Players in Elden Ring can expect to die a lot as they progress through its massive open world, but it may be unclear to some as to what exactly they lose when they fall at the hands of a boss or enemy. Elden Ring is the latest release from Japanese developer FromSoftware and president Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creative minds responsible for the popular Dark Souls series. FromSoftwares games all follow a similar playstyle; from Demons Souls right up until its most recent release before Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the player follows a similar loop of killing enemies to gain a currency which can then be exchanged for additional levels or spent in shops to buy new gear to help them advance. The studio's latest title is no exception to this, as Elden Ring retains many classic Souls game elements.

Elden Ring is an action-RPG set in The Lands Between, in which the player - as one of many Tarnished - must take on a myriad of enemies and bosses to gather the shards of the titular Elden Ring. The game features a wide array of weaponry, magic, equipment, and consumables to aid the player in their journey, as well as a newly implemented crafting system to allow players to make additional equipment such as arrows and bombs in the field. This has been small comfort to a lot of players though, who still find the game a real challenge, leading Miyazaki himself to apologize for Elden Ring being too hard.

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When death inevitably comes for the player in The Lands Between, any runes held in the player's inventory will be dropped in place, similar to the bloodstain mechanic in Dark Souls. Players will then have the chance to return to the spot that they died at previously and retrieve what they have dropped. However, if the player dies before recovering those runes, they will be lost forever, as only the most recent death is recoverable, meaning that trying to rush back recklessly can easily lead to disaster. Luckily, however, there is an item that can mitigate this loss, and it's even available to purchase from a familiar face who returns in Elden Ring.

Elden Ring Players Can Save Their Runes With Sacrificial Twigs

Elden Ring Storyteller

The Sacrificial Twig can be purchased from various merchants scattered across The Lands Between, providing the player can afford the not entirely modest price tag that these immensely useful items command, coming in at around 3000 runes a piece. These items are well worth the price though, as carrying one will mean that the player will not drop their runes upon death. However, the twig itself will be consumed in their place. It would appear that there are a finite number of these twigs in the game, so players shouldn't lean too heavily on these rare items. Instead, it would make sense to keep some back in reserve in the storage chest, especially given that there isn't a shortage of difficult mandatory and optional bosses in Elden Ring.

Death will be a regular occurrence for the vast majority of Elden Ring players, and so many will be relieved to hear that some of the Dark Souls series' punishments for player death have not returned. Dark Souls 2 featured a mechanic which reduced the player's maximum health with each death, while Dark Souls 3 featured a similar but more forgiving system whereby players would have a smaller maximum HP if they were not enkindled. Elden Ring opted instead for a more straightforward system, which means players will only have to worry about their runes.

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