I keep hearing about NPC summons, like summons of not other online players, but of NPC characters in the game.
How do I know when that is available and how do I do that? I know how to summon my ashes allies like Jellyfish(got it recently) and Wolves, etc.
I haven’t gotten far enough in the game to run into any of it, but apparently they are only available for boss fights specifically. They are summoned from a sign just outside the fog blocking a boss’s room.
They only become available after you complete certain conditions for each one.
I see and I’m wondering what I should look for before a boss door. I always see my summon gate light up on the left, but hey, if others are going to help me, I will take it!
Here is a picture showing a summon sign:
Apparently, they look like the little white writing symbols that players leave behind, but they are gold rather than white and glow a bit more.
OK, I’ll look for them in case I get one. I approached this big castle in the North, the one that the old man told me about at the beginning. No, I can not beat the entrance boss there. Margrit.
I understand much of the appeal about the game “teaching you through experience” and not spelling out a lot of things, but a quest tracker would have been a reasonable quality of life offering. Even without map markers, just an old-school journal about the quests and more or less what you would have to do next to advance it would be helpful.
There’s an NPC summon for Margit, actually. In the curved hall before the door, there’s an alcove to the left that has golden writing on the ground. Selecting that will summon Rogier. Using an NPC summon will allow you to still use your spirit ashes as well.
As for the quest tracker. Yeah, it’d be really useful. Google and Elden Ring Wiki are your friends for that, even if there’s still no way to know where exactly you are in a chain outside of memory.
I could not get around without them. 
You’re not wrong. But when someone said the world is huge they weren’t kidding. It’s absolutely enormous and most areas have NPCs with their own quests.
I spent close to 200 hrs exploring and going through the story but there were still tons of side quests I never got around to doing. I could see a list of 100+ quests to do being intimidating or frustrating to some.
Well, I think there are management systems for that in other games. You make subcategories by region or some other system.
I’m really not complaining that much, but I do believe that it is almost impossible to see and do even close to everything.
Game Update:
I defeated the monster at the way southern tip of the Weeping Peninsula and completed the quest to make Edgar’s castle safe.
Nice. I think that was the first boss where I went from repeated ass-kickings to victory. Mind you, I avoided the knight outside the newbie door and the mounted black knight types on the way 
Are the stats on my armor the percent of damage deflected?
Percentage.
The armor you wear doesn’t matter too much in the long run; you might survive a few more big hits wearing the heavy plate armors compared to wearing cloth.
The bigger aspect to consider is the total weight of your gear; reaching heavy equip load means your rolls have less i-frames and your stamina recovery is slowed.
tldr: play dress-up with your character, but try not to reach heavy equip load.
I mostly disagree with this, although you’re absolutely right in that staying out of heavy load is most important. Surviving a few big hits is massive for your sustain - not just against the big guys, but against the swarms as well. Less damage per hit makes a real difference when trying to get through an area. It means you’re flasking less often, which means the flask lasts longer and you don’t have to drink in fights as much.
Don’t forget your magic defences though!
Mostly agree about the armor except that the really heavy stuff gives poise which changes the equation. If you can tank hits without being interrupted it’s not so bad to have a slow roll.
It’s only a factor on the heaviest armor through so if you’re doing a magic build it won’t apply to you this run.
Poise is far less useful in Elden Ring than the Souls games. For some reason having huge poise in ER doesn’t give anywhere near the stagger resistance it did in last games.
I’m such an amatuer, I really just wish the armors and weapons just gave a flat “attack power” and “defense power” and were then potentially scaled to a certain stat.
At the very least, I wish swords were just strength based, but not all of them are.
It’s a lot of numbers and stats and variations. I’m not really sure what the best weapons are to use sometimes. I keep hearing about “bleed effect” and how it compounds on itself, but I rarely have seen bleed build up in enemies even though I do see myself bleeding kind of badly sometimes.
That can be useful though. I’m playing a magic character with a focus on Intelligence, as I said earlier, and use spells, but I intend to pick up a particular Intelligence-based sword later in the game as a backup weapon (Moonveil).
Here is a list of strength weapons you can keep an eye out for, if you’re investing in that stat:
Yes, I’m wondering if I should re-spec when the game offers that to me. I’m not going full mage, but I wouldn’t mind finding out what stats I need to be a “Link from Zelda” type guy.
The Moonveil (the sword I plan to get eventually) shoots out beams of light to hit enemies when you swing it. That’s Link’s sword right there.
