In Elden Ring players are offered one of nine keepsakes to choose from the character creation screen. Most FromSoftware games have keepsakes like this, sometimes called starting gifts, and Elden Ring brings back some fan-favorites alongside a handful of totally new options.
Some of these keepsakes in Elden Ring are way more useful than others in the long term, so think carefully when choosing one. The Cracked Pot, for example, can be bought for a paltry sum of Runes from the first merchant in the game. On the other hand, the Golden Seed permanently increases your Flask uses and is beneficial throughout the entire game.
Crimson Amber Medallion
The Crimson Amber Medallion works much like the Life Ring from the Souls series. It's a Talisman players can choose from the start that increases Maximum HP by a small amount. It's a good choice for beginners who want a little extra wiggle room when taking damage.
The HP increase is small but equivalent to a handful of levels put into the Vigor stat. It's not the most broken starting item, but it's far from the most useless, and serves as a good option if nothing else calls to you.
Lands Between Rune
The Lands Between Rune is a consumable item that is far more useful when first starting out than later on. By using this item, the player will gain 3000 Runes instantly. After a few levels, this doesn't seem like a lot, but if you use it immediately upon entering the world you can get a good 3-4 levels out of it (depending on your starting class level, that is).
The Lands Between Rune, and other consumable Runes like it, work just like consumable Souls from the Dark Souls series. Unlike Runes that have been collected, these consumables aren't lost on Death. Therefore, they are best used when next to a Site of Grace that you can immediately use the newfound Runes without risk of losing them.
Golden Seed
The Golden Seen is a starting item that is very useful long-term in Elden Ring, though it can seem underwhelming at first. Golden Seeds are used at Sites of Lost Grace to increase the number of charges for your Sacred Flasks.
While players start with two flasks, using a Golden Seed will only increase your overall Flask uses rather than one for each. It works exactly the same way as Estus Shards in previous games, and they can be found throughout the Lands Between. Choosing one as a starting keepsake gives you one more than players who didn't choose one, a slight (but strong) advantage.
Fanged Imp Ashes
The Fanged Imp Ashes is a Spirit Summon keepsake that players can use from the get-go. This one summons two relatively weak Imps who dart around in the air attacking enemies while easily avoiding attacks thanks to their speed.
Despite their relatively low health pools, the Fanged Imps are a very good Summon at the beginning of the game. Their speed is their main benefit, as they can distract enemies and give players a window to recover. Their damage output is not too bad at the beginning, but later on, you'll find much stronger Spirit Summons that make the Fanged Imp Ashes obsolete.
Cracked Pot
The Cracked Pot is a useful, if common, starting keepsake that is used in Elden Ring's new Crafting system. After purchasing a Crafting Kit from Kale at the Church of Elleh for 300 Runes, the option to Craft items appears in the pause menu.
The Cracked Pot is a material that can be combined with other ingredients to create ranged single-use items, like Firebombs or Witching Urns from previous FromSoftware games. The Cracked Pot returns to the player's inventory after use, though, and can be used as a vessel for crafting over and over again. Cracked Pots are found commonly after only a few hours in Elden Ring, though, so choosing one as a starting gift only really helps in Limgrave.
Stonesword Key
The Stonesword Key is a keepsake that is directly inspired by an item from Dark Souls 2. In Dark Souls 2 players could find (or purchase) Pharros' Lockstones to unlock secrets throughout Drangleic. In Elden Ring, Stonesword Keys are used to break Imp Statue seals around the Lands Between.
One such seal is found very early in the game, but these barriers are scattered all over the place. Stonesword Keys are very useful and relatively pricey, so having one from the get-go gives you the chance to break open one of these locations without spending Runes or going out of your way to find one as loot.
Bewitching Branch
The Bewitching Branch is a unique keepsake that more closely resembles the Rapport Pyromancy from Dark Souls than a consumable item. When a player uses this consumable on an enemy, they are temporarily turned into an ally.
This can be very powerful when facing large groups, especially if one or two of the enemies in the group are particularly strong. Get in there, hit 'em with one of these sticks, and watch them turn on their friends and fight for you – keep in mind that the branch doesn't work on enemies over a certain strength, like Bosses. Later on, players can craft or buy these too.
Boiled Prawn
The Boiled Prawn is a consumable that can help a player survive encounters with enemies who can kill in one hit. Consuming a Boiled Prawn greatly increases a player's Physical Damage negation for a short time, reducing incoming damage from martial attacks.
This item will do nothing against magical attacks or Incantations, or damage types aside from Physical. In a crunch, though, a Boiled Prawn can mean the difference between being slain and surviving with 1 HP.
Shabriri's Woe
Shabiri's Woe is a keepsake that essentially works as an artificial Hard Mode for Elden Ring (not that it needed one). This keepsake is a Talisman that can be equipped to "constantly attract enemy's aggression".
What this essentially means is that while you have this Talisman equipped, enemy aggression range is vastly increased and enemies are far more likely to attack you in general. One potential benefit to this is in co-op, where one player can have Shabiri's Woe equipped to draw attention away from the Host of Fingers.
Elden Ring is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S