Here are 18 tips you can use to get started playing Elden Ring. After you have completed the Cave of Knowledge and exited the Stranded Graveyard into Limgrave you are now free to explore the Lands Between.
1. You Can Play Elden Ring Offline
Press [Esc] and go to System, then to Network and find Launch Setting, select Play Offline. Elden Ring has a default setting of multiplayer, when you arrive in the game there will be shades of other players about and you may come across notes left from them, sometimes helping you and sometimes spoiling things unfortunately. If you prefer to explore the game alone you can turn off the multiplayer option which will disable the shades and messages.
2. How To Leave The Cave of Knowledge?
After defeating the Soldier of Godrick head out of the cave and jump down to the stairs below, walk up through the door and grab the Stranded Graveyard site of grace in the hallway, then continue into the room with columns. Step into the center of the columns to trigger the plate and rise up to the surface. Exit the sanctuary through the doors, you will now be in Limgrave.
You can optionally skip the Cave of Knowledge by not jumping into the cave and follow the stairs out through the Stranded Graveyard.
3. Follow Grace
When you come across a friendly NPC it’s important to speak to them as they will help guide you through the Lands Between. The first person you meet will be Varre’, speak with him and once he’s finished, speak to him again, and even again. Most friendly people will talk to you multiple times and provide clues on where to explore.
Are you familiar with grace? The golden light that gives life to you Tarnished.
Varre’
You may also behold its golden rays pointing in a particular direction at times.
That is the guidance of grace. The path that a Tarnished must travel.
Mm, indeed. Grace’s guidance holds the answers.
It will lead you Tarnished to the path you are meant to follow.
Even if it leads you to your grave.
Open your Map [G] and notice the golden rays of grace are pointing in the direction of where you want to explore. These paths will be for the story and some quests you come across, as you continue to explore the rays will update on your map. You can also look at the rays of light emitting from the sites of grace and follow the direction the beam of light is pointing.
4. What are Runes for in Elden Ring?
Runes are the currency required to level your character and purchase items from merchants. View our Leveling Up guide for all the details on how to get runes and start leveling your attributes to build a stronger character.
5. Where To Go First In Elden Ring?
After speaking to Varre’ head North to the Church of Elleh and talk with Kale’ the wandering merchant. Be sure to speak to him as he will provide you with some tips.
You will want to buy the Telescope, a Torch, Cracked Pots, and the Crafting Guide. Equipping the Torch helps to see in dark caves, the Telescope you can check out an area from afar, Cracked Pots are needed for crafting, and the Crafting Guide unlocks the ability to make useful items and tools.
After visiting the Church of Elleh you can follow the guidance of grace towards Stormveil Castle, but you will likely find that you are not prepared. I recommend fighting Godricks Soldiers in the forest north of Church of Elleh and level yourself up to raise your stats, check out our guide on How To Level Up and Where To Collect Runes in Limgrave.
6. How To Sell Equipment, Armor and Weapons
Talk to any Nomadic Merchant, select Sell, then press the corresponding key noted at the top left of the menu, it’s [Z] if your on the PC. This will scroll through the various sections, each equipment armor and weapon type has it’s own inventory space. You can sell just about anything for runes, which you will need to Level Up and purchase helpful items.
7. Discover Missing Map Pieces
You’re running around with a map covered in a brown fog wondering how do I discover the map? If you look closely at your map when you are exploring an area, you will see tracings of roads and along those roads look for the sketching of a tall stone, this is a stela. Traveling to the stela you can loot a piece of your missing map. The first one to search for will be north of the Stranded Graveyard.
8. How To Get More Flasks
In Elden Ring to regenerate your health and focus points you will need to drink flasks. Resting at a site of grace will replenish your Crimson Tears and Cerulean Tears, it will also heal your HP and FP and cleanse any debuffs.
You can allocate the number of Crimson and Cerulean potions you prefer. Crimson Tears are for healing your health points, while Cerulean tears are used for replenishing your focus points.
It’s important to note, whenever you rest or revive at a site of grace the monsters and enemies you have recently defeated will respawn, except for bosses.
Defeating Teardrop Scarabs, glowing balls of golden red or blue will replenish flasks and if you defeat a number of enemies in certain areas your potions will be refilled.
You will come across Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears these items will increase the number of potions you can carry and increase the amount potions will provide on use.
9. Get Your Mount, Torrent
You can find your mount, Torrent very early in the game. All you have to do is meet Melina, the Finger Maiden after visiting three separate sites of grace beyond The First Steps. The fastest route to find Melina is to go to sites of grace at the Church of Elleh, then on to Gatefront just outside the entrance of Stormgate, and then east of the Gatefront Ruins (soldier camp) to Agheel Lake North.
With Torrent you can travel quickly across the land, jump higher, land softer, and even fight enemies while mounted. Feeding Torrent will replenish his health.
10. Where To Find Starter Armor
Unless you begin as a Wretch the armor you are equipped with is decent starter equipment and can be worn all the way through exploration of Limgrave and into Stormveil Castle.
