Which Keepsake should your character start their journey with?
Which Keepsake should you pick for your character in Elden Ring?DuringElden Ring’s character creation phase you’re prompted to pick your character’s origin, tweak their appearance to your liking, and finally choose a Keepsake for them. Keepsakes are a single, helpful starting item that, unlike everything else in your character’s loadout, is completely independent of theirorigin class: no matter which class you’ve picked, you can equip them with any Keepsake that’s to your liking.
What do Keepsakes do in Elden Ring?
Though the name “Keepsakes” is a new one, players familiar with theDark Soulsgames will recognise the concept, since they’re functionally identical to Gifts in the Souls series. Basically, it’s your choice of starting item to give your character a bit of a leg-up as they familiarise themselves with the Lands Between.
There are 10 options for Keepsakes in the character creation phase, although technically there’s really nine, because one of these options is to have no Keepsake at all. Perhaps the most important thing for first-time players to understand about Keepsakes is that these are not exclusive items: they’re relatively common in-game resources, and you’ll end up collecting plenty of all of them over the course of the game. All your Keepsake really means is a slight starting advantage in one sense or another to help you out in the very beginning.
By a wide margin,the most useful starting Keepsakes in Elden Ring are the Crimson Amber Medallion and the Golden Seed. Both provide helpful boosts for your HP and healing at the very start of the game, and furthermore the Crimson Amber Medallion is the only Keepsake to grant you a permanent buff for as long as you keep it equipped.
If you’re looking for alternative picks that are still quite useful, theBoiled Prawnswill be overall beneficial to you in your first few forays into combat, if you’re looking for ways to improve your early-game experiences without directly boosting your HP or healing flasks. TheCracked Potis also a solid Keepsake thanks to its versatile use in crafting thrown projectiles that can convey a number of powerful elemental and status effects on the target, though since this sort of crafting is a little higher-level than you’ll probably be up for in the first hour or two of your first run, this is probably one to pick on a later playthrough.
TheStonesword KeyKeepsake has a very specific benefit, in that there’s an Imp seal lock in the starting area that you can’t open unless you choose this Keepsake. However, this seemingly-innocuous lock hides averyhigh-level area that’s guaranteed to flatten your poor starting character — which feels like a bit of a troll on FromSoft’s part. That’s not to say there’s no argument for picking this Keepsake, however; just that you might do better to save your gifted keys for other early-game locks, like those found in theStormveil CastleandRoundtable Holdareas.
So far at RPS we haven’t seen anything to recommend theBewitching Branches, since it seems that not all enemies are susceptible to your character laying on the charm even with supernatural assistance, and might just decide to one-hit kill you anyway. We’ve also struggled to get theLands Between Runeto do what it says on the tin, though of course since we’ve been playing a pre-release build there’s a chance that the utility of both items will be more apparent in the final release.Fanged Imp Ashesare also pretty limited, thanks to spirit summons only being available at certain locations, and ultimately these are all Keepsakes I’d only recommend for subsequent playthroughs when you have a specific character build or challenge in mind.
Starting withno Keepsakeis, of course, only useful for self-imposed challenges (I’m fully expecting a variant on the Dark Souls Deprived run using a Wretch with no Keepsake to pop up almost immediately). Similarly, choosingShabriri’s Woeis just a way to make the game harder for yourself if you’d prefer to up the difficulty. I know plenty of Soulsborne fans who are going to eat this kind of thing up with a spoon, but still, I wouldn’t recommend either for your maiden run ofElden Ring.
If you’re looking for more guides to help you through character creation, see our page onElden Ring attributes and statsto help you think about how you want to build your protagonist. For more equipment guides to help your character survive in the Lands Between, be sure to have a look at ourbest weapons in Elden Ringandbest armor in Elden Ringpages as well.
