Elden Ring is finally here, and people are absolutely loving it. There are many questions people still have about the game, but the Wiki is still new so they don't have any answers to the questions.
Your health is decreased in Elden Ring because you gave Fia a hug, which gives you a status effect called Baldachin's Blessing. Baldachin's Blessing is also able to be crafted as well.
Merely having Baldachin's Blessing in your inventory is enough to lower your health. Once you consume the item and it runs out, your health will return to normal.
The entire Fia's embrace mechanic has already become a meme in the Elden Ring community, but is it something that you have to do to complete the game? Here's what you need to know.
Should You Let Fia Hold You?
The answer to this question is ultimately up to the player. It doesn't give you any negatives with the exception of reduced health. It does, however, give you an item that increases your poise.
A lot of players simply like how wholesome it is, so they run to Fia first thing with their new characters. Besides that, there's no real reason to accept her embrace.
How Do You Get Rid of Fia's Debuff?
The debuff to lose 5% of your health isn't actually from Fia, but rather from Baldachin's Blessing that she gives you when you embrace her. Every time you hug her, you get one Baldachin's Blessing, which is the max you can have in your inventory at one time.
Baldachin's Blessing increases your poise at the expense of your health, and it's temporary so it's only worth using before a fight. To get that extra bit of health, you should always consume Baldachin's Blessing to get rid of it when you aren't in need of its abilities.
You can always go back to Fia and give her a hug to get another one whenever you need it, but it's best not to be walking around with a small health debuff. The health decrease is so small that most people won't even notice, but if you want to get rid of the annoying debuff icon at the top then you need to
What Else Does Fia Do?
Fia has a short questline in Elden Ring, and over the course of that, she'll give you an item called the Weathered Dagger. This isn't actually a weapon, but rather a Key Item to progress through the story.
Fia wishes that you return the dagger to its rightful owner, and you need to do that to get further in the main quest. However, the game never tells you who the rightful owner is so it's up to the player to figure that out.
FromSoftware is notorious for doing tasks like this in their games, and part of the fun is figuring these things out for yourself. If you aren't interested in figuring it out on your own, the best thing to do is to consult the wiki, though the wiki isn't completely filled out yet since the game is so new.