Elden Ring How to Gesture & Use Emote

Knowing how to gesture and use emotes in Elden Ring can be quite important. While it’s not necessarily the most core mechanic, but it is not to be overlooked. You need emotes to communicate with other players, should you encounter them. Plus, using the correct gesture in specific situations can trigger some kind of secret. At least, it has in other Souls games. So, with all of that said, let’s explain how to gesture in Elden Ring.

How to Gesture in Elden Ring

There are two ways to gesture and use an emote in Elden Ring. The first one is to open the menu by pressing the Options button on your respective controller (or I presume Esc on PC), and you’ll find the Gestures section of the menu on the right, beneath your Pouch. All you have to do is select the emote you want to do, and boom, you’re done. The second way to do a gesture involves having a controller that can sense motion, like the PS4 and PS5 Dualshock. All you have to do is press and hold the Triangle button (or whatever your equivalent is) and perform the motion corresponding to the emote you want to do. You can see which motion is for which emote in the Gestures in the above-mentioned section of the menu.

So, that’s how to gesture and use emotes in Elden Ring. You can use the same menu we’ve described to switch different emotes out, by the way. Now, if this is your first Souls game, you might be wondering why the gestures are important in the first place. Well, for one, it’s a matter of decorum. If you call another player to help you or fight you, it’s considered good manners to greet them and say goodbye with an appropriate emote. On top of that, most Souls games have a small handful of NPCs or statues that trigger something when you do a gesture near them. Listen to what they say and do; if you recognize an action they do, mirror them. See if anything happens.

Very early in your exploration of Elden Ring world you will find out that you need to prepare your character for different tasks. You'll need to learn how to use Ashes of War, how to two-hand weapons, or use magic spells during the course of your adventures. Many secrets are also waiting for you, such as, a hostile NPC Sellen that doesn't let you see her shop, an invisible man in a bush, or a huge turtle with a bell that lets you duplicate some very important items.