Elden Ring Stats And Leveling: Understanding The Basics

gamespot.com:

Elden Ring is considerably more newcomer-friendly than previous From Software games, but that doesn’t mean that you'll be without questions about how best to build your character. In this guide, we’ll cover all of the basics you need to know: where and how you’ll be leveling up, and most importantly, what stats you’ll want to focus on for your preferred playstyle.

In order to level up, you first need to reach your third Site of Grace in the open world, which happens quite early on in your adventure. This is very easy to do thanks to the rays of guiding light that you can follow from one of these points of respite to the next. When you’ve rested at that third Site of Grace, you’re greeted by a maiden named Melina. She offers her services to you, which now allows you to level up at any Site of Grace in the game.

Unlike many traditional role-playing titles, Elden Ring requires you to manually apply every level to your character, which can be done at any Site of Grace throughout your adventure. Killing enemies nets you runes (the equivalent of souls from Dark Souls) that you then use to invest in a selection of stats that increase things like your health pool, stamina bar size, and damage with specific weapons or spells.

Do be aware, however, that dying in Elden Ring causes you to lose any runes you’ve accumulated but not yet used. You’ll be granted one opportunity to return to the site where you died to recover the runes, but if you fail, they’ll be lost forever. Because of this, it’s typically a good idea to find a Site of Grace and use your runes to level up before taking on bosses or dangerous new areas.

Each point you put in Vigor increases your total HP, which in turn increases your survivability against enemy attacks,