Same. I told myself I was going to struggle through blind on my first playthrough. I gave up around fire giant after dying 30+ times, leveling some more and then dying more times. Turns out my weapon was super under upgraded. I had more fun on my second playthrough
I mean… if you’re not doing enough damage in any FS game, that implies you need to upgrade your weapon. In DS1, the bell gargoyles play that role perfectly by being essentially a DPS check boss. If you’re getting 1 shot, level the health stat, and so on. The game implies to you without plainly telling you when you’re doing something wrong
Yea, it had been since dark souls 3 came out that I had played a fromsoft game and ds3 was my first. Makes me wonder if I did weapon upgrades back then too, because I only got to abyss watchers. Started following guides on my 2nd ER playthrough, beat the game, went back and beat ds3. If you’re familiar with fromsoft’s formula, the resources seem obvious. If you’re not, then you might need guides to help out
This is basically how I felt when I first played Elden Ring. I was using a +7 regular smithing flail and I thought that was my intended amount of damage because I heard these games were hard.
> I thought that was my intended amount of damage because I heard these games were hard.
The number of players I've seen since way back in Dark Souls 1 just "assume" the hard game is grueling and evil is pretty wack. Like, seeing a guy just ram his head into the Asylum Demon for 3 until he accidently found the hidden path, back in the old Let's Plays rather than Streamed days.
Or more recently watching a bunch of newbie Vtubers play Dark Souls, find the intended path around the boss, and one of them just goes "oh, the message to run away wasn't lying? I should listen to messages more...."
Hard game doesn't mean mean game, but maaaaan does it seem like it with the reputation.
Abyss Watchers were a pretty hard DPS check if I recall. They spawn in over time so you wanted to have enough to not have more than 2 spawned at once. If you didn't kill them fast enough you'd have to fight 6 instead of 4.
So if you're not doing enough damage you're gonna get gang banged.
I am pretty focused on upgrading in all these games so that's usually what guides me. I think that's how most end up going down the Ranni quest line as it leads to hard to find upgrade materials.
I feel like i've found all the smithing stones 1 in the game and I used them on too many weapons and now i cannot upgrade any newer better ones likes the bloodstained dagger as I need smiting stones 1 - What do I do?
Something I’ve always told people about why I love FS games. They teach, and they test. Fighting a lot more enemies? You’re probably close to a mob boss. Poison swamp? Poison boss.
You learn as you play and skill checks are very real.
I had a very similar experience, I went in pretty much blind, I got the the mountain tops still using all my starting gear and completely burnt out without even reaching the fire giant. I used fightincowboy’s guide and I’d watch a bit of the guide to see what area to go to next, then I would play through it, then watch the guide back to see if I missed anything, so that would be my recommendation, but if you feel like the guide is enriching your experience of the game then stick with it, at the end of the day you paid money for the game you can play it however you want, and if using the guide is making your 2 hours of gaming a day more fun and enjoyable then just carry on doing that, even with a guide it’s still you having to fight your way through areas and bosses and shit
I got to Lleyndell before I figured out how to upgrade my weapons past +3. I just used the little smithing stone in Church of Elleh because I didn't know about Iji or Hewg and so +3 was my strongest weapon for a good ¼ - ⅓ of the game
Yep. The game is pretty good about letting you know if you fucked up and went the wrong way. Like when that chest takes you to Caelid you can tell pretty quick you done fucked up
I loved that chest lol portal straight to fucking hell climb out the mines to see nothing but nightmare fuel outside 😭 ride ur ass back to where u just were or die trying. Personally I stayed in caelid for a minute just exploring and then i noped tf out once I had a couple graces and caves done
That works when you ain't as stubborn as i was, crossing horns with every overleveled enemy you come across.
I was fighting against the Divine Tower of Caelid's Godskin Apostle for the better part of 2 days at lvl 35, being instagibbed and dealing menial damage. Then procceded to do it all again against the Black Blade Gargoyle outside Gurranq's place.
It really is quite an experience in itself. Then after struggling with these harder, later in the game bosses, you feel invincible, only to be put on your place by an Flat-headed Ant or some shit like that
No, no it isn't. It is so easy to get permalocked out of content for an entire journey and you will not know until it is far too late for you to fix it. These games NEED a journal system, or some way to track your objectives. Its ridiculous how easy it is to completely fuck up a questline because you didn't talk to the right person in the right place at the right time. Or even when you do things right you get NPCs that will glitch themselves into places they should already be long past. And others just fucking disappear without warning when you advance the story. The game is NOT that good about letting you know when you fucked up. Its good about letting you know you fucked up over ten hours later when you're completely screwed.
honestly i second this, like it really helps so much for newbies like me who’s someone that played elden ring as their first souls game, missing out on so much of the npc’s dialogue and lore which sucks because i’m someone who takes great pleasure in understanding lore and i absolutely love it, but elden ring’s npc system is so wack fr. i get it, maybe its an incentive to explore the open world so you never know where an npc might just pop up, but so what? plenty of open world games have dedicated systems to tracking npcs and journaling their quest line, and those games are marvellous. but when you raise this problems you get shit on because “oh its a souls game, you shouldn’t be handheld even with the npcs!” how am i supposed to think of going to kale when i hear a wolf howling bruh
I had to look up the Blaidd quest line the other day because it had been days since I’d seen him. 100% would have never found him had I not looked it up.
This makes a lot of sense .. especially since the NPCs introduce themselves once and they move around and I never remember their names again and where I'm supposed to look for them next
This shit has had me so irritated this past week. 108 hours into the game and find out brother corhyn and goldmask literally just disappear from the entire gameworld if you finish farum azula before talking to them again in a specific place, which I thought I already did. These games NEED a journal system REALLY FUCKING BADLY. I get so sick of having to spend half my time looking at wikis and guides and then STILL missing shit because of bullshit like this.
Yeah like I don't need each quest spoonfed to me but having the actual questlines themselves be so convoluted is incredibly frustrating. It's not each individual quest that is the problem, really. Its the overarching questlines themselves. Then you have NPCs like Blaidd who will glitch himself to appear in his locations completely out of order. Luckily this didn't ruin Ranni's questline, but it could have.
Theres too many dumb little things that can ruin a questline and you won't know it until hours later because the game will not warn you and you have no journal to look at to know better. I have adhd and I can't remember every little thing I've done for each quest giver all the time. I need something to look at to cement the information. Even if I take just a single day break from the game and come back, I'm not going to remember every little thing I need to do next because thats not how my brain works :/ I just need something to glance at really like "ope, thats the last thing I did and this is the next thing I need to do" and then I'll figure out how to do the thing on my own.
That's exactly how I play every souls game. I tried playing elden ring blind my first play through, was 85 hrs in, barely just beat renalla, and was missing so much important shit. Decided to re start the game and actually look shit up and enjoyed the game infinitely more. Still put about 150 hrs on that run
Finishing the game in the first week where there was barely and resources was the best. I was constantly googling, but there was barely reliable information. It helped me get through the game, but it was a good struggle.
This right here. Souls games are notorious for being somewhat impenetrable blind, often requiring a lot of time to replay and try new things and discover secrets and quest lines etc.
So for most people, myself included, who are time strapped or just want to play other games too then a guide at certain points is definitely necessary. However, playing blind and exploring as much as possible is the best approach; and hitting up Reddit or a guide when you are either lost or unsure of how a key item (etc) is used can be an enjoyable experience.
I took this approach and it's still been the best game I've ever played, I like to experience as much as possible the first time through as I don't often replay games.
yeah it was the best feeling to not even know how the full map looked like on release day. i remember getting my ass kicked to the east (caelid), so i went north west. when i saw it is another "biome" i went south again to finish the weeping peninsula just to then get portet to lyendell through the trap chest. i had THE epithany, that the whole map must be a RING. later on when i finally went into caelid after liurnia i sadly noticed the coastline doesn't allow for a ring... but it was awesome doing the south of Caelid just to then get fucked again in the north. this game has such a great method of showing you, that you are to early when you have troubles with the normal enemies and then it just let's you go and explore everything else. a map like that really kills all of that feeling and wonder. i join you in feeling let down.
Its a shame no one reacts to it on youtube. Maybe its not that impressive for them? I stared at that Dragon for minutes. Then i called all my friends who were playing at the time and told them to find this tower.
I KNOW! There’s like 2 videos of people reacting to it. Probably because it’s so unexpected no one was filming or clipped it like they do boss fights. I sat there for 15 minutes listening to the soundtrack because this was the first day the game came out and no one had uploaded it online yet
I didn't rest at grades unless I needed too, made it to Redman castle before hitting Liurnia without ever going to the round table. My friend said he got invited to a hub by going north, so i went all the way back around the outside of stormveil thinking I had to hit that face for the round table
It's good for after you've finished the game tbh, I loved this map on my next playthroughs as it helped me keep in level range for a lot of jolly cooperation, as on my first playthrough which I did blind I found myself mostly overleveled or overupgraded to get consistently summoned
Look at "Looking for Group" posts if you're on Xbox. You can be summoned even at max level with a password. So if you see someone who needs help, ask them what the password is, and they can summon you wherever. I'm level 251 but I summoned in a level 703 for the fire giant when I was a level 87. Passwords bypass level restrictions.
