Elden Ring 3 Lives Challenge - Info & Rules Inside

[Endarire]

Intro & Forenote

Greetings, fellow Tarnished!

This challenge is intended for those who want a different way to play Elden Ring and is mostly targeted to those who have beaten the game before. There are plenty of ways to play this game, and plenty of people have done a no death run or a no damage run, but this challenge is for those who want something else - some of the risk with less chance that a sneeze or a game freeze will end your run.

Easily Tracking Your Life Count

-Roundtable Hold has a mirror in Fia’s room where you can change your name. I recommend using this mirror to rename yourself whenever your life count changes. For example, name yourself LIFER: 29/52 to indicate you have 29 lives and 52 total lives gained.

-You can also talk to Rennala after beating her in the Academy of Raya Lucaria to change your name or appearance as if using Fia’s mirror.

The Rules

Characters & Basics
-Play starts with a new character of any base class, look, and starting gift. (No using existing characters nor starting in New Game+.)

-Your character starts with 3 lives. If your life count hits 0 or below, your character is immediately no longer playable. Backing up your character's save file to give yourself extra lives is not allowed. (You're on your honor for this.)

-Your goal is to beat the game. I assume you aren't using randomizers or other mods, but beating the final boss and getting any ending counts as a win. After that, your character’s life total only matters if you want to do New Game+, which is optional.

Gaining Lives
-Beating a boss increases your current and maximum life count by 1. (There is no upper limit to the amount of lives you can have at a time.) A boss is defined by any creature with a boss health bar. This means, for example, a Soldier of Godrick boss in the Cave of Knowledge tutorial area is a boss but not the Soldiers of Godrick by the Gatefront Ruins.

-Any boss with more than 1 unit like the Valiant Gargoyles only counts as a win if all enemies in this fight are beaten.

-Activating any great rune (Godrick's, etc.) gives you an extra life. Activating Malenia's great rune instead grants you 5 extra lives. Because Malenia. (Rennala’s great rune is immediately ‘activated’ after beating her, regardless of whether you use her respec/rebirth option.)

-Beating any invader also grants you +1 life, even in multiplayer, regardless of whether you're the host.

-Activating all grace stations (outside and inside, like in caves and catacombs) in a region grants you +1 life per region, not per station. The regions are Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula, Caelid, Liurnia (except for Moonlight Altar), Moonlight Altar, the Plateau + Shaded Castle, Mt. Gelmir, the Capital (the Capital of Ash is a separate region), Mountaintops of the Giants, Haligtree, and Farum Azula.

-The underground regions are southeast (Moghwyn Palace), south (Siofra River + Nokron + Nokstella), north (Deeproot Depths), and west (Ainsel River + Late of Rot + Grand Cloister + Astel).

Losing Lives
-If your character dies and drops his soul wad/runes, that counts as a life lost. This means dying to the Grafted Scion in the beginning doesn't count as a death, nor does dying with a Sacrificial Twig equipped. (If you manage to beat the Grafted Scion before getting your flasks, that also doesn't count as a death.)

-Again, if your character dies with 0 or less lives remaining, that character becomes immediately unplayable.

Multiplayer and Item Trading/Transfers
-You may summon others and be summoned by others for cooperative multiplayer. Deaths and boss kills only count for you when you're the host. Otherwise, it's simply helping someone else and getting some runes, crafting items, or/and practice in return. (I recommend NOT activating the crucifix by The First Step grace station as people will spawn in there, rush the Tree Sentinel, and die repeatedly!)

-Item transfers between characters are discouraged. The point is to start a new game and beat the game without receiving something to make the game notably easier. For example, backing up your inventory to be given back to you on another character defeats a large point of this challenge. Pweath don’t do it.

-However, if you’re doing this challenge with someone else who’s doing this challenge, transferring items is fair and allowed.

-I don't count deaths to player invaders as character deaths due to their general unpredictability and unfairness. (Most invaders play to win as predators.)

-Dying when invading - beyond the 3 invasions for Varre's quest if you still do them - do count as deaths. (The 3 invasions for Varre’s quest don’t count as deaths.)

