Elden Ring is a game in which any small advantage for your character might become critically important for a random encounter. So one of the game’s very first choices — which free Keepsake item you choose — could have a major influence on your gameplay experience moving forward. While some options offer buffs that persist through the whole game, others are more temporary and potentially useless. In this guide, we explain all of Elden Ring’s Keepsakes and offer the three best choices for newcomers.
What do the Keepsakes in Elden Ring do?
Each time you make a new character in Elden Ring, you’ll be able to start your journey with any one of 10 possible Keepsakes designed to offer an advantage, or disadvantage, when working your way through the Lands Between. Here’s a brief explanation of what each one does.
- None: You get no Keepsake or its potential advantages.
- Crimson Amber Medallion: This increases your maximum HP, allowing you to essentially take an extra hit.
- Lands Between Rune: This Keepsake offers players a purse of 4,000 runes that can be spent at shops or to give your character a few extra levels early on in the experience.
- Golden Seed: This gives you an extra flask to heal up or restore your mana.
- Fanged Imp Ashes: Gives you ashes of the Fanged Imp, which essentially acts as a summon once you acquire the Spirit Bell.
- Cracked Pot: Offers you three cracked pots that can be used to craft projectiles.
- Stonesword Key: Starts players off with two Stonesword Keys that can be used to unlock special doors called Imp Gargoyle Locks. These areas tend to have valuable loot and weapons.
- Bewitching Branch: Gives you five branches that can be used to bewitch groups of enemies. This item can’t be used on bosses.
- Boiled Prawn: Offers you five pieces of a consumable that briefly buffs your damage defense.
- Shabiri’s Woe: A Keepsake that makes enemies more aggressive.
Which Elden Ring Keepsake is best?
Based on the aforementioned descriptions we’d rank these three Keepsakes as the top choices for new players of Elden Ring.
- Golden Seed: You’ll have more opportunities to heal, and, unlike many of the other Keepsakes listed above, this can be refilled indefinitely at Sites of Grace, meaning it will help you throughout the entire game. You can find the seed elsewhere in the open world, but its early-game advantage remains compelling.
- Stonesword Key: The loot behind the locked doors that these keys open is almost always substantial enough to help you on your journey. You can use it in the first dungeon if you want an early advantage, but seasoned Souls players often wait till later in the game in hopes of unearthing a game-breaking weapon.
- Crimson Amber Medallion: Obviously the extra HP is nice, but you can also buy this item later in the game if you want it. It also becomes quickly outclassed by other trinkets in the game.
