Combat in Elden Ring is the main way you interact with the world around you. You will face many challenging fights as you journey through the Lands Between, but you'll also have all the tools you need to triumph.
Elden Ring Combat
Attacking in Elden Ring
Melee attacks are the bread and butter of Elden Ring combat for all but the most dedicated spellcaster classes. Choose from a huge variety of weapons, each with its own characteristics and style of play, and go toe-to-toe with the fiercest warriors who dwell in the Lands Between. Two-hand your weapon for extra strength or wield two weapons of the same type for special power attacks.
Magic in Elden Ring
Magic flows through the Lands Between, ready to be wielded by those who seek to become Elden Lord. Tarnished of great Intelligence can equip a Glintstone Staff to cast Sorceries, while the Faithful use Sacred Seals to cast Incantations. Spells can have any manner of effects: most damage enemies, but they can also increase your power, heal you, or grant special boons and abilities. Choose carefully which spells you want to memorize when resting at a Site of Grace to give yourself the power and flexibility you need.
Skills in Elden Ring
Every weapon in Elden Ring has a special skill you can use. Many of these skills are special attacks, although some can help you endure hits, do a special dodge, or power you up in various ways. In addition, you can use Ashes of War that you find throughout the Lands Between to change many weapons' skills. Mix and match to find the perfect build for you!
Jumping in Elden Ring
Elden Ring's jump button isn't just for exploring the world, it also adds an extra layer of play to combat. Powerful jump attacks allow you to close distance and do large amounts of stance damage. You can also use jumps to dodge low-to-the-ground attacks—your legs and torso are invulnerable most of the time you're in the air. Be careful, though: if you get hit while you're in the air, you'll be sent sprawling!
Summoning Spirits in Elden Ring
Throughout your journey you will come across the ashes of spirits which you can summon to aid you in battle. These spirits usually take the form enemies that you can find and defeat in the Lands Between. You'll meet a fellow Tarnished who can improve your spirits, and with her help they can become powerful enough to accompany you in even your most fearsome challenges.
Guarding (Blocking) in Elden Ring
Equip a Shield and bring up your guard to block incoming attacks. How much damage gets blocked depends on your shield's stats, but with a little determination you can find a shield that will protect you at least from all incoming Physical Damage. Be careful, though: each attack you block will consume some Stamina, and if you run out you'll be rendered immobile and vulnerable for a few precious seconds.
Dodging in Elden Ring
The best way to survive combat is not to get hit. Dodge roll in any direction to get out of the way of danger, or use your brief invulnerability while rolling to dodge straight through oncoming attacks and set yourself up to punish the attacker for daring to think they could hurt you. Beyond the humble dodge roll, Elden Ring features a number of additional ways to avoid attacks, including jumping over them and using special skills.
Note: Since Patch 1.06, rolling distance when the player has a light equip load has been increased.
Parrying in Elden Ring
With an appropriate Skill, you can parry incoming attacks, canceling them entirely, and making your enemy vulnerable to a critical hit. Unlike in previous Souls games, some bosses in Elden Ring must be parried multiple times in order to land a single critical hit. However, there are a great variety of different parry skills that can be used to improve your parrying, allowing you to parry at a distance or even to parry spells.
Stealth in Elden Ring
Not every encounter needs to be approached head-on. Elden Ring's stealth mechanics allow you to sneak around fights you may want to avoid. Crouch low to the ground to reduce your noise, hide in tall grass or behind large objects to remain unseen, and discover spells, skills, and equipment throughout the Lands Between to keep your presence concealed. When you're ready to reveal yourself, get behind an unsuspecting enemy to deliver a powerful critical hit. You'll always get a damage boost against enemies who don't know you're there!
AnonymousIf you're struggling with a certain boss or enemy, don't be afraid to swap your Ashes of War. Its the easiest way to change up your arsenal without having to respec and many ashes trivialize certain enemy types.
