FromSoftware's wildly successful open-world fantasy RPG Elden Ring continues to be out for pretty much a year, giving its player-base lots of time to discover interesting exploits and combinations of character abilities that allow them to excel during PvE and PvP combat. Time since release has additionally allowed FromSoftware to adjust and fine-tune the combat mechanics of Elden Ring with plenty of patches, that have buffed and de-buffed certain weapons and spells, eliminated bugs, as well as adjusted unintentional gameplay features for example spell combos. Elden Ring players awaiting the next DLC need to master these powerful combat strategies before patches contained in said DLC alter the game's meta once again.
When Street Fighter 2, which introduced combos to fighting games, was under development, developers focusing on the game's special moves accidentally created an exploit where players could chain certain attack inputs to capture their opponent inside a string of consecutive blows; Street Fighter 2 designers decided to keep this happy accident within their game, and also the rest was history. Similar happy accidents took place in Elden Ring, a game title larger and much more complex than any action fantasy RPG FromSoftware had done to date. As canny gamers attempted the intricate combat system of Elden Ring, they discovered unintentional but surprisingly potent exploits such as the ones the following.
Elden Ring's Perfect Block Exploit Is Weird But Effective
The "Perfect Block," among the newest high-level combos being tried in Elden Ring, is an unintentional exploit born in the intersection of game mechanics for blocking and game mechanics for sprinting. Normally, a Tarnished player character who's hit by an enemy's attack freezes up as it were, even when they block the attack and suffer no damage. Wearing armor sets rich in poise (51 or more) lets Elden Ring PCs endure certain enemy attacks without flinching, giving players a chance to trade blows by having an enemy and overwhelm all of them with damage to health insurance and posture (high poise also makes it easier to make use of the Guard Counter mechanic against players in Elden Ring Colosseum PvP battles).
If an Elden Ring player in PvP or PvE sprints towards a rival, then releases the dodge button and presses the block button right before an enemy attack, they will be able to absorb an enemy attack without having to be staggered or flinching (although the player's character will still lose stamina and lose a little bit of HP if their shield or two-handed weapon doesn't absorb all of the attack damage). The timing required to pull off this Perfect Block isn't any easy feat, but Elden Ring players who master this idiosyncratic combo can glide through enemy attacks to be able to either counter-attack or slip in it for a back-stab (this maneuver generally only works against humanoid enemies along with other players in PvP).
Certain Spells In Elden Ring Can Still Be Chain-Casted
In general, the combat of Elden Ring (off and on horseback) is made to minimize attack combos during player versus-player duels; if your player gets hit with a swung weapon or perhaps a spell projectile, they often have time to roll away or block before the following attack hits. Before the version 1.05 patch of Elden Ring, certain quick spells for example the Carian Slicer and Swift Flintstone Shard Sorceries or even the Catch Flame and Bestial Sling Incantations were built with a curious property. If a player activated one of these simple quick spells, then switched to and cast the following spell within their memory slots, they'd cancel the start-up animation from the new spell striking their enemy again before they might dodge away.
Many of those chain-casting glitches, unintended perks from the best Elden Ring spells like the first combos from the original Street Fighter 2, were mostly removed by FromSoftware developers in Patch 1.05. A weaker version of chain-casting does remain as from the latest version of Elden Ring, though. If a spell-slinging Elden Ring character casts certain quick Sorceries or Incantations while jumping up, they can still cast the 2nd spell within their memory slot at a faster (though not as fast as pre-patch) pace. It's unclear whether these still-extant, not-quite-as-powerful spell combos are going to be patched inside a future Elden Ring DLC, or if these were deliberately left in by FromSoftware.
Colossal Sword Crouch Pokes Are Still Present In Elden Ring PvP
A key part of PvP combat in Elden Ring (particularly beyond combat within the Elden Ring DLC PvP Colosseums) is finding out how to rush down and strike out-of-reach opponents before them getting a chance to drink healing flasks or cast healing magic. Greatswords, great spears, and colossal weapons possess the reach and damage required to poke opponents to death from afar, however, their attacks emerge slowly like a cost. However, a quirk within the attack animations of Colossal Swords such as the Zweihander or Ruins Greatsword causes their slow, heavy thrust attacks to emerge faster once the player character is crouching; this resulted in a PvP meta where Strength Build characters would spam the "crouch-poke" move over and also over.
The 1.07 patch (to not be confused with the initial Elden Ring side character Patches who also appears in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne) decreased the speed striking detection for that crouching and rolling thrust attacks of colossal swords, making that specific move much less useful for damaging enemies just outside a character's usual melee attack range. Shortly after, though, the 1.08 update that introduced Elden Ring's Colosseum DLC walked back the nerf to colossal swords, slightly increasing the rate of crouching and rolling attacks once again. This has made Colossal Sword crouch-pokes useful once again (although not exceptionally overpowered) in Elden Ring's PvP.
The interesting thing concerning the combat exploits described above (as opposed to long-gone exploits like Elden Ring's Carian Retaliation Instakill Bug) is the fact that they're not strictly certain to a specific character build or equipment loadout. A lot of Elden Ring PvP strategy guides couch their advice when it comes to creating overpowered characters - champions using the sturdiest armor sets and shields, spell-swords using the most overpowered weapons, spells, or Ashes of War, or combinations of enchantments and talismans that briefly boost a Tarnished warrior's attack damage into the stratosphere. These combat exploits, in comparison, work the best within the hands of Elden Ring players who master the basics of the game, like controlling combat and baiting enemies.
