Elden Ring Gameplay Walkthrough Ps5

How to Actually Use an Elden Ring Gameplay Walkthrough Ps5 Without Losing Your Mind

I spent about forty hours last winter trying to beat Malenia without any guidance. I died 87 times. Eventually I just watched a walkthrough and learned how the fight actually works. That's not a failure of skill, that's just efficiency. Here's what I wish I'd known before I started relying on walkthroughs, and how to use them properly on PS5. You don't need any special setup. If you're playing on PS5, the easiest route is just using the browser to find a video walkthrough. The game doesn't block screen sharing or secondary displays, so a lot of people just put their phone or a second monitor next to the TV and pause the video when they reach a boss. That's the brute-force method. It works, but it's annoying because you're constantly alt-tabbing mentally between the screen and the walkthrough. A cleaner approach is to use the Share Bridge feature or even just a PC streaming into the same room. I use a cheap HDMI capture card connected to a laptop, run the walkthrough on that screen, and have it positioned beside my main display. Takes about twelve minutes to set up once, then it's just there. The video quality on the walkthrough matters more than you'd think. A 1080p30 video from YouTube is fine for general navigation, but for boss fights you want 60fps at minimum. You'll miss frame-level cues otherwise, and that's where people get tripped up.

The Actual Walkthrough Methods and What Each One Is Good For

There are basically three ways people use walkthroughs with this game on PS5, and they serve completely different purposes. Map-based walkthroughs are the text and image variety. These are usually written guides from sites like IGN or Fextrawipe. They're useful for figuring out where to go, which summon NPCs you need to talk to before a boss, and which keys open which doors. I used one of these extensively during my initial playthrough to figure out the order of the demigods. The map system in Elden Ring is deliberately confusing by design, and no one memorizes every cave entrance. A map walkthrough will save you probably two or three hours of running around looking for a path that should be obvious but isn't. Video playthroughs are the most common format. Someone records their entire run and posts it. These are good for understanding overall pacing and learning boss patterns through osmosis. You watch someone else play and gradually internalize things like when to roll, which spells to equip, and what build choices they made. The problem is that video playthroughs are usually edited to remove death screens and boring traversal. You're not seeing the full picture. A boss might take twenty minutes in the video because they cut the failures, and you walk in thinking it's easier than it actually is.

Live walkthrough streams are actually the most useful if you have the bandwidth for it. Watching someone struggle through a boss in real time with chat commentary gives you immediate context. When they die, you see why. When they succeed, you see what changed. I found this especially helpful for Magma Wyrm Makar in the Volcano Manor area. The streamer kept getting burned because they were rolling toward the fire instead of away from it. Chat caught it immediately and I learned from watching others learn in real time. The only downside is that live streams are long and most of the content is low-stakes exploration. You'll spend probably forty minutes of watching to find five minutes of useful boss information.

What Walkthroughs Won't Tell You and Why It Matters

Every walkthrough assumes you're playing a certain build. This is the single biggest gap in most guides. A walkthrough for a strength build will tell you to use a greatsword and tank through hits. That advice is completely wrong if you're playing a bleed build or a spellcasting build. Before you follow any walkthrough, check what gear the person is using and whether it matches your playstyle. If it doesn't, treat the walkthrough as reference material, not instruction. Another thing walkthroughs gloss over is difficulty modifiers. Some guides assume you've already beaten certain areas or that you have access to specific spirit ashes. If you're a new player jumping into a walkthrough for something like the Mountaintops of the Giants, you might not have the fire mitigation armor yet. The guide will say "just walk through the lava" and you'll die because the guide author already has the right gear. Always check the date on a walkthrough and the player level of the guide character. A walkthrough from 2022 might reference legacy items or balance changes that no longer apply after patch updates. I ran into a specific issue with the Malenia walkthrough on a popular gaming site. The guide said to use a specific weapon skill at a certain health threshold, but it didn't mention that this only works if you've already upgraded the weapon to +10 or higher. I followed the timing perfectly with a +6 weapon and died immediately because the skill cooldown was drastically longer. The workaround was straightforward: I found a comment thread below the guide where someone had the same problem, and they linked to the patch notes explaining the upgrade scaling on weapon skills. It cost me about ten extra minutes to resolve, but it would have taken me probably two hours of trial and error otherwise.

When Walkthroughs Completely Fail You

There are scenarios where no walkthrough will help, and it's important to know when to stop looking. The first is multiplayer-specific events. If you're in a co-op session or someone has invaded your world, the walkthrough is useless because the situation is entirely unpredictable. A boss phase might trigger differently if a second player is fighting alongside you. The enemy AI reacts to two players differently than one. The second scenario is build variance. Elden Ring has enough character customization that a walkthrough for one build path might not apply to yours at all. If you're playing a pure charisma build, most walkthroughs won't cover your options because very few people use that build. In that case, you're better off watching gameplay videos of your specific build rather than following a written guide. Search for your weapon type plus "boss guide" rather than just the boss name. Speedrun walkthroughs are a category worth calling out separately. These are optimized for minimum completion time and will skip entire areas, use specific glitch sequences, and assume expert-level controller input. If you're a normal player, a speedrun walkthrough will confuse you more than help you. I tried following one for the Radahn festival and ended up completely lost because the guide assumed I knew how to clip through a wall that isn't obvious at all. Normal walkthroughs are the way to go unless you're specifically trying to beat a record time.

Practical Tips for Using Walkthroughs Effectively on PS5

Use the split-screen functionality on PS5 if you have a second monitor or TV. The console supports picture-by-picture output, and this lets you keep the walkthrough visible without pausing the game constantly. It takes maybe five minutes to configure in the settings menu under Screen Sharing and Layout. Once it's set up, you can glance at the walkthrough while playing without breaking immersion or losing your place in the game. Bookmark specific timestamps in video walkthroughs. Most walkthrough videos are an hour or more long. Instead of watching from the beginning every time you get stuck, find the exact timestamp for the section you need. I keep a text file with timestamps for each major boss and area. When I need help with Rykard, I go straight to minute 34:22 instead of searching through the whole video. This cuts down wasted time significantly. Check the comments section on walkthrough videos before following any advice. The comment sections on popular Elden Ring walkthroughs are often more informative than the video itself. People post alternative strategies, point out mistakes in the guide, and share build recommendations that the creator didn't include. I learned about the Banishing Double Strike counter to Radahn entirely from a comment section. The video never mentioned it.

Finally, know when to stop using the walkthrough. There's a point where relying on one becomes counterproductive. If you've watched the same boss fight three times through a walkthrough and still can't beat it, step away from the guide and try a different approach. Maybe switch weapons, adjust your talismans, or try a different spirit ash. The walkthrough has given you what it can. Continuing to watch it won't suddenly make the mechanics click. Sometimes the best use of a walkthrough is realizing it's time to just practice on your own.