With six Elden Ring playthroughs already under his belt, Alex Garland has revealed his strategy for success in the super difficult RPG as he undertakes a seventh playthrough.
The writer and director, who has worked on numerous acclaimed films including 28 Days Later, Ex Machina, and Annihilation, was confirmed to be at the helm of an Elden Ring adaptation for the big screen back in May 2025.
While that project is still in its infancy, Garland, promoting the release of 28 Years Later, which he wrote and produced, talked about FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed 2023 game in an interview with IGN.
Revealing that he has so far beaten the Elden Beast and seen the credits roll six times, Garland also touched on which boss still gives him the most trouble.
“It’s Malenia who’s the tough one. I’m now on my seventh playthrough of that game. I’ve levelled up, I’ve got lots of juice, and a cool sword, and I just throw myself at them again, and again, and again, and again.”
Crediting the original Dark Souls for teaching him how to succeed in FromSoft’s notoriously difficult games, he continued, “That was the technique I learned with Dark Souls. It’s not that you get better, it’s more like monkeys and typewriters. You just keep doing it, and eventually, one day they’re dead.”
Different strategies
Considering he’s seven playthroughs deep, Garland’s approach obviously works, but it’s likely to prove divisive.
Fans have long considered FromSoftware’s RPGs to lean heavily into the ‘learn through failure’ mantra. Learning and memorizing attack patterns as well as devising strategies with different builds between attempts is a key recipe for success in Soulslikes.
Brute forcing victory, as it were, could be interpreted as missing the point. But hey, if it works, it works – there’s no right or wrong way to play.
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