The Stranded Graveyard - also known as the Cave of Knowledge - is the opening tutorial area for Elden Ring. It is where each player will begin their journey regardless of the class you choose. It is also completely optional, as the tutorial itself can be found by jumping down a large pit - or bypassed by walking around the pit and up the stairs to an elevator leading to the region of Limgrave.

The choice is yours on which path to take, but it’s best for new players to check out the cave, while experienced souls players can opt to skip the tutorial as not much is gained other than a few items, an emote, and currency.

Chapel of Anticipation

After creating your chosen Tarnished, choosing their physique, class, and starting keepsake, you'll awaken in the Chapel of Anticipation. The lonely and forgotten place is devoid of enemies, but you can find a dead maiden near the door that holds a Tarnished Wizened Finger. With this item, you can create messages in the ground that can be seen by other players.

Exit through the main door, and you'll an enormous glowing tree far in the distance, with a large castle shilouetted in storms across a large gap. Head towards the balcony looking off the castle, and you can find wooden scaffolding heading down to the left.

From here, you can cross a long rope bridge leading further across the high peaks of the island, leading to a large statue of Marika - and a boss fight.

If you weren't sure - the Grafted Scion is one of those extremely tough enemies that From Software likes to throw at new players right off the bat so they can die. Painfully. You don't even have to worry about beating this boss, and you don't even have any way to heal as you are, so enjoy you first taste of Elden Ring.

Once you've been defeated, your body will presumably fall to the ocean below, where the tides will take you somewhere new - and a mysterious girl on a horse will find you.

You'll awaken in the Stranded Graveyard, and to the right you'll find a large cave that serves as a tutorial of sorts. It's a good way to get your bearings, learn the controls, and see some new features that Elden Ring has in store for you.

The Cave of Knowledge Walkthrough

Dropping down into the cave below, you’ll get a primer on how to use items - remember that in addition to the items you can cycle through on your D-Pad, you can also assign items to a quick slot.

Just ahead is the Cave of Knowledge Site of Grace, which serves as a bonfire of sorts in Elden Ring. Resting at these refills your health and FP flasks, resurrects most defeated enemies, and allows you to assign magic spells, and search your storage. New to Elden Ring - you can also change the time of day and equip new weapon skills and scaling properties by collecting Ashes of War.

Not far past the Site of Grace are some fairly docile enemies you can test out either magic or melee, as well as locking on and strafing around targets. After killing them, the path will lead upwards, and you’ll be able to jump at will to climb the steps to a larger cavern. An enemy above may try to take potshots at you, and you can either fire back with magic or move ahead to get out of range for now.

Past the large cavern is another shielded enemy that may signal a good time to try switching up tactics, including swapping weapons, and shifting into a two-handed stance. This can be done by pressing Triangle/Y and either R1 or L1. Using weapons in a two-handed stances can give you a lot more offensive power, bashing through hardened defenses, and sometimes it can even pierce the hide of tough enemies that may cause one-handed weapons to bounce off!

Wielding a weapon in two hands is also the best way to enact Weapon Skills - each weapon comes with a default skill that can enhance your abilities in exchange for FP, and these can often be customized for each weapon as you find Ashes of War.

After clearing out a few more undead, you’ll move across the bridge where the soldier from earlier was hounding you, and the path will lead to a large cave filled with foliage. This is a good place to test out the new stealth mechanic.

Though the act itself isn’t too complex, it allows you to crouch down and make less noise to sneak up on enemies, or move unseen through dense underbrush or plants, allowing you to choose when to unleash a sneak attack from behind for extra damage, or escape undetected.

Further up, you’ll get the chance to try out charging up attacks either on the ground or when jumping to put additional force behind your attack - which can be perfect for breaking the stance of an enemy, and allowing you to follow up close with a critical strike.

In the room beyond, you’ll find a Stake of Marika. These serve as pseudo respawn points in place of a Site of Grace. This means upon death, you can choose to return to the last site of grace you died at, or a Stakes of Marika that may be much closer to where you died. However, the Stakes can’t be rested at nor can you use any of the features the Sites of Grace have, so you’ll have to choose wisely.

Tutorial Boss Fight - Soldier of Godrick

This boss is less of an actual boss, and more of a way for you to experiment with everything you’ve learned in the Cave of Knowledge. Don’t be fooled by the exaggerated health bar, the Soldier of Godrick has very low health, and while more aggressive than most enemies you’ve seen, won’t last very long.

Consider utilizing the Guard Counter move here - as it allows you to perform a quick and decisive counter-attack when you press RT right after blocking an incoming attack. This is not to be confused with the shield’s Parry weapon skill, as the parry must be timed right as an attack is going to land to deflect the blow and leave the enemy open for a critical strike. The Guard Counter requires you to hold block down until after the attack lands before striking back with a strong blow - but it will require a short wind-up and long swing, so it’s best used when you know the enemy isn’t launching a series of hits, and it’s not as effective against crowds.

Using these attacks, the Soldier of Godrick will likely go down in just a few hits, just be sure to block or dodge roll around his sweeping sword swings, and lay on the damage until he’s either dead or gets his stance broken and can be critically hit to finish him off.

Defeating this tutorial boss won’t net you much other than a few hundred Runes - the currency of Elden Ring used to level up and buy supplies - but more on that later.

For now, you can exit the room that will deposit you back where you started above the Cave of Knowledge, and up on the ledge you'll find your true reward - the Strength Emote. From here you can drop down and head through the doorway up the stairs to find the Stranded Graveyard Site of Grace.

You may also notice a body dangling off a high ledge at the back of the cave where you started - you can't reach him from here, but as you explore the world outside, you may find an alternate cave that leads you back to the body!

From the site of grace, head straight and take the elevator to leave this tutorial behind and enter the first region in The Lands Between - Limgrave.

What you do from here is largely up to you: There’s already a vast open world to explore, and you can run straight to the nearest Legacy Dungeon by following the strands of light from the Sites of Grace that point like arrows to the east and then north towards Stormveil Castle. However, there’s plenty to see and do before then, and you may want to do a bit of exploring before venturing into the perilous place. You can start by reading up on Things to Do First in Elden Ring - including How to Level Up and Get Your Mount, as well as getting some vital supplies from the merchant who lives not far away at the Church of Elleh (and maybe steer clear of that imposing mounted knight nearby). You can also check out a host of mini Dungeons that dot the landscape in Limgrave, as they often hide valuable items and treasure.

After that, you can view our Overview Guide of West Limgrave, East Limgrave, and the Weeping Peninsula to the south - or you can dare to venture north towards the foreboding Stormveil Castle, the first Legacy Dungeon.