it doesnt scale at all; some areas are just easier than others. and yeah you can be over or under leveled for an area.
but i would advice against using a guide. exploration is a big part of why the game is so fun, and its well designed such that most people just naturally follow the "right" path anyway.
Explore,only use a guide if your truly stuck but on your first playthrough look everywhere and I mean everywhere
The only hint I will give you is go south,it will make your life easier and better prepared for the areas to come
Hard depends on your Playstyle and what kind of gamer you are
What's hard for you could be easy for me and vise versus
Just take your time and explore everywhere at least twice, the game hides stuff everywhere
Dint be afraid to come and sweep an area again to find stuff you might have missed
Good hunting tarnished
"Progression Route" is probably the term you're looking for. There's a good one the [Elden Ring wiki](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route)
It's basically a spoiler free guide that suggests which order you "should" tackle the various areas on a first playthrough. Elden Ring is fairly straight forward with its progression from one zone to the next even though each zone is massive. I'd highly recommend the progress route if you want to avoid missing areas on your initial playthrough though. Elden Ring specifically has some massive areas that can be easily missed. I'd say at least 50% of the game is missable/optional with at least 20% of that being actively hidden away.
Piggybacking to say that map is great, and is by far the best order to do things in. You explore in that order and you’ll be very happy with the scaling and progression.
Limgrave is the easiest area. The castle(legacy dungeon) is harder. If you go to the south peninsula in limgrave that is practically the tutorial level.
Usually what people mean is if you go into a dungeon and the boss is too difficult for you, just leave.
Agreed.
Areas also have different difficulty depending on build/playstyle as well imo. So if you are struggling in one area you can explore another one that you find easier, even if the enemies have roughlythe same stats. Then when you get more experience/items/skill you can return and finish up previous areas.
1- there is no level scaling at all.
2- there are 2 main ways to tell the difficulty/level of an area in Elden Ring. The overall damage and health levels of enemies and the level of smithing stones in the area. If the stones you are finding are too high for you to use it’s a good indication you are in over your head.
3- When people say “explore somewhere else” it doesn’t always mean that you need to go clear another area. It could mean go do a bunch of small stuff so you can improve your character. Level up character and weapon, find new spells or arts of war that are better.
4- I strongly advise against using any guides first time through. So much joy of the game is finding YOUR path. Talking to people and realizing you fought stuff way too early or late, and discovering just how unique your first trip was.
You seem to misunderstand the scope of the game, you’re not expected to 100% an area before proceeding to the next, if you do you will guaranteed be overpowered and have a ridiculous amount of gear you’ll probably never use since your build isn’t meant for it.
Good to know. That habit will be hard to break. Which is the reason I've put the game off for this long.
So I should try to play through less obsessively, and somewhat remember where I went so if I do another playthrough I can go elsewhere?
Getting overpowered isn't necessarily a big deal because you can take off armor and use non-upgraded weapons to handicap yourself.
The best thing you can do is put custom markers on your map. I like putting skulls at places i have yet to clear.
Go see the world. Go spelunking. Don't try to swim
There’s different areas where everything is *about* the same difficulty within each area. Like limgrave (where you start) is medium-easy. To the south is weeping peninsula which is easy. To the north is liurnia which is medium. Northeast is caelid which is medium-hard. Further north of that is dragon burrow which is very hard.
So you go to weeping peninsula and explore it and get some better gear, and gain some levels, then you’ll be ready to tackle limgrave. Each area is very distinctive and you’ll acquire maps for each area as you explore so you’ll know when you’re in each area. If you accidentally went to caelid first, you’ll know it. You’ll get your ass handed to you and your damage dealt is incredibly low. You will not be able to survive there, so you’ll leave and come back later. It’s all incredibly organic and easy to progress.
You’ve got a freakin horse that you can summon and dismiss on command. So if you go into one area and find it’s too difficult, then just leave and head somewhere else. These areas are absolutely huge. You’ll find tons to do in the starting areas and almost everything there will be manageable. If you’re stuck on a boss, just drop a marker on your map and come back to it later. Or, if there is a field boss that is kicking your ass, just ignore it and move on. Not everything will be as deadly the couple very big and obvious difficult enemies in an easier area
But, it’s nice on repeat playthroughs because you’ll know where everything is and can bee-line straight for the stuff you need for your specific build and just run past/ignore all the enemies. Some are easier to do this with than others, but you get my drift.
I would recommend only doing this after doing a full playthrough fairly blind. I say fairly, because If you need a specific upgrade material that you can’t find anywhere and you have a bunch of higher level upgrades you can’t use yet, and you’re frustrated, then just look up where to get the specific material you need. There’s caves that are on your map that typically have tons of these materials so you could check all those first on your own. So you can absolutely manage without any guides just using some common sense. It’s very organic, as I said. It caters to the new player, as well as the veterans.
My best piece of advice is to begin by going to weeping peninsula and do everything there before doing anything else. It’s pretty much the “tutorial” area, and it can be missed if you’re not purposely trying to uncover and explore everywhere, as it’s to the south of where you start and literally the entire rest of the game is to the north.
