Elden Ring Level Up Guide

If you are looking to level up in Elden Ring, unlocking the ability to level up and spend runes (the currency earned for achieving things in both PvE and PvP) will be your first major task as a Tarnished. Unlike many open world RPGs where character progression via stats is available immediately, you will not have the ability to level your character until you meet Melina early on. Until that point, any runes you have collected (which can be used as both currency and experience points) will continue to pile up and be unable to be spent on anything.

This guide will help explain the process for unlocking the ability to level your character, the difficulty of leveling up well, soft caps for stats, how to pick the best stats for making a character stronger, farming runes to replicate with no loss, and what level your character should be depending on which area you are currently in, including Shadow of the Erdtree.

How to Level Up in Elden Ring Early

You can’t level up as soon as you enter Limgrave. To be able to do so, you have to get through the early area and find at least three Sites of Grace on the map. The outdoor Sites of Grace are your main source of leveling in Elden Ring. After you find some outdoor Sites of Grace (usually found first at Gatefront Ruins), Melina will come to you and offer you an accord. Once you have accepted her accord, you will be able to level your character anytime you rest at a Site of Grace. In return for accepting Melina's accord you will also gain access to the Spirit Steed Whistle that allows you to summon Torrent to travel around the world much quicker than walking.” If you choose the Level Up option from your Rest Menu, you can begin to spend your runes one at a time on upgrades. Early in the game, upgrading is relatively inexpensive at several hundred runes per level; however, level upgrades become significantly more expensive as the game progresses. By the time you reach mid-game, upgrading one level will typically cost thousands of runes.

Soon after you receive your first few levels, Melina will introduce you to the Roundtable Hold. The Roundtable Hold is an area that exists outside of the regular game; this is the main hub for numerous systems in Elden Ring, such as developing weapons, tuning spirits and many other progression systems that have an equal importance as an increase in character level.

Prioritizing Stats For Leveling In Elden Ring

Elden Ring separates its eight stats into two broad categories to help make understanding leveling easier. Resource stats, (Vigor, Mind, and Endurance) determine how much HP, FP and Stamina you will have. The Ability stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane) primarily determine which weapons/spells you are able to use and how much damage will be done by those weapons/spells.

The significance of this differentiation of the two broad categories is that each individual stat tries to achieve an intended level of performance per rank (Level 1-9). Each stat has a Soft Cap where benefits start to diminish, and a Hard Cap which is at 99 where the benefit stops completely. Continuing to level past the soft cap is not necessarily a bad move; however, it does mean that if you continue to spend runes on that stat, there will be better options available to you for spending your runes. For the majority of damage-related stats, you will find that the first soft cap occurs between 50 and 55; with the second soft cap occurring around the 80 mark. Finally, Weapon requirements are set in stone, there are no negotiable options. If you have a weapon that requires 16 Strength, you must have 16 Strength to avoid taking major damage penalties even if your other stats support your build.

Stat Type	Stats	What They Do
Resources Stats	Vigor, Mind & Endurance	Increase HP FP stamina, & Equipment weight
Ability Stats	Strength Dexterity Intelligence Faith & Arcane	Determine whether you can use a Weapon or Spell while increasing your Scaling damage

Most players should get survivability first, then damage based on the type of weapons or spells there using. Many new players make mistakes because they dump their levels into offensive variables too early.

Vigor Mind & Endurance

Vigor is the single most valuable stat for all players especially new ones and it doesn't cost anything to get it early so new players should focus on getting some business got HP. The most significant Softcap will occur at 40 Vigor and will grant approximately 70% of maximum HP source. After reaching this specific stat increase getting additional levels will gave you very minimal additional HP compared to what you have already received from your prior increases through your prior 40 levels; however, from my experience when looking at only one-shot players or players who are able to stay alive long enough to heal themselves, the additional levels played very important role; therefore if you're reaching maybe levels 55 to 60 Vigor by endgame (or when you are getting very close to the real baseline), you will be playing how you used to use prior to 40 levels.

Mind is responsible for your FP supply consequently, if you're currently running a melee character and only occasionally utilize Ashes of War by running typically 15 - 20 mind should suffice but if you plan on playing ranged melee both with the usage of Ashes Of War then you'll want to put much higher amounts than otherwise. For dedicated spellcasters, it is advisable to ensure that your casting stat is in the 40–55 range, so that you can continue spamming spells without having to keep using mana potions on the fly.

