Dodge rolls contain an invulnerability period known by the community as "iFrames." About halfway through your roll animation, you'll have a very brief period of invulnerability where all incoming attacks will phase right through you.
Your most powerful tool isn't a weapon or a spell. Death is a core part of the Soulsborne genre. Elden Ring's enemies strike fast, hit hard, and will not relent until you're nothing but a corpse. This is why it's so important to ration your healing flasks and avoid taking damage whenever possible. Should you die before reaching your previous location, your Runes will be lost forever. To reclaim your Runes, you must reach the spot that you died and reclaim them. Players instead respawn at the nearest Shrine of Grace or Stake of Makira with none of their Runes-Elden Ring's currency. When you die in Elden Ring, you don't revert to a previous save file. Hyperarmor and poise do not reduce incoming damage they only affect incoming stagger. Swinging large weapons like greatswords will also grant you hyperarmor, allowing you to absorb enemy attacks without getting staggered. You can increase your poise by wearing heavy armor. You can lower a target's poise by continuously damaging them, harder-hitting weapons typically dealing more poise damage. This is effectively an invisible posture meter that causes the target to become staggered when this meter breaks. Missing your queue will lead to a quick demise.Īll characters in Elden Ring, both you and enemies, also have a mechanic called poise. Elden Ring's combat is a dance between you and your opponent. You never want your Stamina to drop to zero, so be sure that you aren't spamming the dodge button and attack inputs. The general gameplay loop of the Soulsborne genre is to dodge or block incoming attacks before punishing the target with a few swings of your equipped weapon, juggling your Stamina in the process. You'll spend your entire playthrough using your bumpers, triggers, and dodge button. B / Circle: Dodge in the direction that you're currently moving, becoming temporarily invulnerable.A / X: Jump into the air, allowing you to produce a light or heavy jump attack.Y / Triangle: Hold then use the bumpers to switch to a two-handed stance, granting a new moveset and more powerful attacks.Triggers (LT and RT): Heavy attack for weapons, weapon art for your right-handed weapon.Bumpers (LB and RB): Light attack for weapons, block for shields.You can change these keybinds at any time in the options menu. Here are the most important keybinds you need to memorize. This can take some getting used to, but it becomes second nature after a few hours of play. In Elden Ring, you control each of your character's hands with your bumper and trigger inputs. M&K isn't an ideal input device for Soulsborne titles. If you're a keyboard and mouse user, we highly recommend you get a controller for Elden Ring. We're going to assume that you're playing on a controller. Sites of Grace are glowing bonfires you can find scattered across the world. These are consumable items that refill your HP and FP respectively, and they both replenish upon resting at a Site of Grace. Your HP and FP don't passively regenerate by default, hence why the game gives you Crimson Tear and Cerulean Tear flasks. If you play this game like any other RPG, you're going to have a bad time.
Healing is scarce in these games, so avoiding or mitigating damage is required.
Mastering Elden Ring's combat will require you to make intelligent use of your Stamina while avoiding enemy attacks. Soulsborne games are all about resource management, and Elden Ring is no different.