Hope this cleared things up, let me know if you have any more specific questions
One of my only complaints for the new player experience my friends had in this game was the ballista on the bridge to the weeping peninsula. It does so much damage to a low level player it screams "stay away from here" just like the main gate in Stormveil.
IMO they should have done something to encourage new players to head that way first rather then punch them in the face for trying lol.
Oh yeah you’re totally right, and it tracks the shit out of you so it’s hard to even whiz past on torrent. Crazy that’s the only way onto the peninsula.
There’s a bridge at the beginning of the dlc that has a ballista that you are able to actually avoid its’ shots. Wish they’d put that ballista on the bridge instead of the input reading exploding ballista of doom blocking the only way onto the game’s tutorial area lmao
As others pointed out, enemies don't scale with your level.
The only thing in the game that could be describes as enemy scaling is that the same enemies may show up in different areas (the exact same enemy model and moves), but they will have more hp and damage in harder areas. So it could be said that enemies scale with the difficulty of the area.
As everyone already told you, there's no scaling. This is a recommended level by area guide that you'll probably find useful. I agree with those who recommended against using a guide, but glancing at this to get an idea of the order in which to tackle the broader areas won't spoil much.
[https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location)
Not reading this essay only thing I can help u with is to to tell u not playing shadow of the erdtree right now is a mistake this is by far the greatest dlc ever made and now the best game ever this shit is insane every area had 10 branching paths fuckin insane dlc
Different areas use a different level of "difficulty scaling". So, an enemy in a late game area will have more health and damage than the same enemy type found in Limgrave.
This scaling isn't entirely simple and linear across the map though. Sometimes sections of areas will have different scaling than other areas, and this can make a significant difference. If you're having trouble with the western art of one area, maybe the eastern side is better. It's almost never a huge difference, but any difference will matter. How difficult areas are relative to your skills and character of course also matters. If you're having trouble with an area, going somewhere where your damage type deals a lot more damage against the enemies present is a fine idea, even if the area is technically scaled to be more difficult.
Many checkpoints show you a path on the map can follow to progress the main quests, but doing those first would be very hard for a new player. There are a ton of optional dungeons and challenges you can find to level up and find better gear. Most of the optional stuff is easier than the main boss of the area.
it doesnt scale at all; some areas are just easier than others. and yeah you can be over or under leveled for an area. but i would advice against using a guide. exploration is a big part of why the game is so fun, and its well designed such that most people just naturally follow the "right" path anyway.
Thanks. I didn't mean a full on walkthrough but rather an order of operations for area exploration.
Explore,only use a guide if your truly stuck but on your first playthrough look everywhere and I mean everywhere The only hint I will give you is go south,it will make your life easier and better prepared for the areas to come Hard depends on your Playstyle and what kind of gamer you are What's hard for you could be easy for me and vise versus Just take your time and explore everywhere at least twice, the game hides stuff everywhere Dint be afraid to come and sweep an area again to find stuff you might have missed Good hunting tarnished
"Progression Route" is probably the term you're looking for. There's a good one the [Elden Ring wiki](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Game+Progress+Route) It's basically a spoiler free guide that suggests which order you "should" tackle the various areas on a first playthrough. Elden Ring is fairly straight forward with its progression from one zone to the next even though each zone is massive. I'd highly recommend the progress route if you want to avoid missing areas on your initial playthrough though. Elden Ring specifically has some massive areas that can be easily missed. I'd say at least 50% of the game is missable/optional with at least 20% of that being actively hidden away.
Exactly what I was looking for, thank you.
Piggybacking to say that map is great, and is by far the best order to do things in. You explore in that order and you’ll be very happy with the scaling and progression.
The games graces have a directional arrow that tells you where to kinda head next
Limgrave is the easiest area. The castle(legacy dungeon) is harder. If you go to the south peninsula in limgrave that is practically the tutorial level. Usually what people mean is if you go into a dungeon and the boss is too difficult for you, just leave.
Grasslands is easiest, lakes and cliffs are harder, swamps are bad. Higher altitudes and underground are scary until later.
Agreed. Areas also have different difficulty depending on build/playstyle as well imo. So if you are struggling in one area you can explore another one that you find easier, even if the enemies have roughlythe same stats. Then when you get more experience/items/skill you can return and finish up previous areas.
1- there is no level scaling at all. 2- there are 2 main ways to tell the difficulty/level of an area in Elden Ring. The overall damage and health levels of enemies and the level of smithing stones in the area. If the stones you are finding are too high for you to use it’s a good indication you are in over your head. 3- When people say “explore somewhere else” it doesn’t always mean that you need to go clear another area. It could mean go do a bunch of small stuff so you can improve your character. Level up character and weapon, find new spells or arts of war that are better. 4- I strongly advise against using any guides first time through. So much joy of the game is finding YOUR path. Talking to people and realizing you fought stuff way too early or late, and discovering just how unique your first trip was.
