Elden Ring, the breakout hit action role-playing game from developer FromSoftware, is rife with immensely daunting challenges, but they don't have to ruin the game's experience. Elden Ring, with all of its new features and multiplayer options, is still a Soulslike game, which means a key part of its design is to create some of gaming's most extreme boss encounters. Fortunately, Elden Ring does provide new opportunities to shape character builds and inventories to help players overcome even the toughest of battles.
One of the biggest changes Elden Ring brings to the Soulslike genre of games is its massive open-world map. At the beginning of the game, the game's world map is mostly hidden from the player, making it difficult to see how big Elden Ring's map actually is. Other Soulslike games have taken a more linear approach to gameplay, pushing players forward into extremely difficult challenges and using death and repetition to teach boss mechanics and patience. Still, repeatedly fighting and losing to the same bosses over and over again can become frustrating, and Elden Ring's massive open world encourages taking different paths to overcome harder boss fights.
Elden Ring's approach to open-world gameplay can be used to players' advantage and make the next boss encounter less challenging. Exploration can transform player's early experience in the game, and some of Elden Ring's essential items are cleverly hidden in Limgrave, the first area of the map available to players. However, Limgrave also features some difficult boss encounters, and players more used to a Dark Souls-style experience may simply throw themselves at these bosses over and over again without particularly fruitful results. Some players may even take on the Tree Sentinel right out of the tutorial area, which is definitely possible, but could potentially take hours of struggle that would likely be more useful elsewhere. Taking time to explore caves, dungeons, and ruins can prove fruitful to making early encounters in Elden Ring less frustrating, and this is part of the design - even the proudest players shouldn't feel bad about walking away from a fight that's clearly designed to be taken on by a better-equipped character.
Use Elden Ring's Open World To Prepare Tough Bosses
With so many difficult challenges so early in the game, and so many past FromSoftware titles offering tough battles overcome mostly by persistence, it can be easy to charge full-steam ahead into boss encounters in Elden Ring without my thought to diminishing returns on repeat attempts. Instead of beating one's head against a single challenge for hours, it may be more rewarding to turn around, take a breath, and head south to Elden Ring's Weeping Peninsula. There, frustrated players will find an area that's likely better tailored to their level, with lesser enemy encounters and a bevy of resources to bolster the inventory.
Elden Ring is a difficult game, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a grueling, aggravating experience. FromSoftware has created a detailed open-world in Elden Ring, with hundreds of hidden treasures throughout. With so much gear, supplies, and lore to experience, taking the time to explore and wander can make conquering Elden Ring less challenging and more rewarding.
