Am I missing out if I skip caves, catacombs, herograves etc. and focus on the main story and bosses?

[swiftsausages]

I have 105h in game and I last played about 6 months ago. I kinda burned myself out by trying to find every single optional area and boss. Sorry to say it but it got INCREDIBLY tedious. I do prefer the progression of the older From games over the open world in Elden Ring.

Not really the games fault. I just get hyperfocused on side stuff.

As far as I remember, I never got anything worthwhile from caves other than smithing stones. But I think you can also get those while going through the main areas. Half the weapons and spells I got were left unused and it feels like a waste of time.

I want to restart with a new character and am planning to skip these optional areas. Would that be fine? I'm not opposed to optimising my build in NG+ with better weapons and stats. But I just want to finish the game once.

[Mr. Nobody]

Most people will disagree, but I personally think skipping that stuff makes the game better in most ways. Doing literally everything not only can become tedious/repetitive, but it makes your character way too OP unless you go out of your way to not utilize all the runes and other materials you end up collecting. 90% of the optional boss fights became trivial for me which was dissapointing.

It's way more fun for me to stick to the main bosses and unique/interesting optional bosses to keep the game challenging. And if you do find yourself struggling you can always do some of that optional stuff just to level up a bit.

[MonoPegasus22]

Originally posted by Mr. Nobody:

Most people will disagree, but I personally think skipping that stuff makes the game better in most ways. Doing literally everything not only can become tedious/repetitive, but it makes your character way too OP unless you go out of your way to not utilize all the runes and other materials you end up collecting. 90% of the optional boss fights became trivial for me which was dissapointing.

It's way more fun for me to stick to the main bosses and unique/interesting optional bosses to keep the game challenging. And if you do find yourself struggling you can always do some of that optional stuff just to level up a bit.

I agree with this. Also consider leaving some things to search for in NG plus. I kinda wished I had.

[Backstabba]

Unless you'd need something from a side area. Just skip it.

The legacy dungeons are the only good parts of the game that carry an otherwise pointlessly bloated open world.

Most dungeons are largely reused areas with the majority doing very little to differentiate from one another.

[Havok]

I think at some point, you should work on "completion" if you enjoy the game. There is no reason not to. I always enjoy doing it, but by the time im ready for NG+, when you have already done 95% of the caves and bosses, (not quests) your NG+ is just a boss run, and then its like, meh.

I think you should do it, but really, if you grab the necesseties, you will be fine.

[swiftsausages]

Originally posted by Mr. Nobody:

Most people will disagree, but I personally think skipping that stuff makes the game better in most ways. Doing literally everything not only can become tedious/repetitive, but it makes your character way too OP unless you go out of your way to not utilize all the runes and other materials you end up collecting. 90% of the optional boss fights became trivial for me which was dissapointing.

It's way more fun for me to stick to the main bosses and unique/interesting optional bosses to keep the game challenging. And if you do find yourself struggling you can always do some of that optional stuff just to level up a bit.

Exactly my thoughts. Going back into it, I'd rather not fight the same stonedigger troll, rune bear, gargoyle watchdog thing, black knife assassins, erdtree avatars for the millionth time in different locations. In the 100h+ ive played, i haven't even reached Malenia or Fire Giant...

[swiftsausages]

Originally posted by Havok:

I think at some point, you should work on "completion" if you enjoy the game. There is no reason not to. I always enjoy doing it, but by the time im ready for NG+, when you have already done 95% of the caves and bosses, (not quests) your NG+ is just a boss run, and then its like, meh.

I think you should do it, but really, if you grab the necesseties, you will be fine.

I might. I've done it for other Souls games. It's just the open world is too much. I'd rather 100% Bloodborne or Sekiro again instead of doing that for Elden Ring.

[Senki]

Not really, most of them are extremely unrewarding and reused assets.

Rarely you'll find ones that have a slightly interesting change but overall if you find it tedious it's not worth it.

If you want to you can kill the white dragon in caelid with bleed and you'll get more runes than the side dungeons in limgrave and liurnia combined. That's what I always do on new characters so every side dungeon becomes irrelevant unless I want an item.

