Elden Ring’s Secret Door Saga Has Blown Everyone’s Mind

Image: FromSoftware/Teristam/Kotaku

Come, sit down and let me tell you the story of a really weird hidden door in the huge open-world RPG Ring of Elden. You may have to hit it 50 or more times to open it, they say. There seem to be more doors, though this could all be a weird bug that could one day be fixed. While fans are still trying to figure out exactly what we’re dealing with here, footage of the phenomenon has captured the attention of thousands of gamers and added another crazy thing to ponder while playing FromSoftware’s mysterious adventure.

On the morning of March 18, Reddit user teristam uploaded a video to the Elden Ring subreddit showing something wild. In their video, they approach a nondescript wall at Volcano Manor, an ostensible late-game location, and begin to smack it with a sword. After 50 hits, the wall disappears and reveals a new hidden path that apparently no one had encountered before. The video quickly exploded on Reddit, as it appeared to involve a nonsensical riddle that no average person could find without prompting like this, or data mining. If that sounds weird, well, the game is full of esoteric puzzles and unexplained mechanics, and FromSoftware builds game worlds dedicated to rewarding and trolling players for exploration and experimentation. Intentionality didn’t seem completely out of the realm of possibility.

And so, other players soon started checking and verifying that the fake wall was real and in-game. The hidden door became more famous and got more attention when the popular Dark Souls YouTuber iron pineapple shared on Reddit clip on twitter.

However, while many thought this was just another troll secret hidden in a game filled with similar secrets, there now seems to be more to this story.

According to another Reddit user who replied to the original subreddit post, there is actually another similar, fake wall located near the viral door seen in the original video. They included a picture of it and some spoiler details about its location, which you can read here. It looks like this fake wall can be removed the same way, with a bunch of hits from a weapon of your choice. But it doesn’t require as many hits, according to your stats, some players claim.

To be clear: the idea of ​​secret fake walls isn’t what got Elden Ring players excited. Strange walls that hide secrets are an integral part of Ring of Elden. These so-calledillusory wallsare already quite well documented and understood. What makes this hidden wall (and the other similar) so strange is that it does not behave like other illusory walls in the game, without the same beeping sound when vanishing, returning when resting at a grace site, and taking dozens and dozens of hits to open. While initially the images spread the belief that the door could have been intentional, some players and experts are now speculating that this strange wall could be a bug or an oversight left in the game by the developers.

Well-known Dark Souls hacker Zulia apparently confirmed this theory – that it is an error left by the developers – on March 18 via a short Twitter thread. They explained that after digging through the game files and digging into the false wall, they claimed to have seen the door displaying 9999 hit points. This is apparently similar to some unbreakable items in Dark Souls having 999 HP. However, these items also had a defense of 999, meaning they never take damage from any attack and can only be broken via in-game triggers or scripted events by the developers.

“The [Elden Ring] the wall being defined as a destructible object, but having 9999 HP and no fade animation, means that it was most likely intended to be destroyed by an event script”, explained Zullie on Twitter. “Although it’s not clear if they faked this or if he was bugged. He should definitely have 9999 defense.

illusory wallanother popular Dark Souls expert who also theorized that the false wall was unintentionalconfirmed Zullie’s findings, agree with their thoughts on the wall.

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Of course, until developers FromSoftware or Bandai Namco officially clarify whether this fake wall and similar hard-to-crack secrets are intentional tricks or unforeseen bugs, we can’t say for sure. Kotaku has contacted Bandai Namco about the false wall and if it is a bug that may one day be fixed via another major update, like the recently released patch 1.03.

But then, even if this wall is explained as a weird bug or oversight, it will no doubt lead to many players hitting everything for weeks, months, or even years, as they endlessly search for any secrets, a hidden piece and unlockable piece of equipment or weaponry. Of course, this false wall may not be on purpose. But what if there’s a fake wall or fake cave hidden deep in the game that hasn’t been found yet, and maybe that one requires more than one move? What if he harbors an incredible secret?

In most games, I would roll my eyes and laugh even though that was a possibility. But in Ring of Eldenwell… everything, frustrating as it may be, seems possible.

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