Current Events > Should I play Elden Ring without a guide?

(+) Yeah! (+)

On the one hand, I don't like missing side content, but on the other, I don't wanna have to stop and stare at a guide every 5 minutes. Thoughts?

Don't use any until you're at the end, then use them to clean up what little side content there is worth doing.

MagiMarthKoopa posted...

Don't use any until you're at the end, then use them to clean up what little side content there is worth doing.

Isn't there a point in the story that locks out a bunch of side quests?

ArchNemo posted...

Isn't there a point in the story that locks out a bunch of side quests?

Elden Ring sidequests are fairly resilient to being locked out.

Depends on how much you like AssCreed's icon-field maps. Following a guide from the start just turns any game into "go there do the thing" Ikea instruction.

Evening_Dragon posted...

Following a guide from the start just turns any game into "go there do the thing" Ikea instruction.

This is why I never use guides on a first playthrough

Just use a guide when you're truly stuck or lost but play however you want

Sure if you don't mind failing quests because you were supposed to do something the game gave you zero clues you were supposed to do.

I watched more youtube videos for that game than any other, and it's not even close.

one thing, if you hear a certain howl return to the merchant.

not immediately, but don't forget about it.

there are some npc quests not that easy to progress, but most not that important.

ArchNemo posted...

Isn't there a point in the story that locks out a bunch of side quests?

Nothing significant enough to warrant turning the game into a railroaded checklist dictating everything you do

MagiMarthKoopa posted...

Nothing significant enough to warrant turning the game into a railroaded checklist dictating everything you do

yes for the most part it's fine, you don't have to find everything, though exploration is greatly rewarded.

also once you know some npcs and think you should've met them again at some point, you can look it up then.

yes! elden ring is a lot more helpful to the player than FS

or just ask me if u get stuck

Go in blind

ArchNemo posted...

Isn't there a point in the story that locks out a bunch of side quests?

There is a fairly obvious point in the game where things will change, possibly rendering certain things unobtainable (like a single legendary weapon). But I've played through the game multiple times in different orders and don't recall being locked out of stuff. What mostly happens is I have to some more stuff to trigger the next part of an NPC questline.

ArchNemo posted...

Isn't there a point in the story that locks out a bunch of side quests?

Yes, a place called Volcano manor locks out a few

As well as the demigod of Caelid

Yeah just go in blind. Missing a few quests or items isn't that big of a deal.

Personal choice. I would say yes, go without a guide. I'm the same way as you, I didn't want to miss anything. I think the ONLY thing I looked up was a map that showed the sites of grace so I could find if I was missing areas or something.

A couple years later I'm going through it again to finish up the trophies and am using MapGenie and one of the 100 Percent Guides from PSN trophies. I'm getting everything, but I'm also overpowered. The issue with a guide is you play more like "go from point A to point B" which really gets rid of any exploration.

You wont be able to complete most quests and could miss out on a ton of items/weapons you would have a ton of fun with.

I always ran through a region blind then looked up if I missed anything I could use

IMO exploring blindly is more fun than completing most NPC stories. You'll miss some interactions, but there's already a shit ton to find and do by just following your nose. Also New Game Plus is faster and easier, so you can always look up a guide for NPCs in a second playthrough.

Also I feel like doing every dungeon and quest in the game by following a guide in a first playthrough is a recipe for burnout.

I fundamentally wouldnt

those games are all about the builds and combat for me and fucking yourself over on so many possibilities there would not be acceptable to me

If you like to play games blind, Elden Ring is perfect for that. I used a guide to see all the content and 100% the game and it didn't affect my experience. There is absolutely no way in hell you'll see everything without a guide or at the very least multiple playthroughs. The game itself is massive and most of the optional quests are not at all intuitive in how to advance them.

Personally I value the pure experience more than missing some random minor item or quest dialogue. Replays exist.

If completing a quest seriously sticks in your craw then just follow the NPC guides. It wont be overwhelming.

MagiMarthKoopa posted...

