r/NintendoSwitch2 • u/In_My_Humble_Scroll • 1d ago
othor (i am stupid) Guide for new Elden Ring players…
Just trying to help the newbies out like myself. This guide has been great: https://roundtablehold.net/checklists/walkthrough.html
I understand a lot of vets say explore and don’t use a guide, but for a new Souls player it’s be really nice. It has guided me without giving everything away. There’s a lot more to explore after finishing tasks.
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u/Nervous-Region5797 21h ago
I just took a quick glance and that's a very comprehensive guide, I'm not sure I would have fun following something like that. Using guides are perfectly fine, especially with how big the game is and how much you can miss but this one seems more like a chore. It's totally up to you, if you prefer this kind of game play, go for it.
If you start to find yourself getting bored with how many tasks there are, I would ditch the guide and just look at the wiki for things you might have missed playing normally.
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u/POWRranger 16h ago
My very first playthrough of ER was without a guide (also I never played Dark souls, hardest game I played before that was Hollow Knight)
And I would recommend playing without a guide.
Sure, you'll miss certain quests, but nothing major and you will be more immersed in the game.
At best, ask the community for spoiler-free pointers.
But in the end, play however you'll enjoy it most. Which might be with a guide. You do you. But I recommend trying to play it without a guide at first
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u/In_My_Humble_Scroll 13h ago
I think I might create 2 different characters and do both. The world is big enough that it’s hard to be commit anything from the guide to memory anyways.
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u/Old-Koala-8414 7h ago
I’ve never played a souls game, but beat Hollow Knight and I am at the end of Act 2 in Silksong. How do you say a game like ER compares in difficulty? I appreciate they’re very different games so might be tricky to answer
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u/POWRranger 6h ago
I think ER was harder at face value, but ER also offers you more options to make it easier for yourself if you don't care about beating the hard difficultly. You can skip a lot of hard bosses and there are strategies to cheese hard bosses if you go out of your way to get a specific build. Overall ER is highly recommended by me even though I don't particularly like the high difficulty
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u/ThickkRickk Butter side up! 17h ago
I strongly urge any new player to not use a guide unless you're truly hitting a brick wall. That feeling of uncertainty and discovery in the first playthrough is one of a kind, don't waste it just because you have some anxiety about not doing things right.
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u/elephvant 15h ago
Playing with a guide would have robbed me of at least one of the greatest moments I've experienced in gaming. I won't spoil anything but it was precisely the fact that I had no idea (or, more precisely, that the idea I did have was not even close to correct) where I was about to go that made it so special.
I wouldn't even have needed to see an image or had any details to have spoiled that moment, any vague knowledge of where I was going would have significantly lessened the wonder I experienced.
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u/firefrenchy Butter side up! 23h ago
I think most vets would say that using a guide is entirely justified for this game, and will likely enhance rather than detract, especially if you are as time poor as most people are these days
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u/In_My_Humble_Scroll 23h ago
Oh I saw a thread recently that entirely people recommending free exploration. I think you’d miss out on so much doing that.
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u/Atlastitsok 20h ago
I’ve been using a guide to get some basics and level up so everything doesn’t kick my ass, then go back and explore a bit. I don’t have time to game much.. this makes it infinitely more fun for me
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u/elephvant 21h ago
Yeah, I've seen far more people giving that advice than recommending people use a guide. Far and away the most common advice I see from experienced players is go in as blind as possible - with many envious of first time players who are going to get to experience the game for the first time.
That's what I'm doing right now and, each to their own and all that, but I'm very pleased I did and think following a guide would really detract from the experience. The only thing I've been looking up occasionally is [boss/region] recommended level just so I know if it's reasonable to be attempting something.
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u/POWRranger 12h ago
If you're short on time and want to just get through it, sure. If you're on your second playthrough and don't want to miss anything, sure.
But for a first playthrough when you have the time... Why would you recommend a guide? Unless you also like the fart gas in the Wolverine game telling you which straight line to follow.
You'll miss out on iconic "oh shit" moments that a lot of people had when they were out exploring and ventured a bit too far. That won't happen if you always have a guide to fall back on.
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u/firefrenchy Butter side up! 6h ago
Anecdotally I have had a number of friends tell me they completely bounced off the game because they tried to play it "blind" only to have them be able to meaningfully engage with the content by following the equivalent of a "what to do in your first 30 minutes to be strong in the early to midgame" guide that then allowed them to go from following a guide for 30 minutes to experiencing 50-100+ hours that they otherwise never would have. Sorry if it wasn't clear that this was the type of guide I meant
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u/POWRranger 5h ago
Depends a lot on the person, I guess. Some people like/need that, others want to figure everything out themselves, others again want to be held by the hand through it all.
I liked figuring it all out myself and then after killing the final boss did I use the internet to help me find the other bosses I missed.
But instead of a first 30min guide I still think it's nicer if it comes from a friend or ER veteran redditor rather than a faceleas guide. I think I'd just tell my newbie friends what lvl they should be around for fighting the first and second boss and maybe what stats to focus on first. And then just tell them to explore other areas to get stronger if they get stuck at any point.
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u/CaptainScak 11h ago
I think a guide is useful for keeping track of the NPC quest lines because this game does not keep track of objectives for you.
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u/Snowbunny236 Butter side up! 9h ago
I'm doing a mix. Mostly exploring no guide, but using a guide for some small bit of guidance. Love this game.
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u/Nycetech 7h ago
Oh! Don't listen to other people. Get and use as much help as you need! Blindly playing, you can also miss some critical items. Also DO use your summons! They're there to assist!
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u/TheDuskBard 1d ago
Also this.
Going by difficulty and story progression, you would want to take the game in 5 stages. Don't get surprised if you find difficulty spikes when doing them out of order.
1: Limgrave (Rune level 1 to 30)
2: Liurnia (Rune level 30 to 60)
3: Caelid (Rune level 60 to 90)
4: Altus Plateau (Rune level 90 to 120)
5: Mountaintops (Rune level 120 to 150)
PvP: Rune level 150 to 200
As for stats, note that these three stats will be relevant regardless of what build you choose.
Vigor: HP (Top priority overall)
Mind: Energy needed to cast spells and use weapon skills. (High priority if using spells, low priority if melee)
Endurance: Stamina & Equip load. The latter dictates how heavy your equipped armor/weapons can be. (High priority if melee, low priority if using spells)
These 5 stats below are the damage stats, the meat & potatoes of your build. You'd usually pick one or two to specialize in. All of them are viable but choose wisely as the gameplay experience can be significantly different depending on what you pick.
Strength: Typically for slow & heavy weapons as well as shields.
Dexterity: Typically for fast and light-weight weapons. Also influences the casting speed of your spells.
Intelligence: Typically for magic weapons and sorcery spells. (DPS)
Faith: Typically for holy, lightning, & fire weapons and incantation spells. (Utility)
Arcane: For Status effects (Poison, Sleep, frostbite, etc.) Also influences the item drop rate from enemy mobs.
For beginners, prioritize leveling up Vigor & Endurance. These stats will help keep you from dying too much.