrent.

Basically, and as the name suggests, these invocations are spiritual companions that help us fight against enemies. There are many types of them, and they usually represent the enemies we face throughout the game, look for them! Each one has CP requirements, and generally the higher CP, the more powerful the summon.

They can only be used in certain places in the Midlands; you will recognize them because the icon of a spiritual door will be displayed on the right side of the screen. In boss fights, they can almost always be used.

The latter is especially important, as many Elden Ring boss fights are insurmountable without a summon. Even if your summon is weak and doesn’t deal much damage, it will turn the boss’s back on you and allow you to take a few hits. In other words: use them without fear.

If you come across a difficult enemy/situation…

Sometimes, in these locations, you will find yourself in seemingly impossible situations, such as a giant-sized enemy accompanied by several “friends”. You can leave the fortress, upgrade and come back later, but if you pay attention, there is probably an alternative method: a secret path, a way to sneak past… that will allow you to avoid the enemy and continue your advance.

So, before you give up all hope, scout the location well for paths you haven’t been on. Expert tip: do not lose sight of the roofs and other platforms, as many times they will allow you to reach places using the ability to jump.

Paper and pencil!

The Midlands is HUGE. Really. No matter how big you think the map is, we assure you that it will manage to surprise you… Several times. And it is not an empty open world, but it is full of content: locations, objects, characters, enemies…

The map allows for markers, but there are so many places to see, things to do, and characters to meet that it’s hard to keep track of everything. Elden Ring is so big and dense, that your head is going to have to store a lot of information, and inevitably you are going to forget a lot of things.

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