Elden Ring guide: Melee combat, stances, poise, blocks, explained
Elden Ring’s combat is tough, but you can overcome the difficulty.
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Elden Ring is here, and it is a masterpiece. In ourElden Ring review, we revel in all of its open-world glory, but can’t deny its difficulty. Indeed, FromSoftware (Bloodborne, Dark Souls) veterans will almost certainly have an easier time coming into this game. We have a mountain ofElden Ring beginner’s tipsyou can peruse, but you’ll really need to go more in-depth if you want to overcome some of the game’s complexity.
Elden Ring is one of thebest Xbox and PC gamesever made, and you needn’t miss out due to its complexity. As such, here’s an in-depth explainer of the game’s melee combat elements, spoiler-free, with tips on how you should approach the game as a newcomer.
Elden Ring combat fundamentals: Staying alive
Elden Ring’s combat generally revolves around three pillars: melee, defensive play, and ranged attacks. Even if your intent is to play a dedicated wizard or archer, sometimes it may simply be optimal to step into melee every now and then, if for no reason other than to conserve your supplies of Focus Points (FP) and arrows, for example.
Managing incoming damage is very tricky and fundamental to souls games, and Elden Ring is no different.
The first thing you should really get to grips with is the relationship between FP (essentially mana) and stamina. FP is the blue bar, and stamina is the green bar. Almost all abilities consume stamina, and special abilities like magic and Ashes of War often consume FP. If you run out of FP, you can replenish it by consuming your flask of cerulean tears. If you run out of stamina, it will regen automatically if you take a second to rest. Performing actions like sprinting, dodging, blocking, and the like, will consume stamina too. So it’s good to learn when to step back from a combat situation and let it recover a bit.
Elden Ring is also filled with items that can offset some of the downsides of both FP and stamina. For example, Turtle Neck consumables increase the rate at which your stamina regens. And there are items that decrease the amount of FP used up by your spells and attacks. Paying close attention to how quickly your attacks drain your stamina is crucial to combat success. If you’re out of stamina at the wrong moment and desperately need to dodge, you may find yourself killed.
Even with heavy armor, enemies in Elden Ring often hit very hard. Managing incoming damage is very tricky and fundamental to souls games, and Elden Ring is no different.
The optimal way to manage your survivability in Elden Ring is to passively invest in Vigor, which increases your hit points. If you’re an average kind of player, like me, investing every other level into HP essentially gives you more mistakes on a boss battle or combat situation. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve survived a battle with only a sliver of health left, really slamming home how much every little shred of HP helps.
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Enemies will generally give you opportunities to get out of dodge and drink up. Enemies, much like yourself, often run out of stamina, leaving them hanging in recovery frames after doing a heavy attack, for example. Drinking is relatively quick, and you can increase the amount of health restored by your flasks using Sacred Tears found throughout the game’s world.
One of the best ways to survive is, ultimately, slaughter your opponent. Combat is uniquely complex in Elden Ring. Souls fans will find it familiar, however, and even Monster Hunter players may also find some affinity with the game’s systems. For those who are new, though, be prepared for some studying.
Melee combat in Elden Ring
Melee combat in Elden Ring is central to the game. You can play as a wizard slinging spells or a bandit shooting arrows, but you will be forced into melee every now and then to play optimally. You’ll learn a ton through simply trial and error-ing your way through the game, but here are some crucial pointers to get to grips with the combat. Since resting at a Site of Grace respawns all nearby enemies, don’t feel shy to respawn enemies and practice on them to really learn the game.
Source: Windows Central
Trial and error is the way
Ultimately, the best path forward is to practice. Grab the weapons you want to use, and mess around with the soldiers at the first outpost, North of Agheel Lake in the starting area. The soldiers there are good for practicing stealth attacks, backstabs, timing heavy attacks, practicing guarding, and so on. For this guide, I grabbed the Zweihander and messed around with it in different combinations to get a feel for how it all works.
Every weapon class has a unique set of moves, which can be further customized with the Ash of War skills. Learning the speed of the different attacks, then interweaving them to counter your enemies is crucial while committing it all to muscle memory in the process.
These tips are designed to help you get going, but they’re by no means the full range of depth represented in Elden Ring. If you feel overwhelmed by any particular situation or event in the game, it’s worth trying to get some advice from the community either on Elden Ring forums like Reddit, on YouTube, viaour Discord.
A masterpiece
Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s magnum opus. The densest and most well-realized open world in all of gaming, Elden Ring is an example to be followed by all.
Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by tea. Follow onTwitter (X)andThreads, and listen to hisXB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!