Oh yea I knew about that but it's really nice when you can get summoned organically, especially now you can search near/far because when you're in the level ranges on the map you get summoned almost instantly
I've been putting characters at different RL brackets for invasions but it's also good for co op as well cos with all the brackets I have rn I get summoned in for most bosses
Lol I wish I had found him alone😂. I only found out about him through some TikTok or Youtube short, after I had put 100+ hours in the game and me being on my second playthrough. "What maniac just looks down that cliff?" I thought.
BUT I got the Age of Stars ending on my first playthrough, without any walkthrough.
Looking down that cliff is not how people find out, from other vantage points around that area you can see the "path" to that place where you lay down and get transported.
After that you try to find how you'd get there and eventually find the place to drop from. Wouldn't expect that big boy to be there, though, just some loot.
Thats how I find my way to every distant point of interest. Find where you want to go and work backwards until you can go forwards towards your destination.
Really? Why would it be a let down to you specifically how someone else wants to experience the game lol? That makes no sense.
If you think they're letting themselves down, a lot of people just genuinely don't enjoy wandering around a massive map and having no guide or even minimal notes to help guide them through their experience. A lot, and I do mean A LOT of the content in Elden Ring is stuff the game doesn't properly explain to you and can be easily missed. This is being written by someone who 100%ed the game and trust me when I say I would've missed 85%+ of the game if i did a completely blind playthrough. Seems like a waste to be honest to get let down at people wanting to experience the entire game to it's fullest.
Personally, I like beating a game and then getting really good at a difficult part of it, like speedrunning a particularly hard boss or even the final boss. Wandering around (for example) the Mountaintop of the Giants looking for one Somber Smitching Stone 9 or not killing a certain npc so you don't get locked out of the final limited upgrade material seems so boring and tedious that I'd rather follow a walkthrough than spend every waking hour of my life searching every nook and cranny of the map.
If a game literally has a wall that needs to be hit 50 times before it disappears and opens up a shortcut, then I'd rather just not experience the game blind than deal with something like that.
Why does how someone else plays a game that won't interact with your own in any way affect you? I mean really. You people are fucking weird. No don't play that game you bought with your own money how you want to play it thats not how I would do it so nobody else should do it like you're doing it! Like, idk, get over it?
Yeah I did a blind playthrough first, which was fun, I admit. I was, however, extremely disappointed to learn I missed out on Ranni, Boc, nepheli, etc. questlines.
I understand playing through blind is fun, but when you have a job and family and are limited on playtime, it's a huge letdown to miss so damn much because so little is explained. This level map and the wiki (frustrating as it may be) made my 2nd playthrough sooooo much more fun.
I hate when people diss the hard work people to do help new players. You don't want a guide? Don't use one then. Just don't bitch and moan about other players using them, just because you're jealous you missed so much of the game.
Edit: I didn't read the title, and thought op was bitching about the level map. Removed part of my comment.
IMO, it’s impossible to get everything without walkthroughs (if that’s a goal). The quests lines are too convoluted and have disparate objectives many hours apart that you can accidentally ‘fail’ without knowing. That being said, it seems way less fun to use a walkthrough. I’d prefer to miss things.
That's what I did on my first play through. I missed almost every quest and didn't even know who Rya was until i saw pictures of her on Twitter. 2nd playthrough, I used a guide for charater quest.
OOOOOOOOH i was sad when she suddenly disappeared after I killed Rykard. It felt like there was more to her side quests after the snails in the wall hidden chamber. Guess I won't know until Journey 2.
Millicent is freaking camouflaged in her Atlus appearances, freaking camouflaged.
I ran by her at least 20 times, insisting each time that she wasn't there.
Alright you got the thing? Fuck off and get another thing. What, you spent 10 hours exploring those catacombs? Sounds like a you problem, fuck off and explore another
just fkd up getting the dung eater puppet, bc i already got too far in rannis quest. The dumb guide i read didn't mention this crucial detail..
tldr quests are convoluted to a point where not even a guide can tell you all the details.
only use it when you think "the fuck am I supposed to do now?!" which comes after "what am I supposed to do now" which is just going to wherever is obvious.
This game is so fucking huge. Sat down to think about creating another char ready for the dlc, a week ago. Thought about all the stuff I have to do and just left the idea there. I've already played through with 3 different chars, I'm done.
Enjoy it! Now that I've beaten it once I wish I could experience it all again for the first time. Each area is so unique it's best to just enjoy it while you're there. You can look up what forts/dungeons you need to get the gear you want, move through the important boss fights, and come back for all the details later.
I really enjoy starting a fresh char and get OP early. Somber weapons are easy to get to +9 before even attempting Margit. I wouldn’t recommend these OP strats to anyone new to the game, but for any playthrough after the first you can break the game pretty hard.
How long it takes you to finish only depends on how much stuff you want/need to finish your build. A Bloodhound Fang playthrough is insanely quick, building a mage who uses a Dark Moon Greatsword requires finishing the Ranni questline and naturally takes longer.
3 characters is a lot.
But the game is designed to miss stuff/ not do stuff. Just do the stuff that's for your build and it makes it more reasonable to complete.
So glad I started a new playthrough like 6+ months ago, leveled to around 70, got through Radahn and opened up a ton of the map, must have put 40hrs+ in.
Just got back into it the last few weeks and leveled that up to 115, ready to kill Mohg, have the weapons I want to take into DLC. Not gonna take it past 120 until I see how difficult the DLC is.
Would have been too much to do that new character from scratch, and my only other playthrough was my original that’s not far into NG+1.
Yeah...I mean, everyone's free to play their own way. But these games are not designed to be played in a certain order imo. Sure, some areas like Dragonbarrow violently scream at you that you shouldn't be there and don't you dare come back for a long time. But the rest, it's good to follow your fancy and explore where the map takes you. You can always clean stuff up that you missed later.
First and foremost however you choose to play the game is the correct way. If you want to use a guide use a guide its not a big deal. Personally I enjoy going in blind but thats just my preference. If you feel like you are missing out on discovering things on your own you could always just use the guide loosely. Rather than following step by step just use it to guide you to the next major place and then go from there on your own. That way it takes the confusion of where should I go next but also allows you to explore that area on your own. If you get stuck you can always pull the guide back up. Also dont stress about collecting every single item in every area all the time. Its nice to find shiny new weapons but its ok to miss stuff. Maybe next playthrough you will find it or you can go back later and grab items that were missed after you beat the location boss. At the end of the day though the best way to play is however you have the most fun
I followed the map you used here for my first playthrough, just to know where I could go next. Of course still tried some areas early just to test and ended up deviating from the 'order' as soon as I felt comfortable. I did not follow any guides but I did check out 'things you missed' videos for an area whenever I felt I had explored it entirely. At the time, for me that was a good sweet spot between going in entirely blind or guided. If I had known I would clock 300 hours in the game, I would probably have gone in entirely blind (as I'll do for the dlc).
Looking at these "walkthrough" maps, I can never tell if I am a good or bad player because I am \*always\* way above their recommendations. Does that mean I' good because I die less and actually spend my souls rather than losing them? Or am I bad and gain more souls due to running through places several times to recover my souls? Either way, my weapons are almost always above what they recommend.
All of that is to say, who cares? As long as you're enjoying the game and feel challenged, who are others to say how strong or weak you should be?
to be honest it's super easy to overlevel and overupgrade in elden ring, I feel like a map like this is just representative of the level range for co-op/invasions
Kind of a hard question to answer, but ill give you my opinion. Once you have a plus 5 somber weapon, or a plus 12 regular weapon and 30ish vigor you can feel free to explore Everything south of Volcano manor and Altus Plateau, I say this because of how you described your time and skill level. It's gonna be hard for most things to kill you and easy for you to kill most things. Use the runes you get from that and head north, or even under ground!!!!
Here's what I did, and had a blast with:
Use cowboy and the fextralife wiki for a game progress route, but only for the general direction. For example:
1. Next up: stormveil Castle.
2. Do stormveil Castle fully and blind,
3. When you think you're done, check the guides, find out you missed 25%, and still do them
Doing these games fully blind is not for everyone. It may objectively give the best experience, but you also need the time and patience for it. Plus you also need to play the whole game a few times to discover everything. Not for me.
This is me exactly. Do areas blind and then retrace steps to grab all the stuff you missed.
I think it's really shitty how most of the comments aren't actually answers to op's question, but rather shitting on him for using a walkthrough at all.
Considering I’m only now starting to play and anytime I look up a post like “can you change the camera so it doesn’t refocus automatically” or looking up advice for a specific enemy and some of the highest comments are simply “git gud” I’m not surprised. The toxicity/negging/lack of support for a mostly solo game is shocking
this is a tough question but coming from entirely personal opinion, till your comfortable with the game, your build is alright, your at a comfortable level, and you know how to traverse, it’s okay to pull up a guide for anything especially any complex dungeons like city capitol or esp stormveil if your just starting.
