Current Events > Elden Ring is almost Open World, but a 1st playthrough works best as open area?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For those who have played much of the game, is that how you feel?

The best way to avoid feeling severely under or overleveled is to try to find everything in one area, beat the boss, move to the next area, beat the boss, and so on.

My first attempted playthrough, I tried to treat it like Breath of the Wild and just went wherever, and after early-game found myself either smiting everything in front of me or getting smited.

This time I'm finding that each area is big enough to keep you entertained until you complete it. Then once you do, you have a whole other big place to complete, and then another one!

I guess so. personally I followed a video guide to get leveled up fast as hell so I pretty much just skipped around through different areas of the game and then came back to the beginning

i did maybe half of the stuff on each map the 1st playthrough. i missed out on a lot of stuff.

also half of caelid is nearly scaled to the end-game (its why you can find like Somber smithing stone 8 and 9 over there) so if you go from limgrave and then try to conquer the upper half of caelid itll be tougher than it should be. other half of caelid is liurnia level i think or maybe that other map that contains volcano manor i forgot lol

I got my shit rocked by Margit following the intended path, so I just wandered from area to area until I was strong enough to barely win.

I went through it in the "wrong" order and I did fine. If you're a souls vet, then once you have enough levels for your build to start coming together it becomes pretty manageable. Newbies wouldnt really have that knowledge though. Also, mounted combat is like a completely different skill set, so there's plenty of high level stuff you can murder if you're good at that.

I don't know why anyone would want to bother trying to clear everything again on the second+ playthroughs

90% of the game isn't worth bothering with. Just beeline for what you need in your build and the few bosses that you actually have to do and be done in 10 hours.

I got an ass whooping from Margit so then I went exploring all over.

Found that chest that warps you to the land of giant birds and dogs. Spent a good while there.

Great game for just going wherever.

MarthGoomba posted...

I don't know why anyone would want to bother trying to clear everything again on the second+ playthroughs

90% of the game isn't worth bothering with. Just beeline for what you need in your build and the few bosses that you actually have to do and be done in 10 hours.

Ya my second playthrough was like 20 hours. Did a fair amount of stuff. Early game is fun just melting bosses. But some stuff isn't very fun the second time through.

The game purposely makes it difficult for you to go anywhere right away tbh

like you can but its very obvious the game was designed so that first time players dont

I did my first run blind in this order, basically.

Limgrave
Liurnia
Caelid
Volcano Manor
Lyndell
Haligtree
Mountain Top of Giants
Farum Azula
End game

I am omitting the side and optional zones. I found the difficulty on point throughout but I am also very experienced in the From souls and sekiro games

MarthGoomba posted...

90% of the game isn't worth bothering with. Just beeline for what you need in your build and the few bosses that you actually have to do and be done in 10 hours.

I get that. A lot of the tunnels start to feel same-y after a bit. They're better than Shrines from BotW, though. This game really satisfies my exploration itch. The things I'm finding are less important than the fact that I'm having fun finding them.

Dreepapult posted...

Ya my second playthrough was like 20 hours. Did a fair amount of stuff. Early game is fun just melting bosses. But some stuff isn't very fun the second time through.

That makes sense. This still counts as my 1st playthrough, though. On my previous run, the only main bosses I beat were Margit, Godrick, and Rennala.

God_of_6strings posted...

The things I'm finding are less important than the fact that I'm having fun finding them.

Damn. Should play this.

I was drawn to Caelid before Altus initially, which made everything in Altus feel like a total pushover.

TheGoldenEel posted...

The game purposely makes it difficult for you to go anywhere right away tbh

like you can but its very obvious the game was designed so that first time players dont

You really can't, though. Liurnia is gated until you defeat Godrick. Then even if you bypass the Lift of Dectus, there are other areas that are still closed to you until you beat X amount of bosses. Elden Ring is far from open world. But the amount of space you're allowed to explore right out of the tutorial is enough to give you the illusion that it is.

God_of_6strings posted...

You really can't, though. Liurnia is gated until you defeat Godrick. Then even if you bypass the Lift of Dectus, there are other areas that are still closed to you until you beat X amount of bosses. Elden Ring is far from open world. But the amount of space you're allowed to explore right out of the tutorial is enough to give you the illusion that it is.

its not there is a other behind the castle

God_of_6strings posted...

You really can't, though. Liurnia is gated until you defeat Godrick. Then even if you bypass the Lift of Dectus, there are other areas that are still closed to you until you beat X amount of bosses. Elden Ring is far from open world. But the amount of space you're allowed to explore right out of the tutorial is enough to give you the illusion that it is.

Liurnia has a path on the right under the castle.

Found it cuz I kinda enjoyed the days no one knew shit about the game and just decided to go anywhere I could run my horse onto.

I'm playing for the first time, and the first place I went to is Caelid. I just beat Godrick last night and I'm a little sad i didn't notice the path around the castle until after.

Spoilers, folks.

God_of_6strings posted...

can't, though. Liurnia is gated until you defeat Godrick.

You can go straight to Liurnia