In Elden Ring, the major fights can never be won by charging in and waving your sword about. Video game soundtrack composer Christa Lee made a really interesting point on Twitter: she said the fights actually work more like turn-based battles from classic Japanese RPGs. You make your attack move, then you need to wait to see how the enemy responds, counter that with a parry or a dodge, then take your turn to strike again. It's all about reading attack patterns, working out the best distance at which to engage the enemy, and ensuring you have the correct weapons and knowledge for the job. It's easy to panic when faced with, say, a 20ft-high troll who can wipe your health bar with one swipe of his hammer. But when you figure out how slow that swipe is, you can concoct a plan of attack. The difference between Elden Ring and Dark Souls is that if you're getting completely mugged in Elden Ring, you can usually just run away or ride off on your phantom horse. There is much more room for being useless.

And the good thing is, death isn't all that expensive in Elden Ring: you'll drop all your Elden Ring Runes (the game's currency) but, if you can get back to where you died without dying again, you can pick them up. Just make sure, in the early part of the game, you spend everything you make on weapons, recipe books for crafting and levelling up. Don't hoard cash. Also, look for skulls with glowing eyes – they're lying everywhere in the game world and they contain golden runes which aren't lost when you die. It's like having a credit card but, you know, more mysterious.

Also, as with other FromSoftware games, you can call in other players to help you with key encounters. Just use the game's crafting system to make a Furlcalling Finger Remedy and strangers will be drawn to your location to give you a hand. There is also an important early item called Lone Wolf Ash, which provides you with a pack of spectral wolves who'll attack your opponents and save you a lot of damage. Sometimes you can get different enemies to attack each other. I managed to wipe out almost all the soldiers guarding the Fort Haight by leading a couple of demi-human soldiers up to their position and letting them all fight it out. It was glorious.

However, the game is always ready to teach you a hard lesson. Margit the Fell Omen is the first major boss at the opening of the second section, Stormveil Castle, and he is an absolute beast with multiple devastating attack patterns. Don't even think about it until your character hits level 20 and has seriously augmented weapons or an array of spells and incantations.

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