Elden Ring has only been out for nearly three weeks and has already made an unbelievable splash. With 12 million units sold, it is fair to say that Elden Ring is one of FromSoftware's most popular and profitable IPs. Many players have found the game praiseworthy, and it seems as if new secrets, strategies, and speedrun techniques are now found on a daily basis.

As the community continues to discover new facets of Elden Ring like rune farming locations to optimize players' experiences, builds are being narrowed down to key abilities or armaments so that characters can bully bosses and clear the game as fast as possible. But in a surprise turn of events, Elden Ring has received a new balance patch that not only nerfs several preferred mechanics, but also goes as far as to add an entire NPC and offer a greater quality of life in its quests and map readability.

RELATED: Elden Ring Player Creates Wolverine with Regenerative HP Talismans and Hookclaws

Bandai Namco has recently released patch notes for an update that has now launched and is available to install. Patch 1.03's contents are considerably important for all players and impact many features and mechanics that have been both criticized and praised by players. Elden Ring's popular Mimic Tear Ash, for example, has had its damage decreased, and changes have also been made to "the spirit's behavior pattern" in an attempt to nerf the over-powered summon, which will surely disappoint casual players who relied upon its ability to mimic their character.

Massive structural additions will be added to patch 1.03 with a new NPC, named Jar-Bairn, as well as a new feature intrinsic to the overworld map that will automatically position icons and named markers for NPCs that players have interacted with in the Lands Between. This will surely help players keep track of the location of Elden Ring's eclectic characters like merchants who are spread out far and wide. Moreover, "quest phases" have been updated for more obscure characters, such as Nepheli Loux and Kenneth Haight.

The Hoarfrost Stomp Ash of War has also been nerfed. This particular Ash of War has been influential in Elden Ring speedruns in the Any% WrongWarp category, and it will be interesting to see how future runs are affected since the ability now has decreased damage and an "increased cast time." Still, other armaments such as the Sword of Night and Flame have been nerfed, and so it seems like close attention has been paid to all the OP weapons found so far.

Many performance issues and bug fixes have also been addressed in patch 1.03, such as scaling issues and skipped dialogue due to custom key configurations, as well as the removal of the Ragged armor set from Elden Ring, which had previously been "mistakenly obtainable."

Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Elden Ring's Mimic Tear Boss Makes Players Take An Introspective Look At Their Builds

Source: Bandai Namco