“WTF Am I Doing?” – An ‘Elden Ring’ Beginner’s Guide
Elden Ring is tough. No surprise there. But with this beginner guide, your adventure in Lands Between will be slightly less so.
Elden Ring has basically no tutorial. They explain some mechanics, albeit fairly poorly, but ultimately just drop you into the world and tell you to figure it out. Pretty on par for a Souls game, to be fair. As you might expect, my first several hours were fraught with frustration and death. But, once I figured out a select few things, everything start to fall into place. So, let my pain be your tutor with this Elden Ring beginner’s guide.
Lesson #1: Get to know the local fauna
For controls, I used a PS3 controller on my PC, because that’s how I game. Therefore, I will be explaining controls with that in mind. If you’re interested in picking up Elden Ring yourself, you can get it discounted here from Fanatical.
You Can Do More Than You Think
There are a lot of skills and abilities your character has that the game doesn’t really tell you about. Or that you may have missed while mashing A to get through the in-game text.
Lock-On
Press R3 to lock-on to whatever enemy is closest to in front of you. Out of every tip in this guide, this is easily the most important, so it goes first. Not only does this make combat so much easier, it is required for some items.
Any throwing items you may find, as well as some ranged weapon skills, require you to lock on to function. Otherwise, they simply will not hit your target at all.
It’s got good range, too.
Fast Travel
Press Select to open the map. Move the cursor to any Lost Grace you’ve discovered to fast travel to that location. When you first get to open air, there’s a specific spot you have to walk over in order to trigger the tutorial prompt about fast travel. I completely missed it at first.
This skill not only saves tons of time, but is also required if you find yourself stuck in a swamp outside of a certain crystal mine. Don’t worry, we’ll get to that soon.
Double Jump
Your horse can double-jump. This doesn’t really help much, since there’s very little platforming to be done. But it is fun, and makes longer trips bouncy and glittery. So that’s good.
Also, if you didn’t know you can get a horse, please read this entire Elden Ring Beginner Guide. You’ll thank me.
Skills To Learn
I don’t mean which in-game skills to know. These are skills that you, as a player, will need in order to thrive.
Quest Logging
Like any good open world RPG, Elden Ring has quests. But like any good Souls game, it’s not going to hold your hand for you. There is no in-game quest log. It’s up to you to keep track of that. So, keep a pen and paper next to you and write down everything anyone says to you, who said it, and where they are. You won’t regret it.
Paper is this thing we used to use before Bill Gates invented computers.
Horseback Combat
You can attack from horseback. Press R1 to swing right, and L1 to swing left. But that’s not the main skill you’ll need. Learn to circle the enemy while on horseback. Learn attacking at proper intervals, and when to back out and charge in. It makes so many fights as absolute joke, especially with larger and slower enemies.
Patience and Humility
It wouldn’t be an Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide without a little Kenny Rogers, right? I think that’s a thing people say.
“You got to know when hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run.”
This game will test you and your patience. I spent well over an hour charging into this one monstrous enemy over and over because I swore I was “really almost so close that time.” I wasn’t. Not even close. But when I finally admitted defeat and chose a new direction, I found enemies I could defeat and improved my skills enough that when I finally went back to that first monster, it was a breeze to fell it.
And that taught me a valuable lesson. Your character isn’t what improves over the course of the game. What gets stronger is you, the player.
Locations To Know
The Church of Elleh
Right out of the gate, in the starting minutes of the game, you’re faced with the Lands Between and it’s exciting. I have a nigh insatiable wanderlust so like when I played Breath of the Wild, I have a questionable habit of looking for the furthest thing I can see and running straight towards it, inevitably missing important locations right in from of my face. This could not be any more evident than with the Church.
I know earlier I said Lock-On is the most important tip. I lied. Do not miss going to the Church!
There are so many important things found at the Church. I won’t spoil any of it, even though it’s not a spoiler really. But I ran right past it at first and for 3 to 4 hours was having a terrible time. But once I found the Church and all the goodies it beheld my road ahead looked so much smoother.
The Crystal Mine
You might accidentally find yourself in the crystal mine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry. It’s just a very questionable design choice, nothing more. But, keep this in the back of your mind. Run to the right, down, and out. Don’t attack anyone! The miners will let you pass so long as you don’t bother them.
“I’m just here to get my pay” – this guy, probably
Once outside, you’ll be happy you learned how to fast travel. And don’t touch the swamp water.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide helped you in some way. It is a great game but not very welcoming to new players. If you find yourself getting frustrated, it’s fine to set it down and take a break. Clear your head. Grab some tea, whatever you want. It’s your game and you should enjoy playing it. When it becomes unenjoyable, do something else.