-Competing in the arenas (Limgrave, Caelid, the Capital, and any added in the future) doesn't grant extra lives nor count as character deaths.

-Fighting in duels (red signs) doesn’t grant extra lives nor count as character deaths.

Powerups
-If you're playing offline on PC, you have access to trainers which gives you these temporary powerups. Each powerup costs at least 1 life, and if your life total is reduced to 0 or below due to these, your character is only removed from play upon character death. You're on your honor to use these appropriately.

-You may have any number of powerups active at a time so long as you spend the lives to activate them.

-I'm not providing a link, but Googling Elden Ring Trainer PC is a solid place to start to be able to activate these powerups if you choose.

-[1 Life]: Gain 100% drop rate until character death. Useful for early game item farming to wear better gear as well as to get stuff to sell. Also handy to reduce the boring grind for certain items.

-[1 Life] Set your weight at 0, allowing you to equip anything and still have it count as a light load for you. It’s niche, but the right choice in the right circumstance.

-[1 Life] Keep all your runes on character death for a single life/character death. Doesn't count as an extra character death if you die, but you prematurely lose the life to activate this ability.

-[1 Life] Multiply (max out) all consumable items of one type in your inventory. This benefit lasts until the items are used instead of until the end of the current life, but only the items in your inventory at the time of activating this are multiplied The categories are smithing stones (somber & normal - upgrade an item at a smith or Kale's anvil to do this), remembrances & rune items (Golden Rune [#], Numen's Rune, Hero Rune [#], Lord’s Rune, etc.), flask items (Sacred Tears & Golden Seeds), and all other item types (crafting items, Cuckoo Glintstones, etc.)

-[0 Lives] Multiply (max out) Eldleaf Flowers and Furlcalling Finger Remedies. I'm totally OK with just being able to play cooperative multiplayer.

Recommendations

-Your familiarity with the game and its mechanics will greatly affect your route through this game. I tried rushing Margit my first time and got wrecked. For my second character, I rode to Liurnia, got Rodrika’s help, used the Sellia Crystal Tunnel warp, died to a missile shrimp, then exited the tunnel - barely - and got Rock Sling & the Meteor Stick. As of this writing, Weeping Peninsula is next for some stocking up before heading to Caelid!

-Starting as an Astrologer with a Gold Seed might be your safest bet. Remember, you start as a glass cannon, but you’re still a cannon. Enemies can only kill you if they touch you, but, again, your build is your choice.

-Killing the Soldier of Godrick in the Cave of Knowledge then using that life to activate 100% drop rate for Gatefront Ruins is very useful if done correctly so you get better weapons and armor, including some Brass Shields which are my favorite shield in general in this game due to its generally low requirements and ‘No Skill’ by default.

Finally for Now

Your build, your tactics, and your journey are up to you! If you want to melee, or summon, or cast, or something else, that's your choice!

Enjoy and spread the word!

PS for Modders

Want to turn this into a mod? Go ahead! Just credit me in the credits as Endarire.

Thankee! Alleluia!

[Koala 4peace]

Can you up it to 300?

[CazadorDeLobo]

This is extremely compatible with the tools available to mod this game. If you're up for it you should look into actually making this into a thing that will sort out the rules/mechanics and broaden your vision. This is good stuff. I love challenge runs.

[BenzoSt]

The large number of rules and things to keep track of will likely overwhelm many people keen to try a challenge run. Try to simplify the rule set.

For example, you might be able tighten up these wordy rules by typing something like, "Every time you see the iconic text 'YOU DIED', you lose 1 life." and, "Every time you see the iconic text 'XXXX FELLED', you gain 1 life. You could also change gaining a 1-up from activating one Site of Grace in a new region to acquiring the map for that region.

I find it interesting that you get 1-Ups by killing optional bosses, which is an incentive that isn't there in other challenges such as speedruns, no-death runs, and no-hit runs (which I suspect are only capable by aliens masquerading as humans).

I think the Youtube channel Amazing Chest features Elden Ring challenges for show, albeit at high-stakes for people who are super competitive. This challenge seems more appropriate for bros who want something extra for a second or third playthrough.