Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Patch 1.16.1 was released by FromSoftware, and again, player reaction was… mixed at best, some outright disappointed. The Elden Ring official account tweeted that it was a patch for bug fixes and told the audience to refer to the full patch notes.
But if you go read those notes?? There are barely two fixes in there. Two. Whole. Fixes.
So what was this patch really supposed to fix? Well, according to the notes, among other things, it prevented crashes from occurring under very specific conditions and fixed some text that was not displaying correctly. That’s it. That’s all the patch does, and players are like… Wait, that’s all? After all the hype for a new update notification?
Responses to the tweet are prime examples of that. One player named BananaLurker linked the community sentiments by saying, “Two fixes. Two.. fixes…” Gildorlnglorio had a valid question: “Can you please be more specific in the patchnotes? What exactly did you fix? 😅” Because the patchnotes have hardly specified anything.
But the little patch isn’t just upsetting the players. Quite a few band-aid-grumbler fans have been putting out on what they would really want to see fixed and added to the game. And man, that list is long. Jessethevampire wants clan bans for chronic leavers in Nightreign, calling it a “serious problem.” Ahasuerus from Brazil complains about going one-shot on bosses in Nightreign and wants balance changes for Recluse and Revenant in solo.
Then come the bugs. The literal ones crawling around the areas in-game. Player afrog81977801 had a long-in-depth discussion about how the game is “full of bugs!” and mentioned incantations for weaponizing them. It was a back-and-forth, with one side saying they didn’t experience many bugs and others insisting that the DLC is far buggier than the main game. Danjo didn’t hold back in his comments by saying the DLC is “way, WAY buggier than the base game.”
And of course, requests for new content have been pouring in. Zepht is asking when Tarnished Edition will be launched, along with another request for weapons, armor, spells, and bosses. VrpGhost is requesting a boss rematch mode similar to Sekiro or Lies of P because replaying the whole game just to fight their favorite boss again is boring. l_pachl wants the Nightreign version of the Radahn sword added to the DLC while referring to the one currently in the DLC as “worse version.”
LunarValkyria engaged in a fairly lengthy discussion about Intelligence versus Faith scaling as an interlude of confused discussions about scaling versus whetblades. Gootuk tried to help by dropping the locations of Magic Whetblade and Sanctified Whetblade, yet the community seems to want way more customizations.
Of course, that is before we get into the… interesting ones. A request from MrRumbleRoses for, and I quote, “How’s about finally adding the death bed smalls in the game finally hmm 🤔”? A hell of an inside joke referencing an item from the base game that never made it.
So yeah, patch 1.16.1 is out. It’s that small bug-fix update. However, the chimney conversation about patch 1.16.1 proves that the Elden Ring community is as passionate and demanding as ever. They love the game; they’ve spent hundreds of hours on it and have a very clear list of things they’d want fixed, balanced, or just added outright. FromSoft slapped out a little patch; this is downright crying out for much more: balance changes, new features, and some much-needed communication. The Tarnished have spoken. Now we wait to see if the voice out there in the Lands Between even cares. Or maybe they’re already prepping that Armored Core VI DLC that Danjo requested in the same breath. Who knows anymore?