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I beat radagon with giant crushers also online name by any boss door I'm Bonk!
- Anonymous
command grabs suck and have no place in this kind of fighting game. it's a cheap guaranteed hit that usually does almost all your health. it ignores rolling, blocking, and even death. dead enemies have grabbed me and killed me multiple times before falling limp after the attack. **** programming. it could be such a good game, if only the people building it were competent. there's lots to like, but with every bite there's a pinch of dirt for seasoning. ruining the entire experience.
- Anonymous
We have DEFENSE, but the game doesn't tell you how it works or what it's for. It just says "Defense increases when you increase attributes". But what is it for?
- Anonymous
I'll just leave my review of the combat here shall I?
Just some background here:
Elden was my first game I bought on my PS5. It was also the first game I used a controller for.
In the beginning, the combat felt too hard for me, my main strategy was just to stick behind my shield and guard counter. The Gatefront Godrick knight was my archnemesis for as long as I could remember. I tried every weapon type, had beaten both Godrick and Rennala, nearly slew Morgott before the combat clicked for me.
At around my twelfth attempt at Morgott, I suddenly began to perform much better, I nearly did phase 1 hitless, and got him down to his phase transition when I finally realised why veterans enjoyed this style of combat. The mix of deliberate strategic movement and frenzied "I'm almost there" combat is what truly sold me here.
My build was horrifically unoptimised, and my vigor was very close to the starting amount my character had. I could get one shotted by everything in Leyndell, Morgott could destroy me with every hit.
My saving grace was the fact that I could deal a huge chunk of damage with my weapon (The Bolt of Gransax). Somehow, I was able to survive long enough to kill him.
The moment where the combat clicked is why I truly fell in love with this game.
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Hi people.
How works defence and rolls in Elden Ring? It's like Dark Souls III?
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Crouch R1 needs a serious nerf. It’s literally all colossal sword users do. If you’re in range it’s going to hit you no matter what and a jump counter doesn’t work because it’s so damn fast. They can roll out of the way, it’s faster and more staggering than a straight sword R1 and it can’t be parried. This is as cancer as ROB.
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Could anyone please confirm if there is a battle mechanic available to get out of grab attacks? I’ve read a guide that claims you can mash buttons to get an enemy off of you and reduce damage.
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If I had to suggest some simple tweaks that would increase overall playability.
1. Jump- This needs a longer window for punishment with more weight. It doesn’t make any sense that you can jump 6 feet in the air, but you have to fat roll? If there was a correlation between weight and overall recovery frames from jumping that would be great.
2. Spears- These really need some sort of cool down or much larger stamina drain from the running power stances stab.
3. Attack redirect hits- It is extremely silly to see someone aim their weapon or attack, bosses or players and attack in a 180-270 degree change mid attack. It looks bad and doesn’t make any sense with real physics. This i think is a left over mechanic from dark souls 1. Making the attack go the direction it swings without changing direction mid swing would be nice.
4. Jumping turn around swings- This is a counter strike FPS move. Where you jump, turn around mid air and mid swing and hit the other direction. I know some will think this adds to gameplay, but it doesn’t and looks odd and is not punishable which is really strange.
5. Improve two handed poise damage- There should be a reason to use a weapon two handed no matter the size. Right now power stances weapons nearly do double damage and with that frog leap being unpunishable it gets to be really goofy. So two handing a weapon should cause at least poise damage.
6. Kick or some shield breaking mechanic- Not sure why this doesn’t already happen, but that would be nice.
7. Heavy weapon stun lock- I think I know why this was removed, but now magic and WA are way too strong compared to proper spacing and good solid heavy weapon strike. This should allow a follow up hit especially on low poise characters.
This game still has a long ways to go, but hopefully some helpful comments could give the devs some more feedback for simple improvements.
Good game just still needs some love.
