Elden Ring launches surprise update that makes some major changes

FromSoftware dropped patch 1.14 for Elden Ring last night, which specifically seems to be targeting certain unbalanced elements of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

A few of the changes have been met with a mixed reception from fans, although for the most part the response to the patch seems to be overwhelmingly positive.

One of the most loved changes is to the hand-to-hand arts weapon types, which now have both “increased damage” and shorter recovery time between “some normal attacks and follow-up attacks”.

According to several posts on the Elden Ring subreddit, the damage upgrade seems pretty significant. One poster noted that they were “barely scraping past 430 AR” but are now hitting highs of “492 AR”.

Colossal Swords have seen a massive upgrade too, with increased speed and range across colossal-related weapons.

This change has surprised a few players considering Colossal Swords were buffed relatively recently and were already considered to be pretty good following the previous round of changes.

There are also several bug fixes in the 1.14 patch, but the most lauded one is that Black Pyreflies “will now correctly reappear when resting at a site of grace”.

Black Pyreflies are a pretty important resource in crafting several different items, most notably the Messmerfire Grease, so a lot of folks are happy that they’re suddenly a lot easier to farm (considering they’re relatively expensive to buy from merchants).

The biggest change however is to Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss, Starscourge Radahn.

Starscourge Radahn has been described by most of the community as the hardest boss in Elden Ring, outclassing even Malenia in terms of difficulty.

According to a few players who have already had some hands-on time with the patch, the nerfs to Starscourge Radahn are pretty significant. Significant enough that a lot of players are saying that, once again, Malenia is now the hardest boss in Elden Ring for a second time.