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I am shocked this thread didn't already exist. I just ordered this game, and I want to give it a real shot. I've bounced off every other From game, but I've never played one near launch, and I've never engaged with the community discussion around them, which I hear is a major part of the experience, so maybe this time it'll be different. It's arriving Monday. What do I need to know before I start? Are there any beginner videos anyone recommends? Halp!

Is Elden Ring gonna be the From game that finally hooks me? We shall see.

Related to status effects, you WANT bleed, as I just learned having switched quickly to a bloodlord build to deal with a certain boss. Dexterity and arcane is what you want to level up for a beast bleed build. Magic does seem to be easy mode once more, to a certain degree: Press button Fire glowy thing at enemy Enemy goes ow! Enemy dies Strength can also deal hilarious amounts of damage, but it's harder to pull off and some of the talismans and other buffs required take some time to get, that said, before switching to shield mode, I was easily dealing with certain bosses simply by applying a couple of buffs and rushing a jump attack. Still, for a first build, magic or bleed are best. Later you get a fair amount of items that allow you to respec so you can experiment more with different builds.

Pick the golden seed as your starting gift. It'll let you upgrade your flask to get one extra heal right off the bat. It's objectively the best choice. Don't start off with a strength build. Strength builds were already hard mode and now they've been nerfed so it's the extra hard mode. If you're not experienced with From games then go with a magic or dexterity build. Being able to move and attack faster makes a huge difference in this game. Don't ignore your weapon skills. Some of them can turn a seemingly impossible fight into a cakewalk. If you don't want to parry with a shield (and unless you're using a buckler you don't), it's actually a good idea to remove the shield skill so that pressing the left trigger will use your weapon's skill without having to put your shield up. Status effects are very helpful, particularly frost, scarlet rot, and ESPECIALLY bleed. Frostbitten enemies take more damage. Scarlet rot is like poison on steroids. Blood loss deals percentage based damage based on the enemy's maximum HP, which in theory means a completely unleveled weapon could still melt a boss just by stacking bleed enough times. If your timing is right, you can dodge attacks that logically you probably shouldn't be able to dodge. Dodging forward into enemies can sometimes work better than dodging sideways or backwards. It takes practice but once you get it down it makes life much easier. Best early game summons to help you get your feet wet are the jellyfish and the wolves. Thankfully these are both handed to you for free. The jellyfish is a major tank that draws aggro for a long time and if you're lucky it can also poison bosses. The wolves do respectable damage on their own, but their biggest benefit is that they attack so fast that they can stagger some enemies and leave them unable to get off their attacks. Don't forget to level up your summons so they'll stay viable later on. Level up your vigor! I cannot stress this enough. Later enemies hit like an entire convoy of trucks. Ideally by the end of the game your vigor should be at 60 or close to it. You'll see a boss almost as soon as you come out into the open world. Ignore the temptation to fight him and come back for him after you get your horse. You'll save yourself a lot of heartache. I spent over an hour trying to do it on foot. When you're exploring a new region you don't have a map for yet, you want to look for the icon below in the greyed out regions: https://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/map-fragment-locations-elden-ring-how-to-find-easy.jpg That icon marks where the map piece is. If you don't see the icon then just explore the region until it shows up on the map.

That's the main thing really, you can easily head elsewhere if you're having trouble in a particular area, in fact, you can skip the entire first main dungeon and come back later, it doesn't prevent you from exploring further areas. My other recommendation, level up vigor, whatever else you're putting points into, vigor is always useful, more vigor = more hp. Also, spirit summons, learn them, collect them, use them, love them, they're awesome tools, some can easily turn the tide in your favour, some can tank hardcore allowing you to do damage, some can even solo certain bosses. Find one that suits your play style and work with that, exploring dungeons gives you the materials needed to upgrade them after you've talked to a certain NPC. Some minor spoilers for an early boss, otherwise a really helpful way to start and some of the basics of combat:

None that I've been but mostly just understand that this isn't like the other From games. If something sucks or is giving you a hard time, walk away. Go explore and do something else. I spent like 10+ hours exploring the first area before I even tried the first big story boss. You'll always find something, whether it's a little crypt with an item, a boss, or a mini-dungeon with both. Hell, sometimes you'll find an elevator going down out in the middle of nowhere and it'll take you places. Oh and the grace lines on the map are there to point you in the general direction of nearby important things and and it's easy to get confused early on but they don't change to reflect your progress or whether you cleared that particular spot already. It's literally just "this is where you should probably go eventually if you haven't yet".