Elden Ring is a game filled with secrets, optional bosses, hidden dungeons, and more. Many Elden Ring players likely want to explore the game to the fullest extent possible, and so may be worried about locking themselves out of content by passing a "point of no return" like is common in other video games.
The point of no return in Elden Ring is a bit more complicated than it is in other games because there are technically multiple points of no return, yet the game only ever really locks players out of one major location, and even then only partially. Basically, Elden Ring players can progress to points in the game where they will lock themselves out of certain side or story content, or they can make actions that can't be reversed. There are numerous instances of this throughout the game, and unless one is following an Elden Ring guide to do it all in order, chances are good that they will miss out on at least some content in their initial playthrough.
Here is the Elden Ring point of no return, explained. Please note that this article will have some SPOILERS for Elden Ring, so proceed with caution.
Elden Ring: When is the Point of No Return?
Besides those smaller examples of it, there are two major points of no return in the game. The first comes when players choose to burn down the Erdtree after defeating the Fire Giant. This is a necessary action that players have to take in order to reach the Crumbling Farum Azula, one of the last areas in the game, but it makes it so many of the NPCs hanging out in the Roundtable Hold disappear. In fact, doing this makes the Roundtable Hold pretty much empty with the exception of NPCs like Roderika that players have to talk to for upgrade purposes and the like.
The second "point of no return" comes after players kill Malekith, The Black Blade. Doing this will actually cover Leyndell in ashes, locking players out of certain areas in the Royal Capital. However, this is necessary to face the final boss.
The good news is that these so-called points no return don't lock players out of anything too major. In fact, one of Elden Ring's legendary talismans is only obtainable after defeating Maliketh and covering Leyndell in ashes.
Elden Ring players can defeat the final boss, see the ending, and still keep playing on their same save without starting New Game+. They should still be able to hunt down and face most of the optional bosses and conquer the optional dungeons, but they will be locked out of certain areas of Leyndell. And then if players regret that decision, it's not that difficult to start a New Game+ run and catch back up to where they were before, as they should be significantly more powerful and will know exactly where to go to advance the main story.
Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.