Elden Ring Completion Time Guide

Frequently asked questions include how long does it take to complete FromSoftware's expansive, open-world RPG, Elden Ring? Well... it depends! Depending on your preferred play style, experience with the Souls series, and whether you intend on playing the DLC (Shadow of the Erdtree) too, the game can take between 30 to 150 hours to complete, depending upon your approach to completing each level of the game.

How long does it take to finish Elden Ring?

If you are primarily focused on only completing the Main Quest storyline, it should take a majority of people approximately 50-60 hours. This estimate is based on completing all of the major legacy Dungeons in Elden Ring, including stormveil castle, Raya Lucaria academy, redmane castle, volcano manor, leyndell, royal capital, and crumbling farum azula, while still trying to follow a reasonable path through each area of the game. The more detours you take to find optional bosses (ex: Margit, Godrick, Rennala, and the final boss fight Radagon/Elden Beast) will affect your total time to complete the game.

Once you begin to play the game beyond just completing the significant challenges with the main questline, you will see that your total hours played in the game will begin to increase rapidly as well. There is so much optional content in Elden Ring (Miquella’s Haligtree location, NPC quest lines like Ranni and Millicent, dozens of catacombs, caves, and evergaols) that most players will run through it without doing everything in somewhere between 100-120 hours on their first playthrough. In short, many players are not quite rushing through the day but don’t really have any idea of how long it will take to complete everything during their first playthrough.

If your goal is to achieve 100% completion, then you should plan on adding a lot of time to your playthrough. As a base average provided by the community, it takes approximately 133 hours to beat every named boss, collect all achievements/trophies, and to see all possible endings over multiple playthroughs of the game.

When you consider the additional time to complete the downloadable content (DLC), you will spend an even greater amount of time on your final run through the game. Shadow of the Erdtree takes approximately 20-25 hours to complete the primary route and bosses, and 30-40 hours to complete the entire area, including Scadutree Fragments, Hidden areas, and any quests directly tied to the DLC. Overall, in 2026, the total number of hours to complete the base game and DLC should be about 130-160 hours.

Elden Ring Completion Time by Player Experience

One thing that can make answering the question of how long it takes to finish playing through Elden Ring more difficult is that every player has a different experience and thus will require a different amount of time to complete the game. A new player with no skills within the Soulslike Genre will need more time to experience all the different elements of play that veterans will not need to take advantage of. Some of these skills include utilizing stamina, timing dodges, using stance breaks, using Ashes of War, and managing flasks. All of these abilities and skills can add many of hours to the completion time for a new player versus a veteran of this type of game. Margit, Godrick, and Rennala, among other early bosses, can chew up most of the evening due to the player's adjustment time. On average, a first-time player will complete the main campaign in 65–80 hours.

In comparison, players who have previously completed Souls games have a much quicker time completing the main campaign in the same instance, 45–50 hours going in blind. A good amount of this time save comes from having knowledge of poise, guard counters, iframe timing, and effective rune routes, as well as knowledge of which areas are necessary, which Sites of Grace are good for shortcuts, and where to collect upgrade materials so you do not get lost.

There are multiple other reasons for a lower time frame for players completing both types of DLC:

• Spirit Ashes like Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche can greatly reduce the number of times you spend trying to defeat a boss.

• Co-op summons can turn a wall that would normally take you 2-5 sessions to defeat into one night.

• Certain over-leveling strategies (e.g., early overleveling in Caelid or heavy Bleed setups, like Rivers of Blood) can help you defeat a lot of the mid-game content with less difficulty.

However, these shortcuts do not always carry over to the new DLC. An example is Shadow of the Erdtree, which has its own progression gate system (Scadutree Fragments) that require you to be at a certain character level or higher to use.

The average player completing the base game through a blind run without help typically spends 90–130 hours. As with a lot of action RPGs, the time spent finding shortcuts, completing exploratory runs with no purpose, and the time spent learning bosses all contribute to a higher completion time. A guiding run will help you save 20-30 hours simply by guiding you to the weapons you want to use, guiding your faster progression and guiding you away from getting lost along the way.

What Changes How Long Elden Ring Will Take To Complete

Your overall skill is not the only thing that affects the total time it takes to complete Elden Ring; character stats will also be very important. If you are running a hybrid build without any real focus and trying to complete mid-level bosses, it is going to take you a lot longer due to the messy stat spread as opposed to a character with 40+ Vigor and using the correct weapon. If you have chosen the wrong build (or respec) before reaching the late game, you could lose a lot of time using the Larval Tear.

Another significant factor that will affect how much time it will take to complete Elden Ring is your exploration habits. There is tons of content, including well over 150 distinct boss encounters within the Lands Between. If you complete all the catacombs, caves, tunnels, and evergaol as you go, you could easily take an extra 30-40 hours by being thorough.

