As a hardcore Soulsborne fan with over 500 hours across the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne, I‘ve been eagerly awaiting Elden Ring ever since it was announced. Now having fully completed three playthroughs of Elden Ring solo, I‘ve accumulated over 300 hours exploring the Lands Between, uncovering its vast secrets and defeating all of its demigod bosses from Godrick to Malenia.
Throughout my adventures, I‘ve extensively tested out multiple character builds and starting gift options to determine ideal choices for newcomers and veterans alike. Based on my experience, I present my expert picks for the top five starting gifts available when embarking on your maidenless Tarnished‘s journey.
1. Crimson Amber Medallion: Best for New Players
The Crimson Amber Medallion is hands down the best starting gift for new players. It boosts your max HP by 5%, giving you more survivability in the game‘s difficult early areas. Although 5% may not seem significant at first glance, it adds up to extra hit points which make a difference. With 10 Vigor granting you 600 HP, 5% comes out to 30 more health.
This bonus max HP allows you to survive an extra hit or two from tough early game enemies and bosses, giving you more of a safety net as you learn attack patterns and dodge timings. Later on, the medallion still provides a nice HP buff that pairs well with my favorite beefy strength builds sporting heavy armor sets.
Even on higher NG+ cycles where enemies hit much harder, having that cushion of bonus max HP alleviates frustration from being two-shot by most attacks. More HP also combos well with skills that restore HP on hits. While the Crimson Amber Medallion may seem boring compared to more flashy gifts on paper, you simply can‘t go wrong with stacking extra maximum health right out the gate.
Crimson Amber Medallion Stats
| Type | Talisman |
|-|-|
| Weight | 0.3 |
| Effects | Raise maximum HP |
2. Land Between Rune: Best for Progression
Runes are Elden Ring‘s form of currency used for purchasing items, upgrading weapons/armor, and leveling up your character to increase damage and health. The Land Between Rune gift gives you 300 bonus runes (equal to 3000 souls in Dark Souls) to spend as you see fit immediately.
300 runes might not seem like much compared to the tens of thousands of runes you can earn later on, but it‘s incredibly useful early when runes are scarce. You can either save up to buy your first weapon/armor upgrade or level up one of your core stats for a quick advantage against enemies that can kill you swiftly in just a few hits during the opening hours.
Having this surplus of runes right off the bat alleviates a lot of the early game grind and lets you more rapidly power up your character without having to constantly farm enemies over and over. For veteran players gunning for specific build requirements, the 300 free runes also slightly accelerate your progression to hit the desired stats needed to wield your weapon of choice shortly after beginning.
Later on, the 300 runes become insignificant, but they provide tremendous value during the first few hours where every small upgrade to your attack, health, or equipment feels truly impactful with each milestone reached. If raw runes don‘t excite you though, I‘d go with the Crimson Amber Medallion instead for pure combat performance.
Land Between Rune Details
| Type | Key Item |
|---|---|
| Runes | 300 |
| Usage | Currency for purchases & leveling up |
3. Stonesword Key: Best for Exploration
Stonesword Keys are special keys used to open imp statues found across the Lands Between, revealing treasure chests containing valuable weapons, upgrade materials, spells, and unique armor sets. Rather than starting with zero keys, the Stonesword Key gift provides you with two keys immediately.
This lets you access special reward loot locations early that would otherwise remain sealed without progressing further. You‘d normally need to defeat main story bosses and explore extensively before amassing keys organically as random enemy drops. With your two starting keys, you can open locked chests right away for a quick head start on treasures.
Keys are also permanent reusable items, so nabbing this gift gets you free permanent treasure chest unlocks. Having the keys on hand right away lets you actively hunt down imp statues while exploring without having to double back later once you‘ve finally stumbled upon spare keys organically.
It saves tremendous time tracking down these out of the way secrets, and I love using Stonesword Keys to uncover gear to try out new build ideas rather than waiting hours until obtaining them normally. The utility speaks for itself for unfettered explorers like myself eager to discover what exotic armaments could be hiding behind each sealed statue.
Stonesword Key Specs
| Type | Key Item |
|---|---|
| Number Held | 99 |
| Usage | Unseal imp statues |
4. Fanged Imp Ashes: Best Summoning Gift
Spirit summoning becomes available shortly after arriving in Limgrave and allows you to call upon spectral allies to fight alongside you against groups of enemies or bosses. Summons range from skeleton militiamen to elite sorcerers that can augment your own playstyle‘s shortcomings with their unique movesets.
