When Elden Ring first launched at first of 2022, many people swore up and down that it was the toughest sport ever, although others claimed that it was extra approachable than prior From Software program titles, since gamers may proceed to discover the sport and develop sturdy elsewhere in the event that they ever hit a wall. In protection of the previous, it does function a few of the harder boss fights I’ve ever encountered. However, I’ve all the time felt like Elden Ring was a fairly malleable expertise, and that it supplied lots of instruments to mean you can energy by way of the sport and finally come out the opposite aspect. To that finish, I’ve maintained that this sport isn’t that selective about who can get pleasure from it, and the years since have usually confirmed me proper.
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You see, loads of individuals who play FromSoftware’s famously tough video games like to make issues even tougher for themselves. Soulslike gamers froth on the mouth for an excellent problem run, and that’s why you’ll usually see blindfolded showcases or hitless boss gauntlets at occasions like Summer time Video games Completed Fast. With Elden Ring’s immense reputation, that scene sort of exploded and moved past simple challenges like level-1 runs, the place the participant isn’t allowed to degree up for the whole lot of the sport. As a substitute, these challenges obtained exponentially weirder.
I’m speaking about utterly alternative routes of enjoying Elden Ring. As a substitute of enjoying the sport with a controller or mouse and keyboard, some have taken to modding the sport to help enter from musical devices. Others have used dance pads, and a few have even used their mind to only have a look at the sport and talk inputs by way of mind waves. The Elden Ring group has confirmed how persistently creative it’s, and has managed to rise to completely ridiculous challenges in weird and even byzantine methods, so I believed it could be enjoyable to rattle off a few of the most spectacular strategies gamers have used to beat Elden Ring bosses over time.
Dance pad
Arguably the preferred of the alternate options, dance pads have been a staple of Soulslike problem runs for an extended whereas, however they’ve by no means been greater. That’s largely because of MissMikkaa, a streamer who’s taken it upon herself to attempt to beat Elden Ring by way of too many alternate strategies. Her most well-known runs have been ones the place she’s aided (or hampered, relying on the way you see it) by a dance pad. Within the years for the reason that launch of Elden Ring, her runs have solely grown more and more extra unhinged. At one level, she even took on Elden Ring’s hardest boss combat twice concurrently, controlling one character together with her dance pad and one other with a typical PS5 controller. I may hardly beat Malenia as soon as on a controller, and Kai Cenat spent greater than 24 hours attempting to defeat her with out summons, however positive, exhibit.
Donkey Kong bongos
Little recognized reality: the Donkey Konga rhythm collection are a few of the most interesting video games of our lifetimes. I maintain this to be true, regardless that I’ve by no means performed them. Why then, would I make such an assertive assertion? As a result of they gave us the perfect controllers ever: the Donkey Kong bongos.
I really like an excellent rhythm sport, and enjoying them impressed me to choose up the guitar at an early age, however Rock Band’s plastic drums don’t have shit on the DK Bongos. These completely ridiculous controllers have been round for rattling close to 20 years at this level, and in that point, they’ve change into a beloved little bit of memorabilia and one other in style various for problem runs. If you happen to don’t imagine me, take a look at the bongos’ Wikipedia web page, or check out this video.
If you happen to’re going to make a tough sport much more tough for your self, you might as effectively have some enjoyable and look ridiculous when you’re at it, and nothing captures that fairly like wailing on a bongo to do a leaping heavy assault, y’know?
An precise musical instrument
Now should you’re a fairly well-rounded particular person, you’ll have picked up an precise instrument in some unspecified time in the future in your life, fairly than some plastic bongos. If that’s the case, congratulations, you’re expert in ways in which some individuals by no means get round to. Now, simply think about should you may harness that potential and channel it again into video games. That’s what some individuals have managed over time as they turned their favourite devices into controllers and triumphed over Elden Ring’s quite a few challenges.
