My God, Elden Ring has map markers and I never noticed them until my second run

Also known as ‘stamps’

There are Elden Ring map markers. Enough said!

Make sure you use them to keep track of this gigantic open world.

So this is going to sound so silly, but I actually went through a full run of Elden Ring, like I’m talking 50+ hours, not realizing they existed. That’s because they’re tucked away and require an extra button push to bring up (X on Xbox, Square on PS5). I was so preoccupied with exploration and my build that I never noticed. On my second run, pre-review, I noticed them!

In Elden Ring, map makers are extremely useful. This can be a difficult adventure, and you’re going to come across areas that are really tough that you’ll want to come back to. In my first run, I was manually writing all this stuff down. It probably makes for a better story to tell (I got this one out of it!), but it’s definitely not efficient.

Here are some of the ways you can use the above Elden Ring map markers creatively:

• Use the skull icon to denote a big boss enemy that possibly one-shot you, so you can go back to them later after you power up.
• Stamp areas that have high cliffs with the horse symbol, so you can return to them and try and figure out how to platform up and reach a new area.
• Use the herb symbol to denote zones with plants you may want to gather for crafting.
• Mark mines with the crystal stamp. Even if you feel like you cleared it all out for weapon materials, you can try and return to squeeze out the last few you may have missed when you just need one more to upgrade your equipment.
• Use the tree marker to showcase which trees have points of interest. While trees show up on the map, it does not show you which ones you have cleared.
• The tower/keep icon at the end can be useful to mark dungeons you haven’t done yet, but have seen/entered and left.