Grinding inherently sucks. I hated running around in the tall grass and fainting every Rattata I saw in Pokemon Red as a kid, and I hate being forced to play Ultimate Team friendlies to unlock packs and players in FIFA 22. But sometimes, you’re just a bit underlevelled or you need to wade waste-deep into the boring stuff in order to beat Brock or have a chance of packing FUT Birthday Luis Suarez.

I’ve never really got into MMOs. I played Runescape as a kid, but only on Wednesdays when my brother and I went to the library after school to play games on the computers for 50p an hour. I also recently dabbled in The Lord of the Rings Online, which could be the most accurate depiction of Tolkien I’ve seen to date. The Rings of Power may have new characters, but Númenor will have to take inspiration from Tolkien’s words and illustrations if it wants to rival LOTRO’s accuracy.

Related: Playing Elden Ring As A Jouster Is The Best Way To Explore The Lands Between

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. The reason I’ve avoided MMOs in the past is because of the grinding that comes with them. Maybe I had time as a kid, but finding a raiding party where everyone is regularly available and committing to regular grinding sessions? I get that there’s a social aspect to this too, but if you’ve ever tried to organise a DnD campaign or just get your friends together for a regular gaming night, you’ll know that this is easier said than done.

But Elden Ring approaches grinding in a different way. Instead of saying ‘farm this enemy’ or ‘catch a stronger horse,’ it just lets you go somewhere else. Do something else. I’ve seen countless bosses or areas that I’ve simply noped out of and picked another place to go, just because I can. Sure, you can grind an enemy in the hopes they drop a specific weapon or piece of armour - I did this to get my Partisan spear early in the game - or farm some rune-heavy foes to level up quickly, but the best way to git gud is by running away from your responsibilities.

I met Margit when I was ill-equipped, underleveled, and unprepared. I must have been about level 17 and tried to backstab the monstrosity with a basic-ass sword. A glowing, magical hammer swiftly dispatched me. I gave it a good go two or three times - the castle seemed like the obvious place to go as all the sites of grace were pointing me there - but ultimately walked away. I left what felt at the time like an enormous pile of runes at Margit’s disgusting feet, as well as my dignity, but I decided to ride south.

Before this point, I hadn’t even realised that I could go south in Limgrave. I’d seen some islands from the coastline, but had previously assumed them to be inaccessible at my level and hence they were cut off by the ocean. Lo and behold, across a heavily guarded bridge I found a castle, an Erdtree, quests, and bosses. All I’d needed to do was explore.

When the exploring bug hits in Elden Ring, it really lands. I spent hours completing quests at Castle Morne, collecting unique weapons, and beating smaller bosses like the Erdtree Avatar, Leonine Misbegotten, and Adan, Thief of Fire. Oh yes, I skipped Margit to explore Liurnia too. Despite all the passive levelling I’ve been doing while on my jollies, the terrifying enemies at Caria Manor and the hordes of magic wielding gremlins at the Academy Gate Town are still too much. But I simply repeat my Margit tactic: run away.

I’ve also explored some of Caelid, but the poison swamps are incredibly unfun at present. On my travels I’ve fought stone sphinxes and beaten the Tree Sentinel, I’ve ridden past dragons and taken down giants for fun. I’ve even found my way back to, and beaten, the tutorial boss! I never would have thought any of this was possible when I first set foot in The Lands Between and was promptly executed by that blasted horse-riding sentinel. These days I wield his halberd, so who’s laughing now?

Elden Ring Is The First Game To Make Grinding Fun

This isn’t inherently an open-world thing, though. In Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed (or non-Ubisoft titles, but these set the tone of open worlds for years prior to Breath of the Wild), there just isn’t much to do outside of your core missions. You can clear out a camp of bandits or climb a big tower to reveal your map, but searching for collectible after collectible quickly gets boring, as does chasing a random bad guy through the streets for the umpteenth time.

Zelda obviously changed the open world game, but The Lands Between makes Hyrule feel positively dull. Breath of the Wild was defined by its silence and emptiness - a quality of the game that I still love - but I’m not sure if I’ll look at it quite the same after Elden Ring. Every new forest or cave you enter feels entirely different, purposeful, and unique. Every group of enemies feels bespoke and like a new challenge, different to anything you’ve faced before. Sure, I haven’t even beaten Margit yet and things could well change, but I don’t expect them to. The things I’ve seen underground blew my tiny mind (and blew my runes straight out of my pocket when I quickly died), and there are few feelings in video games that compare to cresting a hill in Elden Ring, where you thought there might be a cliff or the edge of the map, and instead seeing a vista more beautiful than anything you’ve seen so far. I can’t access the floating castle that I saw just yet, but that won’t stop me from trying.

Elden Ring Is The First Game To Make Grinding Fun

I’m probably vastly overleveled for taking on Margit at this point, but I don’t care. Backtracking and exploring are an essential part of Elden Ring, and crucially what makes it more different than any Souls game before. Grinding in Dark Souls meant fighting the same corridor of enemies until you could level up a few times and beat the boss, but it’s a different story now. Elden Ring offers so much to explore, so many bespoke locations and unique opponents that you never need to clear out the same camp of soldiers time and time again in order to level up. You’re not shackled to the main quests, and nothing is stopping you from running past super-powered enemies to get to the picturesque locations beyond them. It feels reductive to describe exploring such a beautiful world as any sort of grinding, but I hope plenty more bosses kick my ass in the future so I can summon Torrent and ride around some more.

Next: A FromSoftware Noob’s Guide To Elden Ring