Elden Ring bug makes its hardest boss fight even harder

By Otto Kratky April 19, 2022

One of Elden Ring‘s hardest bosses just got much, much harder. The game’s 1.04 patch introduced a number of changes today — including buffs to colossal swords and some incantations — along with a bug for Malenia. The Rot Goddess is now healing a bit of her health seemingly every time she attacks (and she attacks quite a lot).

For those who haven’t fought her yet, Malenia is one of Elden Ring‘s optional bosses. She’s the reason why Radahn is a massive, wild beast of a man by the time players fight him, and why all of Caelid looks like the inside of a fridge that hasn’t been cleaned out in a decade. The boss fight against her is one of the hardest in the game, demanding that players dodge her attacks and avoid being hit with Scarlet Rot in her second phase. What makes fighting her really difficult is that she normally heals around 300 health every time she hits the player, even if they’re blocking.

Now, the bug introduced in today’s patch for Elden Ring gives that feature of Malenia’s fight a sizable boost. According to a post on Reddit, Malenia now doesn’t actually have to hit players to heal. Instead, it seems that attacks that players just manage to dodge are giving her health. Considering that one of her most powerful moves involves a massive string of attacks that chase players, it seems like she’s guaranteed to heal a solid portion of her health bar regardless of players getting hit.

The bug makes beating Malenia a near impossibility, though some players will likely try and take her on just for bragging rights. It’s not clear when developer FromSoftware will patch out the bug.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

Elden Ring’s first DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is in development

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's key art.

Yes, Elden Ring is finally getting DLC. After over a year of speculation since the critically acclaimed game's launch, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is confirmed to be in development.
FromSoftware broke the news via its social media accounts for the game, simply affirming that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree "is currently in development." No additional release window or story details were shared, but its Japanese website confirms the expansion will come to all of the same platforms as the base game, and the tweet does include one piece of concept art. In it, we see a darkened Erdtree in the distance as a mysterious girl on a horse rides toward it and some ruins. We don't know what any of this means just yet, but the key art appears to tease a darker tone and new character and reaffirm that Shadow of the Erdtree will take place in a massive open world.
https://twitter.com/ELDENRING/status/1630478058103734274
Elden Ring was released on February 25, 2022, and it was met with critical acclaim and lots of Game of the Year awards (including Digital Trends' own) because of how FromSoftware adapted its classics Souls series formula into a game with a massive open world that rivaled The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As many previous FromSoftware games got DLC, fans were hoping that Elden Ring would get the same treatment.
Before now, we've mostly gotten small patches, with a Colosseum-adding update in December being the most notable. Although Shadow of the Erdtree doesn't have a release date, it's a relief for Elden Ring fans to now have some brand-new content to look forward to.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Shadow of the Erdtree does not have a release window yet.

Gaming

10 best Elden Ring mods

Multiple players look out over a landscape with the Elden Ring co-op mod.

It was thanks to modders that the original PC port of Dark Souls reached a stable and respectable state. Once the technical wrinkles were ironed out, modders turned to expanding and improving the game in numerous ways to keep the game feeling fresh. Years later, those same talented modders have moved on to the latest and largest FromSoftware title, Elden Ring. With plenty of time to learn the game, there are tons of mods out there that can not only fix nagging issues in the game but add entirely new ways to play. Here are some of the best mods out there for Elden Ring.
How to mod Elden Ring
Since Elden Ring is available on PC, that's where modding scene is most popular. However, if this is your first time modding a game, it might sound a little confusing. Thankfully, the process is very simple, and even this tutorial video can show you the basics of modding your game in under three minutes.
Seamless Co-op

Elden Ring uses a more advanced form of the summoning systems from the Dark Souls series, but still has limitations, most notably being partners being forced out of your game after every boss or death. The Seamless Co-op mod aims to make the entire game playable with a partner without any interruptions when players die, bosses are beaten, and no fog walls. It is still being worked on, but already works very well.
Elden Ring Ultimate Cheat Engine Table
Once you've beaten Elden Ring for your second, third, or eighth time, you may just want to see what you can do to break the game. The Elden Ring Ultimate Cheat Engine Table gives you the keys to the castle and lets you basically mod the game yourself to do things like create your own spells, spawn bosses, edit stats, use freecam, and tons more.
Elden Ring Item and Enemy Randomizer

Gaming

Elden Ring, Modern Warfare II discounted in big PlayStation holiday sale

Four players fight in an Elden Ring colosseum.

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The sale is live right now and you can access it through the PlayStation Store on consoles or a web browser. There are 3,725 items on sale in total, though that list includes discounts on in-game currency for games like Grand Theft Auto V as well as special editions of games.