Releasing all the way back in February of this year, Elden Ring is still widely considered to be one of, if not the best game of 2022. With a plethora of thrilling boss encounters, a vast array of wonderfully dark locales, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Elden Ring is truly one of the most complete games of the year, though that hasn't stopped developer FromSoftware from continuing to release a constant stream of updates and patches that both balance the game and add new content.
Over the last nine months, Elden Ring has continued to grow and evolve, probably much more than fans were expecting. While players are still eager for the Elden Ring's long-rumored DLC expansion, the game has kept its player-base busy with plenty of subtle tweaks and changes, some new NPCs, and a handful of new questlines. For a game that already had so much content right out of the gate, it truly feels as though FromSoftware takes pride in treating its fans.
Elden Ring's Biggest Patches Since Launch
Releasing on February 25, 2022, Elden Ring received its first major patch on launch day. This day-one update did everything that gamers have come to expect from them, fixing up some NPC questlines, tweaking some settings, and making sure that the game is in its best form for its day one audience. A big focus of this first patch was improving the game's framerate for all platforms.
A month later, on March 31, Elden Ring received its next big patch. Titled "1.03," this patch once again ironed out some performance issues and general bugs. This update also brought with it some pretty major changes regarding NPCs. As of update 1.03, players could now manually mark out NPCs on their map using a designated pin. Along with this, FromSoftware added a new NPC called Jar-Bairn, and added in new quest phases for Gostoc, Kenneth Haight, Diallos, and Nepheli Loux. Additional NPCs could also be summoned for specific boss fights and arenas.
In June, FromSoftware released update 1.05, which added another healthy supply of new content as well as some neat fixes and tweaks. A particularly neat addition was a sound effect for when a player's summoning sign appears, giving players an indication that they're connected to their friends. This update also brought with it a slew of bug fixes, some of the most important fixed the issue of enemies being able to attack through boss fog, and a fix for Alexander, Warrior Jar's questline.
The most recent major update for Elden Ring occurred just two months ago, in early October. Titled update "1.07," this recent update focused heavily on Elden Ring's PvP component. As opposed to continue tweaking weapons for both PvE and PvP gameplay, FromSoftware decided to create a dedicated scaling system specifically for PvP, which came into effect following this update. Along with it, a slew of PvP balancing changes were implemented such as increasing poise damage for just about every weapon, and reducing the power of all Ashes of War across the board. Though PvP was the main focus of this update, FromSoft still provided some PvE balancing tweaks, such as increasing the attack power of some spells like Glintstone Pebbles and increasing the status buildup of spells like Freezing Mist. In general, magic received a big buff, which many fans had been asking for since Elden Ring's release.
These free patches just go to show how dedicated FromSoftware is in making Elden Ring as perfect as it can be, and it doesn't go unnoticed by fans.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.