An Elden Ring player managed to gain a victory in the arena without using their left stick to move their character. The new patch has already offered Soulslike fans a lot more content to enjoy in Elden Ring and The Lands Between, such as hairstyles, but most importantly, colosseums.
Elden Ring’s arenas had sat dormant since launch until December 7th when they were patched in with update 1.08. Players had speculated for quite some time whether the colosseums were cut content, or waiting to become accessible with future Elden Ring DLC. FromSoftware has had an arena style addition in its Dark Souls DLC since the first game, and so it seemed natural that if Elden Ring ever received DLC, the colosseum doors would open and let players fight in PVP arenas. Fans were partially wrong however, as the colosseums were patched in without being attached to any DLC.
This free of charge Elden Ring update filled with content was a nice surprise in an industry where so many games and publishers take the chance to take players’ money at any chance. It would also have been a surprise for one player to enter the colosseum to find an opponent named “Left stick broke” actually not defend themselves with any movement. It would have been even more surprising for this player to find themselves defeated by this immobile enemy.
Reddit user CheaterDust uploaded the video of their battle in the arena, where despite not using the left stick at all, they managed to get a victory. FromSoftware and Souls series fans have achieved great feats, such as being able to beat Malenia without taking a hit in Elden Ring. But for many the games remain a challenge even at a base level, and being able to get a victory over a real world player in any circumstance is commendable. While CheaterDust’s character does die in the battle, they still manage to get the victory by dealing out massive damage; just one hit nearly kills their opponent. Whether CheaterDust really had a broken left stick is left undisclosed, but with that kind of damage it can be assumed that they expected to win a few fights with just one hit.
Due to the fact that CheaterDust died in the fight at seemingly that same time as their adversary, other Reddit users commented to discuss whether the fight should have garnered a draw rather than a victory. One poster notes that the battle ending with a defeat for the other player is hilarious. Others could say that it’s tragic, but of course this is not the most tragic story in Elden Ring. Another states that they have had a similar instance of getting a defeat screen when both players have died in tandem, speculating that the type of damage is counted at a different rate. The user says that they used an AOE attack to kill their opponent, and it must have taken the smallest fraction of time to register. Glitch or not, the colosseum is new to the game, and will likely see updates to make the experience feel fairer.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.