A duel in Elden Ring turned every unwritten rule of PvP upside down across its duration, becoming a hilarious confusion of endless parries and perpetually missed hits. Elden Ring PvP has enjoyed several updates as of late, with substantial rebalancing that addressed the viability of many skills, sorceries, and incantations, alongside a scaling change that should greatly benefit future competitive play.
Elden Ring PvP, as well as the online components of most FromSoftware titles, is best described as an arena of tools with which players are left to massacre each other as they please. However, some players have taken this free-for-all a little more seriously than the rest, resulting in a practice known as dueling. Duels function on a simple premise; the community ostensibly agrees on a specific location to operate as a de facto arena, a self-imposed level cap is implemented to make encounters as fair as they can reasonably be, and etiquette is established naturally as time passes.
In a video uploaded to Reddit by u/Alarming-Spend-5405, the invader is seen arriving at their destination, no doubt assuming the ensuing confrontation to transpire like many before it. Within seconds, however, these expectations are shattered, as the host turns and instantly attempts to back-stab the invader, who was in the middle of performing an emote. Already the unofficial laws of Elden Ring dueling have been swept away, as combatants are expected to halt for a moment of mutual acknowledgment before engaging.
The invader escapes this insolence unscathed, due to the invincibility frames afforded to the invasion animation, and what proceeds are two minutes of unbridled perplexity. An unhealthy reliance on parrying in Elden Ring is developed by the host, failing to succeed despite dozens of attempts and unable to capitalize on the jumping attacks by the invader, which go literally over their head. Another unwritten rule is subsequently broken, as the host heals via their flasks, which is not expected to be done during duels.
After connection issues cause the host to hover and glide at times, the peculiar contest concludes at last in poetic irony. The only accurate parry of the fight is performed by the invader, who deals enough damage in the following critical hit to evaporate the host's remaining health. Comments noted that the host was named Katy Parry, and some believed that the perpetual parries were merely part of an extravagant joke, continuing a trend of Elden Ring players embodying the personas of memes and famous people.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.