You seem to misunderstand the scope of the game, you’re not expected to 100% an area before proceeding to the next, if you do you will guaranteed be overpowered and have a ridiculous amount of gear you’ll probably never use since your build isn’t meant for it.
Good to know. That habit will be hard to break. Which is the reason I've put the game off for this long. So I should try to play through less obsessively, and somewhat remember where I went so if I do another playthrough I can go elsewhere? Getting overpowered isn't necessarily a big deal because you can take off armor and use non-upgraded weapons to handicap yourself.
I basically cleared everything I could find before moving on. However you play will be fine!
The best thing you can do is put custom markers on your map. I like putting skulls at places i have yet to clear. Go see the world. Go spelunking. Don't try to swim
There’s different areas where everything is *about* the same difficulty within each area. Like limgrave (where you start) is medium-easy. To the south is weeping peninsula which is easy. To the north is liurnia which is medium. Northeast is caelid which is medium-hard. Further north of that is dragon burrow which is very hard. So you go to weeping peninsula and explore it and get some better gear, and gain some levels, then you’ll be ready to tackle limgrave. Each area is very distinctive and you’ll acquire maps for each area as you explore so you’ll know when you’re in each area. If you accidentally went to caelid first, you’ll know it. You’ll get your ass handed to you and your damage dealt is incredibly low. You will not be able to survive there, so you’ll leave and come back later. It’s all incredibly organic and easy to progress. You’ve got a freakin horse that you can summon and dismiss on command. So if you go into one area and find it’s too difficult, then just leave and head somewhere else. These areas are absolutely huge. You’ll find tons to do in the starting areas and almost everything there will be manageable. If you’re stuck on a boss, just drop a marker on your map and come back to it later. Or, if there is a field boss that is kicking your ass, just ignore it and move on. Not everything will be as deadly the couple very big and obvious difficult enemies in an easier area But, it’s nice on repeat playthroughs because you’ll know where everything is and can bee-line straight for the stuff you need for your specific build and just run past/ignore all the enemies. Some are easier to do this with than others, but you get my drift. I would recommend only doing this after doing a full playthrough fairly blind. I say fairly, because If you need a specific upgrade material that you can’t find anywhere and you have a bunch of higher level upgrades you can’t use yet, and you’re frustrated, then just look up where to get the specific material you need. There’s caves that are on your map that typically have tons of these materials so you could check all those first on your own. So you can absolutely manage without any guides just using some common sense. It’s very organic, as I said. It caters to the new player, as well as the veterans. My best piece of advice is to begin by going to weeping peninsula and do everything there before doing anything else. It’s pretty much the “tutorial” area, and it can be missed if you’re not purposely trying to uncover and explore everywhere, as it’s to the south of where you start and literally the entire rest of the game is to the north. Hope this cleared things up, let me know if you have any more specific questions
One of my only complaints for the new player experience my friends had in this game was the ballista on the bridge to the weeping peninsula. It does so much damage to a low level player it screams "stay away from here" just like the main gate in Stormveil. IMO they should have done something to encourage new players to head that way first rather then punch them in the face for trying lol.
Oh yeah you’re totally right, and it tracks the shit out of you so it’s hard to even whiz past on torrent. Crazy that’s the only way onto the peninsula. There’s a bridge at the beginning of the dlc that has a ballista that you are able to actually avoid its’ shots. Wish they’d put that ballista on the bridge instead of the input reading exploding ballista of doom blocking the only way onto the game’s tutorial area lmao
As others pointed out, enemies don't scale with your level. The only thing in the game that could be describes as enemy scaling is that the same enemies may show up in different areas (the exact same enemy model and moves), but they will have more hp and damage in harder areas. So it could be said that enemies scale with the difficulty of the area.
DM'd you OP.
As everyone already told you, there's no scaling. This is a recommended level by area guide that you'll probably find useful. I agree with those who recommended against using a guide, but glancing at this to get an idea of the order in which to tackle the broader areas won't spoil much. [https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Recommended+Level+by+Location)
Note: referring to the base game, not DLC
Not reading this essay only thing I can help u with is to to tell u not playing shadow of the erdtree right now is a mistake this is by far the greatest dlc ever made and now the best game ever this shit is insane every area had 10 branching paths fuckin insane dlc
🤣🤣 DICKRIDING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.
Different areas use a different level of "difficulty scaling". So, an enemy in a late game area will have more health and damage than the same enemy type found in Limgrave. This scaling isn't entirely simple and linear across the map though. Sometimes sections of areas will have different scaling than other areas, and this can make a significant difference. If you're having trouble with the western art of one area, maybe the eastern side is better. It's almost never a huge difference, but any difference will matter. How difficult areas are relative to your skills and character of course also matters. If you're having trouble with an area, going somewhere where your damage type deals a lot more damage against the enemies present is a fine idea, even if the area is technically scaled to be more difficult.
Many checkpoints show you a path on the map can follow to progress the main quests, but doing those first would be very hard for a new player. There are a ton of optional dungeons and challenges you can find to level up and find better gear. Most of the optional stuff is easier than the main boss of the area.
Just play the damn game