Elden Ring walkthrough: route, bosses, and build guide

Elden Ring walkthrough: planning the route before you swing the first sword

The Lands Between punish players who treat exploration like a checklist. Sites of Grace line the roads, but the roads themselves are the design surface, threading past patrolling knights, optional dungeons, and boss fog gates that gate entire regions. A reliable elden ring walkthrough is less a list of where to go and more a model of how the game expects you to read a region, which is why even experienced action-RPG players find their first run spiraling out of order. The most useful plan is the one that respects the game’s world scaling, the gate conditions on its main bosses, and the resource budget that a new character actually has.

From a development angle, Elden Ring is an open-world action role-playing game built on the Souls framework created by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco, expanding the studio’s level design from interlocking corridors into a continuous landscape. Understanding that architectural shift is the difference between a route that feels fluid and a route that constantly backtracks into over-leveled zones. The rest of this guide builds the path in the same order: how the world is structured, what scales and what does not, the boss order that holds together on a first run, the build and resource decisions that matter early, and the design notes that explain why certain fights feel the way they do.

How the Lands Between actually scale

Elden Ring uses a hybrid of static levels and area-based scaling. Enemies, minibosses, and most field bosses do not level up with the player. Their hit points, attack power, resistances, and move sets are fixed at the values in their data sheets. What changes as you explore is what the game lets you carry into a fight: weapons upgraded at a smithy, spells learned from scrolls or NPCs, Spirit Ashes tuned at a specific location, and the rune total you have banked for the next level. The world is balanced against a tuned toolkit, not against the number on your status screen.

This is why a player who rushes to a late-game boss at rune level 40 with a base weapon can still be shredded, while the same character can return at level 80 with a fully upgraded greatsword and clear the fight in a few exchanges. The boss did not get easier; the inputs the player could apply changed.

The exceptions are worth naming. Multiplayer summons scale to the host’s rune level within a band, cooperative bosses do not gain new moves when a second player joins, and some NPCs who follow the player into boss fights have their own fixed performance. These details are easy to miss because they sit at the boundary of the design rather than inside the obvious stats menu.

Where the world opens up

The first major choice sits at the broken bridge in front of the Erdtree. The game offers two immediate forks: the path toward Stormveil Castle in the north, and the long road south toward Castle Morne and the Weeping Peninsula. Both forks are real mainline routes, not optional content. Neither is the wrong answer. The right answer is the one whose encounter profile matches the build the player is shaping in Limgrave.

A second structural layer is the difference between mandatory bosses and optional ones. Mainline bosses gate story progress, item unlocks, and Great Rune acquisition. Optional bosses reward exploration with weapons, crafting materials, Spirit Ashes, and talismans. Both are part of the same design, but they serve different purposes in a route. A walkthrough that treats them as a single list is a list that keeps players from seeing the structure.

What the game does not tell you about scaling

Three mechanics quietly shape every decision in a run, and none of them is explained in the pause menu:

Weapon upgrade level is the single largest damage multiplier the player can control. A +12 weapon with a +3 somber equivalent performs on a different curve than a +3 weapon of the same type.
Status buildup on enemies resets between encounters, so bleed and frost are tuned per fight rather than per zone. The same weapon that melts one boss can be resisted by the next.
Spirit Ashes have a soft cap on summon health relative to the host’s rune level, and the cap is enforced most strictly in the late game. A Spirit that feels indispensable in Limgrave can be neutralized in the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Players who learn these three points early treat the rest of the game as a resource problem, not a level problem. The two are not the same.

First steps in Limgrave: the route that sets up everything

Limgrave is the tutorial region, but only in the mechanical sense. It teaches the dodge timing, the lock-on range, the stamina economy, and the idea that the map is meant to be read. It does not teach the build system, the upgrade economy, or the late-game gear checks. Those arrive in the next region, and a first run that ignores Limgrave’s optional content will hit a wall around the time the first legacy dungeon ends.

