The Adventures of Elliot Starter Tips: 5 Things To Do First

The Adventures of Elliot blends Octopath Traveler's HD-2D visual style with the action-adventure combat and exploration of The Legend of Zelda to great effect. If you're looking for a magical romp through the ages, this one should provide quite a chunk of fun for you.

Whether you've just started up The Adventures of Elliot, or maybe just considering giving it a go, we've compiled a list of five things we think you should do early in your adventure. There's a whole lot to do in this colorful role-playing journey, but we think you'll be off to a good start with these tips.

Experiment With Difficulty Settings

Before you enter the game, you'll be able to choose a difficulty that fits your skill and enjoyment level. While the game is fairly well-balanced on the Normal setting, each player is different, so you may want to toy around with the settings during the opening segment of the game to get a feel for what to expect. You can change the difficulty at any time in Settings while at any guidepost in the game.

The Normal difficulty will provide a reasonable challenge without causing most players to feel overwhelmed, while Easy ensures that you can breeze through most enemy encounters very easily. If you really want to test your mettle, bump things up to Hard or Very Hard and show us what you're made of. The point of gaming is to have fun, so just pick whatever improves your enjoyment the most.

Buy The Flutterer's Cape

Very early in the game, you'll visit the Kingdom of Huther, where you'll come back to for accepting and turning in quests throughout the first few hours of the game. However, one of the first things you'll want to do is work on saving up 1,000 of the game's currency, Tul, so you can buy the Flutterer's Cape. This cape allows you to hold B to hover when jumping, which can make some of the game's trickier platforming segments much more manageable.

If you're struggling to save up enough money, make sure you're breaking every cluster of pots and grass you see, as well as clearing away any enemies in your way, as they'll often drop a bit of currency, too. Additionally, explore thoroughly for chests, as they'll often contain Tul Purses, which provide a large chunk of money to your wallet.

Learn The Way Of The Spear

After making a bit of progress in the main campaign, you'll soon unlock the ability to take on quests from folks around Huther. Inside Huther Castle, you'll find that Euygene has a quest to offer, which sends you to collect three items for him. Completing this will earn you the Sapling Spear, the first spear in the game.

Spears are excellent choices to keep equipped as your secondary weapon, as they grant you the ability to poke at enemies without getting close, providing a nice buffer that can often help you to avoid damage when facing off against tougher foes. Pop the Sapling Spear into your secondary weapon slot and start poking those baddies to death. As you play through the game, keep your eyes open for more powerful spears, as they can be handy to keep around.

Gather All The Early-Game Shards Of Life ASAP

You can add a full two extra health points to your arsenal within the first 2-3 hours of the game — if you're being thorough with your exploration, that is. Make sure you're checking every area for blue chests and Shrines of Life. The former occasionally contains a Shard of Life, while the latter will always grant you one when completing the trial within. These are often hidden fairly well around the world, so leave no stone unturned.

Once you receive bombs in The Age of Reconstruction, you'll be able to open even more of the secret paths leading to chests and Shrines of Life, so do a bit of backtracking and exploring then to clean up anything you couldn't access before. You'll be glad you did because that extra health will really come in handy in the Age of Reconstruction, wherein you no longer have access to free healing from Princess Heuria.

Master The Art Of Blocking Before Attacking

Elliot lacks a dodge, so he's forced to rely on his trusty shield. If you want to avoid taking damage, you'll need to master the art of dodging before attacking. When enemies approach you, it's often best to just let them get off their attack, then follow it up with a few of your own. In many cases, you'll be able to stun-lock them long enough to kill them before they can attack again.

Your shield recharges relatively quickly when not in use, but if you find that it's been depleted and you're at risk of being hit, it's probably best to just run in the opposite direction of the enemy to avoid taking any unnecessary damage until it's recharged. Keep performing this defensive/offensive dance, and you'll live to fight another day.

The Adventures of Elliot is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.