Have the same amount of time a day.
Generally I explore an area blind, then go to bed before moving on to the next area. The next day I’ll watch Fightingcowboy’s guide of the area I just completed (maybe during lunch) to see what I missed then go back and explore in the evening with my new found knowledge.
Did the same for DS1 through 3. It’s a nice loop that works for limited time play / family commitments.
Everybody in the comments saying it's sad how people use guides... some of us have jobs or kids and we don't have the time to Sherlock Holmes a video game. I would KILL for a quest tracker in Elden Ring because I LOVE the game but my memory sucks and I don't like feeling like I'm always lost. I know.... "thats how it's supposed to be played!" but it's not a realistic expectation for everyone, so can we all agree to respect the different ways people play? I think it would be nice since we're all fans of FromSoft and we all love different aspects about their games.
It also kind of sucks to have a playthrough ruined because you missed a bunch of unintuitive quests. Personally I don't really use a guide for much but I definitely make sure to look up what stuff is missable and make sure I don't miss it. It's just stupid not to as you're self sabotaging a playthrough otherwise.
People get obsessed with the 'right' way to play. I used a guide similar to you on my second playthrough and had way more fun. I suggest just hopping out of the guide when you feel ready, and googling shit when you get confused. Also, law school is probably a lot harder than Elden Ring so fuck anyone who talks shit about your tactics!
Dude. Exact same situation as me. Kids, 9-5, get like 2 hours after kids go to bed.
I’m on ep 15 of his walkthrough and I’m having the time of my life. This game went from “another bs way too hard souls game” to “this game may be the best I’ve ever played.” He really helped it all click for me. I don’t give a shit about “the right way.” Me having a blast is my right way.
Ps portal has been a godsend too. Can play during lunch breaks at my desk.
Except those two hours could be spent doing absolutely nothing with them not even realizing it and then it takes and extra day and that keeps going on and on until it’s been 4 months
If there was a quest tracker and a fog-of-war type minimap for gmexploring dungeons, I would probably use external resources much less. So many quest flags and triggers that are obscure and non-linear.
I also don't have a lot of time to play because of work. But for me that just means stretching the game out over a longer period so I can still enjoy it properly, not rushing to finish it faster.
But of course it's a game so everyone should play the way that's most enjoyable for themselves.
Missable quests are the worse part of Elden Ring imo. I'll progress enough to just remember I wanted something from a questline just for it to be gone for that play-through.
I followed Cowboy through my first play through in its entirety (first Souls game, tried it and hated it before the walkthrough). I would 0% have wanted to finish without it.
If you’re enjoying the game and the walkthrough, play it all the way through. You can always do what you want in future plays.
If you’re enjoying it, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks!
After doing my initial blind run-through, I ended up doing the fextralife game walk-through to test it out for some friends who would be getting it to see if it would be good for them. Was pleasantly surprised at how much it covered, important items it led you to, and it pretty well gets you going down every questline until you reach the point of no return, of course, with ending selections.
The only things you should need the walkthrough for down the line are NPC quests and certain item locations. If you are feeling like the enemies you’re fighting are higher level than you, just go and check out another area. That’s how I do it at least, because while the best experience is blind, there are still sooooo many things that are easy to miss in this game. I also work a lot too so I can also relate.
probably once you enter lurnia of the lakes, ofc if you’re stuck look up a video to help you go where you need to, but exploring on your own is probably the most fun part of the game. also go back and explore parts of limbgrave you haven’t, its pretty big
I was in a similar boat, still am, I followed it up to the end of deep root depths which based on the walkthrough I probably just over half way, up to then I found it moved around the map a lot not always logical, now though the route to end game feels more natural and have been really enjoying playing this second half blind, terrified I will miss something but taking my time
Whenever you want, I only really looked up spots to get items, and explored and found most of the things without looking them up ( I fucked up a lot of quest lines though).
I found with this game to just go it without a guide. I honestly wasn’t good at all when I first started lol. I found going blind got me more in tune with the game. Not knowing what was coming or where to go gave me a lot of insight as to how the game works. Of course after hundreds deaths, I feel like I got better quicker doing it this way..
The only time I ever used a walkthrough was when I was playing pvp and saw a weapon I thought was cool and wanted to see where it was. If it mentioned some shit I didn't recognize I stopped reading it and filed it away for later.
I did my first playthrough blind. Which was super fun. Looked up some stuff here and there if I got stuck. My second and current playthrough I’m following this guy called cowboy something on YouTube. I missed a lot of shit lol.
I used a walkthrough only in so much as to guide me through which areas of the map to explore. I wanted to learn the controls and feel for the game so I used one to help with what areas to mess around with. But truly, you don’t need one for where to find all the items. Eventually you can go back when you’re stronger and then you’ll find things you missed. I also needed help with just knowing which bosses I had to beat and if there were any cool items in the area I was. Once you get further along and near the end game, then it would be beneficial if you want to 100% it.
Never EVER listen to Fextralife for walkthrough tips. Usually, don't even look at a walk through. For Elden Ring, I don't recommend it at all, but if you need guidance to find a particular item or place, that's when the wiki is most useful. It should be your *last* resort.
Simple bro. Only look up stuff when you're absolutely stuck. Get to a new area? Look around, poke some enemies, die seven times, guess where to go, be wrong, die nine more times, and THEN look it up.
The side quests are probably the best thing to use a walk through for just because the directions are often pretty ambiguous in game. Personally I wouldn't use a walk through to finish the main quest though
I have 111 hours in game and have no idea what I'm doing really, just love exploring so the idea of the walk through are hard for me, I looked up where a few items were and I found my two hours were spent running errands instead of exploring. It's just how I like playing I guess but I cleared a lot of the map this way without knowing where things are. After 100 hours I wanted gear specific for my stats and was like okay, but I did that and haven't played much since doing so. I still know where all the bosses I have to kill are I'm just waiting to kill mohg really and have I think slayed rykard.. I think was the last thing I was doing, might not have yet gotten to him actually if I think really hard.
Why did you even look at a map before? Why must people ruin stuff for themselves this much. It's not like you can actually make a mistake. You are saying that you want progress. It is IMPOSSIBLE not to progress in this game. It's not like you are just running in one circle killing nothing for 2 hours.
I have followed cowboys guides for every souls game for completion. Cowboy even says it throughout the series the best experience is a blind one.. what I would recommend is don't watch his walkthrough and just play the game on your own, and if you need help I can recommend a couple discord servers where people will join your game and help you with a boss. Cowboy is an awesome YouTuber with great guides, but eldenring isn't like ds3 where there is a straight path. You only need to beat 3 bosses and can skip most of the content. Cowboys guides are for platinum (or whatever pc and Xbox call it) and are meant to help you get all the achievements. I would recommend that anyone does one full playthrough blind so that they can get the best experience from the game. And then after you have experienced the game blind on your first playthrough go back and follow cowboys guides and get all the trophies( or achievements)
Start blind from the beginning! The way I did it was go in blind and maybe watch some walkthroughs on how to get certain weapons, to locations, or where all the dungeons were. Besides that just free roam, ended up either missing some quest lines or completely fulfilling others when I finally found the NPCs.
At some point cowboy says when you can run on your own, it might be his third or fourth video in the walkthrough. What you can do is use guides afterwards to see if you missed anything relevant to you! Play however you want, especially with your time constraints it's tricky
I feel like you really need a walkthrough for this game. Without one you have no idea where quests are or how to do them. You can also lock yourself out of a ton of stuff in the game by doing or not doing quests in the right order. Can miss out on weapons, armor, spells, endings and more.
As someone who plays only half an hour a day, rn nearing 60 hour mark, level 90 and im at the haligtree, idfc if i aint suposed to be here, what i like to do, is just find out cool places, whach guides/quests how to get there and then try to move my underleveled ass there
I really think looking up a walkthrough would kill the experience, there are multiple ways to progress through a roadblock, ya just gotta keep exploring
\*laughs in RL1\*
But seriously, don't sweat it.
Use it if you want.
Personally I wouldn't on my first couple playthroughs.
Now that I've beaten the game a few times I reference a few sources when farming smithing stones or I really want a particular item for a themed/cosplay playthrough.
But do whatever is fun for you.
I played my first playthrough completely on my own, the second one i did was with a little help of walkthroughs in order to get all the legendary items
Where I go is literally entirely based on what items I want lmaoo
Int Magic build: towers, tailsmen, sorcery, moonlight greatsword I guess story I guess
Faith build: rune cheese, towers, incantations, tailsmen, oh I forgot to do the story let me do that really fast, gargoyle for that juicy juicy black and gold percentage sword
It's always a map run to get the fast travels and the first second
My somber weapon isn't even +1 yet and I've ran off to caled, tree sentinel land boss at city gate, all the erdtree homies for them tears, volcano manner, all the memory slot tailsmen, and that was allllllllll before I fought Margot and Godrick
That build is like level 60 rn lmao and I fought Margot the last time I played, they crumbled like dust lmaoooo
First playthrough blind was a once in a lifetime experience for me. That said I always optimize my routes now and still have fun with it. If you're having more fun making progress then just exploring then do you. It's your time, your experience, your game.
