I’ll not explain the newness because it’s a game of discovery, but I will relay what the patch notes say: On the balance front, shields are buffed, all offensive Cracked Pot items deal more damage, some sorceries have lower FP costs, some sorceries deal more damage, and some sorceries both cost less FP and deal more damage. But the Hoarfrost Stomp, a mighty Ash of War (used heavily in that 29-minute speedrun), has both reduced damage and higher cast time. Plenty of other items and abilities have been tweaked and tinkered with too. As for the persistent problem of poor performance with the PC version, the notes do vaguely mention “Other performance improvement and bug fixes” but it’s not yet clear how much has actually changed. They do specify plenty of fixes, mind. See the Elden Ring v1.03 patch notes for more info. The makers announced this week that Elden Ring has sold 12 million copies. It’s earned that. Ed’s Elden Ring review called FromSoftware’s latest “an unmissable journey through the most impressive open world to date”. For more on our pot pals, do see what we learned when Nic Reuben asked an expert What kind of pot is Elden Ring’s pot boy?