Nothing significant enough to warrant turning the game into a railroaded checklist dictating everything you do

I always see V-Tubers get like 1/4th of the way through the game only ever having found like 2 churches and a few seeds. I know they don't want back seating but bro you're having trouble because you really should have a +5 flask at Altus Plateau with like 4 extra chances to heal. I think Mori was at the last area with a +8 or something, it bugged me.

Also a wild amount of people never go south east from the gate front and find the Island until like way after they've passed the scaling for the place. It's like level 20-30 scaled and it seems like people find out about it when they're RL 60-70 or something. Like that's where the first Scarseal is that gives you an extra 12 levels and makes other surrounding parts a bit easier just because of how much defense you get early on for 12 levels. There's also 3 whole churches there.

PS. If there's anyone's advice to ignore, it's Reddit. Don't crank your vigor to level 60. That's pointless. 50 is fine if you want to be a bit tanky, and then you can use a Rune to increase your HP by 25%. Although getting Runes in this game is fucking painful because the player base has bad builds and doesn't seem to know summoning 2 partners makes bosses way harder if you aren't bleeding them or stunning them into oblivion. They get a whole ass 10% extra damage, you might as well try to solo it and put on a Soreseal at that point not to mention 130% EXTRA HP, which REALLY SUCKS for some of the later bosses with like 100,000 HP.

I would definitely look up quests and important npc progression etc. since it suffers the same typical stupid fromsoft quest design (eg. Move to another area and come back and talk to npc again to progress)

A lot, even most of the best weapons and spells can only be gotten by doing specific things or making specific choices

pick/do the wrong thing and there is no going back

Hambo posted...

Also I feel like doing every dungeon and quest in the game by following a guide in a first playthrough is a recipe for burnout.

That's kind of the run I'm doing now. My first run took like 120 hours. This character I am getting everything and I'm at 110 hours and I swill have Leyndell, Deeproot Depths, Mountaintops, Snowfield, Mohgwyn Palace, and Farum Azula. (I'm also overpowered, at level 110 or so already, because of going everywhere and getting everything)

I've wanted to stop a whole bunch because of the burnout but I need to finish this platinum trophy.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

That's kind of the run I'm doing now. My first run took like 120 hours. This character I am getting everything and I'm at 110 hours and I swill have Leyndell, Deeproot Depths, Mountaintops, Snowfield, Mohgwyn Palace, and Farum Azula. (I'm also overpowered, at level 110 or so already, because of going everywhere and getting everything)

What have you been doing <_<

I think I did everything in the base game aside from maybe a couple catacombs and I'm at 154 hours with some of the DLC included.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

I've wanted to stop a whole bunch because of the burnout but I need to finish this platinum trophy.

Can't you skip a bunch of dungeons and still get the platinum? I thought you basically just needed all the unique bosses and all the legendary doohickeys. I remember getting really close to the platinum by just doing whatever I could find on my own. Then I went back and picked up a couple items in places I'd never seen and then I got the plat. Pretty sure there are still dungeons I've never found lol.

At the beginning use a guide until you get Torrent.

There are about 20 bowing gestures used for communication. Read a guide and take notes because some are missable.

There is a long subquest that takes place all over. Use a guide to get all the steps.

There are sequence breaks. If you like sequence breaks, then check a guide. Sequence breaks may have been fixed.

Other than this freely roam.

Play it blind and enjoy. If you wanted, look up some of the character quests to understand how to do them. Ranni is the most popular one and most involved but its cryptic as shit.

CobraGT posted...

At the beginning use a guide until you get Torrent.

TC needs a guide to tell him to follow the giant glowing arrows on the map?

pegusus123456 posted...

TC needs a guide to tell him to follow the giant glowing arrows on the map?

You'd be surprised. I purposefully avoided it and ended up wasting so much time just running around when I should have gotten my damn horse first.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Play it blind and enjoy. If you wanted, look up some of the character quests to understand how to do them. Ranni is the most popular one and most involved but its cryptic as shit.

The only cryptic part is talking to the doll multiple times. I'd argue her quest is the easiest one in the game. You can't break it at all and it doesn't matter how much of it you've already completed, you just miss dialogue.

