Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition arrives on Switch 2 on August 28, bundling the base game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and a chunk of new content. If the Switch 2 is where you finally give FromSoftware's monster a go, welcome. It's brilliant, it's brutal, and it will not explain itself to you. Here's the stuff it won't tell you.
Don't fight everything
Elden Ring is open, and that's both the point and the trap. If a boss or a whole area is kicking you, leave. Ride off, explore somewhere else, come back three levels and a better weapon later. Sprinting past enemies to grab an item and legging it is a completely valid tactic, not cheating.
Level Vigor. Then level Vigor again
Your damage matters less than your ability to survive one more hit. Early on, pour runes into Vigor (your health) until you can comfortably tank a couple of blows. Nothing wrecks a new run faster than getting one-shot because you dumped everything into your weapon stat.
Spend runes as you earn them
Runes are your XP and your currency in one, and you drop the lot where you die. If you're carrying a big pile, spend it, level up or buy something, before you wander into a fight. Losing 20,000 runes to a surprise dog is a rite of passage you really don't need to repeat.
What Tarnished Edition adds
New here or not, the Switch 2 version throws in extras: two new starting classes (Knight/Knightess of Ides and Heavy Warrior), four new armour sets, fresh weapons, and cosmetic options for your mount Torrent. The new classes are a gentler on-ramp if you want a sturdier start than the base game's squishier picks. Owners on PS5, Xbox and PC get the same additions as a cheap Tarnished Pack add-on the same day.
That's enough to get you moving. The rest, the lore, the secret paths, the sob at a certain grace, you're better off finding yourself.
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