Elden Ring vs. Dark Souls: what’s the same and what’s just been renamed since Souls

Plenty is new in Elden Ring, but many familiar stats and items are back under new ring-themed names.

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Elden Ring guide:Conquer the Lands BetweenElden Ring bosses:How to beat themElden Ring dungeons:How to defeat themElden Ring paintings:Solutions and locationsElden Ring map fragments:Reveal the world

Now that we’vetaken our first stroll through Elden Ring’s open world, it’s pretty clear that Dark Souls fans will find much of it familiar.FromSoftwaremay have ripped the Souls label off their newest game, but they’ve also gone and sharpied ‘Elden Ring’ on some tape and slapped it over the top of lots of items, stats, and abilities that we already know. We won’t blame you if you carry on calling experience points “souls,” but you might want to know that they’re officially “runes” now, just in case.

Before you travel off into the Lands Between, skim this handy phrase book so you don’t get tongue-tied talking to the locals when you need to ask directions to the nearestbonfireSite of Lost Grace. You’re sure to settle into the big new open world quicker once you remember that Estus Flasks are now Crimson Tears and Soapstones are now Fingers, and so on.

Beyond that, you’ll want to know how some of the core Souls systems like stamina and fast travel have changed. Spoiler: they’re both a lot more permissive now. We’ve also rounded up a quick reminder on the new concepts you’ll encounter such as stealth and map fragments. Here’s all of the Elden Ring vs. Dark Souls terms you’ll want to remember.

The basics

Tarnished- This is you. No longer Hollowed or Ashen or Bearer of the Curse. You’re the Tarnished this time.

Runes- The currency used to level up and buy items that’s primarily obtained by defeating enemies. The same as souls in Dark Souls.

Sites of Lost Grace- These are the Elden Ring equivalent of bonfires. You’ll activate them all over the world as fast-travel checkpoints and be able to spend your runes to level up while there.

Elden Ring stats

When it comes to Elden Ring’s player stats, there are several you’ll recognize. There are a few differences to watch out for before you just go slinging yoursoulsrunes into the same stats you normally do. You’ll notice the Vitality stat is gone. Your maximum equipment load has now been folded into your Strength stat instead. Luck is gone too, but you’ll find that its usual effects are now under the new Arcane stat.

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Items and equipment

Standard equipment

Multiplayer items

Consumable items

What’s changed in Elden Ring?

Fast travelUnlike in Souls games, you can fast travel to a Site of Lost Grace at any time as long as you aren’t in combat. That means you won’t need to run back to a Site you’ve already unlocked in order to fast travel.

Infinite* staminaUnlike in Dark Souls, Elden Ring gives you infinite stamina when you aren’t in combat. That means you can sprint into a fight without being out of breath when you arrive.

Less fall damageElden Ring is also much more permissive with its fall damage. You will still take damage when jumping from high places, but not nearly as much as in Dark Souls, and you can survive even greater distances with your spectral steed’s double jump. FromSoftware seems to be encouraging players to take a vertical approach to the open world now that we can jump.

New mechanics in Elden Ring

Map and map fragmentsUnlike Souls games, Elden Ring does have a map. You’ll have to collect Map Fragments to uncover areas though, which are found around the world.

Guidance of GraceThese are the glowing gold threads that sometimes lead away from Sites of Lost Grace, guiding you towards points of interest if you want a tip.

Shrines of MarikaThese are another waypoint system. You’ll find them in difficult areas and will respawn at them if you die, though you can’t rest there to recover health and flasks.

Ashes of WarThese items apply Dark Souls 3-esque Weapon Arts to whatever weapon you equip them on, and are common rewards for completing mini dungeons or defeating tougher enemies. Critically, they can also change the properties of a weapon, changing it to scale on a different stat like Intelligence. No more grinding for twinkling titanite, it seems!

Guard counterThis is a new combat move for Elden Ring that’s less risky than a parry but gives you the ability to attack unlike just blocking. A heavy attack right after blocking a hit will do tons of damage to an enemy’s poise.

Power stancesElden Ring brings back a feature from Dark Souls 2 that lets you equip two weapons of the same class and attack with both at the same time with a unique moveset. Unlike in Dark Souls 2, you don’t need 1.5x the weapons' normal stat requirements.

Flask of Wondrous PhysickThat’s right, Elden Ring has not one, nor just two types of flask. You also have a third consumable flask which has two slots for gems that let you customize its effects.

StealthStealth is new in Elden Ring, but relatively light. Crouching will make enemies less likely to notice you and help avoid fights.

Summoning ashesThe new spirit summons for Elden Ring are controlled by items called ashes that cost FP to cast.

Group passwordsAs in Dark Souls 3, you can set a password to make it easier to summon a friend for multiplayer. Elden Ring adds a new group password system that seems like it’ll support clans and dedicated PvP groups.

Time of dayThe time of day naturally progresses as you play, but you can also choose to skip time ahead from Sites of Lost Grace. There are some enemies in the open world that only spawn at night or behave differently, even in the small opening area we’ve played.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can’t stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.

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