Elden Ring offers players a lot of options to survey battlefields. Verticality and freedom of exploration are more important when you’re outside the dungeons. You can surround an area, see the enemies involved, dodge around them, or use the environment to your advantage.
Of course, the other element is stealth. While this premise existed in previous FromSoftware games, it was generally quite vestigial, with the exception of Sekiro. The way the environment’s set up makes stealth a great tactic, so getting in behind enemies for a high-damage backstab is a good way to take out opponents.
Follow the gold paths
The game mentions this early on, but it bears repeating: it's always worth following the gold trails that sometimes appear out of thin air. They lead to Sites of Lost Grace checkpoints that are often hidden or not very obvious.
Remember where you’ve been and make sure to travel quickly
Because of the non-linear nature of the Elden Ring universe, it’s helpful to remember where you’ve been before. The Sites of Lost Grace actually have labels on the map screen that mark points of interest and important NPCs near them, so you can check out what’s around them and might be worth revisiting.
Summoning can be done online or offline
The benefits of summoning other players are obvious, but Elden Ring also allows you to summon various types of NPCs and monsters that consume FPs in exchange for creating ally creatures. Some of these aren’t hugely powerful, but can be very useful as distractions.
Dodging is usually better than blocking
This is a generalisation, but it’s a generalisation that tends to be true: it’s better to get out of the way of an attack than to catch it with your shield. Shields don’t always fully reduce the damage of an attack, but even when they do, the resistance penalty for having your shield up is much harsher.
This doesn’t mean you should fully avoid shields, though. They can be very effective, especially if you learn to parry properly, but you should only use them to stop attacks you couldn’t dodge in the first place.
Fight your opponents individually, not as a group
Elden Ring, like all Soulsborne games, comes complete with a targeting system that’s great for fighting one enemy at a time, but complicates things when multiple attackers are involved. So, if you get jumped by a big group of them, retreat and try to at least keep them all in front of you. And if things get really bad, your best option may be to just hop on your horse and taking flight.
