How To Level Up in Elden Ring: The Ultimate Guide
When you’re playing Elden Ring, locate a Site of Grace and rest. This will allow you to level up your character.
Elden Ring’s world is filled with unique challenges. From terrifying boss fights to environmental challenges, the game requires you to improve your character’s attributes over time.
Whether you’re new to the title or a veteran looking for key information regarding leveling up, this Elden Ring level-up guide will provide important points highlighting the hows and whys of the game’s core leveling mechanics.
How To Level Up in Elden Ring
Compared to other games by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is much more welcoming to new players. If you haven’t played a Soulslike game before, it’s important to understand how exactly leveling up works.
Your character has different attributes that affect how the gameplay feels. For instance, strong Endurance and Strength will help you survive harsh attacks from enemies. On the other hand, high Dexterity and Arcane can help you wield special weapons. You need to level these up as you progress.
To level up your character (and their attributes), you must first meet Melina, a non-player character (NPC) who greets you at the very beginning of the game. Once you’ve accepted her offer to be your maiden, you will be able to choose the Level Up option every time you rest at a Site of Grace.
As you progress and uncover new things, you’ll earn runes — a currency unique to the game. You can spend runes at a Site of Grace to improve your stats and level up. This versatility makes it one of the most popular games, and Elden Ring’s “how to level up” question can be answered through various ways of spending runes.
What Are the Best Stats To Level Up in Elden Ring?
The best stats in Elden Ring ultimately depend on the type of character you’re thinking of building. Are they going to be strong and bulky? Or fast and sneaky? Maybe even full of magical prowess! Fortunately, the game’s open-world elements allow you to experiment with stats.
But before diving into which stats are the best for you to work on, here’s a brief understanding of what each attribute does:
- Endurance: As one of the strongest attributes to level up early on, this one improves your stamina. With high stamina, you can move better through dodging, running, attacking, and so on.
- Vigor: This helps you improve your maximum health. It’s essential to upgrade this throughout the game, as it helps you survive more battles. After all, dying in Elden Ring can be a punishing experience!
- Dexterity: This one lets you wield Dexterity-scaling weapons such as Scythes, Katanas, and Claws. If you’re a fan of such weapons often found in an action role-playing game (ARPG), this could be a great attribute for you to upgrade.
- Strength: This determines how strong you are to wield certain weapons, especially if you plan on using weapons like Greatswords, Halberds, and Warhammers. It’s a powerful stat to upgrade for fights in player-versus-player (PvP) scenarios.
- Intelligence: This stat determines how you wield the power of Sorceries. Many new players often overlook these magic spells in Elden Ring!
- Faith: This attribute lets you effectively use incantations like Lightning, Holy, and Fire damage. These are unique buffs that can work flawlessly against certain enemies.
- Mind: The more you upgrade this one, the more Force Points (FP) you have. This lets you cast Sorceries and incantations and summon Spirit Ashes or activate Ashes of War.
- Arcane: This one helps you upgrade weapons with Arcane scaling. It increases the damage buildup on certain weapons and improves your Discovery (a stat through which you discover new items).
Elden Ring Map Levels: Recommended Levels for Each Region
An Elden Ring map level guide can help you explore new areas and which bosses to encounter. If you enter a certain region without leveling up first, you may cross paths with enemies (and bosses) who could make the journey a lot tougher than usual.