Endurance affects two things – the amount of stamina you have and how much weight you can equip. Stamina determines how many consecutive attacks, dodges, and blocks you can make before exhausting your stamina, and equip load determines your roll speed. The breakpoint for rolling medium is at 70% equip load. If you're rolling in heavier armor or using larger Strength weapons, you will probably need somewhere between 30 and 40 points in Endurance to maintain a medium roll's mobility without losing equipment.

Strength / Dexterity / Intelligence / Faith / Arcane

The five attributes that largely define your character build are Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence, with the last two being tied to the spellcasting formula Faith. Like with Strength, if you are using a large weapon and it requires 40 Strength, you will only need 27 Strength as long as you use it two-handed. Most damage stats will start to become less effective in terms of damage scaling between 55-80 points of that value.

Dexterity, like Strength, has a similar relationship by providing support to fast-style weapons such as katanas, curved swords, and bows. Intelligence is used to cast sorceries while Faith governs casting incantations, and the majority of the strong late-game spells require between 60-70 of each respective stat. The Arcane attribute has limited, but powerful, uses; in the right build, Arcane becomes very strong; in particular, through Blood & Occult build types. Arcane provides an increase to damage done from the Dragon Communion incantations as well as the damage caused by the casualty builds through Blood and Occult affinities. If you discover that your stat spread is not right later in the game, there is a way to change it back to normal by beating Rennala, the Queen of the Full Moon (Raya Lucaria Academy) then asking her to 'respec' your character in exchange for a Larval Tear. There are only about 18 in a complete playthrough of Elden Ring, so you will not want to waste them on small tweaks and rather use them for major build changes like going from a Strength build to a Faith cast or from a bleed-centric Arcane build to something completely different.

Best Rune Farming Routes For Levelling

Rune farming is one of the fastest methods of smoothing out your progression in the game, especially if you've hit a wall between one area and another or just need a couple of levels before you try and defeat a major boss or challenge. Fortunately, there are several great rune farming locations in Elden Ring depending on where you are at in the game.

In Limgrave, if you look at the Gatefront Ruins Camp (which is a safe, easy loop), the soldiers there don't yield large amounts of runes, but the route is easy and low risk. As an alternative to the above location (and a much better early game option), you have the Stormhill Troll Encampment, located northeast of the Gatefront Ruins. This location has five trolls, each generating approximately 1,000 runes per kill (approximately 5,000 runes per run). A full clear can be accomplished without much difficulty.

Another great rune farming route for the early-mid game is Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow (the best value route in the entire game). Access Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow via the hidden portal behind the 3rd church of Marika in Limgrave. If you defeat Vulgar Militia dugs and collect the over 1,000 runes they provide, you can earn 10,000 or more runes quickly if you use a backstab approach. If you're underleveled, it could be a dangerous location, however, you will earn a considerable amount of runes early on in the game.

You can farm runes later in the game by using the Mohgwyn Palace bird route. You have two ways to get to this route: complete the quest for White Mask Varré or go to the Consecrated Snowfield and find the medallion. Near the Ledge-Road Site of Grace for the Palace Approach is a large Albinauric bird walking along the edge of a cliff. Fire an arrow or throw a spell at it, and the bird flies off the cliff and gives you 11,000 runes for your trouble—no fight needed.

To further improve your farming speed, stack the following rune-boosting items together:

• Golden Scarab Talisman - located in the Abandoned Cave in Caelid

• Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot​ - consumable that gives added rune gain by 20%.

• Combined effect - over an additional 60% runes per run.

That combination makes a huge difference once the costs of leveling begin to increase.

Leveling Faster Beyond Character Level

Character levels are a factor, but they are not the only thing that makes you stronger in Elden Ring. Weapon upgrades are often going to provide more damage than simply putting up offensive stats since an upgraded weapon at +6 will do more damage than a non-upgraded weapon 20 levels higher than the character. Therefore, when leveling up your character, upgrade your gear at the same time.

Regular weapons can be upgraded using Smithing Stones and can go to +25. Finding the lower tier smithing stones, such as Smithing Stone [1] and Smithing Stone [2], are common with treasure hunting and exploration. For example, you can locate this type of treasure at places like Limgrave Tunnels and Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel. After you receive the right bell bearing from the miners, you can exchange it for the ones you want when you arrive at Roundtable Hold where you speak to the Twin Maiden Husks. Having the Washington and looking to do some mining would cut hours off of farming for these. Similarly, the Somber Smithing Stones (Max +10) would be located in the same manner but used to upgrade your special/boss weapons.