The biggest wildcard for any run will be the boss walls. Margit the Fell Omen is the first major gatekeeper of the game, and it is not unusual for many new players to spend five or more hours at this boss until they learn how to deal with his delayed swings and combo extensions. Furthermore, there are later bosses such as Maliketh the Black Blade that can make it almost impossible for a player to progress through the game due to how fast he is, the pressure he puts on the player and the sheer amount of AoE he can cover in phase two. One bad wall can dramatically affect how much time it will take you to finish. This problem has its own explanation in DLC. In Shadow of the Erdtree, Scadutree Fragments are essentially required progression items that will increase your offense and defense in the Land of Shadow. If you try to brute-force bosses late in the DLC, it can take a lot longer than you expected if you run out of Scadutree fragments. This is why some players take such a long time to complete the DLC.

Fastest Main Story Route Through Elden Ring

The fastest route through Elden Ring requires you to kill only a few mandatory bosses. The following path will be sufficient to finish the main story:

1. Margit

2. Godrick

3. You may be able to bypass Stormveil by going around a cliff and return later.

4. Rennala

5. Either Radahn or Morgott to progress through the Altus Plateau and Leyndell

6. Morgott, the Omen King

7. Fire Giant

8. Maliketh, the Black Blade

9. Radagon/Elden Beast

Most major areas and most major challenge areas can be skipped when just running through the main story. You can skip all of deep Caelid, the Consecrated Snowfield, and Miquella's Haligtree if you are trying to get to the end of the story quickly. In order to have a more efficient critical-path run, here are some solid level checkpoints:

If you can hit these level ranges with a well-upgraded weapon — learning roughly +12 to +15 standard weapons and +5 to +6 somber weapons by the end of the game — you should find that the core pathway remains challenging yet feasible without excessive grinding.

If you are taking a minimal-prep weapon path, then there is one clear weapon option to take: the Uchigatana from the Samurai class is an easy early-game option due to its reliable Bleed scaling and general consistency. If you want to follow an Intelligence build, then an early grab from Gael Tunnel in Caelid is the Moonveil, which will help you defeat many of the legacy dungeon bosses way more easily than you would be able to do if you had not acquired the weapon. ## Elden Ring Time Estimates

If you're after just a quick number of hours for each of these, here is a neat reference chart:

Because most of the time sinks are either non-existent or have been greatly reduced, NG+ runs tend to be a lot shorter than the first run. The layout of the world is already known to you, your character build is complete, and most boss fights become more about execution than they do about learning them. From the perspective of an experienced player, an NG+ run can take 30-50 hours.

To achieve a Platinum Trophy (or full completion of all achievements) involves much more than one run alone. There are multiple endings you will need to earn, as well as Malenia, and at least one of the Legendary Armaments and Legendary Talismans; and these aren't all able to fit into one playthrough. Realistically, you will likely need 2-3 full runs along with various clean-up. ## Elden Ring FAQ

How many hours on average to complete the first-time run?

If you’re entering into your first run of Elden Ring as a brand new player without any guides, the time can be around 80–100 hours. But if you make plenty of use of upgraded Spirit Ashes such as the Mimic Tear or Jellyfish for extra tanking in boss fights, you may be able to come in closer to 65– 70 hours. Players coming into the game with Dark Souls 3 or Sekiro typically complete their first blind run of the game in the 55–65 hour period because the core mechanics of combat would have been mastered.

How long does it take for full completion of game?

A true full completion run of the game, meaning defeating every boss, including Malenia and Dragonlord Placidusax, completing all NPC questlines, earning all endings and finding all Legendary items associated with an achievement will take around 133 hours for the base game. However, because some of the endings are mutually exclusive, you’ll likely need multiple runs through the base game for completion. If you’re trying to earn Platinum, you should plan on completing at least two full runs of the base game plus additional farming time and clean-up time. Currently, only about 7.9% of players have full completion of Elden Ring on their profile, which says quite a bit about the amount of time it takes to complete.

How long does the DLC take?

If you rush the critical path of the Shadow of the Erdtree, you can complete it in 20–25 hours if you are well-prepared (level 150+, solid weapon, and enough Scadutree Blessing progress to avoid any potential stonewalls) to take on the bosses. If you fully clear the Land of Shadow with every named boss, some hidden catacombs, and all questlines, the full completion of the DLC usually takes around 30–40 hours. Readiness is a big factor in this DLC. If you are under-leveled before the expansion or if you completely ignore your Blessing progress, you may find yourself spending an excessive amount of time running into the same few bosses at the end of the DLC multiple times.

Conclusion

At this point, the answer to the question of how long it will take to beat Elden Ring by 2026 is entirely dependent upon the type of run that is being attempted. A player that sticks with the main story of Elden Ring will likely take 50–60 hours to complete the game, a player that explores properly during the base game’s content will likely take 100+ hours to complete, and a player that adds the Shadow of the Erdtree to their experience likely will take 130–160 hours to finish.

If you are new to Soulslike games, allow yourself additional time while you get up to pace. There are many hours of learning involved in this game, which is the true heart of the genre. If you have considerable experience with the Soulslike genre and just want the credits, you can find a shortcut through guides to the required bosses and complete the game much quicker than new players. Choose a path that fits your schedule and good luck your journey, Tarnished.