The developer FromSoftware is known for creating great yet challenging games. This is why many players ask themselves: How hard is Elden Ring, and is it too hard for me? MeinMMO gives you the answer here.
Update from June 23, 2022: We have updated the links in the article and added the video.
Since 2009, the Japanese studio FromSoftware has been developing games that fans refer to as the “Soulsborne” games. The name is derived from the games: Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne.
These titles are known for their high quality – and their brutal difficulty level. What lies behind it, how hard Elden Ring really is, and how to best deal with the difficulty, we will tell you here.
In a concise 2 minutes, we summarize everything you need to know about Elden Ring:
How hard is Elden Ring?
Hard but not unfair: All games from FromSoftware differ in key details but rely on the same tough rules:
- A hefty combat system with slow animations
- Hard bosses that demand everything from you
- High requirements for your reaction speed when dodging and parrying
- Quick deaths due to low health points
- The loss of important resources upon repeated deaths
Elden Ring builds on all these elemental features of the developer. It is undoubtedly a hard and demanding game.
However, it is important to emphasize that Elden Ring is never unfair. Because the animations of you and your opponents are slow and clear, you always know what caused your death. This way, you can learn the right timings to dodge, attack, or parry.
This doesn’t mean that everything runs smoothly 100% of the time. Sometimes the camera behaves a bit erratically, and other times the hitboxes of enemy attacks can be hard to judge. However, these situations are clearly the exception, not the rule – and they happen under predictable circumstances.
In general, Elden Ring can involve a lot of trial and error: You fight against a boss and painfully learn the attack sequences. With each new attempt, you can react and attack better. Until you have reduced the opponent’s health bar to zero.
Every boss fight is thus a kind of “dance” for which you must learn the right sequence of steps. Depending on your strengths and build, this can work quickly or not at all. But there is no situation in the game for which you cannot prepare and adjust. This is also why there are plenty of examples of players completing FromSoftware games without armor and at level 1.
Can I change the difficulty in Elden Ring?
Are there selectable difficulty levels? No, you cannot change the difficulty in Elden Ring. However, you can make the game easier for yourself.
How do I make the game easier? A particularly popular and strong tip is to rely on the coop feature against a hard boss. This allows you to summon up to 2 other players into your game world to help you. How this works, we explain in detail here:
With the help of up to 2 additional players, the bosses become much easier. They can usually only focus on one player, allowing the partners to safely wail on the boss.
However, you should note that the player who invited the coop partners must stay alive. The summoned teammates can perish without the boss fight ending. In Dark Souls 3, the bosses also had 10 – 15% more HP for each summoned character, but they did not deal more damage.
If you don’t feel like playing with strangers or are playing offline, you can also summon NPC characters at certain locations. These are often not quite as good as real players but generally serve as a distraction and additional source of damage. This way, you can also defeat a particularly tough boss more easily.
More tips for challenging moments: If you want to complete the game purely on your own, you don’t have to keep running against the boss until you break your head through the wall. The game offers you many options to improve your character and your skills as a player.
If you’re stuck on a boss, it’s worth exploring the open world. You might find a powerful weapon that can smash the boss in no time. Especially if you find an elemental weapon that the boss is weak against, you have significantly better odds.
Finding out a boss’s elemental weakness is generally a very good tip. With certain items, you can temporarily give your weapons an elemental buff. For instance, your ordinary axe can inflict fire damage, which a boss might be allergic to. So don’t be too stingy with these items!
You can usually derive a boss’s weaknesses from the context, read them from player messages, discover them through trial and error, or simply look them up online.
Speaking of player messages: This feature from other FromSoftware games is also present in Elden Ring. Other players will diligently post messages in the world that you can read in your game.
Sometimes these are nasty troll attempts, but most of the time, they are really good tips. Pay attention to the ratings of the messages, observe if it might be a prank, and use the information to your advantage.
Also, a new item in Elden Ring can be very helpful: the Spirit Calling Bell. When you ring this bell, you can summon different spirits to assist you in battle. The creatures you can summon depend on which ashes you have found. If you don’t miss an important NPC, start with the ashes of 3 wolves.
Voices from the MeinMMO Community: “I learned to love these FromSoftware games”
In conclusion, we also want to share a comment from the community by MeinMMO user Volkeracho, who went from hating Dark Souls to becoming a passionate FromSoftware fan:
So I can only tell you that I hated games like Dark Souls. With work, you don’t have as much time as in childhood. That’s why I want to enjoy games and not study them. When I saw the graphical wonder of Demon’s Souls on the PS5, I wanted to give this series another chance. […]
As a newcomer, it wasn’t easy, but there are plenty of guides on bosses and the right strategies online. When I finally got to see the credits with joy, the barrier “Dark Souls” was broken, and I learned to love these FromSoftware games. […]
If you are willing to be a little patient and watch a boss guide on YouTube, you can conquer these games. And the feeling of having completed a FromSoftware game makes other games feel like children’s play.
So if you like the setting, you should buy the game and stick with it. If necessary, get help through coop; only then will it move forward! Have fun everyone starting Friday!
MeinMMO community member Volkeracho in our comments
Do you have your own experiences with FromSoftware games that you want to share? Are you intimidated by the difficulty of Elden Ring and want a second opinion from the community? Then feel free to communicate in the comments below – there you will find ‘jolly cooperation.’
If you are still undecided about whether Elden Ring is the right game for you, we have prepared a handy check for you. This will make your decision very easy:
