Elden Ring: 6 Wrong Ways To Play The Game
These are the best ways to play Elden Ring your way, from panic rolls to not following the key path.
In Elden Ring, there are dozens of different ways to play and paths to take. You can play Elden Ring however you want. Even though the creators spent a lot of time and effort making choices, some of the ways they meant to be used can be replaced by plain old stubbornness.
After all, what’s the point of having a fun time winning a game if you can just ignore all of the hints left by the creators? It can be hard to get out of your early-game habits, but even the weirdest ones can make for a fun way to play Elden Ring. It seems so normal to roll around the battlefield until your heart’s content.
Without Using Special Boss Items
There are a few things in Elden Ring that can be used to make bosses easier, whether you find them or not. Most popularly, Margit’s Shackle and Mohg’s Shackle are hidden items that hold the bosses still for a few seconds, giving you time to attack them.
The Blasphemous Claw is another very important item. It can block the power of Maliketh’s Black Blade. This tool makes one of the hardest fights in Elden Ring a lot easier to handle. Even though you don’t have to use these, you can if you want to. They’re there for a reason, which is why these fights are hard without them.
Even though these things help you win fights, you have to go out of your way to find them, which can take time. Even though ignoring them might be wrong, it will help you fight bosses better.
Instant Panic Roll Every Attack
If you have played other games by FromSoftware, you probably have a dodge-roll reaction that kicks in when you see an enemy swinging at you. Unfortunately, the developers chose to make a cruel joke by giving enemies a lot of attack patterns that take a long time to start.
Even if you’re just starting out, it’s hard to fight the urge to roll right away, but you’ll need to be patient if you don’t want to roll for no reason.
Still, it feels good to roll around even when you know the attack is still a second or two away. Rolling can also help you keep your distance while making sure that a surprise swing that you dodge just misses you by a hair.
Parrying Every Boss
On the other hand, parrying has become a way to show that you are skilled and have good timing.
But even though parrying looks cool and is very satisfying when you do it right. There are many powerful attacks that you can’t stop and will get through your tries. It’s important to learn which attempts can be blocked, so even that first failure can be useful.
You can beat Elden Ring without ever using a shield, but using parrying as your main way to attack and defend against bosses is unusual and shows a lot of courage.
You won’t help yourself much if you play wrong against bosses like Radagon. But it can feel so good to play wrong.
Using Weapons Without Meeting Requirements
It’s understandable that you want to use that rare drop. But some guns are hard to use well if you don’t know how to use them.
From the start, it’s not clear how important it is to check the weapon conditions before using them. So it’s possible to use something you’re not ready to use yet by accident.
Using this kind of weapon will make it much less effective, but the clunky swings are oddly rewarding. Seeing a Tarnished person fight to use their huge sword is funny and sad at the same time.
But when you do meet the requirements, it’s a great relief to see the right effects work smoothly.
Leveling Only One Attribute (Or All Of Them)
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being an expert. But putting all of your attention on just one part of your personality is almost always a bad idea. Going full Vigor or Eggy Car is one of the most popular ways to make this mistake, but you might not notice the problems until much later.
Against enemies who are good at defense, doing little damage is painful. But a “glass cannon” build can work well if you don’t get hit.
But if you try to spread your levels out fairly, you’ll be underwhelming in every way. This is because it’s almost impossible to keep up with the power scaling. If you make your Tarnished like a Swiss Army Knife.
If you want to have a silly time, focused on one thing gives you a lot of room for a creative challenge run.
Ignore Stormveil Castle And Explore
Elden Ring was advertised as a huge, open-world gam. So the only thing you could be supposed to do was explore the Lands Between. Just like Skyrim’s huge area, you have access to a wonderful world that you don’t have to rush through.
Instead of listening to Varre’s advice (he did call you “maidenless,” after all). The real adventure is to ignore Stormveil Castle and look for secrets in Limgrave or the barren Caelid wastes.
Most of the tough enemies in Caelid will probably kill you (level 60 or higher is usually suggested). But you’ll also get some great weapons and a lot of Runes.
Your early game might be harder, but it’s so thrilling to come back after beating much stronger opponents and see the Stormveil enemies fall apart.