What is the best keepsake in Elden Ring?

Elden Ring screenshot — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

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Best Elden Ring Keepsakes
All Keepsakes

The best Keepsake in Elden Ring depends on what elements of the game matter to you, but having played it through and tried all of them, we'd say it's either the Golden Seed or the Crimson Amber Medallion, as both of them provide incredibly helpful buffs - and in the case of the Golden Seed, a buff that lasts through the whole playthrough.

Still through, we've amassed all the best Keepsakes in Elden Ring below, with the case for each, as well as listing all the Keepsakes and what they do - so you at least understand the choice that's being put before you.

Best Elden Ring Keepsakes

Elden Ring keepsake item crimson amber medallion information — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

There are definitely a few Keepsakes in Elden Ring that stand well above the rest in terms of usefulness, particularly in the early stages of the game. Whereas some are just ridiculous with obscure or less helpful uses that experienced players can experiment with. Here are the Elden Ring Keepsakes we recommend to for a good start in the opening area:

Crimson Amber Medallion: A small boost to health is never not useful, regardless of your skill level and chosen Elden Ring class. The fact that it provides a nice passive bonus means players won’t need to even worry about it until they start picking up items that can replace it. Even then, it can be stored for another time. This is a must-pick for beginners.
Golden Seed: Use the Golden Seed to reinforce your Sacred Flask to get an extra use of it very early on as soon as you rest at a Site of Grace. This is another Keepsake that’s useful for all players, and it’s definitely the one you should choose if you’re unsure. Having an extra Flask use this early means you’ll be able to take a few more hits with extra HP healing or cast a few more spells with more FP juice if your starting Elden Ring class allows you to.
Cracked Pot: These unbreakable pots give you access to fun crafting options and extra weapons early on. Obviously, you’ll get more of them as you play through Elden Ring, but having two is a great head start. Provided you find the right ingredients, you’ll be able to make damaging firebombs which will be really useful against clusters of enemies or bosses.
Lands Between Rune: While Elden Ring’s first few enemies aren’t a colossal challenge, leveling up as much as possible early on should make fights a bit fairer. Taking the Lands Between Rune as your Keepsake is another great choice to give you an early head start in terms of boosting your Attributes, making things a little easier. However, the benefit from this diminishes the higher your class’s starting level is, so bear that in mind. Also, do not use it until you have accepted Melina’s accord and can level up at Sites of Grace.

When creating your Tarnished character in Elden Ring, you’ll be prompted to pick a Keepsake item for your character. These are small items that will either grant you some kind of passive buff, special ability, or can be consumed to gain a particular benefit or affect your enemies.

A lot of these Elden Ring Keepsakes can also be found as you explore Lands Between as Talismans or consumable items that can be bought from Merchants, so you’ll have a chance to get other Keepsake items too. You can of course entirely forgo choosing a Keepsake, although we highly recommend you pick one as they have no drawbacks. It’s free help!

Here are the nine Keepsakes you can pick in Elden Ring:

Crimson Amber Medallion

A medallion that gives a slight bump to your maximum HP. Always useful for any character but particularly good for classes with low Vigor and therefore lower starting HP.

Lands Between Rune

A consumable item that will give you 3000 Runes upon use. Save it until you accept Melina’s accord and you should be able to level up at least a couple of times at a Site of Grace.

Golden Seed

A consumable item that you can use at a Site of Grace to permanently give yourself an extra use of your Sacred Flask. This will mean you’ll effectively start the game with five Flask uses instead of four.

Fanged Imp Ashes

A free Elden Ring Spirit Ash that will allow you to summon the spirits of a couple of Imps to fight on your side. This item can be used as many times as you like, but it can only be used once you’ve got the Spirit Calling Bell item, so you won’t be able to use it right away. Still, it's a fun little bonus to get early on.

Cracked Pot

You can get two Cracked Pots right off the bat if you choose them for your starting Keepsake. These pots are used for crafting throwable bombs and never break - despite being cracked - so you just have to keep filling them with ingredients to have a constant supply of explosives.

Stonesword Key

Two stone keys that can be used in certain locks to break Imp seals that hide away treasure and more. The keys break once they’ve been used, but you can occasionally find more out in the world to open other Imp seals. If you want to find alternatives, we've got a Elden Ring Stonesword Keys guide here!

Bewitching Branch

Five consumable branches that release a very short-range, pink fog when used. Any enemies in this fog become charmed and will stop attacking you, sheathing their weapons if they have any, and going on with their day.

Boiled Prawn

Five consumable bits of prawn meat that somehow boost your physical damage resistance, meaning you’ll take less damage from physical weapon attacks while the prawn’s buff is active.

Shabriri’s Woe

This gross head constantly attracts the aggression of enemies in Elden Ring. We don’t really know why you’d want this Keepsake, considering most things would rather see you dead even without Shabriri’s Woe.