Hambo posted...

Can't you skip a bunch of dungeons and still get the platinum? I thought you basically just needed all the unique bosses and all the legendary doohickeys. I remember getting really close to the platinum by just doing whatever I could find on my own. Then I went back and picked up a couple items in places I'd never seen and then I got the plat. Pretty sure there are still dungeons I've never found lol.

I could. I could also have started doing it in NG+ with the STR build I beat the game with already. I wanted to make sure I saw everything this time as well as getting the trophies.

WrkHrdPlayHrdr posted...

I could. I could also have started doing it in NG+ with the STR build I beat the game with already. I wanted to make sure I saw everything this time as well as getting the trophies.

Okay, that's fine then. If you were only after the trophy then I'd say stop sweating the details. I should go back and look up a list of dungeons to see what I missed some day. It's always weird seeing a Let's Play or randomizer run where someone makes a beeline for something I never knew existed lol. And also just doing a new game or new game plus and randomly stumbling upon a new dungeon when I thought I'd been so thorough before.

Dude, do NOT use a guide and worry about sidequests in Elden Ring. That game is 1-of-1. The sidequests are all stupid and boring with some completely unnecessary item as a reward at the end.

You dont wanna be going at a guides pace afraid of missing things. You know what you need to do instead?

Be the Elden Lord.

I find that these games can be really frustrating to play blind. I gave up on playing Dark Souls 1 on PS3 because I tried it blind (and because of the horrible frame rate). Got it years later on PC and did research on what to do and enjoyed it way way way more, it's now one of my favorite games ever.

I really like to have as powerful a weapon as I can early on, and good gear. ER is so big that you won't know where to find upgrade materials and good shields etc unless you stumble across it. And you can avoid the 8/10 of dungeons that have nothing useful for your build.

Up to you, I can see the appeal of playing blind but again ER is so big that it could get frustrating.

Yes, unless you dont care about permanent missables being missed.

I think your playthrough would be way more memorable and mysterious if you use no guide and let the chips fall where they may. Yeah you won't find everything - probably weren't gonna anyway.

1st playthrough - No guide

Subsequent playthroughs - Use guide to find stuff you missed on initial playthrough

Only recommend using a guide if you're trying to collect certain incantations/spells. Though you'll generally find stuff as long as you keep exploring, you don't necessarily need to follow the main route either particularly in the starter area known as limgrave. Very early in that part of the game you'll discover a "fork in a road". One route leads to the main story objective and the other just leads you other areas of the game. You'll come across a lot of that in elden ring so don't feel discouraged to explore!

Dungeater posted...

Yes, a place called Volcano manor locks out a few

As well as the demigod of Caelid

Volcano Manor, if you lock yourself out of finishing the questline, is your own damn fault. It should be apparent that killing the lord of the manor ends the manor quests.

But I'm curious what killing the demigod in Caelid breaks.

loafy013 posted...

Volcano Manor, if you lock yourself out of finishing the questline, is your own damn fault. It should be apparent that killing the lord of the manor ends the manor quests.

But I'm curious what killing the demigod in Caelid breaks.

it is not apparent that that entails patches or diallos

the latter breaks alexanders if you havent dealt with him up to then

General rule of thumb with From games:
If you encounter an NPC, look them up on the wiki. Make sure you dont fuck up their (or anyone connected to them thereof) questlines.

For everything else youre mostly fine blind.

i disagree with that being a general rule, but if discovery isnt your thing it's definitely a valid way to play

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Elden Ring sidequests are fairly resilient to being locked out.

The DLC begs to differ.

Tropicalwood posted...

The DLC begs to differ.

Lol the DLC is like "Go to this room, exhaust dialogue. Rest for NO REASON or quest won't resume."

wanderingshade posted...

Lol the DLC is like "Go to this room, exhaust dialogue. Rest for NO REASON or quest won't resume."

More like explore entire map and hope you didn't kill friendly enemies that give cookbooks before the NPC that gives the quest disappears. And die several times with no indication its doing anything for the first five times.