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Start with the Cave of Knowledge tutorial, then use Sites of Grace to recover, get oriented, and decide what to try next. You do not need to defeat every enemy you meet: if a fight is overwhelming, leave it, explore elsewhere, and return with a stronger weapon, improved flasks, or spirit support. Early progress comes from learning the combat and exploration systems as well as from spending runes on character levels.
What should you do first in Elden Ring?
At the Stranded Graveyard, look for the hole near the ghostly character to reach the Cave of Knowledge. Take the tutorial route before treating the open world as a checklist of enemies to defeat. It introduces core controls and combat techniques, including guarding, dodging, stance breaking, and guard counters. If you miss a tutorial message or want to review one, open the inventory’s Info menu.
After the tutorial, make a habit of activating Sites of Grace as you find them. They are places to recover, manage available progression options, and plan your next route. Use the map and the guidance shown by discovered graces as orientation aids, not as a requirement to follow one fixed path.
- Learn the basic actions. Practice moving, dodging, guarding, attacking, and using your weapon skill in a low-pressure setting. Check your own Controller Settings for the button labels that match your device.
- Rest at a Site of Grace. Resting restores HP and FP, clears status ailments, and replenishes flask uses. The menu also offers systems such as leveling or flask improvements when those options are available.
- Explore nearby routes. Look for map fragments, other graces, merchants, caves, and paths around enemies that are too difficult to handle now.
- Return to difficult encounters when ready. A retreat is a way to choose the order of your fights, not a failure to play correctly.
The official Bandai Namco beginner material provides foundational guidance: its starter guide dates to 2021, while its early-game and five-tip guides date to 2022. These explain core systems, but they do not establish current patch-specific balance or universal control mappings across platforms.
How do Sites of Grace, the map, and progression fit together?
Use graces as recovery and planning points
Resting at a Site of Grace replenishes HP, FP, and flask uses and clears status ailments. The grace menu may also offer leveling, flask improvements, spell memorization, and other systems as they become available. A discovered grace is recorded on the map, and its guidance can point toward a direction to explore.
The map shows your location and terrain, lets you place markers, and allows travel to discovered graces. Fast travel is unavailable in some dungeons, and you cannot open the map during battle. If a route is unclear, use the map before entering danger or after you have reached a safe point.
Find map fragments and leave yourself notes
Map fragments add detail to the map and are often found along roads near stone monuments. Markers help preserve information you might otherwise forget: a dangerous enemy you want to revisit, a cave you have not explored, a merchant, or treasure that is currently out of reach.
Markers are especially useful when you choose not to fight something immediately. Record the location and keep moving rather than repeatedly testing an encounter that is not going well. You can return after gathering more resources or learning more about your equipment.
Unlock leveling and Torrent through early exploration
After resting at Sites of Grace, Melina appears during early exploration. Accepting her accord grants the Spectral Steed Whistle and lets you spend runes on character levels. The official early-game guide describes this happening after finding a few Sites of Grace, but does not establish a precise number as a universal threshold.
Use the whistle when you want to travel on Torrent or try mounted combat. Neither the mount nor mounted fighting is mandatory for every encounter; they are options that change how you move through the world and approach some field enemies.
How should a beginner approach combat?
Build a rhythm around stamina
Stamina is spent on actions that use it. When it reaches zero, you cannot perform those actions again until it recovers. Avoid draining the entire bar indiscriminately during a fight: leave room to respond rather than committing every available action at once.
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Dodging, guarding, and attacking are different ways to manage danger, and the tutorial introduces the basics. A shield can guard. Attacks from behind, attacks after a parry, and attacks against a fallen enemy can create an opportunity for a critical hit, although some enemies are exceptions. Learn the timing and openings of the opponent in front of you rather than expecting one move to work in every situation.
Use terrain, stealth, and observation
Crouching in grass is more effective, and an enemy that has not noticed you takes extra damage from your first attack. That makes observation useful before you commit: notice where enemies are positioned, whether there is a hidden route, and whether you can approach without starting a fight on unfavorable terms.
Enemies may ambush you, follow routines, or be drawn into fighting one another. Watch before rushing into a group. Stealth and route selection can help you avoid pressure or create a more favorable opening; they are not just alternatives for players who have failed at direct combat.
Check controls instead of assuming a button layout
Control labels vary by platform and can be changed. The official starter guide covers actions such as lock-on, jumping, crouching, attacks, guarding, and weapon skills, but its instructions should not be treated as a single universal button map. Open Controller Settings on your platform if a prompt does not match the controls you see.
Should you fight the Tree Sentinel?
You can, but you do not have to fight it when you first encounter it. Bandai Namco’s early-game guide specifically describes the Tree Sentinel as very tough for a beginning player and says the order of fights is up to you. If it is overwhelming, move on and strengthen yourself through exploration before returning.
This is a useful decision rule for other difficult encounters too. Try a fight long enough to learn what is happening, but do not confuse being able to see an enemy with being required to defeat it immediately. You can use the map to mark the location, explore another route, and come back when your equipment, flask options, or support choices have changed.
- Stay and practice if the fight is teaching you a pattern and you are making progress.
- Leave and explore if you are repeatedly overwhelmed or have no clear way to manage the encounter.
- Return deliberately after making a meaningful change, such as improving a weapon, changing your approach, or adding spirit support.
What matters more: character levels or equipment?
There is no single stat allocation or level target that is right for every beginner. Character attributes affect different choices: Vigor raises HP; Strength affects access to higher-level weapons and melee attack power; Intelligence affects access to and power of sorceries. Those are examples of how stats shape options, not a prescription to invest in one attribute regardless of the weapon or play style you want.
