Elden Ring Just Got A Huge Update That Nerfs Bloodhound Step

It’s been a while since Elden Ring saw any love, but patch 1.06 is here. There’s not much in the way of new additions, though notably the update means you can now do co-op or invasions in multiple places at once in addition to having larger invasion area. There’s also a new mysterious NPC who is supposed to help you advance Varre’s questline without wading into multiplayer at all, though in typical FromSoftware fashion there’s no word on where to find this useful fellow. Still, the update is an enormous one, at least when it comes to gameplay tweaks.

The much-reviled Bloodhound Step, an Ash of War which allows you to dodge attacks at high speeds while becoming invisible, has been tuned down so that the more you use it, the less effective it is. Bloodhound Step does also go further when you’re light on equipment, but it seems that FromSoftware has touched nearly everything to do with low carry loads. You can now roll farther when you’re not carrying much, for example. Still, the Bloodhound Step nerf is pretty huge news for anyone who partakes in multiplayer. Recently in a poll of 10,000 players, the oft-used skill was one of the most-cited reasons for believing that the multiplayer was broken and unbalanced.

And you can believe players are happy about this: nearly every reply under the Twitter announcement celebrates Bloodhound’s demise.

One of the other hugely-requested changes is a Corpse Piler downturn. Corpse Piler is the skill attached to the popular Rivers of Blood weapon, where the player swings the sword into an “X” shape that leaves behind a trail of blood. If the enemy gets hit by the trail or the actual weapon, it will cause damage, blood stabbing buildup, and fire damage to boot. Now though, the trail of blood left behind isn’t as effective as before, with less damage and bleed doled out on-hit. The actual blade also does less damage, but only slightly so, according to the patch notes. That seems fair, really.

Read More: 8 Ways To Make Elden Ring Feel New Again While You Wait For DLC

Unfortunately, the Astrologer fave Glintstone Pebble now does decreased damage but it does go farther than before. The spell didn’t do a ton of damage, but it could be doled out quickly at a low FP cost, and it made horseback witchcraft a hell of a lot easier, too. Despite finding a wide variety of more powerful spells, I had the Pebble equipped for maybe 75% of my playthrough.

A welcome change comes for the Opaline Hardtear, an item which frustratingly had an outright wrong description in-game. The tear was supposed to negate physical damage, which sounds pretty damn useful, right? Well, up until now, the Opaline instead reduced elemental damage, leading to a ton of confusion for everyone who equipped it. This has been rectified.

“Bonk” players should be pretty happy as well, because the patch makes Greatswords and Great Hammers a hell of a lot better. If you wield bonk, you can now roll faster after attacking, charge attacks happen faster and axes are speedier outright.

You can find the full PVP-centric patch notes below.

• Added the function to send summoning signs to summoning pools in multiple areas,…