Last updated: 25 June 2026

Elden Ring Beginner Guide: First 10 Things to Do

Elden Ring drops you into the Lands Between with almost no hand-holding — and that's part of its magic. The single most important thing a new player can do is explore Limgrave before pushing toward any major boss, picking up mobility and tools that make every fight far more manageable. Follow these ten steps in roughly this order and you'll go from confused newcomer to confident Tarnished.

01 Rest at the First Site of Grace — Then Pick a Direction

The moment you crawl out of the tutorial cave and into the open world, a golden light in the sky points vaguely toward Stormveil Castle. Ignore it for now. Before anything else, find the nearest Site of Grace and rest at it. Sites of Grace are your checkpoints, fast-travel hubs, and leveling screens all in one. They also restore your flasks and respawn enemies — which is fine, because you need the rune income.

Once you've rested, open the map. You start in West Limgrave, a large, forgiving region packed with loot, enemies, and optional dungeons. Resist the urge to charge straight north. The game rewards wandering.

02 Get Torrent, Your Spirit Steed, from Melina

Once you reach the Gatefront Ruins Site of Grace — on the main road leading north toward Stormveil Castle — a young woman named Melina will appear and offer you a deal: she grants you the ability to level up using runes, and in exchange you carry her somewhere. Accept without hesitation. She also hands you the Spectral Steed Whistle, which summons Torrent — a two-horned horse who becomes your most important companion in the entire game.

• Torrent lets you cover ground at roughly double run speed, which matters enormously across Limgrave's wide landscape.
• You can dodge on horseback with a quick side-hop, making mounted combat against large field enemies much safer.
• If Torrent dies during a fight, use a Rowa Raisin (gathered from glowing red berry clusters around the world) to revive him — or simply dismount and resummon.
• Double-tapping the jump button while mounted gives Torrent a double-jump, essential for reaching elevated ledges and ruins.

03 Visit the Church of Elleh for the Spirit Calling Bell

North of the starting area, just past the first Grafted Scion you probably died to, sits the Church of Elleh — a ruined church with a merchant named Kale inside. He sells a few early essentials, but the real prize here is what happens after dark.

Once you have Torrent, return to the Church of Elleh at night — you can pass time at any Site of Grace to skip to nightfall. A fairy-like figure named Renna will be sitting on the ruins nearby. Speak with her; she'll ask whether you can summon the spectral steed, and answering yes prompts her to hand you the Spirit Calling Bell and the Lone Wolf Ashes — for free. If Renna doesn't appear, confirm that you've already received Torrent from Melina, since the encounter only triggers after that. If you miss Renna entirely she eventually stops appearing, but don't worry — you can buy both the Spirit Calling Bell and the Lone Wolf Ashes from the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold as a fallback.

The Spirit Calling Bell lets you summon spirit ash companions before boss fights and near stakes of Marika inside dungeons. The Lone Wolf Ashes (three wolves) are one of the most useful early summons in the entire game. Don't sleep on this pickup.

04 Understand Spirit Ash Summoning Before Your Next Boss

Spirit ashes consume FP (your blue bar) when you summon them, and you can only summon once per fight — you'll see a gravestone icon appear on the left side of the screen in eligible areas. Summons pull aggro, give you breathing room, and can stagger enemies if multiple wolves hit the same target simultaneously.

• You cannot resummon if your spirit ash dies mid-fight — use the summon early, not as a panic button.
• Upgrade ashes at the Roundtable Hold using Grave Glovewort (found in catacombs) and Ghost Glovewort (found in hero's graves) — the upgrade screen is the bespectacled merchant in the corner.
• Different ashes suit different fights. The Lone Wolf pack is versatile early on; experiment as you find new ones.

05 Level Up Vigor — Your Health Is Not Optional

New players almost always under-invest in Vigor, the stat that raises your maximum HP. Limgrave enemies and bosses scale their damage relative to your health pool, and dying in two or three hits is demoralizing for reasons that have nothing to do with skill. A higher Vigor floor gives you time to read attacks, recover from mistakes, and learn patterns without it feeling unfair.

A widely accepted rule of thumb from the community: bring Vigor to at least 20 before attempting Margit, the Fell Omen — the first major gatekeeper boss. Beyond that, continue raising it alongside your damage stat of choice. Vigor returns excellent value per level until it starts to plateau at the higher ranges, so early investment is almost never wasted.