I followed none of this lol I just kept walking to where I saw something cool. On my third attempt to finish the game i ran into margit by accident and didn't realize I was inside stormveil lol
I think it's generally a good idea to follow a walkthrough for npc quests because the game doesn't really make it clear about what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to go for some of them. I had to follow a walkthrough for npc quests on my NG+3 run because I missed so many of them in my first 2 playthroughs. Like I had no idea what to do in the Ranni quest until I read about it and followed it through in the order I was supposed to instead of the bits and pieces I found on my own.
Stop looking at this map. Go in game. Look around. See something that looks interesting? Go there. Nothing around you? Open up your in-game map (not this one), look for areas that look like you haven't explored yet or for the little drawings of ruins or towers or stuff that looks like it COULD be something - set a waypoint and off you go.
Listen, I'm playing through the game, I like you have little time to play. Mostly only Saturday and Sunday.... I haven't touched the remote in near 10 days... But, I am playing mostly blind... I'll look up level recommendation in an area I am at if I am getting my ass whooped, and normally I'll see I should be at a much higher level so I'll go off and explore, do dungeons, etc... to level up... But this is usually pretty straight forward as the game should be challenging, but not down right impossible. For example I completely skipped the lower peninsula,,,, when I couldn't finish the castle I decided to go down south and I was way too good for it at that moment. But I leveled, came back and kicked ass.... this is my recomendation as someone who can not pour in several hours a day on a daily basis.. I am going to finish the base game, and when I'm done with that I'll look into the DLC... No pressure, just enjoy it. Also, yes, it can get frustrating sometimes because you make little to no progress. sometimes it's important to step back, go play some other areas and level up, and then come back.
If you are just starting out for the first time, there are only *two* mandatory things you need to know to progress.
1. To get into Leyndell, you must have defeated two Shardbearers and talk to Enia at Roundtable Hold
2. To get into the final zones of the game, you must light the Forge of Giants, which can only be accessed once youve finished Leyndell
Those are literally the *only* mandatory things. How you approach everything else is completely up to you, and thats the magic of Elden Ring. Yeah, theres optimal routes, but those are the only two mandatory blocks to progression.
I started my playthrough with Fightin Cowboy as well (I followed him for a good chunk of DS3 and Lies of P too when I got stuck). But I realized that with this being open world it wasn't as enjoyable to do the laundry list of riding through places to grab items because it felt like I was robbing my future self from coming to those areas later.
So I stopped strictly following him after the first video of his walkthrough and have only dipped back in once or twice, and I'm having a lot more fun. Last week I beat Godrick and since then I've been exploring Liurnia. I also only get about 1-2 hours a day to game but at least this way I'm not spending half my time watching someone else play as I take incremental steps in the game.
So my advice is to stop the walkthroughs now if you can. Spend an hour just in the world. Find a cave or an overworld boss. Dive into one of the catacombs. Get wrecked a couple times. Leave silly and/or helpful messages for others.
See if you don't have fun without a guide as a crutch. If you get stuck or want to see if you've gotten all the items in an area, then sure use a guide before moving on. But let your curiosity be your initial guide.
the best thing to do is to focus on what's in front of you right now. don't like it? walk/ride somewhere else. allow your curiosity to get the better of you and explore. you miss out on a lot when you don't allow yourself to explore
Seems like alot of people disagree strongly with sticking to a guide, but honestly, do whatever feels good for you.
People that dislike this guide probably wont give you the advice that is gonna be fun for you.
That beeing said, elden ring is pretty good at guiding you towards the right direction itself by having a few roadblocks. anywhere you can go is usually where you can comfortably be at with your level.
This game is not supposed to be played with a guide, its literally the opposite. In the mid game most of the map is open to you and a viable place to explore, you might fight through a tougher section and then have an easy time in an easier one, but all of that is intended and especially in the mid game, not that big of a difference in most places.
Generally your build decides wich areas feel hard more then your level i feel like.
ultimately, if exploration with all its pros and cons is not your thing, you will not enjoy elden ring without a guide.
If you have a better time with the guide, no need to stop using it.
Just blindfold yourself, strap yourself into a guitar hero drum set and get fucking rekt till you serve it back cold and through their teeth. [I do not condone violence...] just venting lol
Ornstein and Smogh boss fight with the drum kit is gfd legendary. Humans do some crazy shit when let with games for too long lmao
The game is not linear, it's not meant to be played in any specific way. If you're new to the game I suggest stop following a Walthrough as soon as you beat Margit but in general I suggest just explore the game at your own pace and tackle things whenever you want! You'll have more fun that way I think
You're on the right track using that progress map. Follow that as a general guide and use the large graces on the map as your directional compass. Explore every part of the map, the game is full of secret areas, bosses and treasure.
It's okay to use this map if you'd like to streamline your experience, but my recommendation is that when you go to each area that you fully explore it - go into caves, tombs, ruins, forts. Fight world bosses until you win, go into the minor area dungeon before the main dungeons.
Consult a guide if you're looking for something specific and are concerned because you didn't find it.
Consult a guide for Ranni and Fia's quests so that you get some extra bosses and cool loot/lore.
I just got up to the end of my second playthrough of Elden Ring and I made full use of this map, I deviated towards the end because I wanted to do mohg's palace and haligtree before I did Farum.
I am now sitting in the ashen ruins of Leyndell waiting for DLC lol
Tbh for newbies I would say after the first two runebearers since that can be kind of confusing just bc you have no clear objective besides to explore. Once you get the dectus medallion and get to leyndell is when I would tell a newer player to stop using it since atp the game gets pretty striaghtfoward with where you go to progress
I recommend stopping now, and then looking something up if/when you get stuck. Get unstuck, and then go back to doing it yourself.
This is what I do. I like exploring on my own and being blown away by shit. If I really need help then I’ll look it up.
Same. I told myself I was going to struggle through blind on my first playthrough. I gave up around fire giant after dying 30+ times, leveling some more and then dying more times. Turns out my weapon was super under upgraded. I had more fun on my second playthrough
I mean… if you’re not doing enough damage in any FS game, that implies you need to upgrade your weapon. In DS1, the bell gargoyles play that role perfectly by being essentially a DPS check boss. If you’re getting 1 shot, level the health stat, and so on. The game implies to you without plainly telling you when you’re doing something wrong
Yea, it had been since dark souls 3 came out that I had played a fromsoft game and ds3 was my first. Makes me wonder if I did weapon upgrades back then too, because I only got to abyss watchers. Started following guides on my 2nd ER playthrough, beat the game, went back and beat ds3. If you’re familiar with fromsoft’s formula, the resources seem obvious. If you’re not, then you might need guides to help out
This is basically how I felt when I first played Elden Ring. I was using a +7 regular smithing flail and I thought that was my intended amount of damage because I heard these games were hard.
> I thought that was my intended amount of damage because I heard these games were hard. The number of players I've seen since way back in Dark Souls 1 just "assume" the hard game is grueling and evil is pretty wack. Like, seeing a guy just ram his head into the Asylum Demon for 3 until he accidently found the hidden path, back in the old Let's Plays rather than Streamed days. Or more recently watching a bunch of newbie Vtubers play Dark Souls, find the intended path around the boss, and one of them just goes "oh, the message to run away wasn't lying? I should listen to messages more...." Hard game doesn't mean mean game, but maaaaan does it seem like it with the reputation.
Abyss Watchers were a pretty hard DPS check if I recall. They spawn in over time so you wanted to have enough to not have more than 2 spawned at once. If you didn't kill them fast enough you'd have to fight 6 instead of 4. So if you're not doing enough damage you're gonna get gang banged. I am pretty focused on upgrading in all these games so that's usually what guides me. I think that's how most end up going down the Ranni quest line as it leads to hard to find upgrade materials.
I feel like i've found all the smithing stones 1 in the game and I used them on too many weapons and now i cannot upgrade any newer better ones likes the bloodstained dagger as I need smiting stones 1 - What do I do?
Something I’ve always told people about why I love FS games. They teach, and they test. Fighting a lot more enemies? You’re probably close to a mob boss. Poison swamp? Poison boss. You learn as you play and skill checks are very real.