The most reliable first hour follows a clear sequence: reach the nearest Site of Grace, speak to the first friendly NPC, locate the church that grants access to a mount, complete the immediate cave or optional dungeon, and then choose the first real direction. Each of these steps unlocks something the next step depends on.

The mount, the menu, and the merchant

The spectral steed is the first major traversal unlock. Once it is available, the world opens by an order of magnitude: the horse moves through torrent-heavy terrain, survives falls that would kill the player on foot, and unlocks combat-on-mount for many encounters. Players who delay the mount spend their first hours walking the same region they could cross in minutes.

Along the way, the menu and merchant economy should be unlocked as well. Stamina, FP, and equipment load are the three resource pools that the rest of the build will lean on. Understanding how attribute points feed those pools in the first ten levels is worth more than any specific weapon choice.

What to pick up before leaving Limgrave

The following items are not required to progress, but they are common points of regret when a player leaves the region without them. The table below names each pickup, the reason it matters, and the cost in time of grabbing it during the natural route rather than as a backtrack.

Item or location	Why it matters	Cost in detour time
Whetstone Knife	Unlocks the Ash of War system and the ability to customize weapon scaling	Low, on the main road
Spirit Calling Bell	Required to summon any Spirit Ash	Low, gated by a small NPC quest
Map fragments	Reveal region topography and Site of Grace icons	Low to medium per stele
Stonesword Keys	Open optional imp statue doors, often hiding weapons or talismans	Medium, scattered across the map
Crafting materials	Enable fire pots, poison pots, and grease crafting for elemental matchups	Low, found along the path

The point of the table is not to force every pickup. The point is that each of these items opens a system the rest of the build will depend on. A route that visits the right merchants and dungeons in the right order will collect most of them automatically; a route that skips them will return later with a longer detour.

Building a character that survives the first dungeon

The attribute system rewards planning more than it rewards optimization. Every stat feeds one or more resource pools, and almost no stat is wasted if it lines up with the chosen weapon class. The most common first-run mistake is to spread points across too many attributes, which leaves the character with high-level soft stats but weak damage output. Elden Ring is a game where output scales steeply with focus.

For melee characters, Vigor and Endurance are the most important early stats. Vigor governs the health pool, which is the difference between a one-shot and a survivable mistake. Endurance governs stamina, which gates the number of dodges, attacks, and shield blocks available in a single exchange. Both should reach their soft caps before any offensive stat is pushed past 30.

For magic users, Mind and Intelligence or Faith take the place of pure melee scaling, but the same principle applies: the resource pool that enables the playstyle should be the priority. A sorcerer who skimps on Mind runs out of FP in the second phase of a boss fight, and a Faith caster who skimps on Faith has nothing to spend that FP on.

Reading weapon scaling before you commit

Each weapon has a scaling grade that runs from E to S. The grade describes how much each point in the matching attribute increases the weapon’s damage. Two weapons of the same class can have radically different scaling profiles: one greatsword may peak with a 40 Strength investment, while another may peak with a 30 Strength and 20 Dexterity split. The right weapon for a build is rarely the one with the highest base damage in the menu; it is the one whose scaling curve matches the stat plan the player is already executing.

When two weapons look similar, the upgrade material usually decides the question. Standard weapons use Smithing Stones, which are common and easy to acquire. Somber weapons use Somber Smithing Stones, which are rarer but cap at lower upgrade levels. For a first run, standard weapons offer more flexibility because their upgrade materials are easier to stockpile in the early zones.

Why the starter class barely matters

The choice of starting class is a way to seed the first few levels, not a way to lock a build. Every class can reach any stat distribution eventually. What the class does set is the starting weapon and the starting equipment load, both of which influence how the first hour feels rather than how the endgame plays. A player who starts as a Prisoner can still become a heavy Strength fighter; the journey is just slightly longer because the early weapons are mismatched.

The single exception is Wretch, which starts at level 1 with no equipment. Wretch runs are an optional challenge for players who want to test the game’s base systems without the safety net of pre-rolled stats. They are not a recommendation for a first run.

