Combat in Elden Ring can be brutal. There are so many enemies stuffed into the Lands Between, that’s it hard to know how to handle them all. Elden Ring may be a difficult game, and not being prepared with good tactics and solid gear can see you taking a lot of unnecessary deaths. That’s why we’re trying to help you get better with some basics guides. Going from a noob to a true lord won’t be easy, so this guide might help you.
One of the first things you need to learn is that staggering is bad. Now that might be obvious, but let’s talk about it in more detail. When a player gets hit hard enough, or takes too much damage, they can stagger. This will make you very vulnerable, and can easily get you killed. Much like anything else in Elden Ring, there’s a stat at play here. When it comes to advanced combat techniques, there are actually multiple stats worth learning about, and that’s what this guide is covering. Keep reading to learn more about Poise, Super Armor and Stance Breaking in Elden Ring.
What is Poise in Elden Ring?
Poise is your ability your footing in combat, in simple terms. The higher your poise, the more of tank you can be. It won’t make you immune from staggering while being hit or slammed, but high poise will certainly stand their ground compared to lesser poise builds. Poise is accounted for on enemies as well as the player. You can actually use certain attacks to lower the Poise of an enemy. This will trigger a stagger, and open them up for further attacks.
Heavy Attacks are designed to break an enemy’s poise. You will want to use the charge attack when you can, like when you’re behind a slow-moving foe. Unleashing a powerful strike like this can chip away a sizeable chunk from a health bar. Jump attacks are also great for this. They’re a bit easier to use, and some hardcore gamers consider them kind of cheesing some fights. But really, use whatever option works best for you.
There’s one other thing to worry about when it comes to combat in this game, Super Armor.
What is Super Armor?
Super Armor is similar to Poise but covers one very specific part of combat in Elden Ring, critical hits. The higher your rating in this stat, the better you are able to resist getting nailed by one of these debilitating hits.
The trouble is, it’s a hidden stat. By default, there is no way for players to see how much Super Armor they have. There is one clue that you can use to find out how close you are to being knocked down or dealt a crit. When Super Armor breaks, you will hear a loud banging sound over the game. That’s the clue that the enemy you just hit lost Super Armor. When Super Armor is lost, you want to unleash a flurry of blows to engage in Stance Breaking in Elden Ring. Then, you can crit the face off of the broken enemy.
What is Stance Breaking in Elden Ring?
You get introduced to the concept early in the game, and when the tutorial prompt disappears, an item called About Stance-Breaking” will appear in your inventory. The basic idea is that through successive heavy attacks, you weaken a foe. There are certain attacks you can use, mostly jump attacks and other special moves. Some attacks may break an enemy’s stance, giving you a chance to perform a critical hit.
