The award-winning Elden Ring is a game known for its hard bosses, and the difficulty of the game is what gives it identity. According to the director Hidetaka Miyazaki himself, the game is made insanely laborious to play through to give the player a great sense of achievement once they finally get over a stage in the game.
What newer players won’t know is how the game originally included a variety of glitched dogs, which could easily one-shot players when dealt with, making them stronger than some of the bosses in the game. Although it was patched in a few months, it remains one of the most talked about topics in the community of Elden Ring.
The bleed dogs can deal blood loss damage to the player if not careful. Particularly the small bleed dog was notorious for being the toughest to deal with as a glitch and error in its game files allowed it to deal a great amount of damage to the player.
Why Were Bleed Dogs So Overpowered In Elden Ring
It was a major oversight from the studio when Elden Ring was released. The small bleed dogs in a short time became known for being one of the most annoying characters to deal with due to the above-mentioned reasons.
Upon some further inspection by the fans themselves, it turned out that the game files for the NPC character had an error. This error allowed the game to forget if the small bleed dog had already dealt damage to the player, giving it a glitched animation and a hitbox that dealt continuous damage if the player happened to be inside it.
This error was patched in August 2022, nearly 6 months after the release of the game. The 1.04 update not only fixed the broken bleed dogs that continuously annoyed the players but also fixed a fake wall in the Volcano Manor, which the players discovered would break and reveal another room if it was hit 50 times.
Also Read:Who Made Elden Ring and Why Elden Ring’s Director is Sorry For Gamers Who Struggle Badly With FromSoftware Games
It remains a question if the said wall was put there intentionally or for any other purpose by Fromsoftware. It was not revealed even in the patch notes why the wall was there in the first place, but it is theorized it was fixed to stop players from hitting every other wall aimlessly in the vicinity.
Why The Broken Bleed Dogs Remain Relevant Even Today
While many found the overpowered NPC to be annoying, it soon turned out to be a topic of humor amongst the Elden Ring fan base. The thought of an overpowered small bleed dog that could one-shot players and was stronger than the bosses of the game themselves is something that was thought to be funny and is often talked about within the game’s forums and social media platforms.
Talking about the unforgettable NPC, some users on Twitter said:
Somehow "look at this dog with messed up coding" is a very productive subgenre of Elden Ring videos. pic.twitter.com/DPFrajKvrw
— Zullie (@ZullieTheWitch) January 16, 2024
Elden Ring dog with coding glitches – a quirky subgenre. #EldenRing #CodingGlitches.
— sarah miller (@heartxXxbroken) January 16, 2024
encounter with the bug-fueled insta-killing bleed dog#EldenRingFanart #ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/VcZwMvpALM
— Kyriepoda | COMMISSION CLOSE | (@kyriepoda) April 8, 2022
im actively mad they fixed the instakill bleed dogs in elden ring. it was funny
— h*lly (cis) 🐄 (@sludge_bitch) April 19, 2022
the latest elden ring patch fixed the bleed dogs being able to do absurd amounts of damage to you no matter how high your vigor is but even then they can still k!ll you in like 4 seconds with a single combo if you’re not careful enough 💀
— dominic 🍿 (@dommiedarko_) April 19, 2022
Honestly I hope they don’t fix the bleed dog in Elden Ring cause it’s actually pretty funny pic.twitter.com/UyHCADomXu
— Artistic Gooch (@artistic_gooch) March 30, 2022
Also Read: Dark Elden Ring Theory Exposes a Demigod Far Worse Than Marika – It’s Not Mohg
The gameplay experience of Elden Ring is, simply put, a masterpiece. The music, the art, the storytelling, and a lot of other elements make it one of the best video game titles to be ever produced in the gaming industry. Players now eagerly wait for the upcoming “Shadow of the Erdtree” DLC pack, which is rumored to tell more about the character of Miquella in the storyline.
Elden Ring is available to purchase on Steam.
