"Elden Ring" is a tough, tough game. FromSoftware made absolutely sure that The Lands Between will be just as dangerous (if not more dangerous) than all of their previous Soulsborne games, and their first open-world attempt did not disappoint.
'Elden Ring' screencap
However, one particular player likely managed the impossible: beating "Elden Ring" without ever attacking anyone. In other words, it's a pacifist run of an otherwise punishing game-an impressive feat worthy of under half-an-hour speedruns.
According to PCGamer, the seemingly impossible task was achieved by using summoned spirits. "Elden Ring" player and YouTuber Iron Pineapple made sure that their summoning skills were on point. They started it off by picking the Prophet class-a class whose high Faith attributes made it critical to help keep his summoned spirits alive as long as possible:
To further help with the spirit summoning, Iron Pineapple also chose the Fanged Imp Ashes as his keepsake to help boost his base spirit summoning abilities.
But as you see in Iron Pineapple's gameplay video, it wasn't just spirit summoning that made this pacifistic "Elden Ring" playthrough possible. He also used clever tricks to get past some mini bosses, like luring them to jump to their deaths. He was able to use this on the Night's Cavalry miniboss, for instance, as shown in the 1:45 mark of the video:
Perhaps the most impressive part of this "Elden Ring" playthrough, however, is how Iron Pineapple handled the game's first required boss: Margit the Fell Omen. To do so, he used high-level summoned spirits while keeping them alive through a "delicate balancing act" of staying close enough to heal, but staying far enough so that Margit doesn't interrupt what he's doing.
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Spirit Summons: The Trick To Making 'Elden Ring' Feel Less Punishing
Early on in the release of "Elden Ring," many people found it quite difficult to handle, something you'd always expect from a FromSoftware game. But one key to making it more palatable, especially for first-time Soulsborne players was the skill of summoning spirits, which is what made Iron Pineapple's pacifist playthrough somewhat possible.
So if you're struggling to get through The Lands Between, your best option is to get spirit summoning early. According to PushSquare, you need to go to the Church of Elleh at night, which you can do by resting at its Site of Grace and changing the time of day to night.
By then, you're going to see an NPC with a massive hat close to the Site. Talk to the NPC by using up all the dialogue to get yourself the item Spirit Calling Bell. But before you go to the Church of Eleh, make sure you meet Melina first and learn how to level your character up.
Once you get the necessary items, here's how you can actually summon spirits to help you in tough fights, especially boss encounters:
And there you have it! Just follow Iron Pineapple's suggestions, and you can basically finish an "Elden Ring" playthrough without ever hitting anyone yourself.
Related Article: 'Elden Ring' Gets An 'Easy Mode' Mod; Another Modder Protests By Releasing A 'Hard Mode' Mod
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Written by RJ Pierce
