Elden Ring is currently dominating the gaming scene of 2022, with peak numbers over 950,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. FromSoftware, creator of the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is credited with another quality title, elevating the open-world genre to a new standard that future games will be measured against. Like Skyrim before it, mods have begun to surface that promise to further extend Elden Ring’s lifespan.
While Elden Ring excels in giving players beautiful environments, dynamic combat, and memorable characters, players are giving back with over-the-top mods with effects like turning Tree Sentinel’s horse into Thomas the Tank Engine. From estus flasks being reskinned as Sunny D in Dark Souls to more risque ninja attire in Sekiro, joke mods have long been a part of FromSoft’s PC releases, and all signs point to mod creators delivering plenty of irreverent content in Elden Ring that turns a serious game into a hodgepodge of memes.
In-Jokes in the Lands Between
From crab-worship to endless repetitions of “Bearer, Seek, Seek, Lest,” Soulsbourne game fans have made their love of self-referential humor known. Several running gags have already surfaced in the community, some of which started before Elden Ring was even released. When Melina said “I offer you an Accord,” some players decided she should grant the Tarnished a Honda Accord to cruise around the Lands Between. A mod has already been released replacing Elden Ring’s faithful horse Torrent with such a car.
Another joke surfaced following the reveal of the glintstone sorcerers, with many people drawing immediate comparisons to the infamously off-putting design of the Burger King mascot. The menacing aura of these spellcasters could seemingly only be enhanced by the King’s bizarre smile plastered across the face of every Raya Lucaria graduate. If Skyrim’s Big Jarl burger joint mod is any indication, there’s a market for fast food-orientated humor in the modding scene.
Of course, FromSoft fans are not likely to forget their roots, with mods adding Bloodborne weapons into Dark Souls 3 being the kind of common addition which proves the community’s commitment to its favorite games. Such dedication to the ideal that legends never die could see the return of the exalted casul-crushing majesty of Giantdad from Dark Souls 1, perhaps as an overpowered Spirit Ash who smashes his Bass Cannon Zweihander into enemies before fading away with an insulting “Well! What is it?” gesture.
Memes for the Maidenless
There is also a demand for joke mods that have nothing to do with FromSoft games, existing simply to make players laugh. The sky’s the limit with examples from other games such as a God of War mod that added dad jokes, and the canvas of Elden Ring is ripe with opportunity. Modders could swap the textures and sound files of certain enemies to give players Mr. Krabs instead of the usual giant crabs, SpongeBob as land squirts, and Squidward as land octopi. They could also honor the legacy of Sunny D estus flasks with Mountain Dew Code Red replacements for the Crimson Chalice of Tears and Baja Blast for the Cerulean Chalice of Tears, enhance the tedious experience of following the old codger ghost by replacing his fade-in effects with the ramblings of Abe Simpson, or so on.
The blooming Elden Ring modding community has massive potential to follow up on the ever-expanding library of Dark Souls mods. The coming months will no doubt see the emergence of many exciting new mods for Elden Ring, ranging from carefully crafted, lore-friendly enhancements to altered death screens informing the player that “Every Elden Has It’s Ring.”
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
