Best Keepsake in Elden Ring: What's the Best Starting Item?

What's the best Keepsake in Elden Ring? These items offered to the player at the very start of the game can be incredibly useful in the early stages of the game. The trouble is, they're offered before the player even knows how they'll be able to use them. Here we'll explain what each Keepsake does, and why you might pick one over the others.

Best Keepsake in Elden Ring: What's the Best Starting Item?

When you start up Elden Ring, you'll be offered one of nine Keepsakes, plus the option to refuse one altogether, during character creation. Each has a distinct advantage to offer the player:

• Bewitching Branch: Five sacred branches charged with beguiling power. Said to originate from the demigod Miquella.
• Boiled Prawn: Five boiled crayfish meats. Boosts physical damage negation.
• Cracked Pot: Three strange cracked pots that somehow mend themselves. A container for certain thrown items.
• Crimson Amber Medallion: A medallion inlaid with reddish amber. Increases maximum HP.
• Fanged Imp Ashes: The ashes of small, diminutive golems. Ashes are said to hold spirits within.
• Golden Seed: A golden seed washed ashore from the Lands Between. Said to reinforce Sacred Flasks.
• Lands Between Rune: The gold of grace shining in the eyes of the people of the Lands Between. Use to gain many runes.
• None: No keepsake. The past has been well and truly left behind.
• Shabriri's Woe: The crazed likeness of a noble who crushed out their own two eyes. Attracts enemies' aggression.
• Stonesword Key: Two stone keys shaped like swords. Breaks through an Imp's seal, but shatters in the process.

Although there are use cases for any of these items, our pick for the best Keepsake is the Golden Seed. This will let you use your Flask an extra time before it runs out, which often makes the difference between living and dying. It can be used for more HP or more FP, but extra HP is indispensable, especially in the early game.

Another solid option is the Crimson Amber Medallion, but it doesn't provide much of a boost, and once you're out in the Lands Between you'll be able to find one in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins southeast of the First Step Site of Lost Grace.

The Stonesword Keys are another interesting choice. They'll allow you to open certain fog walls spread throughout the game world that contain loot, and they're uncommonly found in the Lands Between.

Once you exit the starting dungeon, you'll likely want to learn how to level up. Find our guide here.