What do you lose when you restart Elden Ring?
Let‘s start by clearly laying out the key progress that is lost when restarting Elden Ring:
However, you will keep your character‘s level, all equipped weapons/armor, spells learned, crafting recipes acquired, and Talismans. So while exploration must be redone, your strength built up over dozens of hours remains.
Friend, if you‘re on the fence about restarting your Elden Ring adventure, I‘m here to enthusiastically say: yes, dive back in! Here are the main reasons why additional playthroughs are so rewarding:
Try exciting new character builds
One of Elden Ring‘s biggest strengths is the depth of its RPG mechanics. With 10 starting classes and hundreds of weapons, spells, and stats to mix, the possibilities are endless. I‘ve crafted the table below to illustrate some popular builds worth trying on a second playthrough:
| Build | Description |
|---|---|
| Paladin | A heavily armored tank that wields faith spells and big weapons like greatswords. |
| Battlemage | A spellblade that smoothly combines intelligence spells and melee skills. |
| Bleed-focused | Wields katanas and weapons with bleed effects to shred enemies. |
| Pure Sorcerer | Demolishes foes from afar with powerful intelligence spells. |
As you can see, the variety is immense! Respecing before starting over lets you build something totally new.
Take different routes through the open world
Elden Ring gives you the freedom to approach areas and bosses in any order you choose. Journeys 2, 3 and beyond let you try new progression paths and sequence break with keys acquired on previous runs. I‘ve mapped out some example routes below:
| Playthrough 1 | Playthrough 2 |
|---|---|
| Limgrave > Liurnia > Caelid > Altus | Limgrave > Caelid > Liurnia > Altus |
Varying the order keeps the challenge fresh and changes how you experience the epic story.
Appreciate the increased difficulty
On additional playthroughs, enemies get big boosts to health, damage, and gain new attacks to catch veterans off guard. For those seeking a greater challenge, each new game offers fiercer foes to test your skills against. Players reported a 30-50% increase in enemy toughness by the 4th playthrough!
Discover more of the hidden details
Elden Ring is jam-packed with hidden content – entire secret areas, illusory walls, NPC questlines, and more. I missed a shocking amount of content on my first playthrough even after 90 hours! Starting over lets you find all those cool weapons and interactions you might have skipped before.
Experience the online elements
The multiplayer aspects allow you to invade other players, engage in jolly cooperation for boss fights, and leave helpful messages for others. Restarting opens up these unique social systems that you likely neglected originally.
Enjoy the story again with new insight
Elden Ring‘s fragmented storytelling benefits greatly from multiple goes as you piece together more of the subtle lore and background. Further runs let you catch story elements you glazed over earlier.
To fully experience everything Elden Ring has to offer, most dedicated players agree 3-4 complete journeys are required:
- Playthrough 1: Your first blind adventure through the Lands Between.
- Playthrough 2: Follow NPC quests you missed and collect items with your existing map knowledge.
- Playthrough 3: See the alternate endings after facing the final bosses again.
- Playthrough 4+: Try radically different builds or self-imposed challenges for additional replayability.
I‘d suggest rotating which Great Runes you activate in each run for varied boss fights and buffs too. And focus on different combat methods like sorceries or incantations to keep things fresh!
When you feel ready to return to the Lands Between again, here are some tips:
- Respec your build at Rennala to match your plans for the playthrough.
- Upgrade new weapons you want to test out this time.
- Stockpile on crafting materials you‘ll need again later.
- Drop gear on an alternate character for easy picking up when starting over.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I hope this detailed breakdown helps explain why journeying through Elden Ring again is so rewarding. There are still so many secrets left to uncover, my friend. Your adventures in the Lands Between have only just begun.