Which among the keepsakes would you want too pick during character creation?
Venturing to The Lands Between is a challenge in and of itself. The path to being the Elden Lord is laden with many challenges in the form of monsters, bosses, invaders, and a variety of random encounters. As such, you’d want to prepare yourself before you even head outside of the tutorial area.
In Elden Ring, you’ll be given a handful of options during character creation as to which keepsake you want to pick. In case you’re wondering, Keepsakes are Elden Ring’s version of Burial Gifts in Dark Souls 3 or the Starting Gifts in Dark Souls 2.
These items are meant to provide you with a little bit of help to make your journey throughout the very first parts of the game somehow manageable. Though you can find most of them as you progress further in the game, it’s during the very early stages that you’ll want to consider which of them is worth picking.
There are 9 total keepsakes in Elden Ring, though only a handful of them can be considered really useful early on. Without further ado, here are the 5 best keepsakes in Elden Ring based on how useful they are and how you can find them later on in the game:
5. Boiled Prawn
When you choose to with the Boiled Prawn as your keepsake, you’ll be given 5 of these which you can use to aid you in combat. What the Boiled Prawn does is it increases your physical damage negation by 15% for a full minute, making it possible for you to tank attacks that could have otherwise killed you.
It’s a really helpful item early in the game since your character is quite weak that if you get hit by an attack, you will suffer from a really huge chunk of damage. Though the 15% extra physical damage negation sounds minimal, it can actually save you in several situations.
Since it’s a consumable, you’ll want to use it only on boss fights to increase your overall survivability. You can purchase an unlimited amount later on from Blackguard Big Boggart though.
Why Boiled Prawn is Great:
- Increases your survivability, especially during boss fights
- You get 5 of them at the start of the game
- Can be bought infinitely for 600 runes each
Great for Early Game?
Yes and is even viable for late game
How to Get Boiled Prawn:
You can buy it infinitely from Blackguard Big Boggart for 600 runes each in Liurnia of the Lakes
4. Lands Between Rune
The Lands Between Rune is a good keepsake early on in the game for the very simple reason that it grants you roughly 3000 runes. While that might not sound much, do keep in mind that the weaker enemies you find early on drop only a hundred or so runes each, some even less.
As such, this can provide you with a good boost for your character as it can add around 2-3 depending on which point you use this. Of course, you’ll want to use it as soon as you can level up via Melina. You don’t want to use it later on as you’ll be able to earn even more runes just from killing normal enemies by then.
Why the Lands Between Rune is Great:
- Grants you 3000 runes early on in the game
- Allows you to level up your character 2-3 times
- Can be used to purchase items pretty early, particularly from Merchant Kale
Great for Early Game?
Yes, but only at the very start where you can level up your character
How to Get the Lands Between Rune:
You can only obtain it as a keepsake as the other runes you can find in the game are named differently, albeit serving the same purpose
See Lands Between Rune in Action:
3. Fanged Imp Ashes
There are tons of spirit summons in the game, each having its own specialty to complement your preferred playstyle. Very early on, however, you’re given the chance to pick Fanged Imp Ashes as your first summon.
Basically, this item allows you to summon not one but two Fanged Imps who will aid you greatly during battle. However, do take note that you can only summon them in areas where a Rebirth Monument is nearby. Also, you’ll need the Spirit Calling Bell to do so. The item can be obtained pretty early from Ranni when she appears at night in the Church of Elleh.
If you missed her encounter, you can just head to the Roundtable Hold and buy it from the Twin Maiden Husks.
Though most people will prefer the Spirit Jellyfish as their first summon, or even the Lone Wolf, I’d argue that the Fanged Imps are better for two simple reasons. First, they attack aggressively and can stagger bosses. Second, they can inflict blood loss with their melee attacks and even do decent damage using magic pots.
There’s also the fact that they can tank way more hits than the jellyfish itself. I personally use this summon to deal with Margit and Godrick without any difficulty.
Why the Fanged Imp Ashes is Great:
- Can be obtained very early in the game
- Inflicts blood loss and can even stagger bosses
- Works well for aggroing your targets
Great for Early Game?
