Elden Ring’s map has been secretly changing without anyone noticing
The earth is shifting
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Elden Ring’s in-game map has been gradually evolving since the action RPG launched earlier this year, as Bandai Namco inconspicuously edited the game without players noticing.
The changes toElden Ring’s maphave been documented by YouTuber and FromSoftware aficionadoIllusory Wall(thanks,VG247). In a recent video, they explain that the game’s post-release patches have made several secret cartographic changes, tweaking the game’s map to better represent its world.
Alterations have been made to each of Elden Ring’s regions, with the smallest of them removing roads, ruins, or other features from the map that don’t actually exist in the game. In other cases, small unidentifiable blocks, which might have represented rocks or ruins that never made it into the final game, have disappeared.
There are bigger changes, too. The game’s original map showed a couple of roads and bridges that would have better-connected areas of the early game, and other regions have been updated for accuracy. The area around Stormveil Castle, for example, didn’t originally show a moat or the damaged section of its entrance.
Several visual details have also been added since the game’s release, better highlighting the walls of castles, as well as more clearly defining cliffs and roads. The icons of each area have also been radically changed. More color has been injected into the Limgrave and Caelid icons, for instance, which were previously bare beige.
See all of the changes in Illusory Wall’s video below.
A well-kept secret
Publisher Bandai Namco has released a score of patches for Elden Ring since the game released back in February. The updates haverebalanced bosses, fixedstability bugs, andbuffed spellcasters, but none of the official patch notes have ever outlined changes to the game’s map. Many players will have been oblivious to the changes taking place beneath their character’s feet.
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Not all, however. Illusory Wall wasn’t the first to notice the edits, andReddit threadsfrom as far back asMarchnoted the changes. However, their video does go a long way to properly document the tweaks, and show the original and new map side by side.
It’s unlikely the changes will have impacted your game much, even if you didn’t notice them. Most of the updates are relatively minor quality-of-life fixes that were likely introduced to make Elden Ring’s map that much more legible. But they offer an interesting glimpse into the minds of the FromSoftware team, and the game’s world might have looked like at one stage of development.
Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.
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