Is Elden Ring a good teacher? Players and devs weigh in on learning the ways of FromSoftware
The fastest-selling Souls game yet, Elden Ring has drawn more players than any previous entry, many of them new to FromSoftware's mojo. While plenty have enjoyed deciphering the game on their own, including a few developers we spoke to about the game's approach to tutorials, others have found themselves hungry for a more guided introduction.
Hop on social media, especially the Elden Ring subreddit, and search for the game with terms like "new player," "tutorial," or even "didn't know" and you'll find a bottomless well of Tarnished feeling stumped. Some of the most commonly overlooked things are little details like how to heal or quickly dismount your spirit steed, Torrent, or how to two-hand weapons.
In a similar vein, many players have joked about getting far into the game, if not outright beating it, without discovering certain features. Some players never realized that guard counters, where you launch a staggering attack after blocking a hit, were even a thing. Some didn't know you can charge spells by holding the cast button. Ironically, a not-insignificant chunk of players unwittingly skipped the tutorial, the Cave of Knowledge, only to blitz through it later on.
Elden Ring is a massive open-world game, but it mostly cuts the waypoints, quest lists, and other markers that have become common in the genre. Not only that, it's a FromSoftware game, and it's got all the eccentricities that come with that. We can also attribute some of the confusion to how Elden Ring handles tutorials – outside the Cave of Knowledge, usually with sparse messages or prompts, though there is at least a helpful tips gallery in the main menu now.
To get another perspective, we asked a few developers – some of the same folks who helped us
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