Yes, especially against early game bosses. However, you’ll want to switch to stronger ashes as soon as you have enough FP, particularly named ones like Banished Knight Oleg or Lhutel the Headless.
How to Get the Fanged Imp Ashes:
Apart from being a keepsake, you can also purchase it from the Isolated Merchant located in a bushy area near the Main Academy Gate site of grace.
See Fanged Imp Ashes in Action:
2. Stonesword Key
The Lands Between is filled with treasures, but a lot of them are hidden inside fog gates that will need a special key to unlock. That special key is the Stonesword Key. Basically, you’ll need to enter this key in an Imp statue outside an area with a white fog gate. Once used, the key will be consumed, and you’ll need another one if you wish to open another locked area.
With this key, you’ll be able to access new areas and items that will usually contain some rare loots inside of them. While you’re given a single key as a keepsake, you can find a handful of them throughout the world, either by looting them or buying them in limited amounts from various merchants.
If you pick this keepsake, you can find an Imp statue just inside the tutorial area which leads down to a boss fight at the end alongside some pretty sweet loots. However, I don’t really recommend tackling that area yet and just hold on to your key for later use, particularly in Stormveil castle.
Why the Stonesword Key is Great:
- Can be used for unlocking certain areas
- Grants you access to rooms with hidden loots
Great for Early Game?
Yes but also great for mid to late game as there are tons of areas that will require this key to unlock.
How to Get the Stonesword Key:
There are TONS of Stonesword Keys scattered all throughout the world of Elden Ring. As such, if you want to collect all of them, you’ll want to check this guide:
https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Stonesword+Key
See Stonesword Key in Action:
This is just an example of which types of doors you can use your Stonesword Keys on. There are tons of them scattered throughout the game:
1. Golden Seed
My personal favorite, the Golden Seed allows you to increase the number of your Flask of Crimson Tears by one. This is quite useful as you are only given a total of 3 Flasks of Crimson Tears and 1 Flask of Cerulean Tears after dying from the Grafted Scion boss.
With a Golden Seed, you can add one more flask which improves your overall effective health pool. Of course, you can choose to allocate the Flask of Cerulean Tear into a Crimson Tear if you don’t need it, and with a Golden Seed, that will bring your total Crimson Tears to 5.
Of course, you can come across more of these Golden Seeds as you journey through The Lands Between, but the extra flask they give pretty early on can save you from a LOT of sticky situations.
Why the Golden Seed is Great:
- Grants you an additional flask to further improve your survivability
How to Get the Golden Seed:
Similar to the Stonesword Key, there are lots of Golden Seeds scattered all throughout the Lands Between. However, do take note that you can only upgrade your flask to a maximum of 14, and any extra Golden Seed you get is pretty much useless.
But since every two upgrades will increase the Golden Seed required, you’ll want to get as many of them as possible to fully upgrade your flasks. The total Golden Seeds you need to fully upgrade your flasks is 30.
See Golden Seed in Action:
There you have it, the 5 best keepsakes in the game. Although there are still 4 keepsakes to choose from, I personally don’t think they’re even worth choosing. The Crimson Amber Medallion, in particular, increases a percentage of your HP.
While this might sound good on paper, it’s actually a very minimal 6% increase, and when you’re just starting out, your character only has a very small HP that the increase won’t even matter that much. It also uses one talisman slot which is better off reserved for far better talismans you can obtain in the game.
Then there’s the Cracked Pot which allows you to craft throwing pots. This might sound cool, but for the most part, crafting these pots will require you to collect ingredients which can be a bit tedious and overwhelming, especially for new players. Besides, you can just come across these throwing pots in your adventure anyway.
Bewitching Branches are yet another cool-sounding consumable that allows you to turn your enemies into allies. This can be useful in certain situations but is pretty much useless in the majority of boss fights since boss arenas only contain a single boss in it.
Then there’s the Shabriri’s Woe. You just don’t pick that Keepsake, unless you’re a masochist, then go ahead and equip it.