Boss order: the spine of any first-run walkthrough

The order in which main bosses are fought is the most contested part of any walkthrough, because the game does not enforce a single sequence. Almost any path is possible, but not every path is graceful. Some boss orders force multiple detours into late-game zones before the gear is ready; other boss orders let the natural flow of the map do the routing work. The list below is the route that holds together on a first run without grinding or backtracking into over-leveled regions.

Region	Main boss	Suggested level	Prerequisite
Stormveil Castle	Godrick the Grafted	30 to 40	Two Great Rune triggers accessible
Liurnia of the Lakes	Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon	40 to 50	Globe access at the academy
Leyndell, Royal Capital	Morgott, the Omen King	60 to 70	Two Great Runes from the table above
Mountaintops of the Giants	Fire Giant	70 to 80	Morgott defeated
Farum Azula	Godskin Duo, Maliketh	80 to 90	Mountaintops cleared
Leyndell, Ashen Capital	Radagon, Elden Beast	100+	All preceding bosses

These levels are guides, not hard gates. A player with a well-tuned weapon and good dodge timing can defeat each boss below the lower end of the range; a player with a scattered build and incomplete upgrades may need to push above the upper end. The table exists to give a route its sense of pace, not to dictate grinding.

What “two Great Runes” actually means

Several late-game doors are locked until the holder of a Great Rune presents it at a specific location. The mechanic is sometimes mistaken for a quest step; it is actually a soft progression gate. Two Great Runes from any combination of major bosses are enough to enter Leyndell. Players who defeat Rennala and Godrick first unlock the capital; players who skip Rennala for a side dungeon will find themselves locked out until the second Great Rune is acquired elsewhere.

This is also why the route above lists Rennala before Morgott. The Rennala fight is mechanically simpler than Godrick’s and unlocks the same level of progression with a smaller gear check. Running it second lets the player enter Leyndell with a more developed toolkit than running it last.

Optional bosses worth visiting on the way

Optional bosses are where the game hides its most interesting weapons. The list below names the ones that consistently appear in first-run route plans because of the loot they drop or the systems they unlock, not because they are required.

Margit, the Fell Omen: functions as a soft tutorial for the Stormveil Castle approach and drops a talisman that tunes early combat.
Agheel, the Flying Dragon: teaches mounted combat against an aerial enemy, a skill that becomes mandatory later.
Red Wolf of Radagon: an optional gate inside the academy that tests magic-user mobility and rewards a Memory Stone.
Godskin Noble: appears in several locations and rewards the Black Flame incantation set.
Starscourge Radahn: a festival boss with a unique multiplayer event and a story reward that opens a late-game zone.

Each of these fights is harder than its mainline neighbor and rewards investment in ways the mainline path does not. The decision to include them is a decision about how much of the game’s system surface the player wants to see in a single run.

Combat system notes that every walkthrough depends on

Boss design in Elden Ring uses a small set of shared mechanics, and the difference between a first-try kill and a tenth-try kill is usually how the player reads those mechanics. A walkthrough that does not explain the underlying system leaves the player replaying the same pattern until it sticks. The notes below cover the four systems that show up in almost every fight.

Stamina, posture, and the poise system

Stamina is the fuel for every action that matters: dodge, attack, block, and cast. When stamina runs out, the character is briefly staggered and cannot defend. Most one-shot deaths in a run are stamina mistakes, not health mistakes. The rule is simple to state and hard to internalize: never end an exchange with zero stamina. The rule is the same in every region.

Posture damage is a separate value that builds with each hit, especially from jumping attacks, charged heavy attacks, and certain Ash of War moves. When a boss’s posture breaks, it opens to a critical hit. The mechanic is not explained in the UI, but it is visible in the slight stagger the boss takes on certain attacks. Players who learn to read the stagger learn a free damage window the game does not tell them about.

