What should I do next?

[primrose]

Recently got gifted Elden Ring, and after getting out of the tutorial zone/crypt/church, I don't know what to do or where to go.

Never really played open games like Elden Ring so I'm just lost. Any pointers in where to go? What to do?

Ty

[potato]

there are no pointers, go explore and kill stuff

[primrose]

Originally posted by potato:

there are no pointers, go explore and kill stuff

Well thing is, just about everything I find (that's not a goat or a pigeon) claps me- especially the fat dude with the horse. I managed to kill the dude with the white mask though.

[potato]

white mask is a friendly npc, you might as well restart game

[primrose]

Originally posted by potato:

white mask is a friendly npc, you might as well restart game

Oh

[II]

If you hate the not knowing part you can try watching a bit of a playthrough and/or guides on some mechanics. However I think its much more fun if you just go around and explore, accept that you will die a lot and just slowly learn.
Also worth noting that you are by no means expected to kill everything you see the moment you see it - in fact you are strongly encouraged to first become much stronger in some cases (like that "fat dude outside" for example..).

[Sparhawk 59]

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN7YFKHOR9Y&list=PL7RtZMiaOk8gdRf130w4gFYyhstL-5VRh

[primrose]

Originally posted by II:

If you hate the not knowing part you can try watching a bit of a playthrough and/or guides on some mechanics. However I think its much more fun if you just go around and explore, accept that you will die a lot and just slowly learn.
Also worth noting that you are by no means expected to kill everything you see the moment you see it - in fact you are strongly encouraged to first become much stronger in some cases (like that "fat dude outside" for example..).

Not that I hate it, just a bit disorienting! I'll look around more, thanks for the tips

[LuckyCheshire]

Okay, the dude on the horse is extremely powerful, you're intended to just run past him and come back later when you're more powerful. Varre the White Mask is a (dubiously) friendly character. You haven't missed out on anything major by killing him, but you won't be able to get one armor set this run and it will be more difficult to get to one of the endgame areas. Now you know.

The easiest basic path is to follow the 'guidance of grace'. Those are the golden trails that some checkpoints have, which point off toward another checkpoint along the main trail. Don't feel too constrained though, you can always go wander off pretty much anywhere. If any enemy (like the Tree Sentinel/horse dude) is too difficult, you can just go wander off somewhere else and come back later. Once you progress to fighting the first story boss, win or lose, you'll be teleported to a home base of sorts that has lots of helpful NPCs.

[primrose]

Originally posted by Sparhawk 58:

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN7YFKHOR9Y&list=PL7RtZMiaOk8gdRf130w4gFYyhstL-5VRh

Thanks!

[primrose]

Originally posted by LuckyCheshire777:

Okay, the dude on the horse is extremely powerful, you're intended to just run past him and come back later when you're more powerful. Varre the White Mask is a (dubiously) friendly character. You haven't missed out on anything major by killing him, but you won't be able to get one armor set this run and it will be more difficult to get to one of the endgame areas. Now you know.

The easiest basic path is to follow the 'guidance of grace'. Those are the golden trails that some checkpoints have, which point off toward another checkpoint along the main trail. Don't feel too constrained though, you can always go wander off pretty much anywhere. If any enemy (like the Tree Sentinel/horse dude) is too difficult, you can just go wander off somewhere else and come back later. Once you progress to fighting the first story boss, win or lose, you'll be teleported to a home base of sorts that has lots of helpful NPCs.

Ooh I see, appreciate the input

[TimeToBanzai]

You need the game to look like this or what?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2938733859
Look around and find a place where you would like to go. Fight your way through or try to bypass all enemies. Explore, kill and die... again and again and again until you begin to understand how the game and the game world works. You will become stronger and wiser by playing the game, and not by asking questions on the forum.

[The Dead Weight]

As the other person said, just follow the path of the guidance of grace. Don't hesitate to do a detour off path while you're travelling, for example if you think there might something off to the left, because there is almost always something interesting placed in the map like a cave or merchant. If you're unsure what to explore, you can open up the map, zoom in, and you can find interesting landmarks on the map itself, like a drawing that looks like a structure or a forest.

[Sir Lunchalot]

Originally posted by potato:

there are no pointers, go explore and kill stuff

there is points, its called guidance of graze .. just saying.

[Dirak2012]

If something feels impossible (like the huge knight outside the starting point) you can just run away and come back when you are stronger.

[potato]

Originally posted by Sir Lunchalot:

there is points, its called guidance of graze .. just saying.

lol, those cause more confusion than anything else, it's actually when i stopped trying to follow those that i started figuring out where to go and what to do