Elden Ring’s massive open world is packed with collectible materials. As you dodge roll your way from boss fight to boss fight, your inventory probably becomes chock-full of different ingredients. Human bone shards, melted mushrooms and heaps of ruin fragments are just a few of the materials that you’ll be hauling around.
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Elden Ring’s crafting system is often overlooked as redundant. Why craft fire pots when you could be solo clearing Malenia as a naked club-wielding wretch? However, the crafting system is surprisingly user-friendly when you take a look at what it offers. Plus, it gives you a reason to actually use all the baubles you collect throughout The Lands Between.
6Reusable Crafting Containers
Many gameswith crafting systemsrequire you to provide both the materials of an item, and the container to house them. Elden Ring conveniently does away with that system by providing collectible crafting containers that can be reused indefinitely. There are three containers: a cracked pot, ritual pot and perfume bottle. you’re able to collect several of each from different locations throughout The Lands Between.
The hassle of collecting crafting materials is made much more tolerable without having to worry about assembling containers each time. You also get plenty of them to work with. You can find up to 20 cracked pots, ten ritual pots and ten perfume bottles. That adds up to a ton of potential consumables to use.
5Its Entirely Optional
Another great thing about Elden Ring crafting is you can go the entire game without touching it. Crafting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and you can easily focus your efforts on things like combat instead. You can’t even access crafting unless you purchase the Crafting Kit from Merchant Kale in Limgrave. It’s refreshing to not feel boxed into certain gameplay features just for the sake of it.
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The same can be said aboutSpirit Ashes, which can be used to help you along your journey or ignored completely. Crafted items such as Fowl Foots can certainly be useful, but you won’t feel like you’re missing out on essential content without them. Alternatively, if you want to become the Elden Lord of throwables and aromatic potions, you can invest as much time as you want crafting a whole arsenal.
4Gives Every Item A Purpose
It’s a common trope of open world games to include a bunch of items that are ultimately just fluff. Think of all the pots, quills and kettles that blanket the world of Skyrim just to be a set piece. Fortunately, Elden Ring materials always have a purpose, given the long list of craftable items. Cave moss makes the berserk buffing Bloodboil Aromatic, and a melted mushroom can become an Oil Pot
Hundreds of materials will eventually fill your inventory, and it’s reassuring to know that they can all be used for something. It makes every item feel rewarding at a fundamental level. Sure, you may not be into crafting, but at least all the items you pick up are useful for something.
3Complements World Exploration
The Lands Between is both beautiful and terrifying, and each location feels straight out of a fantasy novel. Aside from the excellent set pieces, the environment itself plays a large role in bringing these areas to life. Animals drop bones and meat, flying insects aren’t just for show and every glowing flower is a real item that can be acquired. All this combines to make the varied environments of Elden Ring feel special.
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Another way that the crafting system helps set areas apart is by adding unique flora and fauna to each biome. Electrifying Fulgurbloom flowers are only found on lightning bearing enemies or in the thunderstruck landscape of the Altus Plateau. Scarlet colored Bloodroses are unique to areas saturated by the scent of death. The diversity of unique crafting materials makes the Lands Between feel alive.
2Can Supplement Certain Builds
If you’ve playeda Soulsborne gamebefore, you have likely run a pretty normal build at least once. Some variation of sword and or shield is to be expected. However, Elden Ring has such a large variety of weapon types that experimentation is more open than ever. The crafting system works well to accommodate more unique builds. If you want to attempt an archer run, the crafting system can supplement your ammunition supply.
Other crafting consumables, such as grease, pots and perfumes can also be used to augment your play style. A consumable only playthrough may be very challenging, but with enough determination, Soulsborne players have proven that anything is possible.
1Provides Plenty Of Lore For Enthusiasts
Elden Ring lorecan be a little confusing. The story unravels through small snippets of NPC dialogue and cutscenes. However, it would be no surprise if you still had questions after the credits rolled. What are the Eternal Cities, or what exactly is Destined Death? Fortunately, the inclusion of dozens of crafting materials means that each one can provide a small bit of additional lore.
Individually, material descriptions can seem like flavor text. But if you combine multiple sources, this text can be used to add context to more obscure parts of the world. Miquella’s Lily describes the dwindling faith that those in the Lands Between have for the Haligtree. The Ruin Fragments imply the existence of cities that used to reside in the sky. Once you start delving into Elden Ring lore, you’ll be grateful for the small bits of information each crafting material can provide.