The Fanged Imp Spirit ashes gift grants you a damaging summon as your starting gift so you can immediately experiment with this spellbinding new mechanic FromSoftware has introduced to the series. I found Fanged Imps one of the most aggressive summons available, dishing out quick successive dagger strikes that stagger-lock foes. Their repeated hits rapidly inflict blood loss buildup, bringing boss health bars crashing down.
Having this summon available early on gives you an extra tool to tackle difficult encounters and bosses that feel insurmountable alone as a new player. It‘s one of the few starting gifts that remains viable even late into the game against higher health enemies since Fanged Imp piles damage fast with their flurries. I used them as a handy distraction in my run against the infamously difficult Malenia herself!
Plus as a veteran, I enjoyed rushing this summon to new players struggling with Margit since so many fight him too early when they should be off exploring first for runes and gear before attempting Stormveil Castle.
Fanged Imp Ashes Details
| Type | Spirit Summon |
|---|---|
| FP Cost | 45 |
| Usage | Summons ally spirits |
5. Golden Seed: Best for Sustain
Last up we have the unassuming but practical Golden Seed gift. Golden Seeds are rare consumable items used to permanently increase the number of sacred flask charges available for restoring HP and FP. Golden Seeds are consumed upon use to expand how much your flask can heal per life.
So the starting Golden Seed provides one free extra sacred flask charge right away without needing to comb every corner of the map searching for seeds. This equates to more total HP available as you‘re exploring dangerous new areas far from sites of grace safe havens where you can replenish your flask. Having bonus charges enhances your sustainability.
An extra flask charge might not sound significant on paper, but those bonus heals make a big difference in staying alive during long dungeon crawls or forest roams far from the next site of grace respawn point. You might‘ve died an extra death or two if your flask ran dry mid-way versus having sufficient charges to refuel health and keep pushing forward deeper.
It also saves you time from having to go hunting for seeds off the main critical path when your current flask charges are insufficient and you‘re low on health with enemies surrounding you. I prioritized additional flask charges heavily until reaching 10+ charges for essential survivability and found this starting gift‘s single bonus charge quite valuable early on while my flask was still small.
Golden Seed Properties
| Type | Bolstering Material |
|---|---|
| Number Held | 99 |
| Usage | Upgrade amount of flask healing |
Now the big question remains: which starting gift should you actually choose for your heroic Tarnished‘s Elden Ring debut based on your playstyle priorities? Let‘s summarize the pros and cons of each gift quickly.
The Crimson Amber Medallion is ideal if you desire higher combat survivability via bonus HP to counteract early game struggles until you improve at dodging and memorize enemy movesets. However, it only offers a flat health boost without any special effects. Players craving more dynamic gifts may find this one lackluster.
Meanwhile the Land Between Rune ensures you‘ll have extra currency for crucial upgrades and leveling without having to grind. Yet if you don‘t enjoy shopping or build optimization, the runes provide diminished value versus other gifts impacting direct combat performance. Rune gains also quickly eclipse such a small starting amount.
For Tarnished interested in exploration rewards above all else, the Stonesword Key unlocks hidden loot instantly versus waiting extensively to gather keys naturally. You won‘t benefit from this gift however if you don‘t take time to go searching for imp statues. And you may miss the rewarding feeling of organically discovering locked chest locations rather than having keys handed to you immediately.
The Fanged Imp Ashes starting gift empowers new players to try out spirit summoning for challenging encounters via a damaging ally. Relying too heavily on your summon instead of improving your own skills can be detrimental though. Veterans may also want more utility based summons rather than pure aggression.
Lastly the Golden Seed bestows an extra sacred flask charge for longer health/mana sustainability early on. Yet focusing heavily on survivability over damage can drag out certain fights. And obtaining seeds organically also feels more rewarding for some rather than starting with bonus healing charges already unlocked.
My recommendation is to choose either the Crimson Amber Medallion for sheer combat effectiveness or Land Between Rune for optimized progression if you‘re new to FromSoftware‘s brutally difficult games. For Souls veterans however, go with the Stonesword Key for hitting the ground running on exploration paths or Fanged Imp Ashes if you wish to experiment with spirit summoning immediately.
Avoid traps like Shabriri‘s Woe that only make encounters harder on yourself when initially struggling with basic mechanics mastery! At the end of the day, you truly can‘t go wrong with any starting gift, so don‘t overthink it too much. The full Elden Ring experience remains unchanged regardless of your choice. Now forge onward through the Fog Gate and let your quest to become Elden Lord commence!