You can purchase Chain Armor from Kale’ right away at the Church of Elleh though it would be wise to pass that over for the Godrick’s Soldier armor that drops from the soldiers nearby in and around Stormgate.
If you travel to the Saintsbridge in the NE, there is a Pumpkin Head you can fight and sometimes they drop their helmet.
Cloth Garb can be looted from a chest at the end of the Murkwater Cave in Limgrave, West. Bandits in the Murkwater Cave can drop the Highwayman Hood.
Kaiden Helm can be dropped by a sword wielding guard at the tower above Stormgate entrance or along the road east of Limgrave Lake.
There are many, many armor sets to be discovered in Elden Rings. Some armor sets are hidden or locked behind quests or objectives, defeating enemies, and looted from treasure chests.
11. Equipping Armor To Your Style
Your build does not define what armor you choose to equip in Elden Ring. You can wear any types of armors, depending on your style of play. There are four armor pieces, the head, chest, gloves, and legs/boots. Certain armors provide bonuses or defensive stats against debuffs. The weight of the armor will contribute towards your Max Equip Load which effects your ability to dodge roll, the heavier the load the slower you are.
12. Can The Armor Appearance Be Changed?
Yes, there is a Tailoring Kit and Sewing Needle you can get from Boc the Seamster quest. Once you have completed the quest when you visit a site of grace you can Alter Appearance of your items with runes. Unfortunately there is no preview or ability of knowing what the armor looks like and your stats may go down depending on the armor you want to alter (or is this a bug?). If you don’t like the look, you can revert it back by paying some runes.
13. Where To Find Starter Weapons
Weapons (aka Armaments) can be found from defeating enemies and looting treasure chests, or glowing treasures. Here is a quick list of locations you can find several weapons right away in the early level areas of West Limgrave.
- Lordsworn’s Greatsword (2H) is inside a chest in the carriage at Gatefront Ruins east of Gatefront and Stormgate.
- Lordsworn’s Straight Sword (1H) drops from Godrick’s Soldiers in the forest and Gatefront Ruins camp.
- Flail is looted in a chest inside the carriage at the Northeast side of the Gatefront Ruions soldier camp.
- Nomadic merchant located on the beach south of The First Steps offers a Broadsword, Club, and Shortbow.
- Forked Hatchet inside the Stormfoot Catacombs drops from Imps.
- Around level 20+ you can head to Weeping Peninsula in the south and find the Demi-Human Forest Ruins northwest of the South of Lookout Tower site of grace. Defeat the Demi-Human Queen miniboss which drops the Demi-Human Queen Staff.
- Guardian Swordspears drop from the Guardians near the Minor Erdtree on the Weeping Peninsula.
- Winged Scythe can be looted from a chest in the Tombsward Ruins located in the west area of Weeping Peninsula.
- Two types of shields can drop from Godrick’s Soldiers, a small Brass Shield and a greatshield, Lordsworn’s Shield.
- A Claymore can be looted from a treasure chest in the North section of Castle Morne (higher level area) located on the southern tip of Weeping Peninsula.
- The merchant near Castle Morne Rampart site sells Bastard Sword, Light Crossbow, and two Round Shields.
When you receive an invitation to the Roundtable Hold you can speak to the Twin Maiden Husks who will offer several types of weapons for sale. You can also learn Incantation spells from the Prophet there.
14. How To Find Sorceries and Incantations
Incantations and Sorceries can be found from looting treasure, defeating enemies, and finding Sorcerer’s or Prophet’s who will train you in the skills. Check out our Sorceries guide to find where to learn spells.
15. Adding Skills To Weapons
You can add skills to your armaments with a Whetstone Knife, the skills are called Affinities and are known as Ashes of War. You can find the Whetstone Knife and your first Ashes of War Storm Stomp under the soldier camp located at Gatefront Ruins. Then access the site of grace to apply the ashes in the Ashes of War menu.
Players can learn additional Ashes of War from Knight Bernahl located at the Warmaster’s Shack, north of Stormgate in the forest, and East of Stormhill Shack. Intelligence Ashes of War can be purchased from Sorcerer Rogier in Stormveil Castle (and later Roundtable Hold).
16. What Is The Spirit Calling Bell and Ashes?
Spirit Ashes are your helpful friends you can summon when fighting difficult enemies and bosses. You can collect ashes of spirits after you have met with Renna at the Church of Elleh (she will appear here). She will provide you with a Spirit Calling Bell and Lone Wolf Ashes. Check out the list of all the Spirit Ashes and where to collect them. Spirits cannot be summoned during multiplayer.
17. Revisit NPC’s
As you progress through the game, you want to revisit some NPC’s you have met and talked with, there won’t be any clues to do this and some NPC’s will move around. There can be follow up quest or hints to further your progression.
18. Most Important Tip
As a final tip for getting started in Elden Ring, I highly suggest exploring as much as you can. The game has many fun elements to discover, there’s something around every corner. Enjoy the adventure!