Status effects and their matchups

Status effects, including bleed, frost, scarlet rot, poison, sleep, and madness, all build on a hidden meter that ticks once per hit. Different enemies have different resistance values, and resistances are tuned per fight rather than per archetype. The practical effect is that a bleed weapon can be the strongest tool in one boss fight and completely useless in the next, even when the two bosses are in the same region.

Two status effects are worth special attention. Frostbite reduces damage absorption and is unusually effective on a small set of late-game bosses. Scarlet rot ticks rapidly and is the only status that ignores most flat resistances. Both rewards are gated behind specific crafting materials that the player will not collect unless they are paying attention to which enemies drop what.

Spirit Ashes and the summon budget

Spirit Ashes are the game’s named summon system, separate from the multiplayer summon signs. They cost FP to cast, summon a single NPC-controlled ally, and disappear after a fixed duration or when their health is depleted. The design intent is to give solo players a way to draw boss aggro and to give magic users a physical front line.

The summon budget is the FP cost, not the Spirit’s power. A Spirit that is “weak” by hit-point count can still be the right choice if its cost is low enough to cast twice during the fight. The player who enters a boss with 200 FP can afford a different summon profile than the one who enters with 80 FP, and the route should be planned around that difference rather than around a single “best” Spirit.

Ashes of War and the weapon art economy

Ashes of War are the game’s modular skill system, attached to weapons at a blacksmith. The skill replaces the weapon’s default move set with a new ability, and that ability can range from a buffed stance to a full elemental transformation. The same Ash applied to two different weapons can produce two different combat profiles.

The economy matters because Ashes are not interchangeable. Some are unique to specific weapons, some are gated behind NPC quests, and some drop only from a single miniboss. A walkthrough that recommends a specific Ash without naming where to find it leaves the player searching a continent-sized map for a single item.

Leveling, runes, and the resource problem

Leveling is the simplest part of the system and the most commonly misunderstood. Each level costs more runes than the last, and the curve accelerates sharply after level 80. Most players hit a point on a first run where the next level costs more runes than they can earn in a single hour of careful play, and the temptation is to grind. Grinding is rarely the right answer, because the resource the player is missing is usually a weapon upgrade, not a level.

The table below compares two adjacent upgrade paths and shows why the upgrade often delivers more damage per rune than a level would.

Investment	Rune cost (rough)	Damage increase on a +12 weapon	Notes
One character level (around 60)	~25,000 runes	Marginal against most enemies	Scales with the attribute being leveled
Smithing Stone 7 plus the +12 upgrade	~5,000 runes plus materials	Significant damage jump	Materials are the bottleneck, not runes
Talisman slot unlocked at Roundtable Hold	No rune cost	Passive damage or survivability	Often the cheapest upgrade available

The point is not that levels are useless. The point is that the upgrade system is the one the game is tuned around, and a walkthrough that does not call this out will leave the player grinding in a swamp instead of finding the smithing stones that would have solved the problem.

Where runes come from

Rune income is uneven across regions. Early areas offer modest rune drops per enemy and frequent Sites of Grace, so the rune-per-minute curve is stable. Late areas offer larger drops per enemy but fewer respawn opportunities and longer paths back to a boss fog gate. The shift means the same grind that felt productive in Limgrave can feel punitive in the Mountaintops.

The reliable rune sources on a first run are: miniboss rematches, repeatable golden rune consumables from the underground, the consumable rune stacks dropped by specific overworld enemies, and the rune pools at the end of Catacomb dungeons. Most other sources are not repeatable and should be spent rather than hoarded.

Equipment load, dodge, and the movement budget

Equipment load is the most invisible system in the game. It governs how encumbered the character is, and the encumbrance level controls whether the dodge is the quick version or the slow version. Slow dodges cannot escape late attacks; the player is committed to the exchange. Most of the difficulty spikes that players blame on a “sudden hard boss” are actually a slow dodge on a late attack.

The threshold that decides the dodge type is a soft cap, and the soft cap varies slightly with Endurance. The reason to track Endurance early is not the stamina pool alone; it is the equipment load that lets a mid-weight build move at the same speed as a light build without sacrificing damage output. A walkthrough that recommends a heavy armor set without flagging the equip load trade-off is a walkthrough that is asking the player to learn a punishing lesson the hard way.

