Elden Ring is a huge experience that just keeps growing the more you go out of your way to explore the world. The utter grandness of this game feels like magic rather than just basic game design and development.
You can maximize your first playthrough by indulging in much of the content you can access or are not blocked by game progression. And luckily, this game allows you to keep going after beating it.
From the map and level design to the minutia of the various game, the mechanics present in Elden Ring is mind-boggling, and I refuse to believe anyone can experience it all in a single playthrough or a “meager” 200+ hours of gameplay.
1. Put New Game+ On Hold
As soon as you have beaten the final boss and chosen your desired ending, you can start a new game+. Though tempting, as you carry over all the things and levels you have unlocked, it will reset the whole world and everything you have progressed over the map, including all Grace Site, and start you from the beginning. New Game + also makes enemies even harder.
Press no and continue with the current journey as much is to be explored and experienced. Don’t worry you can always opt for the Journey 2 experience from the Roundtable Hold.
Everything that doesn’t require you to start a new game+, like certain quests, should be done now as you have the whole map open to explore and you will be at the peak of your power level.
2. Rune Farming
The game will always keep you thirsting for more Runes to upgrade your desired build or buy some weapon, and many other things that will ask for a share in your Runes. There is a location in Elden Ring i.e. Mohgwyn Palace where you can farm huge numbers of Runes, we have covered it in detail right here.
To further make the Rune farming method efficient, after defeating the final boss, you will be given a Remembrance that can be traded in to get Sacred Relic Sword. The sword’s skill, Wave of Gold, sends out a huge AOE wave attack that can easily kill multiple enemies in front of you.
Use this sword’s skill on the numerous Albinaurics enemies sitting beside the initial Grace site of Mohgwyn Palace to kill most of them in one fell swoop and bank huge sums of Runes.
You can easily rinse and repeat this method with the Grace site nearby. Consult the above-given link for better detail. Approximately 30,000 Runes will be given for taking them out once; repeat to your heart’s content.
3. Optional Bosses
Elden Ring has a lot of bosses, even this statement is an understatement. From Software must have a dedicated team to come up with ideas for bosses who surely have gone coo-coo by the sheer number they put in the game.
There are so many bosses that you can easily miss owing to their placement, while some are only accessible with specific questlines, and others require some weird, unorthodox action by the players. Most bosses here are optional, so you are bound to miss quite a lot if you are not the exploration kind of person.
Some bosses are super hard that you have sidelined for the future after getting your butt handed to you countless times. After ending the game, it is the best time to visit these monstrosities to show your true potential or die some more, up to you.
4. Build Experimentation
If you are an avid Elden Ring fan, you must have come across some builds on Youtube that made you drool. We often start and end the game stuck in our ways and do not explore all the other playstyle possibilities it has to offer.
After ending the game, it is the perfect opportunity to respec at Rennala and go for the build you had your eye on. And if you have accumulated many Larvel tears, you can go crazy experimenting.
We have a fun build that you can use right here.
You can also spec yourself in a way that facilitates a particular item or weapon you have been fascinated by in the past only to have it sent off to storage as you didn’t have the right attribute requirement. Whatever you fancy, you can easily create now especially looking at all those crazy-looking boss weapons that you get from Remembrance trading.
5. Different Endings
Now that you have picked your specific ending, you can start over or have a previous save that you can load, using it to opt for any other endings this game offers.
Most people went for Ranni’s ending “The age of Stars” and missed out on other weird ones. Start over and go for them now; some are even required for achievements.
6. Legendary Items and Weapons
There are 9 Legendary armaments and a bunch of other items like Talismans that you can find if you haven’t already gotten these. Some of these items are easily acquired while others are almost as easily missed others are lost depending on your progress.
Look up these items and weapons and go on to tick them off your list.
7. Puzzles
The game is filled with puzzles that are hard to find solutions for like the various Rise towers. Some of their solutions are just downright insane and come from so far from the left field that you must google the solution. Visit these places again and solve them to get the rewards they are hiding.
There are many other puzzles that were right in front of your face, and you didn’t even realize it so hunt them down.
8. Unfinished Questline
Did you leave some questline for the end? Then what are you doing reading this article go and complete it! The game features some easy-to-miss and hard-to-follow quests that the uninitiated players are definitely going to gloss over.
Visit this link where all the NPCs in Elden Ring are mentioned and make a mental note of whose quest have you completed and which ones are left. Open their respective page and follow all the steps needed to progress their story arc. Do keep in mind some questlines are progression sensitive and will be lost depending on your playthrough.
9. Platinum Or All the Achievements
This will be easy to explain and a “duh!” moment for completionist players. If you really liked this game and want to keep its momentum going you can opt for getting the Platinum Trophy or all of the Achievements this game has in store. Just siphon through the list of the trophies/achievements are get to work on acquiring them.
This will give you some bragging rights for your love of the game and show the world that you are a badass!