Warning: This article contains story and gameplay spoilers for Elden Ring, its expansion and Elden Ring Nightreign.
Defeating Radagon and the Elden Beast is only one milestone in the Tarnished’s journey. Whether you want a fresh challenge, missed major content or are preparing for the Nintendo Switch 2 release, these ten replay ideas can make The Lands Between feel unfamiliar again.
1. Begin New Game Plus
After reaching an ending, you can choose to begin Journey 2. This restarts the adventure at the Chapel of Anticipation, including its deliberately punishing opening boss, while carrying over your Runes, level, most inventory, key items and discovered map areas.
The trade-off is tougher opposition. Enemies and bosses gain health and attack power, while boss Rune rewards increase. Bosses can also drop duplicate weapons, making dual-wield combinations possible when you could only obtain one copy during the first journey. You can start as many journeys as you like, although the difficulty increase stops after the eighth replay.
New Game Plus is a useful way to revisit the boss roster with a powerful character. Familiar encounters can reveal new attack patterns and punishments when their stronger versions demand more from your build.
2. Take your character online
Co-operative play and PvP transform Elden Ring into a very different experience. Helping another player through a difficult area can be more relaxed than fighting a boss alone, while invading or duelling demands that you respond to an unpredictable human opponent.
Online play can inspire new builds and tactics. Successful PvP and co-op sessions reward Rune Arcs, which are scarce during ordinary play. You can summon help for sections you have not mastered, or use a Finger item to assist other Tarnished in areas you already know well.
3. Respec and commit to a new build
Classes, weapons and spells give Elden Ring an enormous range of play styles. The Meteorite Staff creates a very different run from a bleed setup using Rivers of Blood or Moonveil. You do not need to restart immediately: after defeating Rennala at Raya Lucaria, Larval Tears allow you to respec and test new stat distributions.
For a more demanding restart, choose the Wretch. It begins without armour and carries only a wooden club, but its evenly distributed stats make it a flexible blank canvas. Some classes remain harder to use than others after the updates; the Prophet, for example, can be awkward until you find suitable incantations, making a successful run particularly satisfying.
The Switch 2 Tarnished Edition is also described as adding two new classes, the Heavy Knight and Idus Knight. Experimenting with either could offer an especially unfamiliar route through the game.
4. Revisit the story and investigate the lore
The game’s history is deliberately cryptic. George R.R. Martin helped write its lore, while FromSoftware presents much of The Lands Between’s politics through item descriptions, environmental details and fragmented dialogue. Characters may be connected in ways that are not immediately obvious.
Read descriptions again, compare fan theories and watch story explainers if you want a different kind of replay. Data-mined material adds another layer, including cut content and unused story ideas. Cut quests involving Kale and Silver Tear enemies in the Eternal City offer intriguing glimpses of what might have been.
5. Enter Shadow of the Erdtree
Unless you are playing the Switch 2 enhanced version, the expansion requires additional spending. It is a substantial addition, however, exploring ideas that were only lightly developed in the base game, particularly those surrounding Miquella and the Empyrean’s influence over events.
Shadow of the Erdtree introduces spectacular bosses and is significantly harder than the main game. Even players who are overlevelled for the original adventure may spend several hours against the first boss, so approach the expansion as a serious new challenge rather than a victory lap.
6. Follow the side quests you missed
Hidden passages, secret dungeons and unmarked objectives make it difficult to see everything without guidance. Quests can also disappear or change if you advance the main story too quickly. Sellen, Millicent, Iron Fist Alexander, Patches and the Dung Eater all have substantial storylines, while Boc the Seamster and Irina provide especially tragic episodes.
Visit the Eternal City carefully: a memorable discovery follows soon after entering it. Volcano Manor is another danger zone for quest progress, as its storyline can advance or end accidentally. On a second run, look up the starting points for questlines you did not find the first time.
7. Hunt optional bosses
Not every boss is needed to finish the story, which makes optional encounters easy to overlook. The Bell-Bearing Hunter and the Night’s Cavalry appear under specific conditions and in several locations.
Bell-Bearing Hunters drop items that expand the shops at Roundtable Hold. Night’s Cavalry encounters reward Ashes of War, giving build-focused players more ways to reshape combat. Seek out both groups early if you want a broader selection of equipment and skills.
8. Search out concealed dungeons
Exploration is central to Elden Ring, yet several locations are remarkably easy to miss. Add these to a completionist route:
- Sellia Hideaway, hidden behind an illusory wall inside another dungeon
- War-Dead Catacombs, at the far end of the beach where Radahn is fought
- Lake of Rot, deep within the Ainsel River
- Leyndell Catacombs, close to the Subterranean Shunning Grounds
These areas reward patience and careful observation, making them ideal targets for a replay in which you deliberately investigate every suspicious wall, path and dead end.
9. Experiment with overlooked items
Many of the game’s consumables look strange until you discover their purpose. Charming and Bewitching Branches can affect particular enemies, while Hefty Fly Pots, Sacred Bloody Flesh and the Iris of Occultation invite hands-on testing. Sleep-inducing items are another example of equipment that can remain useful long after the early game.
Instead of relying on the same reliable flask, weapon skill and throwable routine, make a run around unfamiliar items. The Charming Branch and Bewitching Branches are good places to start experimenting.
10. Try Elden Ring Nightreign
Elden Ring Nightreign remixes the formula with faster action, new classes, randomised loot, changing bosses and randomised playable areas. Its blend of Fortnite-style momentum and Elden Ring combat may sound unlikely, but the result turns the familiar ideas on their head.
There is no fall damage, and you have less time to stop and read every description or carefully choose your next dungeon. Instead, you must make the best of the equipment and route available. It may take a dozen hours to reach the dungeon beneath a lava area, but succeeding after repeated attempts can feel especially rewarding.
Knowledge does not guarantee success because the run changes around you, and convincing three human companions to follow your plan is its own challenge. Discovering a particular enemy or legendary item is satisfying precisely because the odds are not fully under your control.
Choose your next challenge
A fresh Elden Ring run does not have to mean simply repeating the same path. New Game Plus, online play, an unfamiliar build, hidden quests, optional bosses and the expansion each change what you notice and how you approach danger. If you enjoy games that reward experimentation, explore more from RETROCADE through the Arcade Blog, watch the latest arcade videos or compare options in the Arcade Machine Buying Guide.
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