Summary
- Elden Ring offers a wide variety of ways to customize characters, including Talismans that can enhance specific builds and boost stats while equipped.
- Two specific Talismans, the Furled Finger's Trick-Mirror and the Host's Trick-Mirror, have a unique effect in multiplayer, allowing players to change their appearance and trick invaders or coordinate strategies with allies.
- While the Trick-Mirrors may not always be effective, they can add an element of surprise and variety to Elden Ring's online experience, allowing for memorable moments and unexpected alliances.
Among FromSoftware’s Soulslikes, there is no game with more ways to augment one's character than Elden Ring. Featuring everything from consumables and the Flask of Wondrous Physick to buff spells and Great Runes, there are lots of ways to tweak a Tarnished into exactly what their player wants. The best tools for this can often be found among Elden Ring's many Talismans, which offer many effects that favor specific builds. Whether boosting certain damage types or directly raising stats while equipped, players will never want to be caught without their Talisman slots filled.
This even extends into multiplayer. Most Talismans only care about improving the user in some way, only affecting allies through improved spell or consumable potency. However, there are two specific Talismans that play into Elden Ring's multiplayer meta in a strange way. These are the Furled Finger's Trick-Mirror and the Host's Trick-Mirror, two complementary items that can be used to mess around with cosmetics or make invasions much more interesting.
Elden Ring: Best Talismans, Ranked
Players looking to get their hands on the best and most powerful talismans in Elden Ring should look no further than these.
How Players Can Find and Use Elden Ring's Trick-Mirrors
Among the many NPCs present upon the player’s first trip to Elden Ring’s Roundtable Hold, there is a peculiar pair of statue-like old women sequestered in a side hall. These are the Twin Maiden Husks, collectively forming a shop that sells both the stocks of merchants who have died in a given playthrough and an eclectic bunch of their own items. Two of these are the Trick-Mirrors, both immediately available for 5,000 Runes, and multiplayer-heavy players may want to get these as soon as possible.
What The Trick-Mirrors Do During Multiplayer
Aside from the mirrors conferring their visuals to the Mimic Tear, including removing its usual white coloration to make it look like an exact clone, these items are typically used in Elden Ring’s multiplayer. The Furled Finger’s Trick-Mirror makes the bearer appear to be a Host of Fingers, devoid of any tinted summon effects and bearing a “Host of Fingers” subtitle above their health bar on other players' screens. As the inverse, the Host's Trick-Mirror will remove the Host of Fingers’ title, as well as tint that player the same color, usually golden-orange, as one of their summoned cooperators. Taking up a precious Talisman slot for a purely cosmetic change is a tough ask, but there are uses for both of these items.
Making The Most of Elden Ring's Trick-Mirrors
Essentially, the Trick-Mirrors are joke items, but the joke told is up to the players. Online cooperators coordinating their use of mirrors can trick invaders into prioritizing the wrong player. This potentially gives the host a bit more safety, and can even synergize nicely with the Mimic’s Veil tool to really get the drop on enemies. Even having a Mimic Tear equipped with the Furled Finger’s Trick-Mirror is still useful in Elden Ring's Colosseum, as they can serve as a distraction of their own against players who aren't paying close attention.
Anyone Can Use Trick-Mirrors, Even Invaders
While the Trick-Mirrors are admittedly fairly ineffective thanks to invaders being told the name of their true Host of Fingers target, they will still work on occasion. However, especially devious players may also want to use these mirrors as an invader. Doing away with an invader’s red tint has uses in camouflage, even if a Mimic’s Veil may be better. It may take some doing, but managing to strike a temporary alliance with another Elden Ring player only to stab them in the back later can make for some memorable online moments. Just as long as another invader doesn't mistake their partner-in-crime as a Host of Fingers or friendly summon and attack them, Elden Ring's Trick-Mirrors can add plenty of variety to its online experience.
Elden Ring
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- February 25, 2022
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PS4 & PS5 and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
WHERE TO PLAY
ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. And BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.
George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- How Long To Beat
- 58 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
- PS4 & PS5 and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