Before you explore the different single-player-friendly regions of the Lands Between, these Elden Ring map levels are essential to remember:
| Location | Recommended level |
| Limgrave | 1-20 |
| Weeping Peninsula | 20-30 |
| Stormveil Castle | 30-40 |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | 40-70 |
| Academy of Raya Lucaria | 50-60 |
| Ainsel River | 50-60 |
| Siofra River | 60-70 |
| Atlus Plateau | 60-70 |
| Caelid South | 60-70 |
| Siofra Aqueduct | 70-80 |
| Nokron, Eternal City | 70-80 |
| Deeproot Depths | 80-90 |
| Capital Outskirts | 80-90 |
| Lake of Rot | 90-100 |
| Mt Gelmir | 90-100 |
| Dragonbarrow | 100-110 |
| Leyndell, Royal Capital | 100-110 |
| Forbidden Lands | 110-120 |
| Mountaintops of the Giants | 110-120 |
| Consecrated Snowfield | 120 |
| Mohgwyn Palace | 120-140 |
| Miquella’s Haligtree | 130-150 |
| Leyndell, Ashen Capital | 130-150 |
| Crumbling Farum Azula | 130-150 |
The Difference Between Scaling and Leveling in Elden Ring
In Elden Ring, leveling up refers to increasing your character’s stats (Strength, Dexterity, etc.). It improves your base attack power, defensiveness, spell effectiveness, and more.
On the other hand, scaling determines how well your weapons benefit from your scale. Every weapon has a grade (S, A, B, C, D, E) for Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, or Arcane. For instance, a weapon with A-scaling in Dexterity gets a massive damage boost from increasing your Dexterity.
To maximize your efficiency in Elden Ring, level up your character in harmony with your weapon’s scaling. The synergy is essential to build a powerful character.
How To Reach the Max Level in Elden Ring
Even if you’ve made it through regions like Mohgwyn Palace that have strong horror elements, there are surprises in the end that could make you feel powerless (and maidenless).
Your eagerness and will to become an Elden Lord may eventually make you ask, “Is achieving the max level in Elden Ring even possible?” The answer is yes since the level is capped at 713 with attributes capped at 99. While this is completely doable, it will take several hours for you to achieve.
To do so, you need to make use of any rune-farming method that’s comfortable for you. Keep farming those runes, resting at a Site of Grace, and leveling your character until it’s done.
That said, it’s advisable to not reach the max level since Elden Ring is best enjoyed through its challenges (without cheats or mods) — making it one of the best PC games out there. Console players can’t cheat or install mods anyway, so they’ll have to take the usual route.
Instead, use farming methods to gain more runes and level up certain stats to use specific weapons, spells and more. This will make your journey much more exciting, and starting New Game Plus (NG+) will feel more fun!
Additional Elden Ring Leveling Tips from Real Players
If this is your first time playing a Soulslike game, we recommend watching YouTuber NickRawcliffe’s guide to leveling up. A great way to start is finding a group of enemies you’re comfortable defeating in the Limgrave region. Once you’re used to acquiring runes easily, you’ll build your own method of farming them to level up faster.
After all, one of the fastest ways to level up in Elden Ring is to farm runes. This means resting at a Site of Grace, defeating certain enemies, and resting again. Repeating this cycle will grant you a lot of runes, even though the process may feel a bit mundane.
Another great technique is following YouTuber TheBettadorEditor’s rune-farming method. This will require you to first unlock the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace, which is located in the Mohgwyn Palace region. Once you’re there, you’ll have to use a bow and arrow to lure a monstrous bird that falls to its death instead of flying away (ironic, right?). It’ll grant you 11,000 runes.
If you’re wondering how to level up fast in Elden Ring without using a technique that makes you feel like taking unnecessary shortcuts, then simply explore the game outside the main quests. Find more dungeons, speak to more NPCs, and explore every region as much as you can before finding the next main boss.
Find Your Next RPG Challenge
Many gamers like to keep track of the time spent playing the game, and there’s no better way to experience that feeling than playing role-playing games (RPGs). Keep exploring the world of RPGs through blogs and guides, as they will help you understand the inner workings of some of the highest-grossing games like Elden Ring. It’ll also lead you to new games you may have never heard of.
An Elden Ring level-up guide is incomplete without the mention of immersive experiences. After all, the game is one of the best RPGs made by a Japanese developer. Remember to keep your level and stats in mind before heading into the different parts the Lands Between have to offer, and you’ll become an Elden Lord in no time.
Once you’ve figured out the best ways to level up in Elden Ring, think about what kind of builds you’d like to work on. The game offers a lot of room for experimentation, and browsing through a collection of games ideal for RPG players can give you some great ideas.