Character levels are only one part of becoming stronger. If more levels have not solved a difficult fight, consider other changes instead of assuming that you simply need to grind. The official five-tip guide points to weapon upgrades, spirit summons, Ashes of War, craftable buffs, and flask improvements as additional ways to improve your chances.
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- Improve your chosen weapon. Weapon upgrades are a separate progression path from character levels and may be a more relevant next step for a particular obstacle.
- Consider flask options. Resting restores flask uses, while flask improvements are among the progression options available at graces as play advances.
- Decide whether you want spirit support. Summons can draw pressure or complement a build, but they are optional rather than a universal requirement.
- Try available skills and buffs. Ashes of War and craftable buffs are among the options to consider when a direct level increase is not addressing the problem.
Choose a change that addresses what is actually going wrong. If you are struggling to survive, more HP may be relevant; if your weapon choice depends on an attribute, its requirements may guide your investment. If a fight is difficult despite those choices, an upgrade, a different tactic, a summon, or a flask adjustment may be more useful than blindly raising another level.
How do you get Torrent and use mounted combat?
Accept Melina’s accord when she appears at a Site of Grace to receive the Spectral Steed Whistle. Torrent is useful for traversal and offers a distinct way to fight while mounted. You can practice mounted attacks against a suitable field enemy, but there is no need to use mounted combat in every situation.
Mounted attacks depend on which side of Torrent is positioned to strike. Charged attacks can hit multiple enemies, and mounted combat may help against large enemies in the field. Pay attention to your position and the target rather than treating the mount as a guarantee of safety or damage.
If Torrent’s health is depleted, reviving the steed consumes a Crimson Flask. That makes the choice to bring Torrent back part of your resource management, especially when you may still need flask uses for the encounter or the route ahead.
How do spirit summons work, and when should you use them?
Spirit summons are an optional support system that can absorb pressure or complement your build. You need a Spirit Calling Bell and spirit ashes to summon. The early-game guide describes an early route to obtain them through Renna at the Church of Elleh after you have obtained the Spectral Steed Whistle. If you miss that opportunity under the circumstances described by the guide, it also gives a later purchase route at Roundtable Hold.
Only one spirit type can be summoned at a time, and spirits cannot be summoned during multiplayer. Summoning is a choice about the kind of support you want, not a requirement for progressing through every encounter.
Strengthening a spirit
Spirit upgrades require runes and glovewort. The five-tip guide says strengthening spirits can raise their health, damage, and defense. If a summon is part of your preferred approach, improving it is another progression option to weigh against spending resources elsewhere.
Other ways to seek help
The early-game guide also describes cooperative play using signs and the Furlcalling Finger Remedy; Kalé sells a Crafting Kit that lets players craft the remedy. Co-op players need to be in approximately the same area. The official guidance summarized here does not establish more detailed multiplayer restrictions, so do not assume that this general requirement explains every case where a sign is unavailable.
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When you die, your carried runes drop at the death location. You can return there and retrieve them, but if you die again before recovering them, they are lost. The important practical point is to treat a large amount of carried runes as something at risk, rather than assuming death erases them immediately or that recovery is guaranteed.
After death, you normally revive at the last Site of Grace where you rested. A nearby Stake of Marika can be an alternative revival point. Before heading back for dropped runes, consider whether the route itself is dangerous and whether you have a plan to reach the death location without repeating the same mistake.
When you have enough runes for a useful level or another available progression choice, decide whether to spend them before taking on a risk. That does not make every excursion risk-free, but it avoids carrying more than you need into an uncertain fight.
Common beginner mistakes to avoid
Trying to defeat every enemy on sight
The open world lets you choose the order of many encounters. An enemy that is difficult now can be left for later while you explore, find map fragments, or improve your equipment. Retreating is a route decision, not a verdict on your ability.
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Spending every action until stamina is empty
Once stamina reaches zero, actions that use stamina are unavailable until it recovers. Leave space to respond instead of treating every opening as a reason to spend the whole bar.
Assuming character levels are the only upgrades
Weapon upgrades, flask improvements, summons, Ashes of War, and craftable buffs are all options the official beginner guidance identifies. Match the next improvement to the problem you are facing.
Ignoring the map or relying on memory
Use the map for orientation and markers to record places worth revisiting. Map fragments add detail and are often located along roads near stone monuments; markers can note a cave, merchant, dangerous opponent, or inaccessible treasure.
Assuming every prompt uses your platform’s buttons
Control mappings are not universal across platforms. Consult Controller Settings when the prompt or a remembered instruction does not match your setup.
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Your dropped runes can be retrieved from the death location, but dying before reaching them loses them. Treat the return trip as a separate risk to plan, rather than rushing straight back without considering the route.
A practical way to decide what to do next
When you reach a new area or hit a wall, use this short decision process rather than following a rigid build or level target:
- Get your bearings. Check the map, look for a Site of Grace, and note possible routes before committing to a fight.
- Identify the obstacle. Decide whether the problem is staying alive, handling an enemy group, understanding an attack, or lacking an upgrade opportunity.
- Choose one useful adjustment. Consider learning a combat technique, changing your approach, upgrading a weapon, improving flasks, using a summon, or exploring another path.
- Manage what you carry. If you are carrying a substantial number of runes, weigh spending them on an available progression option against the risk of another death.
- Revisit with a plan. Use a map marker for an enemy or location you postponed, then return when you have a reason to expect the encounter to go differently.
The best first-session goal is not to clear every visible threat. It is to learn how the game communicates, find reliable places to recover, understand what you can change about your character and equipment, and build a mental map of places to explore later.
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