Today, I opened up Elden Ring ready for all kinds of adventures and death. Instead, I was greeted with an update—which took 18 minutes to download. “What gives?” I thought impatiently. And then I looked up the contents of Patch 1.03, fellow Tarnished, and while “1.03” may sound innocuous as hell, we’ve got ourselves a huge patch. And it’s filled with some really exciting tweaks and additions.
Let’s start with the most important change. You know how you’ll talk to an NPC, and then completely forget where they were when you complete their quest (if you remember whether or not they exist at all)? Well, FromSoftware, in their infinite wisdom, have added a function where you can record an icon, and the name of an NPC you’ve chatted with, into your map. Praise the message!
There were some other additions, too, including a new NPC tantalizingly named, “Jar-Bairn.” New quest phases were added for Diallos, Nepheli Loux, Gatekeeper Gostoc, and my favorite weenie, Kenneth Haight. And there’s new night background music for open fields, new places where you’re able to summon NPCs, and new abilities for Mimic’s Veil.
Additionally, there are a ton of bug fixes. The other day, I summoned Torrent—who hung half-slung in the air, above nothing, for about 30 seconds, and then died. So, hopefully, that won’t happen anymore? On the other hand, I was able to defeat the Deathbird because he got stuck behind a tree. They probably fixed that, unfortunately. Most of the bug fixes read quite dryly. But buried in the list of bug fixes is the crucial information that a Talisman Pouch has been added to the Twin Maiden Husks shop.
Lastly, there are a whole bunch of “balance changes.” While that may sound ominous, these changes are overwhelmingly in the players’ favor. Smithing Stone drop rates have been upped for some enemies. All cracked pot items now do more damage. Shields are unilaterally more effective. And the FP consumption of a bunch of sorceries has been reduced (while the damage done by others has increased). Torrent even recovers more HP when you feed him raisins.
Which isn’t to say every change is positive (at least in my opinion). The biggest bummers are reserved for a couple of Ash of Wars becoming less effective (though, tbh, I haven’t figured out how to use Ash of Wars too effectively yet, anyway.) Additionally, the Mimic Tear Ash item now summons spirits which do less damage. All in all, though, I’m pretty excited to try the changes out, as I think there’s a lot of improvement and some fun, new goodies.
The full list of Patch 1.03’s tweaks is on Bandai Namco’s website. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go find Jar-Bairn.
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
