Elden Ring: Best Keepsake To Pick During Character Creation

Your starting Keepsake selection in Elden Ring represents one of the most crucial early-game decisions that can significantly influence your initial hours of exploration. These legacy items function similarly to starting gifts from previous FromSoftware titles, offering specialized advantages tailored to different playstyles and strategic approaches.

Keepsakes provide immediate benefits that can ease the notoriously difficult opening segments, particularly for newcomers to the Soulsborne genre. The choice you make at character creation determines what tactical advantages you’ll carry into your first encounters with the Lands Between’s formidable challenges.

Seasoned veterans might consider foregoing a Keepsake entirely to embrace the game’s maximum difficulty from the outset. This approach eliminates any early-game crutches and forces mastery of core mechanics from the very beginning.

Choosing no Keepsake presents the ultimate challenge for experienced players.

Crimson Amber Medallion

The Crimson Amber Medallion stands as the premier choice for most players due to its straightforward health augmentation. This talisman provides approximately 6-8% increased maximum HP, which translates to surviving one additional hit from early-game enemies that would otherwise prove fatal. This survivability buffer proves invaluable during the learning curve when mastering attack patterns and environmental hazards.

Pro Tip: While you’ll eventually discover superior talismans, the Crimson Amber Medallion remains relevant until you acquire the necessary talisman pouch after defeating Margit, the Fell Omen.

Golden Seed

Golden Seeds represent long-term investment in your character’s sustainability. Your initial seed immediately upgrades your Sacred Flask capacity, providing either additional healing charges or FP restoration depending on your allocation. Early game exploration typically yields 3-4 Golden Seeds within the first few hours, but this headstart becomes increasingly valuable as subsequent upgrades require multiple seeds.

Strategic Insight: Flask upgrades follow a progressive cost curve – your first upgrade requires one seed, but later enhancements demand two, three, or even four seeds per upgrade.

Stonesword Key

Stonesword Keys unlock imp-sealed areas containing unique weapons, armor sets, spirit ashes, and valuable crafting materials. These specialized keys remain scarce during early game, making your starting key exceptionally valuable for accessing content that would otherwise remain inaccessible for hours.

Advanced Tactic: The Stranded Graveyard area accessible from the beginning contains a Stonesword Key door leading to valuable early-game loot that can significantly accelerate your character progression.

Stonesword Key unlocks imp-sealed areas with powerful rewards.

Boiled Prawn

Boiled Prawns provide substantial physical damage reduction that proves exceptionally valuable against specific early-game bosses and heavily armored enemies. This consumable offers approximately 15% physical damage negation for 180 seconds, effectively functioning as temporary armor enhancement.

Combat Application: Against bosses like Margit or the Tree Sentinel, a single Boiled Prawn can mean the difference between surviving a combo or suffering immediate death.

Bewitching Branch

Bewitching Branches enable temporary pacification of certain humanoid enemies, turning them into allies for approximately three minutes. This specialized tool requires careful timing and positioning but can completely alter encounter dynamics when used strategically.

Expert Usage: These branches prove most effective against groups of weaker enemies or to neutralize particularly troublesome foes that would otherwise require significant resources to defeat.

Fanged Imp Ashes

The Fanged Imp Ashes summon spectral imps that excel at applying bleed buildup through rapid, aggressive attacks. While you’ll acquire numerous spirit ashes through natural progression, these particular summons maintain relevance against enemies vulnerable to hemorrhage effects.

Limitation Awareness: You must obtain the Spirit Calling Bell from Renna at the Church of Ellah before being able to utilize any spirit ashes, including these starting options.

Cracked Pot

Cracked Pots serve as reusable containers for craftable throwable items like fire pots, poison pots, and sleep pots. The crafting system in Elden Ring offers substantial depth, but Cracked Pots become readily available through merchant purchases and exploration within the first several hours of gameplay.

Crafting Strategy: While the initial pot provides immediate access to thrown weaponry, most players will accumulate sufficient pots naturally without requiring this as a starting selection.

Lands Between Rune

The Lands Between Rune provides a one-time infusion of 3000 runes, which represents approximately one early-game level or several basic weapon upgrades. However, given the relative ease of rune acquisition through standard gameplay, this Keepsake offers minimal long-term value compared to permanent or reusable alternatives.

Economic Analysis: Within 30-45 minutes of standard exploration and combat, most players will naturally accumulate equivalent rune values, rendering this selection largely redundant.

Shabriri’s Woe

Shabriri’s Woe actively increases the aggro range and enemy focus on your character. This talisman primarily benefits cooperative play where designated tank characters want to draw attention away from allies, but proves detrimental for solo players facing the game’s challenging encounters alone.

Warning: This Keepsake significantly increases difficulty by ensuring you remain the primary target in every engagement, making it arguably the worst choice for new players.

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