10 Things to Know Before Playing Elden Ring
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VOICE OVER: Riccardo Tucci
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
There are so many things about "Elden Ring" that have us excited. For this, we'll be going over the most important details you need to know before picking up FromSoftware's next game. Our list includes Tech Specs, Runes, its Online capabilities, and more!
There are so many things about "Elden Ring" that have us excited. For this, we'll be going over the most important details you need to know before picking up FromSoftware's next game. Our list includes Tech Specs, Runes, its Online capabilities, and more! Are you ready to face the Lands Between? Let us know your excitement level in the comments!
Years ago, it was revealed that FromSoftware’s auteur creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki wouldn’t be working alone this time around. He’d enlisted the help of none other than the greatest and most famous living fantasy author, George R.R. Martin, specifically in crafting worldbuilding and lore. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of “Soulsborne” titles knows that the obscure lore is everything. A huge part of the continued draw through those highly difficult levels is learning more about what happened to the kingdoms and people within them. Martin wrote on his blog that while he doesn’t have much background in video games, he was still very excited to be helping FromSoftware with their next-gen, blockbuster RPG. And we can’t wait to unravel all the mysteries of the Lands Between!
In “Bloodborne”, it was Blood Echoes, in “Dark Souls”, it was, well, souls. This time around, your all-important currency is runes, so when you start picking up runes as drops post-combat don’t think these are merely a way to enchant weapons, as they may be in other fantasy games. You’ll need all those runes to level up your character and to trade for valuable items in a pinch. And yes, as always, if you die you’re going to drop all of your runes and have to go back to retrieve them. Thankfully, “Elden Ring” is going to have a slightly more generous checkpoint system and ways to avoid enemies, including stealth, so getting back your runes may be a little easier this time around.
Though there are plenty of things to be excited about in a new “Souls” game, there’s one thing that captures the mind like nothing else: the enemies. Every FromSoft game to date has had exceptional enemy design, boss design, and enemy variety, both in how combatants look and how they actually behave. “Elden Ring”, with its huge world, is going to have many enemies and bosses just as memorable as the ones featured in FromSoftware’s previous games. We’ve already seen many strange creatures during the network test, and we’re dying to see all the rest.
Something that could get a little frustrating in past games is having to ration your stamina bar. Stamina is used for attacking, dodging, and sprinting, both in and out of combat, in every other FromSoft game that has a stamina bar. But that’s not going to be the case for “Elden Ring”. Because of the game’s huge, open world, FromSoftware needed to develop new, better ways of getting around. We’ve all played an open world game that has a stamina bar solely to determine how far you can run – looking at you, “Fallout 4” – but “Elden Ring’s” stamina will apply to combat only. That’s right, you’ll be able to run forever if you like, without having to stop to catch your breath and ruining the flow of gameplay.
The November 2021 closed network test already gave us a taste of the multiplayer “Elden Ring'' will offer. However, much like past “Souls'' games, you’re going to need to use consumable items to get online. If you want to go into someone else’s game to help them out, you need the Tarnished’s Furled Finger, while if you’re asking for help, you need the Furcalling Finger Remedy. In the case of the former, you only need one and it won’t ever be depleted – however, you will need to gather a supply of the remedy. This is still a nice system though because it means you can go around helping people without worrying about running out of items. There are other items used to specifically ask for help in case of an invasion, and so on.
These are essentially an enchantment system that allows you to change the attributes of a given weapon to make it more your style. Miyazaki has always wanted to encourage players to experiment with different builds and playstyles, and the Ashes of War are another layer to this. They don’t only enhance some weapon skills, however, they also lower others, making using one a conscious choice and potentially a risk/reward strategy. For instance, you could have a weapon increase one kind of damage or apply a status ailment, but lower another kind of damage. And the good thing is that if you apply an Ash of War and it turns out you don’t like it, you can just take it off and swap it out.
There’s still no news on when or even if we’ll ever get a patch that finally lets “Bloodborne” run at 60fps, but on the bright side, we KNOW “Elden Ring” will. At launch, it’s going to have resolution and performance modes, as so many games do, and it’s getting a ray-tracing update sometime post-launch for high end machines like PS5, Series X, and PC. On lower-end consoles like the Series S or PS4 Pro, it’s still going to run like a dream, but without any incoming RTX. Resolution mode gives you, as always, a higher resolution but a locked 30fps, while performance gives you a locked 60fps. As this is a “Soulslike” title, we know absolutely everyone will be using performance mode to make combat more fluid. But you should still toggle resolution every now and then to look at the scenery.
Just like past games, “Elden Ring” has a bonfire system. This time around, they’re called Sites of Grace, and you can rest at them to replenish some of your healing items and level up. And as always, they cause all the enemies to respawn. Sites of Grace also now have “golden trails” leading to and from them. While you can use the trail to actually find the site, the trails also lead AWAY from the sites towards points of interest in the world. It’s certainly going to make navigating the world a lot less stressful. We’ve all been lost in Yharnam trying to find a lamp, so this will be a welcome change.
There’s often at least one thing each new FromSoft game has that sets it apart from the others. “Dark Souls” brought in the Estus flasks, “Bloodborne” ditched the shield in favor of fast dodging, and “Sekiro” had a grappling hook and only one weapon to wield throughout. “Elden Ring” is going to add a horse, and not just any horse, an ethereal, ghostly horse that can run, jump, double jump, and almost fly, which you can summon from thin air from anywhere. There’s even a combat system for when you’re on the horse, and it can be used in boss fights to add mobility and speed.
Announced back in 2019 just months after “Sekiro’s” release, we’ve been waiting eagerly for “Elden Ring” for almost three years. Its first release date was given as January 2022, though it received a month-long delay to February 25th. Now, it looks all set to reach that February release date after officially going gold. Of course, “Elden Ring” is definitely going to be able to hold its own against any game releasing near it and remains one of the most anticipated titles in recent years. There’s definitely no danger of it under delivering.
