Is there a lot of freedom to explore and play at my own pace?

[Outlander]

I like to do a lot of exploring, doing side quests for NPCs and taking my time to find things. Is there a push to get things done in this game or can I do everything at whatever pace I want?

[Modus]

Whatever pace you want! There's the main line of bosses, but there's tonnes to do outside of them

[Demox]

There is no timer, however certain things can trigger if you venture too far. Rya's quest will skip ahead steps allowing you to complete it anyway but it passes over another NPC and shop that will be locked out if you don't do the previous steps. But that is probably the most extreme occurence, but ultimately not a big deal, you can enjoy your first playthrough playing how you want and then when you run it back you can spoil yourself.

[Woldy]

Originally posted by sandwichfren:

I like to do a lot of exploring, doing side quests for NPCs and taking my time to find things. Is there a push to get things done in this game or can I do everything at whatever pace I want?

you are not pushed to do anything except what you want to do, there is a general 'path' to follow that leads to main bosses and big dungeons. but there are plenty of other stuff around to explore, fight and collect.
Its actually encouraged by the entire playerbase to not follow the guidance of grace right out the gate, and instead go explore and get stronger before pressing on into the first big castle.

[Fineous🔥]

Yes, yes. There are no timers and you are able to explore The Lands Between with little restrictions.

Now if something like a mutant giant bird in downtown Caelid murders you before you can even say "WAH?" go elsewhere.......

[Gamerzilla]

As mentioned earlier, rushing to new areas can break a few quests. This is my go-to for quick reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tdyfje/all_missable_quests_rewards_v2/#lightbox

[Woldy]

Originally posted by Fineous🔥:

Yes, yes. There are no timers and you are able to explore The Lands Between with little restrictions.

Now if something like a mutant giant bird in downtown Caelid murders you before you can even say "WAH?" go elsewhere.......

theres that to consider too of course.

TIP: if you wander into an area where everything is pink, then you have entered 'Hell'. Also known as Caelid.

TURN BACK.
Come back when you are stronger, this place does not ask for consent and leaves you with more STD's than Kim Kardashian.

while you are not levelgated on entering areas, enemies are stronger the further you press on from the starting area.

[P.]

Originally posted by Gamerzilla:

As mentioned earlier, rushing to new areas can break a few quests. This is my go-to for quick reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tdyfje/all_missable_quests_rewards_v2/#lightbox

Is there a DLC version?

[Gamerzilla]

Originally posted by P.:

Originally posted by Gamerzilla:

As mentioned earlier, rushing to new areas can break a few quests. This is my go-to for quick reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tdyfje/all_missable_quests_rewards_v2/#lightbox

Is there a DLC version?

Dunno, probably? I never needed it there, not enough quests to lose track of.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by sandwichfren:

I like to do a lot of exploring, doing side quests for NPCs and taking my time to find things. Is there a push to get things done in this game or can I do everything at whatever pace I want?

Exploration is first rate. Ability to go to a large number of areas, even if above level is great. Combat variety is great. Enemy variety is great.

Quests are doggy do-do. Story is doggy do-do. If you intend to try and do the quests you will absolutely need to follow guides. To attempt to do almost any 'quest' in the game (you may not even KNOW you have a quest!) is almost certain to fail.

Worse than that, doing some quests will break others. Going to some areas in the game to soon can break quests. Choosing the wrong thing to do can break quests. Killing the wrong NPC can break quests. And you won't even know they have been broken. You would probably think it was a 'bug' in the game.

Great game for exploration and combat. Also for collecting gear; lots of gear to collect. Lots of builds to tinker around with. But the quest and story are not good. No. Not good at all.

[Phirestar]

You can tackle much of the game in any order you want. There are certain locations that are gated behind some sort of barrier - a key item, a boss fight, etc. - however there’s often more than one method for accessing these places.

