Much like any other FromSoftware game,Elden Ringhas its own share of curious and colorful NPCs that sometimes take on a life all of their own. Sometimes this means helping the player beat a particularly difficult encounter, while other times it might mean completely demolishing their ego with moves that could only be described as oddly deliberate.
Elden Ringplayers often post the tidbits of their adventures from The Lands Between on the game’s biggest subreddit, and a particularly noteworthy one has popped up recently, courtesy of 97Hshk. In broad terms, the video is a stellar depiction of why none of the game’s many NPCs should be taken for granted.
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Whereas some NPCs found in the game, such asElden Ring’s Cleanrot Knight boss, immediately appear intimidating and put players on high alert, others do no such thing. The NPC that 97Hsk encountered while exploring a seemingly random rooftop was a naked NPC wielding a crossbow, and the player thought that they’d have no trouble handling that sort of threat. In short order, however, the NPC rolled out of harm’s way and off the roof, only to fire off a single crossbow bolt that one-shot the player as it fell.
“You’re gonna be in that NPC’s montage now,” said Misfit_666, who was just one of many other Reddit users that made fun of 97Hsk’s bewildered reaction upon seeing the strange NPC, and of their apparent insistence not to invest in Vigor, which is one ofElden Ring’s crucial survivability stats. Dying from a crossbow bolt’s worth of damage is, after all, a poor survival strategy for late-game progression inElden Ring.
Regardless, this is just one example of why it might be a good idea to capture footage while playingElden Ring, just in case something wacky ends up happening. That’s how the community discovered thatplayers can killElden RingNPCs by jumpingonto them, which was about as hilarious as the video featured above, but also tragic in equal measure, as the player in question lost an entire side-quest’s worth of progression in doing so.
Though it’s easy to argue thatFromSoftware fails to teach playershow to playElden Ring, and that the game doesn’t communicate many of its quirks in any way, shape, or form, it’s also clear that much of its character comes from this approach. This approach fosters organic exploration and experimentation, which in turn leads to videos such as the one above, so it’s a case of silver lining, at the very least.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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