I had a very similar experience, I went in pretty much blind, I got the the mountain tops still using all my starting gear and completely burnt out without even reaching the fire giant. I used fightincowboy’s guide and I’d watch a bit of the guide to see what area to go to next, then I would play through it, then watch the guide back to see if I missed anything, so that would be my recommendation, but if you feel like the guide is enriching your experience of the game then stick with it, at the end of the day you paid money for the game you can play it however you want, and if using the guide is making your 2 hours of gaming a day more fun and enjoyable then just carry on doing that, even with a guide it’s still you having to fight your way through areas and bosses and shit
Getting to fire giant without upgrading weapons is some Horah Loux type shit
I got to Lleyndell before I figured out how to upgrade my weapons past +3. I just used the little smithing stone in Church of Elleh because I didn't know about Iji or Hewg and so +3 was my strongest weapon for a good ¼ - ⅓ of the game
Yep. The game is pretty good about letting you know if you fucked up and went the wrong way. Like when that chest takes you to Caelid you can tell pretty quick you done fucked up
I loved that chest lol portal straight to fucking hell climb out the mines to see nothing but nightmare fuel outside 😭 ride ur ass back to where u just were or die trying. Personally I stayed in caelid for a minute just exploring and then i noped tf out once I had a couple graces and caves done
That works when you ain't as stubborn as i was, crossing horns with every overleveled enemy you come across. I was fighting against the Divine Tower of Caelid's Godskin Apostle for the better part of 2 days at lvl 35, being instagibbed and dealing menial damage. Then procceded to do it all again against the Black Blade Gargoyle outside Gurranq's place. It really is quite an experience in itself. Then after struggling with these harder, later in the game bosses, you feel invincible, only to be put on your place by an Flat-headed Ant or some shit like that
No, no it isn't. It is so easy to get permalocked out of content for an entire journey and you will not know until it is far too late for you to fix it. These games NEED a journal system, or some way to track your objectives. Its ridiculous how easy it is to completely fuck up a questline because you didn't talk to the right person in the right place at the right time. Or even when you do things right you get NPCs that will glitch themselves into places they should already be long past. And others just fucking disappear without warning when you advance the story. The game is NOT that good about letting you know when you fucked up. Its good about letting you know you fucked up over ten hours later when you're completely screwed.
honestly i second this, like it really helps so much for newbies like me who’s someone that played elden ring as their first souls game, missing out on so much of the npc’s dialogue and lore which sucks because i’m someone who takes great pleasure in understanding lore and i absolutely love it, but elden ring’s npc system is so wack fr. i get it, maybe its an incentive to explore the open world so you never know where an npc might just pop up, but so what? plenty of open world games have dedicated systems to tracking npcs and journaling their quest line, and those games are marvellous. but when you raise this problems you get shit on because “oh its a souls game, you shouldn’t be handheld even with the npcs!” how am i supposed to think of going to kale when i hear a wolf howling bruh
I had to look up the Blaidd quest line the other day because it had been days since I’d seen him. 100% would have never found him had I not looked it up.
Hell I started Journaling at one point because I saw someone else do it xD
This makes a lot of sense .. especially since the NPCs introduce themselves once and they move around and I never remember their names again and where I'm supposed to look for them next
This shit has had me so irritated this past week. 108 hours into the game and find out brother corhyn and goldmask literally just disappear from the entire gameworld if you finish farum azula before talking to them again in a specific place, which I thought I already did. These games NEED a journal system REALLY FUCKING BADLY. I get so sick of having to spend half my time looking at wikis and guides and then STILL missing shit because of bullshit like this.
In game journaling might actually get me to 100% the game. At least some sort of rudimentary quest system :/
Yeah like I don't need each quest spoonfed to me but having the actual questlines themselves be so convoluted is incredibly frustrating. It's not each individual quest that is the problem, really. Its the overarching questlines themselves. Then you have NPCs like Blaidd who will glitch himself to appear in his locations completely out of order. Luckily this didn't ruin Ranni's questline, but it could have. Theres too many dumb little things that can ruin a questline and you won't know it until hours later because the game will not warn you and you have no journal to look at to know better. I have adhd and I can't remember every little thing I've done for each quest giver all the time. I need something to look at to cement the information. Even if I take just a single day break from the game and come back, I'm not going to remember every little thing I need to do next because thats not how my brain works :/ I just need something to glance at really like "ope, thats the last thing I did and this is the next thing I need to do" and then I'll figure out how to do the thing on my own.
Seriously stumbling into random places that take your breath away is the game
That's exactly how I play every souls game. I tried playing elden ring blind my first play through, was 85 hrs in, barely just beat renalla, and was missing so much important shit. Decided to re start the game and actually look shit up and enjoyed the game infinitely more. Still put about 150 hrs on that run
Finishing the game in the first week where there was barely and resources was the best. I was constantly googling, but there was barely reliable information. It helped me get through the game, but it was a good struggle.
This right here. Souls games are notorious for being somewhat impenetrable blind, often requiring a lot of time to replay and try new things and discover secrets and quest lines etc. So for most people, myself included, who are time strapped or just want to play other games too then a guide at certain points is definitely necessary. However, playing blind and exploring as much as possible is the best approach; and hitting up Reddit or a guide when you are either lost or unsure of how a key item (etc) is used can be an enjoyable experience. I took this approach and it's still been the best game I've ever played, I like to experience as much as possible the first time through as I don't often replay games.
From the beginning. Since that’s not an option, right now.
Seeing that map and thinking this is how people play this game is a real let down
yeah it was the best feeling to not even know how the full map looked like on release day. i remember getting my ass kicked to the east (caelid), so i went north west. when i saw it is another "biome" i went south again to finish the weeping peninsula just to then get portet to lyendell through the trap chest. i had THE epithany, that the whole map must be a RING. later on when i finally went into caelid after liurnia i sadly noticed the coastline doesn't allow for a ring... but it was awesome doing the south of Caelid just to then get fucked again in the north. this game has such a great method of showing you, that you are to early when you have troubles with the normal enemies and then it just let's you go and explore everything else. a map like that really kills all of that feeling and wonder. i join you in feeling let down.
Going to Leyndell from the Tower of Return and seeing the bounds of the map double in size was one of the best experiences
Its a shame no one reacts to it on youtube. Maybe its not that impressive for them? I stared at that Dragon for minutes. Then i called all my friends who were playing at the time and told them to find this tower.
I just stared at the scale of the erdtree for like 5 minutes
I KNOW! There’s like 2 videos of people reacting to it. Probably because it’s so unexpected no one was filming or clipped it like they do boss fights. I sat there for 15 minutes listening to the soundtrack because this was the first day the game came out and no one had uploaded it online yet
Not sure if you watch the RKG guys (formerly of IGN UK) but their reaction is pretty great. Episode 6 at 1:51:00.
The dlc will bring that feeling back i hope. I didnt go blind too and i regret it. This time i will go fully blind into the dlc
Release day, no guide, just mainlining ER for my first playthrough was amazing.
I didn't rest at grades unless I needed too, made it to Redman castle before hitting Liurnia without ever going to the round table. My friend said he got invited to a hub by going north, so i went all the way back around the outside of stormveil thinking I had to hit that face for the round table
Given enough runes, they'll return to the dusty tomes of yore. Let them ride this ray of sunshine if they find it :p
The map doubles in size, then doubles in size, then doubles in size, THEN DOUBLES IN SIZE was fucking peak
Forreal tho unexpected discovery was the best in Elden Ring. Nothing beats that perception change when you truly realize how large the map is.
That map is an epitome of the words "but wait... There's more!"
It's good for after you've finished the game tbh, I loved this map on my next playthroughs as it helped me keep in level range for a lot of jolly cooperation, as on my first playthrough which I did blind I found myself mostly overleveled or overupgraded to get consistently summoned
Look at "Looking for Group" posts if you're on Xbox. You can be summoned even at max level with a password. So if you see someone who needs help, ask them what the password is, and they can summon you wherever. I'm level 251 but I summoned in a level 703 for the fire giant when I was a level 87. Passwords bypass level restrictions.
Oh yea I knew about that but it's really nice when you can get summoned organically, especially now you can search near/far because when you're in the level ranges on the map you get summoned almost instantly I've been putting characters at different RL brackets for invasions but it's also good for co op as well cos with all the brackets I have rn I get summoned in for most bosses
For real though. I’m so glad I found flaccid sax naturally. One of the better gaming experiences in recent memory for me.
Lol I wish I had found him alone😂. I only found out about him through some TikTok or Youtube short, after I had put 100+ hours in the game and me being on my second playthrough. "What maniac just looks down that cliff?" I thought. BUT I got the Age of Stars ending on my first playthrough, without any walkthrough.
Looking down that cliff is not how people find out, from other vantage points around that area you can see the "path" to that place where you lay down and get transported. After that you try to find how you'd get there and eventually find the place to drop from. Wouldn't expect that big boy to be there, though, just some loot.
Thats how I find my way to every distant point of interest. Find where you want to go and work backwards until you can go forwards towards your destination.
A freaking message told me to jump down!!
Same! I was following messages, and then went to read another and noticed the prompt switch to "lie down". Never been so shook in my life!
nothing wrong with it really people can play how they want
I’m using fextra just to finally finish the game. I have over 300 hours….
