Elden Ring Has a Detailed Tutorial Dungeon For New Players

ign.com:

Elden Ring offers what is probably FromSoftware’s best ever introduction for new players, thanks to an optional tutorial dungeon located just before you enter the main world of The Lands Between.

The Souls studio has what could charitably be called a patchy history when it comes to teaching you how to play its games. A few messages on the ground to explain basic attacks, guards, and parries is pretty much all you usually get in its action-RPGs, with everything else taught through experimentation, failure, and usually a lot of help from other players.

Elden Ring’s tutorial dungeon is a different story. Called the Cave of Knowledge, this optional series of chambers introduces Elden Ring’s fundamental mechanics one by one. Starting with the use of Sites of Grace (similar to Souls’ Bonfires), it goes on to cover familiar things such as light/heavy attacks, weapon skills, and blocking, as well as new mechanics such as the Stakes of Marika checkpoint system, guard counters, and how to best use long grass and stealth to overcome your enemies. Each system is explained by a pop-up window that offers much much more transparent detail than FromSoftware has typically done in the past.

This tutorial culminates in a boss fight. However, unlike other FromSoft ‘tutorial’ bosses such as the Asylum Demon or Iudex Gundyr, this is not the actual first boss of the game; it’s essentially a generic training enemy to introduce you to the concept of big health bar boss fights. Completing the Cave of Knowledge will reward you with a new gesture, so there’s a small reward for even seasoned FromSoft veterans.

In execution, there are similarities to Dark Souls 2’s Things Betwixt, which offered a more comprehensive tutorial zone than other Souls