Elden Ring is arguably the most highly anticipated video game releases of the year, and it’s finally available on PC and consoles. It features a massive open-world and an overarching mythos penned by George R.R. Martin, best known for writing the A Song of Ice and Fire book series. While it can take quite a bit of time to get through the game’s critical path, there are still things you can do after wrapping up the story. Here are five things to do after beating Elden Ring.
1. Wrap Up Your Dungeons and Optional Bosses
The Lands Between is insanely huge, and no matter how thoroughly you think you’ve explored the open-world, chances are pretty good that you’ve missed a few things here and there. Before you start your second playthrough, it’s a good time to revisit all of the zones in the game and look for any dungeons and optional bosses you might’ve missed.
Clearing out dungeons is also a good way of getting your hands on some potential unique armaments as well, which might give you a bit of inspiration for the next build you want to experiment with.
2. Co-op and Invasions
Things to Do After Beating Elden Ring
You’ll be able to get all the key items you need for co-op and invasions long before you beat the game, but why not engage in some online multiplayer now that you’ve got the story out of the way?
Leaving your summon sign outside boss arenas will allow players to summon you into their world, and you can help them with beating the area boss.
Do note that the matchmaking function takes into account your character and weapon levels, so you might have more luck getting summoned when you start NG+1, depending on your current levels.
Alternatively, you could also try your hand at PvP by either invading players or using the Duelist’s Finger to leave a red summon sign on the ground. Elden Ring’s PvP can be pretty fun, and it’s always a good time trying to see how much chaos you can wreak on other players.
3. Start that Second Playthrough
At some point, you’ll need to start NG+1 to experience the entire story again. There are benefits to this, including retaining all of your levels and weapons, which should give you a big advantage in the early hours of the game.
However, subsequent New Game Plus cycles will also feature stronger enemies with more HP and higher damage values, though they do also drop a lot more Runes than they did before. If you really want to challenge yourself, try to reach NG+7, which is where the enemies stop scaling up, meaning that you’ve truly unlocked the game’s hardest difficulty settings.
4. Start a Totally Fresh Playthrough
Things to Do After Beating Elden Ring
If you don’t like the idea of having to deal with tougher enemies on NG+1, start a completely fresh playthrough instead. Except, this time, challenge yourself by trying out a completely different character build.
For instance, if you were a primarily melee-focused build during your first playthrough, try experimenting with Incantations and Sorceries for your second one. Elden Ring’s replay value lies in the ability to play the game in totally different ways, which can be really exciting if you’re willing to try new things.
5. Finish NPC Questlines
Things to Do After Beating Elden Ring
There are a lot of NPCs to meet in Elden Ring, and some of them even come with very long and intricate questlines that help to flesh out their backstories even more. The most complex ones will reward you with valuable items and unique armaments, and it’s definitely worth trying to complete them if you really want to get the most out of the game.
The worst part is that most of these questlines are optional and completely missable, which means that you could miss out on a ton of content if you don’t know where to look. We’d definitely recommend looking into Ranni’s questline, which becomes available to you after you’ve reached Liurnia of the Lakes.
This quest has various parts to it that require you to defeat several story bosses to progress, and it also gives you a much better understanding of the lore behind the Elden Ring and the Two Fingers themselves.
And those are our major picks for the things that you should do after beating Elden Ring. Be sure to check our guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.