Choosing armor by the rolls, not the numbers

Armor value is a damage reduction, not a damage block. A high-poise set lets the player trade hits without staggering, which matters against a small set of enemies whose attacks chain on stagger. A high-defense set is not the same thing. The difference is the most common mistake in mid-game builds: stacking a defense number that does not protect against the actual attack pattern the boss uses.

Multiplayer, summoning, and the social layer

Multiplayer in Elden Ring is layered on top of the single-player system rather than built into it. Co-op is unlocked by consuming an item at a summoning pool, and the pool itself is a physical location in the world. Most players interact with multiplayer through the small golden signs on the ground near boss fog gates; the gold summon sign is a request for help from a co-op partner. The two players then fight the boss together with a shared health pool and a larger aggro footprint.

Co-op does not increase boss health by a strict multiplier. The boss’s health scales with the number of active players, but the scaling is not a clean 1.5x or 2x. A good co-op partner usually reduces the run time; a poor one usually increases it. The decision to summon is a decision about whether the player wants a faster clear, an easier clear, or the specific reward that comes from a multiplayer-only encounter.

Asynchronous multiplayer and the bloodstain system

When a player dies, they leave a bloodstain on the ground. Other players can interact with that stain to see the moment of death as a ghost. This is asynchronous multiplayer, and it is one of the more interesting design choices in the game. The bloodstain system has no mechanical reward and no punishment; it is purely a passive observation layer that the player can choose to engage with or ignore.

For a walkthrough, the relevant point is that the system can be used as a danger signal. A bloodstain on a cliff edge or a narrow bridge usually means a player fell in that exact spot. The presence of many stains in one location is a strong hint that the local encounter is set up to punish the player who walks through without paying attention.

Region-specific design notes for the main route

Each region in the game has a design identity, and reading that identity correctly is the difference between a route that flows and a route that stalls. The notes below name the design intent of each mainline region and the gear checks the player should expect to pass before entering.

Limgrave: the tutorial world

Limgrave is built to teach the player the basic combat loop, the Site of Grace system, and the idea that exploration is rewarded. Enemies are positioned to introduce one mechanic at a time: the soldier teaches parry, the mounted knight teaches the mounted combat system, the dragon teaches the idea of a soft wall that the player can return to later. The region’s design is a model of the game’s design language.

Stormveil Castle: the legacy dungeon

Stormveil is the first legacy dungeon and the structural template for the rest. It is built as a tight, multi-path castle with a single mandatory boss at the end and several optional encounters along the way. The point of the dungeon is to teach the player that not every region in the game is open, and that the closed regions are the place where the game concentrates its highest encounter density. A walkthrough that treats Stormveil as a quick stop misses the entire design lesson.

Liurnia of the Lakes: the open mid-game

Liurnia is a wide, watery region with more Sites of Grace per square kilometer than any other. The design intent is to give the player breathing room and to teach the use of the spectral steed in combat. The optional bosses in the region are easier than the Stormveil boss on average, which is the game’s way of rewarding the player for exploring before the next big dungeon.

Leyndell, Royal Capital: the closed city

Leyndell is a city-sized dungeon with vertical layers and locked districts. The Great Rune mechanic gates entry, the main path threads through three open districts, and the boss at the top is the first real test of the build. The region is a difficulty spike, and the route should not enter it without the two Great Runes in hand.

Mountaintops of the Giants and Farum Azula: the late game

The Mountaintops is a long linear path that trades exploration for pacing. The game wants the player to move forward, and the region’s design tightens up the road to enforce that. Farum Azula, the floating ruins, is a vertical dungeon that tests the player’s ability to read a multi-path environment. Both regions assume a fully built character; a walkthrough that recommends entering them under-leveled is asking the player to grind through encounters that the design expects to be skipped.

