Salt & Sanctuary: When Watching Elden Ring Isn’t Enough

My partner is playing our copy of Elden Ring, and I’d love to do more than just watch. Doesn’t make much sense to buy another copy when I can just use his when he’s done, but I wanted to play a Souls-like and I didn’t much like Bloodborne (which I had for free). Enter Salt & Sanctuary, a 2D souls-like for those who think a third dimension is just showing off.

We’ve been watching a YouTuber (“The Backlogs“) who focuses on gameplay challenges in Souls-like games. In our leadup to Elden Ring, we watched a LOT of stuff of his, and he showed off a LOT of Salt and Sanctuary.

Going in, then, I already knew it was going to be a kind of game that I liked.

It has all the same Souls-like mechanics. You have healing flasks that are refilled at Sanctuaries or Shrines. You collect a currency, Salt, from enemies when you kill them. Salt is used for upgrades and leveling up. If you die, you drop your salt and a nearby enemy picks it up and holds it for you until you come back from your most recently visited shrine or sanctuary and kill them. If you die again before that happens, that salt is lost for good. If there is no nearby enemy — for instance, you died by falling — an enemy is spawned to hold your salt for you.

Combat is very active, very twitchy, and uses stamina for your major attacks. Your stats — Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom — control your damage with weapons and prayers (spells).

Resting respawns all non-boss enemies for easy farming purposes.

Even though I’ve watched some challenge runs, I had never actually spent any time comparing the various classes and weapons and all that. I thought that I would have fun and just go in to Salt and Sanctuary entirely blind, because what is the worst that could happen.

Well, for one, the first boss ended up (I found later) being almost entirely resistant to the weapon I had brought, unless I used one weird trick that doctors don’t want you to know about. (Thrusting moves worked, slashing moves didn’t). I also didn’t know about how to save at the shrine just before the boss, so each attempt was followed by a long walk back. Which, admittedly, gave me an opportunity to farm salt and level up. The first boss was recommended for levels 5 to 7? I beat it at level 9 and I have no regrets.

There’s a little candelabra before each boss that has candles lit on it signifying the proportion of players who died to it vs the ones who lived. I swear I made another candle light on that thing after all my deaths.

I’m not good at these games — but it’s the kind of game that I can get better at while playing. And maybe I’ll spoil myself less on Elden Ring if I’m not just actively watching someone play it…

It’s fun, it’s cartoony, it’s cheap, what more could you really want? A sequel? One is in development (Salt and Sacrifice). If I finish it, I’ll be able to brag that I finished a Souls-like, but of course there’s many more classes to try out. Already thinking I should have gone with the thief… or the priest…