Elden Ring: The Best Tips, Secrets, and Guides to Help You Survive

Our review of Elden Ring revealed an incredible open-world game filled with monsters, magic, and a dark but thrilling atmosphere. It also detailed some incredibly difficult boss fights and, like any FromSoftware game, a whole lot of frustrating deaths.

The realm of the Lands Between is enormous and there are lot of things Elden Ring doesn't tell you from the start. Whether you're just diving into the game for the first time or just looking for some Elden Ring tips to keep you from dying so often, we've got you covered with a plethora of helpful guides.

Get the Summoner's Bell and Spirit Ashes

One of the main things to do first in Elden Ring is get a summoner's bell and some spirit ashes. This is a huge advantage in boss fights as well as normal fights that cause you trouble. With these two items, you'll be able learn how to summon spirits that can help you fight. If you've been struggling with any enemy, having some spirit friends who can help take some of the heat off of you can be a real game changer.

To get the Spirit Calling Bell for free, all you need to do is fast travel to the Church of Elleh shortly after you receive Torrent and learn how to level up your character. There should be a witch surrounded by mist at the church when you arrive to give you the bell. If there isn't, however, you've likely progressed too far in the story and missed your chance to get it for free. If that's the case, you can purchase a bell and wolf ashes from Roundtable Hold.

Once you have your bell, you can begin your search for more spirit ashes, including the Spirit Jellyfish — which is a surprisingly resilient boss battle buddy.

Level Up Quickly With Rune Farming

Despite some very difficult boss fights, this game is an RPG that allows you to grow in strength elsewhere. Just because you can't defeat an enemy or one of the many Elden Ring bosses right now doesn't mean you need to keep banging your head against the wall, you just need to move on to a different area and keep building up your character. If you don't want to waste your time aimlessly exploring, however, that's where rune farming comes into play.

You can take a look at our guide on how to level up quickly in Elden Ring that details the best rune farming location early in the game. It involves going through a secret portal and fighting some fairly easy enemies that net you 1,000 runes a piece.

Upgrade Your Weapon With Smithing Stones

Leveling up your character is the best way to increase your overall combat ability, but it isn't the only way. If you have enough Smithing Stones and Runes, you can also increase the strength of your weapons in Elden Ring.

If you're looking for an easy way to gather these useful items, you can take a look at our guide for where to find Smithing Stones in the Lands Between. They can be found on random humanoid bodies across the open world as well as a few select locations. If you have enough runes you can also check out our guide on how to buy unlimited Smithing Stones which details where to find specific merchants who sell these sought-after rocks.

Solve the Secrets of the Paintings

If you're tired of just fighting and are looking to be rewarded for a bit of exploration, Elden Ring's open world is a great way to do that. Paintings are one of the many secrets the game has to offer, and each one you find will offer a scavenger hunt that will guide you to armor and equipment as well as various other sweet rewards.

We've put together a guide detailing both painting locations and solutions to make it easier for you to get started. If you simply want to know where these paintings are without ruining the scavenger hunt for yourself, just make sure you avert your eyes to the solutions in our guide.

Upgrade Your Sacred Flasks

You start the game with a limited number of Sacred Flask uses, but it doesn't need to stay that way. If you're hoping to add more charges or upgrade the potency of your Flask, all you need to do is find the right items. To do this you'll need to go out and find Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears.

Once you've gathered either one just go to the nearest Site of Grace, choose the 'Flasks' option, and pick which one you want to upgrade. Golden Seeds will be used to increase the charges of each Flask and Sacred Tears are used to upgrade the overall potency of them.

Customize Your Flask of Wondrous Physick

You start out the game with a two Flasks that help you recover HP and FP when you need it. However, you can collect a third Flask called the Flask of Wondrous Physick that offers the ability ability for customization. You can find this item at the Third Church of Marika located in East Limgrave.

Once you have the third Flask, you just need to gather Crystal Tears to be able to customize. If you're wondering where to find those, we've put together guides for the Crimson Crystal Tear, Cerulean Crystal Tear, Greenspill Crystal Tear, and Ruptured Crystal Tear.

Fight The Easier Bosses First

Though facing a boss in other games requires may one or a few more attempts, Elden Ring bosses, especially the Main Bosses and Dungeon Bosses, can require nearly countless attempts and strategizing for victory. If you're stuck and need a win under your belt to keep moving forward, we recommend you look elsewhere to some of the easier fights to build up your gear and level.

Some of the less difficult fights are with the bosses spread spread out throughout the open world. If you're still in the Limgrave area, some of the easiest boss battles you can undertake are with the Tibia Mariner or Bloody Finger Nejirus. You should also be able to take on the Tree Sentinel from early in the game if you stay on your mount throughout the fight.

You can take a look at our guide to all World Bosses to find their locations and potential rewards.

Bypass Stormveil Castle Entirely

If you find yourself struggling to get past Stormveil Castle, we don't blame you. Both Margit the Fell Omen and Godrick the Grafted are difficult bosses to get past even with all of these tips and tricks at your disposal. If you find you have already explored most of West Limgrave but still can't get past the boss fights the first major dungeon has to offer, then you can actually bypass it entirely.

To bypass Stormveil Castle, start by heading just north of Stormhill Shack just beyond Stormgate. Keep right instead of following the road where it turns sharply left. This should lead you to a broken bridge that drops off at a rocky path on the eastern edge of Stormveil Castle. Eventually you'll reach the Lake-Facing Cliffs Site of Grace which is the staring point of being able to explore East Liurnia without having to conquer the dungeon.

Respec Your Character

Although you can choose your character class in Elden Ring, whatever you chose quickly becomes irrelevant as you level up. Regardless of how you shape your character, however, there is a good chance that you'll end up regretting your choices later on. Luckily, you aren't necessarily stuck with the build you chose forever if you don't want to be.

You can take a look at our guide for how to respec your character if you really want to make a change for the better. Just a heads up, though, you'll need to first defeat Renala, Queen of the Full Moon at the Academy of Raya Lucaria before you can actually take advantage of this.

Activate Your Great Runes

If you've managed to defeat one or more of the Shardbearer Demigods in Elden Ring, then you'll find yourself with a Great Rune that can be very helpful for future boss fights. Unfortunately, just because you have a Great Rune doesn't mean you'll be able to use it right away. This is where it would be helpful to take a look at our guide on how to activate Great Runes.

To activate your Great Runes, you'll need to first travel to a Divine Tower. Once the Great Rune has been restored, however, you'll also need find and use consumables called Rune Arcs to take advantage of their powers.

Looking for more helpful guides for this game? You can take a look at our Elden Ring Wiki guide to find all the help you could ever need, including an interactive Elden Ring map that makes the Lands Between a whole lot more navigable.