Build archetypes worth committing to on a first run

Build archetypes are a useful mental model for a first run because they give the player a default plan to fall back on when the loot table offers an unexpected drop. The three archetypes below cover most of the weapons the player will find in the first 30 hours. None of them is a “best” build, and the game’s balance is intentionally loose enough that any of them can clear the entire mainline path.

Strength and heavy weapons

Strength builds lean on weapons that scale with the Strength attribute and benefit from two-handing. Two-handing a weapon multiplies the effective Strength stat for that weapon by 1.5, which lets the player invest in Endurance and Vigor while still hitting the soft cap on damage. The archetype’s main weakness is reach; Strength weapons tend to be shorter than Dexterity weapons, which is a real problem against some of the longer boss combos.

Dexterity and fast weapons

Dexterity builds focus on weapons with faster swing speeds, more dodge-cancel windows, and higher status buildup. The archetype rewards precise timing more than raw stat investment and is the natural fit for players who want to learn the posture system. The main weakness is the early-game damage curve; a +3 Dexterity weapon at level 25 will not kill most minibosses in a single combo, and the player has to commit to the timing loop for the build to come online.

Intelligence and the magic-user kit

Intelligence builds rely on sorcery, staffs, and the FP pool. The archetype’s power curve is unusual: it is strong from the moment the player picks up a spell, plateaus for a long stretch, and then scales sharply with key items that drop in the mid-game. A player who commits to Intelligence early has to manage FP carefully, because every spell in the early game eats the same resource that the player will later need for boss fights.

Common first-run mistakes and how to read them

Most first-run struggles fall into a small set of patterns. The list below names the pattern, the symptom, and the most reliable fix. The fixes are not always the fastest option; they are the options that keep the run moving without rerouting the entire build plan.

Spending runes on a level when the build is starving for an upgrade: defer the level, take a smithing detour, return to the boss with the upgraded weapon.
Equipping new weapons without reapplying Ashes of War: every weapon swap resets the Ash, and the new weapon will perform differently until the Ash is reapplied at a smithy.
Ignoring a merchant’s inventory: many merchants rotate stock after major boss kills, and the rotation is the only way to acquire key crafting materials on a single run.
Entering Leyndell without two Great Runes: the capital is gated, and the gate does not explain itself. Returning to a Great Rune holder is faster than fighting through the closed door.
Chugging flasks mid-combo without tracking the cooldown: healing is the most interrupted action in the game, and the heal window is the most common cause of the “I dodged and still died” feedback.

None of these mistakes is a personal failure. Each one is a system expectation the game has that is not surfaced in the UI. The point of a walkthrough is to surface them before the player burns an hour on the wrong answer.

Save, system, and performance notes for PC players

The PC release of the game has a small set of well-known system notes. FromSoftware’s design has historically been console-first, and Elden Ring on PC carries the trade-offs that come with a console-targeted engine. A walkthrough is not a benchmark, but a few notes are worth keeping in mind for players who want a stable run.

Frame pacing and the lock target

The game’s internal timing is tied to the frame rate, and the lock target that produces the smoothest experience is 60 frames per second. Higher frame rates do not break the game, but some specific physics interactions, including enemy pathing and certain scripted triggers, have been reported by players to behave differently at uncapped frame rates. The simplest setting is a 60 fps cap, and the simplest reason to use it is that the cap is what the console releases use.

Save data and cloud storage

Save data is stored locally and is not officially synchronized across platforms. Players who switch between a PC and a console need to treat each platform’s save as a separate run. Cross-progression is not part of the design, and a walkthrough that recommends it is recommending a feature the game does not have.

Mods, patches, and version differences

The game has received several patches since launch. Some of those patches adjusted specific boss behaviors, some adjusted weapon scaling, and some adjusted multiplayer matchmaking. A walkthrough written against an early patch may recommend a strategy that the current patch has changed. The reliable reference is the patch notes published by the developer; the community discussion that grows around a patch is not a substitute for the official text.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best starting class for a first elden ring walkthrough?