#10: Game of Souls
Years ago, it was revealed that FromSoftware’s auteur creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki wouldn’t be working alone this time around. He’d enlisted the help of none other than the greatest and most famous living fantasy author, George R.R. Martin, specifically in crafting worldbuilding and lore. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of “Soulsborne” titles knows that the obscure lore is everything. A huge part of the continued draw through those highly difficult levels is learning more about what happened to the kingdoms and people within them. Martin wrote on his blog that while he doesn’t have much background in video games, he was still very excited to be helping FromSoftware with their next-gen, blockbuster RPG. And we can’t wait to unravel all the mysteries of the Lands Between!
#9: Runes
In “Bloodborne”, it was Blood Echoes, in “Dark Souls”, it was, well, souls. This time around, your all-important currency is runes, so when you start picking up runes as drops post-combat don’t think these are merely a way to enchant weapons, as they may be in other fantasy games. You’ll need all those runes to level up your character and to trade for valuable items in a pinch. And yes, as always, if you die you’re going to drop all of your runes and have to go back to retrieve them. Thankfully, “Elden Ring” is going to have a slightly more generous checkpoint system and ways to avoid enemies, including stealth, so getting back your runes may be a little easier this time around.
#8: Enemies
Though there are plenty of things to be excited about in a new “Souls” game, there’s one thing that captures the mind like nothing else: the enemies. Every FromSoft game to date has had exceptional enemy design, boss design, and enemy variety, both in how combatants look and how they actually behave. “Elden Ring”, with its huge world, is going to have many enemies and bosses just as memorable as the ones featured in FromSoftware’s previous games. We’ve already seen many strange creatures during the network test, and we’re dying to see all the rest.
#7: Stamina
Something that could get a little frustrating in past games is having to ration your stamina bar. Stamina is used for attacking, dodging, and sprinting, both in and out of combat, in every other FromSoft game that has a stamina bar. But that’s not going to be the case for “Elden Ring”. Because of the game’s huge, open world, FromSoftware needed to develop new, better ways of getting around. We’ve all played an open world game that has a stamina bar solely to determine how far you can run – looking at you, “Fallout 4” – but “Elden Ring’s” stamina will apply to combat only. That’s right, you’ll be able to run forever if you like, without having to stop to catch your breath and ruining the flow of gameplay.
#6: Online
The November 2021 closed network test already gave us a taste of the multiplayer “Elden Ring'' will offer. However, much like past “Souls'' games, you’re going to need to use consumable items to get online. If you want to go into someone else’s game to help them out, you need the Tarnished’s Furled Finger, while if you’re asking for help, you need the Furcalling Finger Remedy. In the case of the former, you only need one and it won’t ever be depleted – however, you will need to gather a supply of the remedy. This is still a nice system though because it means you can go around helping people without worrying about running out of items. There are other items used to specifically ask for help in case of an invasion, and so on.
#5: Ashes of War
These are essentially an enchantment system that allows you to change the attributes of a given weapon to make it more your style. Miyazaki has always wanted to encourage players to experiment with different builds and playstyles, and the Ashes of War are another layer to this. They don’t only enhance some weapon skills, however, they also lower others, making using one a conscious choice and potentially a risk/reward strategy. For instance, you could have a weapon increase one kind of damage or apply a status ailment, but lower another kind of damage. And the good thing is that if you apply an Ash of War and it turns out you don’t like it, you can just take it off and swap it out.
#4: Tech Specs
There’s still no news on when or even if we’ll ever get a patch that finally lets “Bloodborne” run at 60fps, but on the bright side, we KNOW “Elden Ring” will. At launch, it’s going to have resolution and performance modes, as so many games do, and it’s getting a ray-tracing update sometime post-launch for high end machines like PS5, Series X, and PC. On lower-end consoles like the Series S or PS4 Pro, it’s still going to run like a dream, but without any incoming RTX. Resolution mode gives you, as always, a higher resolution but a locked 30fps, while performance gives you a locked 60fps. As this is a “Soulslike” title, we know absolutely everyone will be using performance mode to make combat more fluid. But you should still toggle resolution every now and then to look at the scenery.
#3: Golden Trails
Just like past games, “Elden Ring” has a bonfire system. This time around, they’re called Sites of Grace, and you can rest at them to replenish some of your healing items and level up. And as always, they cause all the enemies to respawn. Sites of Grace also now have “golden trails” leading to and from them. While you can use the trail to actually find the site, the trails also lead AWAY from the sites towards points of interest in the world. It’s certainly going to make navigating the world a lot less stressful. We’ve all been lost in Yharnam trying to find a lamp, so this will be a welcome change.
#2: Spectral Steed
There’s often at least one thing each new FromSoft game has that sets it apart from the others. “Dark Souls” brought in the Estus flasks, “Bloodborne” ditched the shield in favor of fast dodging, and “Sekiro” had a grappling hook and only one weapon to wield throughout. “Elden Ring” is going to add a horse, and not just any horse, an ethereal, ghostly horse that can run, jump, double jump, and almost fly, which you can summon from thin air from anywhere. There’s even a combat system for when you’re on the horse, and it can be used in boss fights to add mobility and speed.
#1: Launch
Announced back in 2019 just months after “Sekiro’s” release, we’ve been waiting eagerly for “Elden Ring” for almost three years. Its first release date was given as January 2022, though it received a month-long delay to February 25th. Now, it looks all set to reach that February release date after officially going gold. Of course, “Elden Ring” is definitely going to be able to hold its own against any game releasing near it and remains one of the most anticipated titles in recent years. There’s definitely no danger of it under delivering.
