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Streamers continue to play Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree in weird and wonderful ways

Mind over matter.

Artwork of Elden Ring enemy with skeletal limbs and giant bulbous golden head
Image credit: FromSoftware

With the release of DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, Elden Ring players are back to their old tricks by playing the game in weird and wonderful ways.

Take Twitch streamer Perrikaryal, who's already played the game with her mind and is now tackling Shadow of the Erdtree. Yes, you read that right.

Perrikaryal uses a bluetooth, portable EEG reader to analyse patterns of brain activity and, along with an eye-tracker, convert these to inputs. She then thinks about specific actions, which trigger rolls, attacks and the like in game - here's an explanation clip.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree | Official Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube

This has allowed the streamer to complete Elden Ring without using a traditional controller. And now, with the DLC released last Friday, she's already beaten its second major boss.

Another streamer is back on the base game, but every dodge roll in the game is performed with an actual roll in real life.

GoodGameEthan began this run five months ago, playing the game with a controller until the time comes to dodge and he barrel rolls across a mat. So far he's up to Maliketh, but aims to play the DLC this way too.

"I tried really hard to beat the game before the DLC but my knees gave out on me after two hours fighting Godfrey this morning," he said in a comment on reddit. "Will try to beat the game before I tackle the DLC."

After 3 Hours I finally beat Maliketh but When I Dodged Rolled in game I Rolled in Real Life
byu/GoodGameEthan inEldenring

Lastly, streamer itzCBD has completed the entire base game from NG to NG+7 without dying a single time and without levelling up at all.

That's eight full playthroughs of the game with the same Wretch class character remaining at level one.

It's a hugely impressive feat, and along with others shows just how accomplished Elden Ring players have become after beating the base game with dance pads, bananas, and more.

Still, Shadow of the Erdtree bumps up the difficulty of the game, which - along with performance issues - has resulted in a Mixed response on Steam from unhappy players.

Miyazaki himself said in an interview that turning down the game's difficulty would "break the game itself", while publisher Bandai Namco suggested over the weekend players focus on levelling up their Scadutree Blessings. Luckily, we've got a guide on where to find them.

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