Elden Ring: Secrets and Hidden Mechanics

  • last year
From mechanics to locations, entire quests, hidden weapons, bosses, and sometimes just really cool stuff, there are secrets hidden throughout Elden Ring. For example, did you know rain affects your spell damage? Or that you're invincible in Elden Ring for a fraction of a second when you get on your horse? Below, we've got 10 Elden Ring secrets you might have missed. Some are useful, some are just interesting or weird, while a few will likely get a gasp when you realise what you've missed.
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:13 From mechanics to locations, entire quests, hidden weapons, bosses, and sometimes just really cool stuff.
00:20 There are plenty of secrets hidden throughout Elden Ring.
00:23 For example, did you know that rain affects your spell damage?
00:26 Or that you're invincible for a fraction of a second when you get on your horse?
00:30 Right now we've got 10 Elden Ring secrets that you may have missed.
00:33 Some are useful, some are interesting, and some are just plain weird.
00:37 A few might even get a gasp when you realize what you've missed.
00:41 [SPLASH]
00:44 That's right, spell damage changes with the weather.
00:47 Specifically, the rain.
00:48 If it's pouring torrents on your torrent, fire damage will be reduced.
00:52 But lightning damage will go up.
00:54 From what we've gathered, it's only a 10% change either way.
00:58 But it's a cute quirk that can still make a difference in long-term fights.
01:02 Especially for those who have a lot of spells to choose from.
01:05 [SPLASH]
01:08 Continuing on from weather effects, any lightning spell or attack that hits a watery surface
01:13 will have a little bonus effect where electrical damage radiates outwards from the impact point.
01:18 It means a single lightning bolt can hit multiple opponents.
01:22 Keep in mind though, that this can work against you as much as for you.
01:26 You'll never electrocute yourself, but it doesn't mean a crafty foe can't zap you with their own expanding shockwaves.
01:33 [SPLASH]
01:35 [MUSIC]
01:38 Much like how combat roles give you a brief window of invincibility, so does summoning torrent with the steed whistle.
01:44 It's very quick, but there's a moment in the animation where your character is getting onto torrent
01:49 where you'll take no damage at all.
01:51 Applied carefully, you can use this to avoid fatal damage from single strikes.
01:56 Even in boss fights like the fire giant.
01:58 [SPLASH]
02:04 You may have noticed that some enemies can inflict friendly fire on other enemies, while others don't.
02:09 And there's an obvious reason for that. Size.
02:12 For some reason, anything bigger than 8 feet tall will deal damage on any other enemy caught in their attacks.
02:18 Including equally big ones.
02:20 The giant swamp crabs, the lumbering trolls, any colossal dragon.
02:24 These can all kill their allies just as easily as they kill you.
02:27 Ride around on torrent, and you can potentially bait them into bludgeoning each other.
02:32 It won't aggro them against their teammates, but damage is damage, and we'll take what we can get.
02:37 [SPLASH]
02:44 There's a chance at night that players will get a rare weather effect with gold leaves drifting down from the sky.
02:50 But it's not just aesthetic.
02:52 The blessing of the Ur tree means that players will get a small increase to runes earned from killing enemies while this is happening.
02:59 [SPLASH]
03:02 Every weapon has a standard combo achieved by mashing buttons.
03:05 But these combos actually increase in power the longer you keep them going.
03:10 It's not a huge difference, but each hit does an extra few bits of damage.
03:14 And some weapons increase the damage more than others.
03:18 [SPLASH]
03:22 There's a lot of speedrunners and pro players out there using this one.
03:25 The quickstep weapon art and the bloodstep cause players to do a little rapid hop or teleport.
03:31 They're not better than sprinting in most cases as they drain FP.
03:34 But if you're trapped in a poison swamp or you're up to your ankles in lava,
03:38 both of which will slow your character down of course,
03:41 you can still move rapidly through them by quickstepping.
03:43 Just hop to safety and give your flask a swig at the end to get your FP back.
03:48 [SPLASH]
03:54 If you've explored many catacombs and dungeons, you've probably seen the raised pillars with imps spitting fire down corridors.
04:01 And you probably also know that a good hit from a sword or hammer will cause them to retract into the floor.
04:05 But it doesn't have to be a melee weapon.
04:07 As obvious as it sounds, a damaging spell or arrow shot sent down the hall will cause them to sink into the floor as well.
04:14 So you don't ever need to risk getting burned by the fire again.
04:17 [SPLASH]
04:20 Standing in poison swamps is bad enough.
04:23 So it's easy to instinctually start rolling through them to try and get out of there as fast as you can.
04:29 But that's a bad idea.
04:31 Rolling in swamps coats your character head to toe in that poison muck.
04:35 And so you'll continue to take the status Affliction for a while after leaving the swamp itself.
04:40 Use the quickstep method we previously talked about or look for stepping stones in the ooze to give yourself a chance to recover some health.
04:47 [SPLASH]
04:52 This one's been a secret thing in Souls games for a little while now.
04:56 But if an enemy gets you in a grab attack, start furiously mashing either R1, L1 or R, B, L, B.
05:01 It seems that any action buttons work, but these are the easiest to rapidly press.
05:06 You still won't break out immediately, but grab attacks that do multiple instances of damage will release you sooner with a good button mash.
05:13 [SPLASH]
05:14 So there's a good spread of facts and trivia you might not have known about Elden Ring.
05:19 Hopefully there's at least one there that you can impress somebody with on your next New Game+ run.
05:24 And if you've got an amazing lance between detail or secret that might surprise some people, then why not pass it on in the comments down below.
05:30 And remember to subscribe to GamesRadar on YouTube, and I'll see you on the next one.
05:36 [SWISH]
05:38 [BEEP]
05:39 (whooshing)
05:41 [laughs]