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Jump attacks need to be punishable either with a parry of some sort or making the recovery time longer. There’s no downside at all to jumping like a battle toad the entire fight. There should be some sort of delay after a jump so that way it’s punishable.
- Anonymous
I can’t be the only one who is experiencing this:
I get staggered, then I roll to avoid the next attack. But my character doesn’t roll. But there was time after the stagger—time enough to be able to roll. And I pressed the roll button late enough that it should register a roll once I’m capable of rolling.
The only solution is to spam the heck out of the roll button and then stop once I roll to avoid double rolling. Pretty lame
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I can’t be the only conservative snob when it comes to Souls-games, who just refuses to jump to evade attacks in combat, right?
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From what I can tell from reading other posts online (havent tested myself yet), the section that talks about "perfect blocking" is simply not true and does not exist in the game. Should probably be removed until more solid proof comes up.
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In many underground dungeons, pillars shoot flames down narrow corridors. Attacking them will lower the flame traps/columns. This also applies to crossbow and bow attacks. Manually aiming a bolt or arrow will make the traps deactivated. Haven’t tested magics on the columns, yet.
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FromSoft: Creates a variety of ways to fight - Players: Ashes Spam any% Ash Flask empty
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Can anybody confirm if overkill damage gives you bonus runes like in the souls series?
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If you crouch and use an HP flask then drink from an FP flask, you will drink from one flask and immediately go to the other one without the "delay" you get from standing, useful for mages who have to heal and refill their magic very quickly.
This might be the wrong section to ask, so i am sorry about that, BUT i wonder if my equipment weight does affect the strength of my jump attacks?
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I wish backsteps had I frames. so many cool backstep attacks that just go to waste.
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Hitting an enemy while the enemy is unaware of your presence will result a 26% boost in damage that is rounded down when the result is not a whole number.
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You should add that Curved Swords, Thrusting Swords, and Heavy Thrusting Swords have Feints that are executed by charging heavy attack and simultaneously pressing dodge.
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It's like two weeks after launch and I can't find ANY information on how many iframes you get from rolls, jumps, horse mount/dismount etc. Seems really strange that nobody has figured out the precise numbers yet.
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Does stance also apply to PvP? Would it just increase the amount of stamina lost on the attacker?
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Danm i hate the enemy's in this game!, the moment you even show a glimps of your Crimson vial they go totally berserk and attack you with reckless abandon..
its was surprising in Darksouls 3 that the enemy's were more aggressive and that worked out , but having the enemy's go crazy on trying to heal is just bad design,
i wold not mind it if some enemy's did it, but all of them do it.
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I hate that skipping time doesn't change the weather. it's been raining constantly for a real hour.
R2 counter is way too OP and easy to perform. They should have made it an art of war or something where it costs FP
Stealth kills seem to give ~20% extra runes, ~25% when combined with weather boost. Tested on first knight enemy at church of elleh. Base runes 64, 77 for stealth kill, 67 weather only, 80 stealth + weather.
EDIT: Seems the bonus is not coming from stealth but is some kind of overkill bonus.
Stealth back stab with dagger dealing 324 not giving bonus, same encounter with sword dealing 331 gives 20% bonus.
Same 20% bonus is gained with a stance break critical stab.
EDIT 2: Tested more and the overkill threshold seems to be about 1.5x the max HP of a unit in a single attack no matter what kind of attack.
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Does anyone know how powerful critical hits (parry & backstabs) are yet? I love pvp, but I really hope they tuned it down at least against other players. And yes parrying does take skill, but it should never be a one-shot.
- Anonymous
It's called posture, not stance. Stance is a weapon skill in ds3.
- Anonymous
Perfect block? Is this true? I saw not a single other person mentioning it. Would love it to be true.
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I doubt you could even imagine it That which commanded the stars Giving life its fullest brilliance The Elden Ring Oh, Elden Ring Shattered by someone or something Don't tell me you don't see it Look up at the sky It burns
Game has best combat but worst balance
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