Additionally, other progression systems such as: (1) Golden Seeds — which add additional charges to your flasks; (2) Sacred Tears — which upgrade your flasks to regenerate more HP and/or FP; and (3) Spirit Ash Upgrades — which can upgrade your Spirit Ash at Roderika and make your Summons WAY stronger can all play into your boss fights.

Having an additional charge of flasks can change the outcome of how long it takes to defeat a boss. Having a +10 Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche can help to create a distraction (i.e., it can feel like you are fighting with another player).

Recommended Player Level by Area

Elden Ring has given players more freedom than other games, which means you can venture off into other regions or higher level zones way earlier than expected. While you will be able to do so, whether or not it is smart to do so is up to you. The table below will show each major area and the corresponding average comfortable level for each. The chart will have the level range that most players feel comfortable in when playing each region in the game, as well as for the DLC. Below is an equivalent tabulation of the above information.

Zone	Average Recommended Range	Notable Bosses
Limgrave (including) / Stormveil Castle	1 to 40	Margit - 25+, Godrick 30-35
Liurnia (including) of the Lakes / Raya Lucaria	40 to 60	Rennala 50+
Caelid	60 to 80	Radahn 70-80, high ambient danger
Altus Plateau (including) / Volcano Manor	70 to 90	Rykard 80+
Leyndell, Ancient Capital	90 to 110	Morgott 100+
Mountaintops of Giants / Haligtree	110 to 140	Fire Giant, Malenia 130+
Crumbling Farum Azula	120 to 140	Maliketh 120+
Shadow (including) of the Erdtree (this is the DLC)	150 to 200	Mesmer, Midra, and also Promised Consort

Caelid has the distinction of being an aggressive trap for even the most social of players. The location is a traditional area of Limgrave on the map. Players often stray into Caelid too early and get defeated. There will be many reasons to wait until after you have gone to Liurnia since you have higher chances of dying due to scarlet rot as well as having many bosses (Caelid) that are in no way balanced for low-level players.

The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has slightly altered the leveling up process. Even if you get into the DLC around level 150, you will still need to find all the Scadutree Fragment since they provide you power boosts (The Scadutree Fragments are only usable in the DLC) not merely a small amount of additional character levels before attempting to defeat the more powerful new bosses entering through the expansion zone. Here are some frequently asked questions regarding leveling up in Elden Ring!

Why can’t I Level Up Yet?

Leveling remains locked until you get a visit from Melina after you have accepted her accord. Generally, her visit will occur after you activate three to four outdoor Sites of Grace located in Limgrave. The most common way to activate her is at the Gatefront Ruins location. Melina will only visit you when you rest at overworld grace; if you rest at caves or dungeons she won't show up and you won't unlock the leveling abilities.

What is the Best Stat for a Beginner?

This should be none other than Vigor. You will get about twice as much health from increasing your Vigor from level 15 to level 40, which gives you so much more room to learn how to time your attacks correctly, recover from errors, and how to best avoid attacks from bosses. New players always rush to level their damage via either strength or dexterity, but building up your weapon will always yield you more damage than investing in damage stats for your character's level.

What is the Maximum Level of Your Character?

You gain access to all eight attributes once you reach a maximum of 99 levels in each one, which equates to a theoretical maximum of 713 total levels for your character. You will require a total of 1,692,566,842 runes in order to attain levels above 713, such as 714-855. This is generally used for collection purposes and is not important if you only participate in PvE.

What is the Meta Level in PvP?

In comparison to PvE level matchmaking, the common consensus for PvP level matchmaking is typically between levels 125 and 150. Through your build at level 125, you have the ability to spread your stat values between a variety of possible builds such as bleed katana sets, faith-based builds, quality greatswords, etc., but still, have the ability to maintain Vigor in the range of 55 and 60. As you move above 150 levels, player matchmaking becomes much more difficult and dueling is much more unbalanced. However, you are free to keep leveling indefinitely in the event that you only play PvE.

Summary

Ultimately, it is important not to be in a hurry to level up in Elden Ring. Rather than trying to level up quickly, you should be focused on spending your runes with a plan. Level Vigor to 40 within the first few levels of your character, upgrade your weapon along with your stats at all times, and acquire as many Golden Seeds as possible when moving from area to area. Farming safely, whether it is in Limgrave while looping the entire area or the bird farm in Mohgwyn Palace, will not cause you to lose excessive amounts of runes through deaths that occur unexpectedly. Finally, if your build does not feel correct, Rennala and a Larval Tear will allow you to completely reset your build. As a general rule, any form of intelligent progression will always be far better than any rushed attempts to level up in Elden Ring. Good luck Tarnished!