[Rena Ichigawa]

Lookup what a dungeon has before you do them. More often than not, they are empty, and wont have any meaning for you, or your build. Very few actually have anything worth while in them.

[Magic A. I.]

Originally posted by swiftsausages:

I have 105h in game and I last played about 6 months ago. I kinda burned myself out by trying to find every single optional area and boss. Sorry to say it but it got INCREDIBLY tedious. I do prefer the progression of the older From games over the open world in Elden Ring.

Not really the games fault. I just get hyperfocused on side stuff.

As far as I remember, I never got anything worthwhile from caves other than smithing stones. But I think you can also get those while going through the main areas. Half the weapons and spells I got were left unused and it feels like a waste of time.

I want to restart with a new character and am planning to skip these optional areas. Would that be fine? I'm not opposed to optimising my build in NG+ with better weapons and stats. But I just want to finish the game once.

You'll be missing out on a lot of stuff. At the very least do the hero graves. Actually, maybe someone will come up with a list of good filler-dungeons. I remember at least three, but not their names.

[TimeToBanzai]

Originally posted by swiftsausages:

I kinda burned myself out by trying to find every single optional area and boss.

If you don't want to do something, then don't do it, it's that simple. When I explored the game world a year ago, I didn't have this problem and exploring every cave was a pleasure for me (I spent two weeks exploring the entire map). Each person has his own opinion on this matter and I will not advise you something that suits me. Do what you want to do.

[swiftsausages]

Originally posted by TimeToBanzai:

Originally posted by swiftsausages:

I kinda burned myself out by trying to find every single optional area and boss.

If you don't want to do something, then don't do it, it's that simple. When I explored the game world a year ago, I didn't have this problem and exploring every cave was a pleasure for me (I spent two weeks exploring the entire map). Each person has his own opinion on this matter and I will not advise you something that suits me. Do what you want to do.

Very true. Turns out 100%-ing every game I play is not for me. I used to enjoy it and it eventually became a chore. This is the reason why I want to revisit the game and play other games in a more relaxed way. It doesn't matter if I missed a collectible or whatever. Doesn't affect the game play. It's better than telling myself "CHECK EVERY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WALL TO MAKE SURE IT'S NOT ILLUSORY!"...

[swiftsausages]

Originally posted by Magic A. I.:

Originally posted by swiftsausages:

I have 105h in game and I last played about 6 months ago. I kinda burned myself out by trying to find every single optional area and boss. Sorry to say it but it got INCREDIBLY tedious. I do prefer the progression of the older From games over the open world in Elden Ring.

Not really the games fault. I just get hyperfocused on side stuff.

As far as I remember, I never got anything worthwhile from caves other than smithing stones. But I think you can also get those while going through the main areas. Half the weapons and spells I got were left unused and it feels like a waste of time.

I want to restart with a new character and am planning to skip these optional areas. Would that be fine? I'm not opposed to optimising my build in NG+ with better weapons and stats. But I just want to finish the game once.

You'll be missing out on a lot of stuff. At the very least do the hero graves. Actually, maybe someone will come up with a list of good filler-dungeons. I remember at least three, but not their names.

If it comes in my way, I might do it. But I won't be going out of my way to look for everything. It's exhausting...

[desecratedpetals]

Doing all the dungeons made me like the game less

[Magic A. I.]

Originally posted by swiftsausages:

Originally posted by Magic A. I.:

You'll be missing out on a lot of stuff. At the very least do the hero graves. Actually, maybe someone will come up with a list of good filler-dungeons. I remember at least three, but not their names.

If it comes in my way, I might do it. But I won't be going out of my way to look for everything. It's exhausting...

Then why do you even ask?

[swiftsausages]

Originally posted by Magic A. I.:

Then why do you even ask?

Well based on the answers I got before, skipping them is fine. I won't be missing much. But since some are useful, I'd do them if they come my way... that's all I meant. Off the top of my head, Limgrave has one that connects to the Dragon island. I'll check that out if I want to do a dragon run.