The Crafting System is Elden Ring is quite a tragic situation. On one hand, it's one of the most fleshed-out systems in the game, as From Software obviously put a lot of work into realistically placing all the materials players can farm to Craft Items around the map. On the other hand, it's by far the most ignored system by the player base as a whole.So, to hopefully rectify this to a certain degree, let's go over some of the best Crafted Items to use in Elden Ring, and some ways to use them that a lot of players likely don't know about.
Rainbow Stone
Rainbow Stones are a mainstay in From Software games, as one particular franchise-spanning NPC loves to use them to lead people toward traps. Previously, they were known as Prism Stones, but their function remains the same even if the name has changed. These multi-colored stones are most often used to mark invisible paths or just to decorate a PvP arena, but there's another usage for them that players new to From Software-type games probably aren't aware of.
Essentially, if a Tarnished walks up to a ledge and uses a Rainbow Stone in order to drop it off said ledge, it can be used to gauge lethal falls. If the Stone explodes into colorful sparkles, that's a fall that will kill. If it lands safely on the ground, it's a survivable drop.
Throwing Knife & Bone Dart
The Dart and Knife-type Crafting Items are being absolutely slept on by the Elden Ring community, and it's a real shame. Bone Darts actually do a sizeable chunk of damage to the Boss' HP over the course of 40 Darts, but they're ignored because the individual damage is laughable, which is ironic given some of the "joke" weapons people seem to love using. Thankfully, there's another use for these throwable knives, and it's to maintain an enemy's Stance Bar.
Every enemy in Elden Ring has an invisible Stance meter that is filled when they're attacked, and once this bar fills the enemy is "Stance Broken." However, this Bar also drains over time. Luckily, by using Throwing Knives, players can keep a Boss' current Stance Bar level topped off while they squeeze an Estus sip or two in before going back in with a Jumping Heavy Attack.
All Holy-Type Crafted Items
As any fantasy or medieval fan would expect, Holy damage is extra-strong against the undead in Elden Ring. Everyone already knows about the Healing trick against the Undead Revenants, but how many players know that throwing some Holy Grease on a weapon and slashing a Skeleton will make it so they stay dead in one try? Of course, this is more for the sake of convenience than difficulty, as it isn't hard to remember to hit the skeletons one extra time while they're broken into pieces on the ground.
That said, in some areas, From Software really likes to shove a lot of these Skeletal nightmares into a small space, and employing this tactic can make it much easier to take them all out without stopping in the middle of a group to hit the one on the ground. For clarity's sake, here are all of the consumables that will cause this:
- Holy Grease
- Drawstring Holy Grease
- Sacred Order Throwing Pot
- Holy Water Pot
- Roped Holy Water Pot
Soap
One of the least used Crafted Items in Elden Ring is Soap. In any case, Soap's usage has already been covered time and time again in all those "hidden mechanics" videos out there. Since rolling through environmental hazards such as Poison Swamps causes this Poison to stick to a player's clothing, the Status keeps building even after they leave the Poison/Rot-filled area. But, with Soap, they can wash the residue off their clothes in an instant.
What a lot of these guides don't cover though is that Soap also deletes a decent chunk of the Status Buildup in the bar as well, though this does only seem to work for Poison and has no effect on Scarlet Rot. This can help to make the Shaded Castle easier, but does nothing for the Lake of Rot.
Warming Stone & Frenzyflame Stone
Warming Stones, at a glance, might seem like a pointless item. With all the Spells in the game, as well as the Cerulean Flask, it's pretty simple to heal both the player and their allies. But, the 25 HP per second isn't bad at all for the Warming Stone, beating out even something like Beastial Vitality.
Players do need to be aware that these also heal enemies, so placement is key. Thankfully, there's a very similar item called Frenzyflame Stones that are also craftable and heal over time, but without healing enemies. The Healing even stacks with Warming Stones as well! The only problem is that the Frenzyflame Stones only heal those who have obtained the Flame of Frenzy, but a large chunk of the player base fell into that Ending path anyway.
Fan Dagger
Fan Daggers don't quite have the same immediately understandable usage as a lot of other Crafted Items. Their damage is low compared to the Bone Darts or Crystal Darts, and they don't build Bleed like the Kukuri, so why use them? Well, for one, they're great at knocking flying enemies out of the sky.
However, their real usage has been found in PvP, and it's getting rid of the Opaline Bubble buff that people seem to be obsessed with using. More than that, these are also very handy for interrupting spellcasters, as their fan-like formation makes them a deceptively hard obstacle to avoid.
Ironjar Aromatic
The Ironjar Aromatic is a hilarious part of any Perfumer's repertoire. There are Aromatics that buff the player, send out waves of explosions, and lower enemy attack damage, but this one just turns the Tarnished into Metal Mario. And, once again, it's actually just a new iteration of a tool from the older From Software games: the Pyromancy called Iron Flesh.
Ironjar Aromatic is mostly used by players who are trying to become unstoppable "walls" of destruction or spellcasters in PVP, but it actually has a pretty good usage in the open world of Elden Ring as well. This game has a lot of scenarios where players get surrounded on all sides by swarms of smaller enemies such as basic soldiers, rats, or even slugs. With the Ironjar Aromatic active, not only does the player take substantially less damage from their attacks, but they also seem to bounce off, which makes getting rid of them all pretty easy.
Glowstone
Next up are Glowstones, a lesser-used Crafted Item but for an odd reason. While not many players use these in general, it's mostly because the actual game description, which reads "Emits a faint light from the location it is placed," is false​​​​​. Anyone who has actually used one of these things, especially in a dark cave, will know that there's nothing "faint" about it.
These things are like miniature flash-bangs when first placed, and do a fantastic job of fully lighting up a cave with clear, white light as opposed to spottier torch/lantern light. Best of all, for some reason their light doesn't seem to interact with enemy vision, meaning it doesn't interrupt stealth Backstabs in dark areas either.
Bewitching Branch
The Bewitching Branch is one of those items that players tend to forget exists for the majority of their playthrough, and are then sort of "forced" to finally discover them when they get to the Albinauric Rise in the Consecrated Snowfield. When used on a foe, it can turn them into an ally, stopping them from attacking the player and making them aggro against any nearby allies.
Its best usage is during the Commander Niall Boss Fight in Castle Sol at the Mountaintop of the Giants, as it can turn his summons against him (instead of the Boss destroying the summons). Players should remain vigilant though, as the actual attacks of his summons can still hit the player if they walk into them.
Crystal Dart
Last up are Crystal Darts, another item that can turn Elden Ring's monsters against each other, but only specific creatures. To be precise, hitting any Golem-type enemy with enough of these causes them to "Frenzy" (seen as a blue electric/bubble-like particle effect around their head). While Frenzied, these mobs can now take damage from other mobs and will try and attack anything that gets close to them, including their allies.
Why exactly do Crystal Darts do this? No clue. The only reason anyone even figured this out is from the small line in its item description: "Long ago, it is said that a golem crafter employed a similar crystal tool." So what counts as a "golem?" Here are all the mobs this seems to work on:
- The large Stone Golems spread around the map
- All the Fanged Imps in the Catacombs
- The Burial Watchdogs (no, not those dogs), making these very handy against the Duo Watchdog Boss fight in the Minor Erdtree Catacombs or the Imp and Watchdog Boss fight in the Impaler's Catacombs
Elden Ring is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S.