To level up, rest at any Site of Grace and choose "Level Up" — this option is only available after Melina gives you the ability. Spend runes there; they're lost on death unless you retrieve your bloodstain, and mistakes happen.

06 Upgrade Your Flasks at Sites of Grace

Your Flask of Crimson Tears (HP) and Flask of Cerulean Tears (FP) are limited — you start with a small number of charges and a modest restore per sip. Both can be improved in two ways:

1. More charges: Collect Golden Seeds from the small glowing sapling trees scattered around the world (usually guarded by an enemy or tucked behind a ruin). Bring them to any Site of Grace and choose "Strengthen Flasks" to add uses. Early on it takes one or two seeds per upgrade; the cost rises as you add more.
2. Better restore per charge: Collect Sacred Tears from stone tablets found at the foot of Marika statues inside churches across the Lands Between. Note that the Church of Elleh does not have one — your closest options are the Third Church of Marika in eastern Limgrave and the Church of Pilgrimage or Callu Baptismal Church on the Weeping Peninsula to the south. Bring any Sacred Tear to a Site of Grace and choose "Increase Flask Potency."

Upgrading your flasks is arguably the highest-value preparation you can do before any boss fight. Two extra charges and one potency upgrade can turn a previously lethal encounter into something manageable.

07 Explore Limgrave — There's Loot Everywhere Before Margit

Elden Ring's open world is generously front-loaded. Limgrave and the surrounding areas contain weapons, armor, upgrade materials, and spells that can dramatically outclass your starting gear — all of it reachable before the first mandatory boss.

• Stormhill Shack (north of the lake) has an NPC with useful advice and a nearby merchant selling arrows and bolts.
• Murkwater Cave on the river bank is an easy early dungeon with a modest boss and good loot.
• Gatefront Ruins near the main road has a chest containing the Whetstone Knife, which unlocks weapon Ash of War customization at Sites of Grace.
• The Wandering Mausoleum (a walking tower in West Limgrave) lets you duplicate a remembrance — save this for after a major boss kill.
• Coastal caves and catacombs hold Smithing Stones for early weapon upgrades. Run them if you're under-leveled and want to catch up.

One of the most common beginner mistakes is heading straight for Margit right after leaving the tutorial. The boss is designed as a difficulty wall — the game wants you to explore first.

08 Use the Map and Reveal It Fully

The Elden Ring map starts mostly blank. Map Fragments (paper scrolls guarded by a soldier or hidden in ruins) reveal each region's details. In Limgrave, look for the large stone stelae on major roads — the map fragment for West Limgrave is sitting on a pedestal near the main gate road leading north. Grab it early; navigating blind makes the world feel much larger and more intimidating than it is.

Once the map is revealed, use it actively:

• Gold icons mark Sites of Grace you've found. Sites you haven't visited yet don't appear until you're nearby.
• You can place up to ten custom markers using the button prompt at the bottom of the map screen — flag enemy camps, caves, and items you want to return to.
• The map updates the first time you open it in an area; walking through fog or riding past doesn't reveal it automatically.

09 Understand Stakes of Marika — Your Respawn Point Insurance

Scattered around the Lands Between are small stone obelisks bearing the Erdtree's sigil, called Stakes of Marika. When you die near one that you've walked past, you'll be offered the choice to respawn there instead of at the last Site of Grace. This is particularly useful in dungeons and boss arenas where the grace site is far from the fog gate.

Stakes don't replace Sites of Grace — you can't level up or manage equipment at them — but they dramatically cut down the run-back time after a wipe. Always make note of the stake just outside a boss room before you enter. That run-back seconds saved adds up quickly over many attempts.

10 Go to the Roundtable Hold (and Then Explore Caelid's Edge — Carefully)

At some point in early Limgrave, Melina will appear again and offer to take you to the Roundtable Hold — a hub area outside the normal world map. Go. The Hold contains merchants, upgrade services, NPCs with questlines, and the Spirit Ash upgrade vendor mentioned earlier. From there you can fast-travel back to any unlocked grace site instantly.

One last tip: a portal in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins (in the lake southeast of your start) teleports you directly to Caelid — a region designed for mid-game characters. The chest that contains it is a trap. If you trigger it accidentally and end up in a scarlet rot swamp, don't panic. Use the map to fast-travel back to a Limgrave grace site. Many players stumble into Caelid early and think it's the normal progression path. It isn't. It's the game winking at you.