For many players, their typical time frame for completing the main story of Elden Ring would be 50-60 hours on their first run-through. This is assuming players also complete all of the main legacy dungeons as well as a variety of exploration, while not completing every single catacomb, cave, or NPC quest. Once players become more interested in larger side quests, such as the Volcano Manor questline and defeated optional bosses (like Malenia), their total time spent in-game will increase rapidly to around 100-120 hours once they tack on that additional content. If you play as the kind of Tarnished who wishes to complete every ending, collect all the Remembrances, and uncover the entire map, expect to spend approximately 130-150 hours playing through just the base game.

For New Game Plus, your playtime will also be affected. When it comes to players testing their builds and earning Achievements in games, many use the cycles provided during their various New Game Plus play-throughs as an opportunity to test such builds while earning points towards their platinum trophy. Therefore, depending on how much of that content is repeated during each New Game Plus run, players can find the average amount of additional hours that each NG+ run could provide. Based on the maximum amount of time spent within the game (1000 hours), the NG+ cycles available to the player are basically a way for the player to see how much time has been put into their build-up period before actually getting to that point.

Completion Type Estimated Hours
Main Story Only 50+50-60
Main + Major Side Content 100 to 120 + 100
Complete (Base Game) 130+150
NG+ (Single) 30-50 hours + +

Elden Ring Time by Playstyle Types

The initial gameplay experience on first play through will most likely be the longest experience when compared with all other playthroughs, as you don't yet know where to find key bosses, what areas yield no additional rewards, as well as the unknowns of how many key fights you have completed, or combinations thereof, therefore you will spend additional time exploring through the use of experimentation, which typically results in wasting time going through levels of difficulty or failure against opponents like Malenia or Elden Beast. For players that complete a blind run in their initial playthrough (on PS4/PS5), a reasonable estimate of time is between 60 to 80 hours, if you are a new player or newcomer to the RPG genre of video games. Similarly, there is less time needed if players follow through with the assistance of a guide. When you search online for maps of the world, wikis for the game, or videos showing strategies to defeat bosses, upgrading items, leveling up your character and starting a quest, you can save yourself a lot of time. If this is your only source of information, you should be able to complete the main story in 40–50 hours and still experience almost everything of importance. Yes, you do lose some of the exploration and discovery aspects from using this method of play. However, the time savings are huge.

Players looking to hunt every boss usually fall somewhere in between. If your goal is to kill every named boss and skip most of the dialogue, the lore associated with each item, and the quest management aspect of the game, then you can typically anticipate spending 80–100 hours on your base game. Players interested more in lore and exploration typically rack up the highest times. Players who thoroughly read each item description, exhaust every available NPC conversation, and look for every detail of their environment will likely have played more than 150 hours of their base game.

How to Compare Elden Ring's Time Within Its Franchise

To properly determine how long it takes to play Elden Ring's entirety, it's best to consider each component of the franchise individually. For the majority of players, the base game is the largest portion of the franchise. Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansions campaign that became available in 2024 and takes place within the Land of Shadow. Finally, came Nightreign to the franchise in May 2025. Nightreign differs from all other components of the franchise due to its nature as a standalone co-operative roguelike.

If you purchased both of the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree, plan on playing for a total of 160–200 hours. For devoted players, combining Nightreign's additional challenge with the unlockable grind will increase the amount of time invested in these games even more.

Shadow of the Erdtree

Before you can play Shadow of the Erdtree, you need to have already done a little bit of setup prior to entering the game. You'll need to defeat Starscourge Radahn and access Mohg's boss arena, meaning you'll have already completed at least some of the main storyline and are no longer in the early game.

In order for you to start Shadow of the Erdtree, you should have your character built correctly up to a minimum level of 120 or above, as well as have a maxed out weapon before you enter the game.

If you play the DLC's main story quests and ignore almost everything else, you can expect about 20-25 total hours of gameplay from start to finish; however, if you complete everything else such as collecting all of the Scadutree Fragments, completing all optional bosses, or going through all of the NPC quest lines, you will probably be close to 35-45 total hours of gameplay.

The key factor in this is relating to the Scadutree Blessings. This is a form of progression system that grants you bonuses to offense and defense while inside the Land of Shadow. Since the Scadutree Fragments are tied to exploration, it is recommended that you do not skip them if you wish to have an easier time playing the DLC. As such, exploring will help ensure that your Character is more powerful when fighting bosses, such as Messmer the Impaler and Rellana, as they can take several hours on their own, depending on if you are learning the fight without summons or outside help.

Nightreign

Nightreign works on a much shorter timescale. Instead of completing the game in one long run through the open world, each Expedition is an independent run through a re-arranged version of the Limveld (not in sequential order) and typically lasts between 30-45 minutes for those who know what they are doing. If you are still learning the format or are fighting some of the harder Nightlords, runs may take up to 50 minutes. If your team gets wiped quickly enough on Day 1, you can expect to end a failed attempt in as little as 15 minutes.

