Elden Ring is a difficult game. The latest from FromSoftware, the acclaimed developer of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, this critical darling isn’t doing anything about it. It’s not an unfairly tough game (most of the time), but it’s certainly one you need to be careful of – without full concentration, you’ll find yourself at the fatal end of swinging your sword and then setting foot on the road to recover your lost charm Arts.
But one area I didn’t expect to be discussed was Elden Ring’s tutorial. Not that this tutorial is difficult – not at all – but it seems that many players don’t realize it’s there and walk right through it. So how is this possible? Is this really as big a problem as some have said?
If you haven’t played Elden Ring, you’re starting without any real information. A grand, rather bleak introductory film sets the tone, and then you go. Soon, a rather nasty looking enemy appeared, it was the Curtain – or at least it was for me, I was hit once, presumably killed. Then you enter a new area, where things seem to go one of two ways.
Most obvious in the scene is a path leading to a glowing tree, some stairs, and a closed door. You can go straight up, open the door, and enter the open world. This is what a lot of people claim to do, I’ve seen some YouTube plays and people do exactly that. You can see the scene in the image below (albeit a bit dark).
However, in this scene, there is also a ghost that falls on the chair. In front of him is a message that reads: “The cave of knowledge is below.” Talk to the ghost and he will encourage you to jump down. In fact, if you get close to the edge, you can see the area below, which is where the tutorial happens. Jump down and you’ll be guided through the basic game mechanics and eventually take the first steps of a kind of baby boss.
I checked this out before starting the game and saw all the online chats about people missing the tutorial area. So, my question is: did you miss the Elden Ring tutorial? For me, I never know if I’m going to miss it. Like I watched Sixth Sense after a friend told me about the twist, I can only guess what I’d do. I think I’ll notice this pit. I’m a bit of a bored player and spent a long time wandering around to make sure I didn’t miss anything, so I thought I’d listen to the ghost people and jump off.
We have the video at the top of this page. What do you think? Is it too obscure or the perfect way to put a tutorial in a FromSoftware Souls game? I originally thought the online noise was exaggerating it, but I saw it in person while playing and I can be sure how it was missed.
As a game design, I kind of like it. I haven’t gotten into Elden Ring yet, but from what I’ve read, the entire experience seems to be built around this principle: do the obvious, or don’t, and see where you end up. Both are valid options. Maybe a basic tutorial should be more obvious, but you can’t say it’s no more fun than most of the “see the light, shoot the target, jump over the hurdles” sequences that most players get bored of.
If you’re having trouble using the Elden Ring, we’ve got plenty of Elden Ring guides on our website, which you can watch if you missed this tutorial. It’s not all systems and mechanics of the game by any means, but it’s certainly worth a look if you’re new to Souls games.
