Elden Ring players received soft ban warning for picking up cut content underwear [Update]

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-04-16 18:31 JST)

[Update 2022/04/20 17:38 JST]
FromSoftware likely fixed the issue with the latest Ver.1.04 update, as the patch notes mention that they “Fixed a bug that allowed unauthorized items to be passed to other players.”

[Update 2022/04/16 19:40 JST] Fixed the article to state that what these players received was a warning, and not an actual soft ban.

[Original Text 2022/04/16 19:28 JST]
A couple of Elden Ring players have reported that they received a soft ban warning for picking up a piece of cut content dropped by a random player they’ve matched up with. Please be aware that this article contains information about Elden Ring’s cut content.

Elden Ring is the latest action RPG from FromSoftware. The game features dozens of weapons and armor sets with unique properties and appearances, and you can give them to other players by dropping them on the floor while playing online. This is normally done to help fellow Tarnished or trick opposing players. But it seems like someone decided to torment the innocent by giving them an item obtained through cheats: Deathbed Smalls.

Deathbed Smalls is a pair of panties and said to be a part of the Deathbed armor set worn by Fia. The item is cut from the final product, so you can’t obtain it via normal playthroughs even though the data itself does exist. You’ll need to modify the game in order to gain access to it, and possession of this illegal underwear may result in getting yourself banned.

Reddit user Glass_Hydra（/u/Ok-Communication7125）reported that they received a soft ban warning “because I acquired an item from a player in multiplayer called the deathbed smalls,” while playing the PC version of the game. The user contacted the publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment and claimed to have received a reply saying, “you will need to delete all game files for Elden Ring and reinstall the game to make sure that your account doesn’t get suspended for 180 days.”  Glass_Hydra added that the person who gave them the underwear “had the in game name of pantsu dealer.” A befitting name since pantsu means panties in Japanese.

As mentioned above, Deathbed Smalls is supposed to be an unobtainable item, so it’s quite possible that the presence of the item was detected through save data verification or other means. The pantsu dealer likely found a way to avoid such detection. While getting a ban warning for picking up a pair of panties might sound comical, it’s a grave issue for players, especially since it’s difficult to discern the content of a dropped item in Elden Ring until you pick it up.

Another Reddit user named xlnximi reported that they also received a warning saying, “INFORMATION Warning: Unauthorized tampering with the game has been detected,” after picking up Deathbed Smalls. This user was playing the PS5 version of the game.

Invaders aren’t the only human threat in Elden Ring. You should always be wary of gifts from a stranger, even if it’s not from someone with a fishy name like pantsu dealer. Let us hope that some measures will be taken to prevent further damage caused by the dealer in question.