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You just can’t have a game without some form of a crafting system nowadays. So much so that some games straight-up rely on crafting systems, and they’re virtually unable to beat without them. Surprisingly, in Elden Ring, you can play through the whole game without ever resorting to crafting or any consumable for that matter. But, is that on purpose?
Crafting Requires Too Much Effort
Most players can’t be bothered with gathering ingredients for crafting. The game itself is still quite playable without them. In one Reddit post, started by MavandoBuche, players discuss whether crafting is an overlooked gem or an unnecessary mechanic.
A lot of players claim that the time and effort you have to spend to get the consumables is just not worth it. Redditor AdventorousAd9519 stated: ”Crafting is a good concept. However, it only works in one playthrough or in NG+. There’s no way I’m riding across the map and search for cookbooks when I can just finish the game in 2-3 hours without them”.
You can see a lot of confirmation from other users, with AlthoughFishtail saying: “Ive tried several builds that use consumables as part of their set up, and none have been really worth the effort. Either you have to farm all the time for items to use, or the items are finite and therefore only for big boss battles, or there’s spells/incantations that do a better job.” and captnblackheart adding: “Because it’s simply not worth the effort. It’s nice to have if you have but I wouldn’t put hours into farming in this game “.
The general idea is that it takes too much effort to get a considerable number of consumables, and you will run out of them pretty fast.
Consumables Are Still Pretty Good
Even with all the effort needed, some players still prefer to use consumables due to the sheer power they can provide. The OP stated that: “… it is meant to compliment your play-style and changes the game entirely when you try to experiment with these mechanics. Not only is it fun when you get the hang of it, but the combinations of things you can do makes the replay value go up exponentially “
“Uplifting aromatic opened my eyes to the usefulness of crafting, so yes I agree people are missing out.” and ‘Tossing some uplifting aromatic in the middle of a boss arena is a gamechanger. Especially in co-op “ are just some of the comments.
Boiled Crab is one of the favorites, but mostly due to the fact that you can simply purchase it.
In summary, players skip the consumables because they require too much work to craft to make it worthwhile. If the devs somehow made them more accessible and less of a chore, we do not doubt that players will go crazy about them.