Elden Ring Erdtree Favor 2 — The Order That Saves Time

There is a reliable way to do this and a fast way, and they are not the same route.

A recommendation without a reason cannot be adapted when your situation differs. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

When your situation differs

It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. The useful part of any answer is the part that tells you what to do differently. Trying the obvious thing first is underrated and costs almost nothing.

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. Older threads are worth reading for the reasoning rather than the conclusions. Advice written for launch conditions is the most common source of confusion here.

What you can skip

The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Consensus forms early and updates slowly, which is why the top result can be years stale.

• Do not build a routine around an edge case.
• Work out what you can safely skip.
• Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
• Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
• Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.

Doing it the reliable way

The right approach depends on where you are, and most advice assumes a starting point it never states. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. There is a version of this that takes ten minutes and a version that takes an evening, and both are valid. The step people skip is the one that makes the rest work.

Time spent confirming which version you are on is never wasted. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Knowing what to skip is worth as much as knowing what to do.

Common wrong turns

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Small habits compound faster than any single technique. Most guides optimise for efficiency, which is not always what you want from a game.

Plenty of advice online is correct for a situation nobody bothered to specify. Doing something the slow way once teaches more than doing it the fast way ten times. The first attempt should be about understanding the shape of the problem.

When the usual advice fails

Nothing below assumes you have read anything else first. If something feels harder than described, the difference is usually a missing prerequisite. Advice that worked for someone else may have depended on something they never mentioned.

Where people go wrong

• Deciding a step is redundant before finding out what it prevents.
• Assuming a page is current because it ranks first.
• Assuming an option exists here because it exists in a similar game.
• Following console instructions on PC, or the reverse, and blaming the method.

Elden Ring FAQ

Do I need anything else set up first?

No. Where a step assumes something, it says so at that point rather than up front.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Is this specific to one platform?

The reasoning is not. Anything that genuinely differs by platform is called out where it comes up.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

When in doubt, do the cheap check first.