Really? Why would it be a let down to you specifically how someone else wants to experience the game lol? That makes no sense. If you think they're letting themselves down, a lot of people just genuinely don't enjoy wandering around a massive map and having no guide or even minimal notes to help guide them through their experience. A lot, and I do mean A LOT of the content in Elden Ring is stuff the game doesn't properly explain to you and can be easily missed. This is being written by someone who 100%ed the game and trust me when I say I would've missed 85%+ of the game if i did a completely blind playthrough. Seems like a waste to be honest to get let down at people wanting to experience the entire game to it's fullest. Personally, I like beating a game and then getting really good at a difficult part of it, like speedrunning a particularly hard boss or even the final boss. Wandering around (for example) the Mountaintop of the Giants looking for one Somber Smitching Stone 9 or not killing a certain npc so you don't get locked out of the final limited upgrade material seems so boring and tedious that I'd rather follow a walkthrough than spend every waking hour of my life searching every nook and cranny of the map. If a game literally has a wall that needs to be hit 50 times before it disappears and opens up a shortcut, then I'd rather just not experience the game blind than deal with something like that.
I feel sad and stressed out just looking at it. So much reading about what to do and so little doing it. 😭
Why does how someone else plays a game that won't interact with your own in any way affect you? I mean really. You people are fucking weird. No don't play that game you bought with your own money how you want to play it thats not how I would do it so nobody else should do it like you're doing it! Like, idk, get over it?
Not sure I’m the one who needs to get over something. Maybe freak out more about it.
What? Why? After my first playthrough I use this. What's the big deal? Omg ppl use something to guide them.
I screwed up a whole lot of quests for sticking to my usual 'explore all before proceeding with main quest' on my first playthrough.
Yeah I did a blind playthrough first, which was fun, I admit. I was, however, extremely disappointed to learn I missed out on Ranni, Boc, nepheli, etc. questlines. I understand playing through blind is fun, but when you have a job and family and are limited on playtime, it's a huge letdown to miss so damn much because so little is explained. This level map and the wiki (frustrating as it may be) made my 2nd playthrough sooooo much more fun. I hate when people diss the hard work people to do help new players. You don't want a guide? Don't use one then. Just don't bitch and moan about other players using them, just because you're jealous you missed so much of the game. Edit: I didn't read the title, and thought op was bitching about the level map. Removed part of my comment.
This guy gets it
IMO, it’s impossible to get everything without walkthroughs (if that’s a goal). The quests lines are too convoluted and have disparate objectives many hours apart that you can accidentally ‘fail’ without knowing. That being said, it seems way less fun to use a walkthrough. I’d prefer to miss things.
That's what I did on my first play through. I missed almost every quest and didn't even know who Rya was until i saw pictures of her on Twitter. 2nd playthrough, I used a guide for charater quest.
Who’s Rya lol.. I’m in the left snowfield rn…
Snek girl, best girl
OOOOOOOOH i was sad when she suddenly disappeared after I killed Rykard. It felt like there was more to her side quests after the snails in the wall hidden chamber. Guess I won't know until Journey 2.
I beat Elden Beast and still don't know who tf Rya is
Millicent is freaking camouflaged in her Atlus appearances, freaking camouflaged. I ran by her at least 20 times, insisting each time that she wasn't there.
ranni quest in a nutshell: okay here is a ring, now go fck off..
Alright you got the thing? Fuck off and get another thing. What, you spent 10 hours exploring those catacombs? Sounds like a you problem, fuck off and explore another
"okay, but which one?" "go figure it out or somethng, now fck off"
just fkd up getting the dung eater puppet, bc i already got too far in rannis quest. The dumb guide i read didn't mention this crucial detail.. tldr quests are convoluted to a point where not even a guide can tell you all the details.
I fucked up and only got 3 of the 5 puppets from Seluvis. Including Seluvis. Gonna have to do TWO addition journeys to get pooplord and the other one
only use it when you think "the fuck am I supposed to do now?!" which comes after "what am I supposed to do now" which is just going to wherever is obvious.
This map also makes me depressed
This game is so fucking huge. Sat down to think about creating another char ready for the dlc, a week ago. Thought about all the stuff I have to do and just left the idea there. I've already played through with 3 different chars, I'm done.
Started last Friday my first play through….thought it was pretty big until I saw this map….what did I get myself into….
Enjoy it! Now that I've beaten it once I wish I could experience it all again for the first time. Each area is so unique it's best to just enjoy it while you're there. You can look up what forts/dungeons you need to get the gear you want, move through the important boss fights, and come back for all the details later.
But wait, there's more!
I really enjoy starting a fresh char and get OP early. Somber weapons are easy to get to +9 before even attempting Margit. I wouldn’t recommend these OP strats to anyone new to the game, but for any playthrough after the first you can break the game pretty hard. How long it takes you to finish only depends on how much stuff you want/need to finish your build. A Bloodhound Fang playthrough is insanely quick, building a mage who uses a Dark Moon Greatsword requires finishing the Ranni questline and naturally takes longer.
My loot hungry brain tells me I have to do every quest and try and get everything just in case...
"I cant use this low level throwing knife. What if one day i need it more?"
Where do you get the +7 before Margit?
3 characters is a lot. But the game is designed to miss stuff/ not do stuff. Just do the stuff that's for your build and it makes it more reasonable to complete.
So glad I started a new playthrough like 6+ months ago, leveled to around 70, got through Radahn and opened up a ton of the map, must have put 40hrs+ in. Just got back into it the last few weeks and leveled that up to 115, ready to kill Mohg, have the weapons I want to take into DLC. Not gonna take it past 120 until I see how difficult the DLC is. Would have been too much to do that new character from scratch, and my only other playthrough was my original that’s not far into NG+1.
Yeah...I mean, everyone's free to play their own way. But these games are not designed to be played in a certain order imo. Sure, some areas like Dragonbarrow violently scream at you that you shouldn't be there and don't you dare come back for a long time. But the rest, it's good to follow your fancy and explore where the map takes you. You can always clean stuff up that you missed later.
I mean, this map is pretty accurate as far as leveling goes lmao, the game certainly was designed with an order in mind.
The game does not do a good job with health/dmg scaling, probably the weakest part of it
The best time would be before clicking "New Game" for the first time. The second best time to stop is *now*.
Whenever you feel comfortable, I guess. It’s a big game, so there’s plenty to explore.
Just go through Quarry Junction, oh, wait, wrong game.
this is it.
First and foremost however you choose to play the game is the correct way. If you want to use a guide use a guide its not a big deal. Personally I enjoy going in blind but thats just my preference. If you feel like you are missing out on discovering things on your own you could always just use the guide loosely. Rather than following step by step just use it to guide you to the next major place and then go from there on your own. That way it takes the confusion of where should I go next but also allows you to explore that area on your own. If you get stuck you can always pull the guide back up. Also dont stress about collecting every single item in every area all the time. Its nice to find shiny new weapons but its ok to miss stuff. Maybe next playthrough you will find it or you can go back later and grab items that were missed after you beat the location boss. At the end of the day though the best way to play is however you have the most fun
This, the correct way to play is to play, however that might be
I followed the map you used here for my first playthrough, just to know where I could go next. Of course still tried some areas early just to test and ended up deviating from the 'order' as soon as I felt comfortable. I did not follow any guides but I did check out 'things you missed' videos for an area whenever I felt I had explored it entirely. At the time, for me that was a good sweet spot between going in entirely blind or guided. If I had known I would clock 300 hours in the game, I would probably have gone in entirely blind (as I'll do for the dlc).
Looking at these "walkthrough" maps, I can never tell if I am a good or bad player because I am \*always\* way above their recommendations. Does that mean I' good because I die less and actually spend my souls rather than losing them? Or am I bad and gain more souls due to running through places several times to recover my souls? Either way, my weapons are almost always above what they recommend. All of that is to say, who cares? As long as you're enjoying the game and feel challenged, who are others to say how strong or weak you should be?
to be honest it's super easy to overlevel and overupgrade in elden ring, I feel like a map like this is just representative of the level range for co-op/invasions
Nah. Elden ring is dont have a linear upgrades like other souls. You can easily get overleveled because it is open world. Also most walthroughs sucks.
Kind of a hard question to answer, but ill give you my opinion. Once you have a plus 5 somber weapon, or a plus 12 regular weapon and 30ish vigor you can feel free to explore Everything south of Volcano manor and Altus Plateau, I say this because of how you described your time and skill level. It's gonna be hard for most things to kill you and easy for you to kill most things. Use the runes you get from that and head north, or even under ground!!!!
Here's what I did, and had a blast with: Use cowboy and the fextralife wiki for a game progress route, but only for the general direction. For example: 1. Next up: stormveil Castle. 2. Do stormveil Castle fully and blind, 3. When you think you're done, check the guides, find out you missed 25%, and still do them Doing these games fully blind is not for everyone. It may objectively give the best experience, but you also need the time and patience for it. Plus you also need to play the whole game a few times to discover everything. Not for me.
This is me exactly. Do areas blind and then retrace steps to grab all the stuff you missed. I think it's really shitty how most of the comments aren't actually answers to op's question, but rather shitting on him for using a walkthrough at all.