A great example is the Altus Plateau, the midpoint of the game normally. There are three ways of reaching this place: one involving an item that opens the Grand Lift (elevator), one that involves fighting your way through a hidden alternative route up the cliff side, and a third way that you’ll probably only discover by accident or by hearing it from someone else online. (I won’t post spoilers, for your sake.) The second option will require you to level up and upgrade your gear quite a bit, but the other two can be done basically right from the beginning of the game with little issue. All you really need to do is run past some dangerous enemies along the way.

With that said, it is very important to understand that enemies and bosses in this game have fixed stats that do not scale, and are designed to be taken on once the player reaches certain level ranges. This means that if you go to a much later area when you’re still early in the game, you will get annihilated by even the most basic enemy. On the flip side, if you choose to wait to explore a part of the map for too long, you’ll eventually reach a point where you’ve out-leveled the content in that zone and, should you explore there, will stomp your way through encounters.

Your experience with the game will end up varying quite a lot in terms of difficulty, as a result. Whether or not this is a negative is up to your personal tastes and preferences, but I have seen arguments on both sides of the discussion. Some find it disappointing to kill a low level boss in a few swings, while others like revisiting early zones that they once had trouble with and can now feel powerful in.

There is a point to be made, I feel, that you have the choice to skip content that you find too easy, much like you could with content that you find too hard or frustrating. I personally believe that Elden Ring and most other open world games aren’t designed with the expectation of the player doing absolutely everything in the world in one playthrough. You’re given more than you need, so that you have the freedom to choose how you progress your character. It’s especially true when considering that specific locations or boss fights will be more resistant to certain types of builds, and vice versa, making this choice a bit of a strategic play on consecutive playthroughs.

[Venator]

Originally posted by P.:

Originally posted by Gamerzilla:

As mentioned earlier, rushing to new areas can break a few quests. This is my go-to for quick reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tdyfje/all_missable_quests_rewards_v2/#lightbox

Is there a DLC version?

On the dlc there are only a few things that mess with questlines, main ones are:

Going to shaded castle or cross the bridge in bonny village it ctivates the rune break event (mostly just advances npcs dialogue but you can miss out on stuff like thiolliers concoction or moores cookbook);

Defeating messmer before doing ansbach and freyja questlines;

Also you need to do thiolliers quest before the leda and allies fight (if you want his help and then his equipment after radahn).


Then theres small stuff like giving hornsent the scorpion stew before the rune breaking (the reward is some furnace golem visages), ledas invasions (can be ignored or you can do them depending on the reward you want) and dragon priestess rewards change depending if you make her sleep or not before bayle.

[Azael Ijima δ]

Yeah take your time, there may not be little secrets or items in every hidden corner, but there's no harm in exploring carefully since there is no time limit and everything you aggro in the open-world easily give up chasing past a certain distance.

Would have been kind of cruel if there was a time limit like Majora's Mask or the first Fallout due to how huge the game is.

[Sabaithal]

Average Elden Ring newcomer experience:
- Walk outside
- Get killed by a corpse-spider with children heads
- Respawn in a cave
- Wander over to the elevator
- Ohmygodthisplaceisbeautiful.jpeg
- Maybe talk to the white person outside
- Get lost for the next 40 hours in beautiful land
- Make a discussion "Guys, where TF do I go????????/??XD"

[Outlander]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Average Elden Ring newcomer experience:
- Walk outside
- Get killed by a corpse-spider with children heads
- Respawn in a cave
- Wander over to the elevator
- Ohmygodthisplaceisbeautiful.jpeg
- Maybe talk to the white person outside
- Get lost for the next 40 hours in beautiful land
- Make a discussion "Guys, where TF do I go????????/??XD"

Sounds good to me. As long as I can just take my time, do things at my own pace and just kinda grind/build weapons and stuff.

[rpgforme]

That's really the exact flavor of game. Lots of freedom.

That being said, things will get hard occasionally. You should only pick up the game if you're alright with occasional challenges.