There is no single best class because the choice is a small adjustment to the early stat distribution rather than a lock on the build. Vagabond, Samurai, and Prisoner are common recommendations because they offer a balanced stat spread that does not require a major reroute during the first ten levels. Wretch is intentionally weaker and is meant for experienced players who want to test the base systems. The right answer is the class whose starting equipment looks the most interesting to the player, because interest is the resource that keeps the run going.

Can the elden ring walkthrough be done in any order?

Almost any order is mechanically possible, but not every order is graceful. The game does not enforce a single sequence, but the Great Rune gates and the level curve of each region recommend a soft order. Stormveil before Liurnia, Liurnia before Leyndell, and Leyndell before the Mountaintops. Optional bosses can be visited in any order, and skipping them is not a failure; it is a different route with different rewards.

What level should I be for the final boss in this elden ring walkthrough?

The final encounter, which includes Radagon and the Elden Beast in sequence, is designed for a character at or above level 100 with a fully upgraded weapon. The level is a guide, not a hard gate. A player at level 80 with a tightly tuned build and a complete talisman set can clear the fight. A player at level 120 with a scattered stat distribution can still lose it. The weapon upgrade and the consumable stockpile matter more than the level number.

Are Spirit Ashes required to finish the walkthrough?

Spirit Ashes are not required, but they are the most accessible way to draw boss aggro for solo players. The Bell Bearing system at the Roundtable Hold lets the player duplicate any unlocked Spirit, so the cost of a flexible summon kit is mostly FP rather than rare materials. A player who commits to playing without summons will need a tighter dodge timing and a larger healing flask stockpile. Both routes are valid; the game is designed to support both.

How long does a first run of the elden ring walkthrough take?

Length depends on how much of the optional content the player visits. A focused first run that follows the main bosses and skips most optional content tends to land in the 50 to 70 hour range. A completionist run that includes every dungeon, every catacomb, and every NPC quest is closer to 100 to 120 hours. The variance is a function of the design, which is built to reward optional exploration without penalizing the player who skips it.

Does the elden ring walkthrough work in New Game Plus?

The walkthrough above is written for a first run, but most of its advice holds in New Game Plus. The differences are that enemies hit harder, have more health, and in some cases gain new attack patterns. The route structure is the same, and the boss order is the same, but the player should expect to upgrade weapons further and may need to commit to specific talismans to absorb the damage increase. The Elden Ring entry on Wikipedia notes that New Game Plus carries over the player’s equipment and most consumables while scaling enemy stats, which is the cleanest summary of the mechanic.

What is the difference between the elden ring walkthrough and a boss guide?

A walkthrough covers the entire run, including the route, the levels, the gear, and the order of regions. A boss guide covers a single fight, including the move set, the windows, and the recommended build for that fight. The two are complementary: the walkthrough decides which boss the player faces next, and the boss guide decides how the player faces it. Players who use both tend to make faster progress on a first run than players who use only one of them.

Where can I find a reliable build recommendation in this elden ring walkthrough?

Build recommendations are scattered across the game’s community, and the most reliable source is the player’s own experience. The first 20 hours of the run are the player’s only chance to feel which weapon archetype matches their playstyle. The walkthrough’s role is to keep the route moving while that preference develops, not to override it. Once a preference is clear, the upgrade path and the stat plan follow from the chosen weapon, and the rest of the run is execution.

Is there a difference between the elden ring walkthrough and the Shadow of the Erdtree route?

Yes. Shadow of the Erdtree is a separate expansion, and the route inside the expansion is a distinct progression with its own level range, its own upgrade material, and its own boss order. The base game walkthrough does not cover the expansion, and the expansion walkthrough does not cover the base game. A player who owns both will run them in sequence, with the base game cleared first and the expansion entered from a specific point in the base game. The creator of the series has discussed this structure in interviews, including a 2019 E3 conversation about the shift from the Souls series toward an open-world design, which is the design context for both the base game and the expansion.

Elden Ring walkthrough: a developer-aware route through the Lands Between