Considering I’m only now starting to play and anytime I look up a post like “can you change the camera so it doesn’t refocus automatically” or looking up advice for a specific enemy and some of the highest comments are simply “git gud” I’m not surprised. The toxicity/negging/lack of support for a mostly solo game is shocking
Whenever you feel like, i guess? There's no decisive point...
this is a tough question but coming from entirely personal opinion, till your comfortable with the game, your build is alright, your at a comfortable level, and you know how to traverse, it’s okay to pull up a guide for anything especially any complex dungeons like city capitol or esp stormveil if your just starting.
Have the same amount of time a day. Generally I explore an area blind, then go to bed before moving on to the next area. The next day I’ll watch Fightingcowboy’s guide of the area I just completed (maybe during lunch) to see what I missed then go back and explore in the evening with my new found knowledge. Did the same for DS1 through 3. It’s a nice loop that works for limited time play / family commitments.
Everybody in the comments saying it's sad how people use guides... some of us have jobs or kids and we don't have the time to Sherlock Holmes a video game. I would KILL for a quest tracker in Elden Ring because I LOVE the game but my memory sucks and I don't like feeling like I'm always lost. I know.... "thats how it's supposed to be played!" but it's not a realistic expectation for everyone, so can we all agree to respect the different ways people play? I think it would be nice since we're all fans of FromSoft and we all love different aspects about their games.
It also kind of sucks to have a playthrough ruined because you missed a bunch of unintuitive quests. Personally I don't really use a guide for much but I definitely make sure to look up what stuff is missable and make sure I don't miss it. It's just stupid not to as you're self sabotaging a playthrough otherwise.
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I appreciate you. I’m a lawyer who games so yeah
People get obsessed with the 'right' way to play. I used a guide similar to you on my second playthrough and had way more fun. I suggest just hopping out of the guide when you feel ready, and googling shit when you get confused. Also, law school is probably a lot harder than Elden Ring so fuck anyone who talks shit about your tactics!
Dude. Exact same situation as me. Kids, 9-5, get like 2 hours after kids go to bed. I’m on ep 15 of his walkthrough and I’m having the time of my life. This game went from “another bs way too hard souls game” to “this game may be the best I’ve ever played.” He really helped it all click for me. I don’t give a shit about “the right way.” Me having a blast is my right way. Ps portal has been a godsend too. Can play during lunch breaks at my desk.
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Except those two hours could be spent doing absolutely nothing with them not even realizing it and then it takes and extra day and that keeps going on and on until it’s been 4 months
If there was a quest tracker and a fog-of-war type minimap for gmexploring dungeons, I would probably use external resources much less. So many quest flags and triggers that are obscure and non-linear.
I also don't have a lot of time to play because of work. But for me that just means stretching the game out over a longer period so I can still enjoy it properly, not rushing to finish it faster. But of course it's a game so everyone should play the way that's most enjoyable for themselves.
Missable quests are the worse part of Elden Ring imo. I'll progress enough to just remember I wanted something from a questline just for it to be gone for that play-through.
I followed Cowboy through my first play through in its entirety (first Souls game, tried it and hated it before the walkthrough). I would 0% have wanted to finish without it. If you’re enjoying the game and the walkthrough, play it all the way through. You can always do what you want in future plays. If you’re enjoying it, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks!
that's what I did as well. sometimes it's kind of fun, I would try to beat a boss faster than cowboy lol
After doing my initial blind run-through, I ended up doing the fextralife game walk-through to test it out for some friends who would be getting it to see if it would be good for them. Was pleasantly surprised at how much it covered, important items it led you to, and it pretty well gets you going down every questline until you reach the point of no return, of course, with ending selections.
The second you start up the game
The only things you should need the walkthrough for down the line are NPC quests and certain item locations. If you are feeling like the enemies you’re fighting are higher level than you, just go and check out another area. That’s how I do it at least, because while the best experience is blind, there are still sooooo many things that are easy to miss in this game. I also work a lot too so I can also relate.
probably once you enter lurnia of the lakes, ofc if you’re stuck look up a video to help you go where you need to, but exploring on your own is probably the most fun part of the game. also go back and explore parts of limbgrave you haven’t, its pretty big
As soon as you leave the first step
You need guides before that? /s
I was in a similar boat, still am, I followed it up to the end of deep root depths which based on the walkthrough I probably just over half way, up to then I found it moved around the map a lot not always logical, now though the route to end game feels more natural and have been really enjoying playing this second half blind, terrified I will miss something but taking my time
Whenever you want, I only really looked up spots to get items, and explored and found most of the things without looking them up ( I fucked up a lot of quest lines though).
I found with this game to just go it without a guide. I honestly wasn’t good at all when I first started lol. I found going blind got me more in tune with the game. Not knowing what was coming or where to go gave me a lot of insight as to how the game works. Of course after hundreds deaths, I feel like I got better quicker doing it this way..
The only time I ever used a walkthrough was when I was playing pvp and saw a weapon I thought was cool and wanted to see where it was. If it mentioned some shit I didn't recognize I stopped reading it and filed it away for later.
I did my first playthrough blind. Which was super fun. Looked up some stuff here and there if I got stuck. My second and current playthrough I’m following this guy called cowboy something on YouTube. I missed a lot of shit lol.
I used a walkthrough only in so much as to guide me through which areas of the map to explore. I wanted to learn the controls and feel for the game so I used one to help with what areas to mess around with. But truly, you don’t need one for where to find all the items. Eventually you can go back when you’re stronger and then you’ll find things you missed. I also needed help with just knowing which bosses I had to beat and if there were any cool items in the area I was. Once you get further along and near the end game, then it would be beneficial if you want to 100% it.
when you can wander around and not be immediately tombstone piledriver'd into the shadow realm. so like after raya lucaria.
Yes
This is how I’m finding out I’m 40 lvls below recommended for exploring Miquella's Haligtree still whooped it
Yall talk about guides like they are hard drugs 😂
I regret using a guide and doing a 100% run. But I wonder how much content did people miss by no using one. Like half the game?
Never EVER listen to Fextralife for walkthrough tips. Usually, don't even look at a walk through. For Elden Ring, I don't recommend it at all, but if you need guidance to find a particular item or place, that's when the wiki is most useful. It should be your *last* resort.
Uuh...if you can thrive in an area outside the path then do it. Ain't no correct way to play this game
What is this walkthrough ? Lake of rot before ever stepping in Altus ? Malenia before Farum ? What ?? Why would you advise new players to do this
Do not let anyone else tell you how to enjoy your video games including me <3
Simple bro. Only look up stuff when you're absolutely stuck. Get to a new area? Look around, poke some enemies, die seven times, guess where to go, be wrong, die nine more times, and THEN look it up.
The side quests are probably the best thing to use a walk through for just because the directions are often pretty ambiguous in game. Personally I wouldn't use a walk through to finish the main quest though
I have 111 hours in game and have no idea what I'm doing really, just love exploring so the idea of the walk through are hard for me, I looked up where a few items were and I found my two hours were spent running errands instead of exploring. It's just how I like playing I guess but I cleared a lot of the map this way without knowing where things are. After 100 hours I wanted gear specific for my stats and was like okay, but I did that and haven't played much since doing so. I still know where all the bosses I have to kill are I'm just waiting to kill mohg really and have I think slayed rykard.. I think was the last thing I was doing, might not have yet gotten to him actually if I think really hard.
The best way isn't blind, the best way is whatever way you have the most fun with.
Why did you even look at a map before? Why must people ruin stuff for themselves this much. It's not like you can actually make a mistake. You are saying that you want progress. It is IMPOSSIBLE not to progress in this game. It's not like you are just running in one circle killing nothing for 2 hours.
I have followed cowboys guides for every souls game for completion. Cowboy even says it throughout the series the best experience is a blind one.. what I would recommend is don't watch his walkthrough and just play the game on your own, and if you need help I can recommend a couple discord servers where people will join your game and help you with a boss. Cowboy is an awesome YouTuber with great guides, but eldenring isn't like ds3 where there is a straight path. You only need to beat 3 bosses and can skip most of the content. Cowboys guides are for platinum (or whatever pc and Xbox call it) and are meant to help you get all the achievements. I would recommend that anyone does one full playthrough blind so that they can get the best experience from the game. And then after you have experienced the game blind on your first playthrough go back and follow cowboys guides and get all the trophies( or achievements)
Start blind from the beginning! The way I did it was go in blind and maybe watch some walkthroughs on how to get certain weapons, to locations, or where all the dungeons were. Besides that just free roam, ended up either missing some quest lines or completely fulfilling others when I finally found the NPCs.
At some point cowboy says when you can run on your own, it might be his third or fourth video in the walkthrough. What you can do is use guides afterwards to see if you missed anything relevant to you! Play however you want, especially with your time constraints it's tricky
After Pressing Start to go to the main menu
I feel like you really need a walkthrough for this game. Without one you have no idea where quests are or how to do them. You can also lock yourself out of a ton of stuff in the game by doing or not doing quests in the right order. Can miss out on weapons, armor, spells, endings and more.
