Want to play with a friend? Summon away. Want to go solo but Buy Elden Ring Items seek help from NPC companions and ghostly Spirit Ashes? Do your thing. Or maybe you prefer the hardcore route, soloing bosses with melee only and no magic or summons whatsoever. You are a stone cold killer and I respect that.

There is no “right way” to play FromSoftware’s latest masterpiece. But there are at least two “wrong ways” that I urge players of all stripes to avoid. Allow me to explain.

This is stupid. The entire point of Elden Ring and the Souls series more broadly is overcoming challenge and the sense of satisfaction you get for thwarting obstacles that, at first blush, seemed insurmountable.

Again, I am not the kind of purist who wags his finger at other players for summoning help or using the full array of tools—magic spells, spirit ashes, etc.—the developers put at your disposal. If it’s in the game, you should use it as you see fit, even if that Comet of Azur plus the Cerulean Hidden Tear can turn you into a blue-laser-beam-of-death wizard for fifteen seconds.

“If I get something in a game, I use it. If I’m not going to use it, I sell it. That’s what I’ve been doing in Elden Ring, and it’s all been going great — up until this past week, when I realized I’d made a serious tactical error.

“I’d like to emphasize that I made it quite far in Elden Ring before my penchant for selling items became a problem. At the time of writing this post, I’ve played for 87 hours, and I still keep my inventory as clean as a whistle. I don’t regret my choices — except for one specific moment during Fia’s questline when I did, very strongly, regret my choices.”

This is sheer lunacy. I understand wanting a tidy inventory in a game where loot is just basically different tier drops of the same gun over and over again. In Diablo or Destiny you find the same crap over and over, and increasingly you find better versions of said crap, and so selling (or breaking down) these items makes sense.

This is not the case with Elden Ring. A decade ago I wrote about the vastly different philosophies behind the loot in Diablo and Dark Souls, and that pontification applies still today. Just because you think you might not use something in Elden Ring doesn’t mean you won’t.

Polygon’s Maddy Meyers realized this at 87 hours into the game despite frequent warnings from other players, but only because a piece of armor she sold was needed for a quest. She regrets selling this item but not all the others. I am aghast.

Simply put, this is not the only reason you shouldn’t sell stuff. Others include:

The runes you receive for selling items in Elden Ring are paltry. A really terrific, rare item nets you less than a very basic enemy. There are better ways to get runes!

You can put items you’re not using into storage and manage said storage to your heart’s content, keeping your inventory clean without losing stuff you might regret later.

This is not a loot-grind like Diablo. This is a game about collecting stuff. Each item has lore that helps deepen your understanding of the world and its heady cast of characters.

This game is vast and hard to wrap your brain around. You have no idea what items you might need later in the game.

You can respec your character at pretty much any time after you get past the second major boss. So sure, maybe you’ve been playing with a Strength build but who knows? Maybe you’ll want to switch over to a Holy or Magic focused build at some point but you sold your Darkmoon Greatsword or Meteorite Staff for 200 Runes and now you can’t get another until the next playthrough. WHY??? WHY DO THIS?

Look, I’ll be blunt: Only sell duplicate items and only if you’re sure you won’t want to use them for different purposes (say, infuse each with different Ashes of War). Duplicates still won’t net you much in the way of Runes, but at least you won’t miss out on anything. The items in this game are as crucial to the story as the characters, and often the two are deeply interwoven, as Maddy found out during Fia’s quest.

Both these grave Elden Ring sins share one thing in common: They go against the spirit of the Souls games. Getting free Runes is no better than cheating and will suck the joy from the experience as sure as anything else, because without a little suffering you won’t understand what that joy is to begin with.

And selling all the cool weapons and armor you find will rob you of a lot of the enjoyment of the game also, cutting you off from changing your playstyle, or even just your look, for no good reason. This isn’t like other RPGs where you really have to constantly sell things off just to manage inventory space (half of them will charge you real money for more inventory space these days, too).

This is a game that invites you to constantly dip back into your collection, either to learn more about The Lands Between or to try new things.

For instance, about two-thirds of the way through my playthrough of Elden Ring I decided to shed (but not sell) my heavier armor, stop rolling around looking like a knight, and go full winter princess:

Now, granted, she’s not rocking the best defense against physical attacks, but she has great magic/holy defense. And if I decide that I need better armor for this or that fight, I can easily go through all the sets I’ve collected and put on something else. Or if I find my current weapons insufficient (or stale) I can swap them out for something new, which I’ve done countless times this playthrough.

I suppose some will say I’m ‘gatekeeping’ here, but I disagree. I want players to enjoy the game for what it is, however they see fit, but at least in keeping with the spirit of the game. The game absolutely rips you off when it comes to selling your inventory and it does this on purpose: It’s telling you not to. And I’m just repeating that so you don’t make the same mistake.

Umbasa.

Update: I need to include another passage from the Polygon piece. After discussing a questline where you get a character named D’s (very cool, very weird) armor, Maddy writes:

“You can guess what I did next: I sold that whole set. I’ve been wearing Radahn’s set of armor since I beat him, and it’s stronger than D’s armor, which was worth thousands of runes. I often sell armor to the blacksmith while I’m upgrading my weapons, because many times I need only a few runes to pay for the job, and he’s got a “Sell” option right there (although, importantly, there is no buy-back mechanic).”

NO. Just no no no. The point of armor in Elden Ring is not just which is “stronger” than another. Some helms confer stat bonuses. Some armor that is very strong is still weak to certain types of attacks. There is also the weight to consider, with some very powerful armor also quite heavy, which can impact movement (I swear everyone who complains that the game is “clunky” is fat-rolling).

There is just so much wrong with this single paragraph it’s hard to Elden Ring runes know what to say. The paltry amount of runes you get for selling these amazing armor sets and weapons can be earned via runes in your inventory or by killing a few easy bad guys. There is just literally no reason to make this unforced error. None.