That’s what Anna Ellsworth did a couple of years in the past when she beat Margit the Fell Omen by plucking the strings of her harp. It’s additionally what CZR did when he beat the identical boss with a modded drum set. Or what Omunchkin pulled off by beating the sport with a piano. And it’s what Dr. Doot achieved with an electrical saxophone! Elden Ring has an extended legacy of proficient musicians who’ve managed to trounce the sport, and you could possibly be the following one.
“Thoughts management”
We’ve featured the streamer Perrikaryal on the location earlier than, however she’s price mentioning this many occasions as a result of her setup continues to be astonishing. One other streamer who relishes unorthodox problem runs, Perri most just lately beat quite a few Shadow of the Erdtree’s bosses together with her thoughts. Using an electroencephalogram that mainly reads her mind exercise, in addition to some eye-tracking expertise, she has been in a position to decimate Elden Ring’s gallery of godly rogues with little greater than her ideas and the blink of an eye fixed. Speak about placing these bosses of their place.
Morse code
Although I’d heard of many of the different problem runs featured right here, that is probably the most shocking one I hadn’t heard about till I began doing analysis for this piece. The Spanish streamer Silithur managed to beat Elden Ring a couple of months in the past with Morse code! That’s proper, a single button and means too many dashes and dots to depend, however the man fucking did it. He even snuck in a dunk on Elon Musk within the course of. How do you faucet out, “Holy shit, you’re a legend” in Morse?
A fish
I’m undecided what I may write that correctly captures what a feat that is. This goldfish is simply constructed completely different. Higher than most of us, even. We may all stand to be taught a factor or two from them.
Full-body movement controller
Typically you play a sport so good you simply need to reside in it, perils and all. Properly that’s what the streamer Luality sort of achieved by turning her entire physique into her Elden Ring controller. With the assistance of some movement controls, the streamer turned Elden Ring right into a full-body expertise. If she needed to dodge, she would bob in that path and if she needed to assault she would make a swiping movement together with her hand, as if she was really armed. She even certain the therapeutic flask to her making a consuming movement with considered one of her fingers. The outcomes are as chaotic, irritating, and humorous as you would possibly anticipate.
Ring Match Wheel (and all the opposite wild methods this man modded the sport)
Whereas performing some analysis for this checklist, I got here throughout one YouTube channel that has, over time, put lots of effort into enjoying Elden Ring with more and more weird controllers. Tremendous Louis 64’s entire factor is definitely that he appears to like gimmicky controls and makes a bunch of distinctive ones from scratch. Boy, has he discovered lots of other ways through which to play Elden Ring, of us.
I’m most conversant in his Ring Match Journey arrange, the place he makes use of that sport’s distinctive wheel-like controller to train whereas additionally dodge-rolling and plugging away at bosses in Elden Ring. His contraptions don’t finish there, although. Only a month in the past, the man discovered make a totally practical bow and arrow controller from a youngsters’ toy. Earlier than that, he actually constructed a greatsword from Elden Ring and turned it right into a controller. He’s additionally famously performed the sport with a controller original from bananas. I don’t perceive how or why he does this stuff, however the level is that there’s somebody on the market doing it, and that’s fairly neat.
A mouth controller
Whereas most of those entries are cool non-obligatory problem runs that people have opted into, my favourite is that this one from a disabled participant who can’t use customary controllers. A tetraplegic participant—that means they’re paralyzed from the neck down— shared a video of themselves overcoming Shadow of the Erdtree’s motherfucker of a last boss with a mouth controller. I don’t learn about you, but it surely’s perhaps probably the most spectacular issues I’ve ever seen.
I’ve but to get to the top of the growth, however I’m positive that combat’s going to take me a whole bunch of tries to beat except I exploit a really busted construct. A few of the most seasoned Elden Ring gamers are totally abled and battle towards it. It actually both takes grit, full mastery of the sport, or an intense exploitation to do that combat with each fingers, however right here’s somebody who can clear it with out the usage of any. That’s a goddamn hero proper there.