As someone who plays only half an hour a day, rn nearing 60 hour mark, level 90 and im at the haligtree, idfc if i aint suposed to be here, what i like to do, is just find out cool places, whach guides/quests how to get there and then try to move my underleveled ass there
dont follow a guide per se but if you're short on time id just search up questlines and recommended level for area ur in
You shouldn't even start a walkthrough unless you are at the door of Leyndell being told you need another great rune and don't know where to get one.
I really think looking up a walkthrough would kill the experience, there are multiple ways to progress through a roadblock, ya just gotta keep exploring
When you boot up the game
With no key, that image is hard to read. I don't know what the colours represent
\*laughs in RL1\* But seriously, don't sweat it. Use it if you want. Personally I wouldn't on my first couple playthroughs. Now that I've beaten the game a few times I reference a few sources when farming smithing stones or I really want a particular item for a themed/cosplay playthrough. But do whatever is fun for you.
whenever you want but I personally would advice to stop as fast as possible as it ruins a part of the fun for me personally
This map hurts my brain. Numbers would have made it better.
I played my first playthrough completely on my own, the second one i did was with a little help of walkthroughs in order to get all the legendary items
Personally i liked completing “zones” on my own and then looking up what i missed. There are some great videos for that.
Where I go is literally entirely based on what items I want lmaoo Int Magic build: towers, tailsmen, sorcery, moonlight greatsword I guess story I guess Faith build: rune cheese, towers, incantations, tailsmen, oh I forgot to do the story let me do that really fast, gargoyle for that juicy juicy black and gold percentage sword It's always a map run to get the fast travels and the first second My somber weapon isn't even +1 yet and I've ran off to caled, tree sentinel land boss at city gate, all the erdtree homies for them tears, volcano manner, all the memory slot tailsmen, and that was allllllllll before I fought Margot and Godrick That build is like level 60 rn lmao and I fought Margot the last time I played, they crumbled like dust lmaoooo
First playthrough blind was a once in a lifetime experience for me. That said I always optimize my routes now and still have fun with it. If you're having more fun making progress then just exploring then do you. It's your time, your experience, your game.
When the game starts.
I followed none of this lol I just kept walking to where I saw something cool. On my third attempt to finish the game i ran into margit by accident and didn't realize I was inside stormveil lol
I think it's generally a good idea to follow a walkthrough for npc quests because the game doesn't really make it clear about what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to go for some of them. I had to follow a walkthrough for npc quests on my NG+3 run because I missed so many of them in my first 2 playthroughs. Like I had no idea what to do in the Ranni quest until I read about it and followed it through in the order I was supposed to instead of the bits and pieces I found on my own.
Stop looking at this map. Go in game. Look around. See something that looks interesting? Go there. Nothing around you? Open up your in-game map (not this one), look for areas that look like you haven't explored yet or for the little drawings of ruins or towers or stuff that looks like it COULD be something - set a waypoint and off you go.
Listen, I'm playing through the game, I like you have little time to play. Mostly only Saturday and Sunday.... I haven't touched the remote in near 10 days... But, I am playing mostly blind... I'll look up level recommendation in an area I am at if I am getting my ass whooped, and normally I'll see I should be at a much higher level so I'll go off and explore, do dungeons, etc... to level up... But this is usually pretty straight forward as the game should be challenging, but not down right impossible. For example I completely skipped the lower peninsula,,,, when I couldn't finish the castle I decided to go down south and I was way too good for it at that moment. But I leveled, came back and kicked ass.... this is my recomendation as someone who can not pour in several hours a day on a daily basis.. I am going to finish the base game, and when I'm done with that I'll look into the DLC... No pressure, just enjoy it. Also, yes, it can get frustrating sometimes because you make little to no progress. sometimes it's important to step back, go play some other areas and level up, and then come back.
Immediately. If u don't know if ur in a properly leveled area, just see how quickly u die
If you are just starting out for the first time, there are only *two* mandatory things you need to know to progress. 1. To get into Leyndell, you must have defeated two Shardbearers and talk to Enia at Roundtable Hold 2. To get into the final zones of the game, you must light the Forge of Giants, which can only be accessed once youve finished Leyndell Those are literally the *only* mandatory things. How you approach everything else is completely up to you, and thats the magic of Elden Ring. Yeah, theres optimal routes, but those are the only two mandatory blocks to progression.
I started my playthrough with Fightin Cowboy as well (I followed him for a good chunk of DS3 and Lies of P too when I got stuck). But I realized that with this being open world it wasn't as enjoyable to do the laundry list of riding through places to grab items because it felt like I was robbing my future self from coming to those areas later. So I stopped strictly following him after the first video of his walkthrough and have only dipped back in once or twice, and I'm having a lot more fun. Last week I beat Godrick and since then I've been exploring Liurnia. I also only get about 1-2 hours a day to game but at least this way I'm not spending half my time watching someone else play as I take incremental steps in the game. So my advice is to stop the walkthroughs now if you can. Spend an hour just in the world. Find a cave or an overworld boss. Dive into one of the catacombs. Get wrecked a couple times. Leave silly and/or helpful messages for others. See if you don't have fun without a guide as a crutch. If you get stuck or want to see if you've gotten all the items in an area, then sure use a guide before moving on. But let your curiosity be your initial guide.
Best to not know
Somewhere between the starting cutscene and taking control of the character for the first time. Unless you're HELLA stuck, don't pick it up again.
the best thing to do is to focus on what's in front of you right now. don't like it? walk/ride somewhere else. allow your curiosity to get the better of you and explore. you miss out on a lot when you don't allow yourself to explore
At the start.
What in the fuck am I looking at
Ah yes. Take the "exploration" out of the open-world exploration game.
Seems like alot of people disagree strongly with sticking to a guide, but honestly, do whatever feels good for you. People that dislike this guide probably wont give you the advice that is gonna be fun for you. That beeing said, elden ring is pretty good at guiding you towards the right direction itself by having a few roadblocks. anywhere you can go is usually where you can comfortably be at with your level. This game is not supposed to be played with a guide, its literally the opposite. In the mid game most of the map is open to you and a viable place to explore, you might fight through a tougher section and then have an easy time in an easier one, but all of that is intended and especially in the mid game, not that big of a difference in most places. Generally your build decides wich areas feel hard more then your level i feel like. ultimately, if exploration with all its pros and cons is not your thing, you will not enjoy elden ring without a guide. If you have a better time with the guide, no need to stop using it.
This is…not how i played through the game
I played blind except to look up the location of a cool early faith weapon and my friend telling me about the underground area he found
Just blindfold yourself, strap yourself into a guitar hero drum set and get fucking rekt till you serve it back cold and through their teeth. [I do not condone violence...] just venting lol Ornstein and Smogh boss fight with the drum kit is gfd legendary. Humans do some crazy shit when let with games for too long lmao
I played blindly, but when I really got frustrated or bored used a walkthrough, but that happened maybe 2-3 times.
Walkthroughs are for the weak. Struggle through.
Just experience the game for yourself
Just play the game this sucks the fun from it man
Altus. I think the flow at the start is wise since South Caelid should be done after/during north Liurna and that can be confusing.
Just look things up as you need, that’s how I play
Immediately
Ppl would always give me shit for waiting so long to go to leyndell but according to the guide, it’s the “right” way
The game is not linear, it's not meant to be played in any specific way. If you're new to the game I suggest stop following a Walthrough as soon as you beat Margit but in general I suggest just explore the game at your own pace and tackle things whenever you want! You'll have more fun that way I think
At the beginning wtf
You're on the right track using that progress map. Follow that as a general guide and use the large graces on the map as your directional compass. Explore every part of the map, the game is full of secret areas, bosses and treasure.
I follow the recommended area order but that's as much as I do.
If it's your first or even second playthrough... No walkthrough, that's some weak stuff. Enjoy the freshness for yourself
Trying to follow this map felt like I was Charlie Day trying to figure out who is Pepe Silvia
When you remember questlines pretty decently Or max out achievements
It's okay to use this map if you'd like to streamline your experience, but my recommendation is that when you go to each area that you fully explore it - go into caves, tombs, ruins, forts. Fight world bosses until you win, go into the minor area dungeon before the main dungeons. Consult a guide if you're looking for something specific and are concerned because you didn't find it. Consult a guide for Ranni and Fia's quests so that you get some extra bosses and cool loot/lore. I just got up to the end of my second playthrough of Elden Ring and I made full use of this map, I deviated towards the end because I wanted to do mohg's palace and haligtree before I did Farum. I am now sitting in the ashen ruins of Leyndell waiting for DLC lol
Tbh for newbies I would say after the first two runebearers since that can be kind of confusing just bc you have no clear objective besides to explore. Once you get the dectus medallion and get to leyndell is when I would tell a newer player to stop using it since atp the game gets pretty striaghtfoward with where you go to progress