In order to see credits in Nightreign, you must defeat five of the eight Nightlords, which will be about 8-20 hours with failure runs and the learning curve taken into account. Completing all Nightfarer Remembrance quests and permanent unlocks is a different story, as it will be more like 30-40 hours. Compared with other Elden Ring games, this version is the easiest to include in a busy schedule based purely on time invested; however, the difficulty remains classic FromSoftware.

What Affects Elden Ring Time

More than anything else, the quality of the player's build will indicate how much the player spends in Elden Ring. For example, using Rivers of Blood and good Arcane scaling will allow a Tarnished to defeat bosses much faster than if he were to attempt the same fight with an under-leveled weapon. In addition to this, upgrading weapons is extremely important, as there will be numerous times that you have upgraded a weak weapon to a powerful one and significantly reduced the length of time you spent fighting that particular boss, which will add up over 60+ major boss fights.

Another important tool to keep in mind is your use of summons. Summoning your Spirit Ashes, especially a fully upgraded Mimic Tear eliminates pressure from you, allows you to create opportunities to shorten fights, and actually creates shorter fight times. In addition, using co-op will create the same benefits for you. Players that consistently utilize the tools available to them through the use of game mechanics will complete the main path significantly faster than players that attempt to complete every encounter solo.

Questlines will also be a hidden time sink. Whether you are familiar with Ranni's quest line and Millicent's arc, you could potentially miss triggers that lead to frustrations of backtracking across the map. Greywalls and Redwinds (Margit, Godrick, Radahn, and- especially Malenia) all play a large part in your grieving process with the number of hours needed to kill have large variances due to the experience and efficiency of the player.

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Elden Ring Time Estimates by Playing Style

A player can expect enormously different timeframes to complete Elden Ring, even though all players have the same game mechanics.

Player Type Estimated Base Game Time Estimated Base Game + DLC
Busy adult playing 1- to 2-hours per day 2 to 4 months for the base game 2 to 4 months for the DLC
A new player added to the previous category 70 to 90 hours 110 to 140 hours
An experienced player of From Software 45 to 65 hours 80 to 110 hours
A completionist of all tarnished 130 to 150 hours 175 to 200+ hours

If you only have time to play Elden Ring for one to two hours at a time (3 to 4 sessions total during weekday evenings), then it's advisable that you consider it more of a long-term goal rather than something that will take up considerable time over a three- or four-night weekend.

Additionally, when checking players who have just recently gotten into Souls and have not even reached the first boss, they will certainly spend a lot of time figuring everything out (stamina control, dodging timing, poise break/spacing, etc.) while at the same time completing their first play through. Players of all experience levels are able to advance through major storylines and general gameplay in a much faster manner due to their familiarity with the controls/movement patterns from other FromSoft titles like Dark Souls III and/or Sekiro. However, unlike the speed of completing these main storylines, much of the content available to players (including bosses) is designed for players with completionist tendencies. Thus, completing Elden Rings could result in some of the longest amounts of time of any game to date.

Elden Ring is a complex video game, and players will likely have both positive and negative experiences with it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) pertaining to Elden Ring

Will I be able to complete Elden Ring in a short amount of time?

Several speedrunners have played through Elden Ring in less than one hour when using a combination of glitches and/or outside sources to assist in their completion. For traditional/average gamers, utilizing speed guides, status buffs, and optimal routes, players should expect to be able to complete the entire game in about 40 hours.

Is the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion necessary for playing Elden Ring?

No, but the base version of Elden Ring has its own complete storyline with multiple possible endings (six in all). Players who are interested in Miquella, Marika, or the overall lore of Elden Ring will find the addition of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to add a great deal of story/content to their experience.

What is the biggest time-consuming element of Elden Ring?

The main time-consuming element is (are) the optional bosses that players can avoid based on their gaming decision as to whether they will work to achieve a completionist status or not. An example of an optional boss is Malenija. An example of another time-consuming element would be the many NPC-based questlines that players can follow such as Ranni's Questline or Nepheli's Questline.

When should I stop playing if I only have a limited amount of time available?

There are a few fellow stopping points that play an important part for players who do not want to pour too much time into the game. The following are some of the better stopping points:

  • After defeating Godrick the Grafted will be the cleanest stopping point in the early part of the game (about 15-20 hours).

  • After defeating Starscourge Radahn will be a preferred mid-game stopping point.

  • After reaching the Erdtree and the Roundtable Hold will be another natural stopping point, after which you will need to push through the end of the game.

Conclusion

As of 2026, most players will probably expect to play Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion in the neighborhood of 100-150 hours if they play through all of the content the game has to offer, and generally do not participate as completionists. Additionally, as an entirely different playstyle in Elden Ring, Nightreign can be played with a continuing playtime of 30 minutes if players do not want to get into extended timeframes of exploration and gaming. Ultimately, the players should find the gameplay style that best fits their schedules, their tolerance for bosses within the game, and how deeply they want to explore the lands between. Good luck, Tarnished.