Elden Ring’s director said there’s a few secrets left uncovered in the game, causing “treasure hunt” among players 

FromSoftware recently revealed the latest information on the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The upcoming expansion has also prompted numerous interviews with the game’s director Hidetaka Miyazaki. In an interview with IGN, Miyazaki mentioned that there are still a few small secrets in the Elden Ring base game that players have yet to uncover, which has led players to go on a massive “treasure hunt,” searching for the game’s last leftover secrets. The situation has also inspired humorous comparisons to the “Golden Age of Pirates” in One Piece. 

Elden Ring has been out for 2 years, and its expansive lore and detailed storytelling has kept players engaged ever since. One might presume that Elden Ring’s dedicated player base has already uncovered all the game’s hidden elements and mysteries, but as recently revealed by Miyazaki, it seems there are a few things that have managed to escape everyone’s radars. 

Commenting for IGN, Miyazaki says that the Elden Ring community has, to date, managed to discover most of the game’s secrets, pleasantly surprising the development team with each new discovery. At the same time, he comments that “although very few, there are of course some things that have still not been uncovered*,” and that he looks forward to seeing how players will go about finding them. While refraining from giving any tips as to what they may be, Miyazaki seems confident that it’s just a matter of time before the mysteries are solved, mentioning that the developers have come to trust players completely over the years in this sense. 

*This article refers to and translates Miyazaki’s statements directly from the IGN Japan interview, which may result in different nuances from the international version of the interview.

In turn, Japanese and international players alike have naturally taken Miyazaki’s words as a challenge, immediately taking to thorough Elden Ring exploration in hope of discovering new secrets. Users are looking for new discoveries in a variety of places – for example, some have speculated that something may be hidden in the graphics of the map’s terrain, or in the way certain NPCs respond to certain gestures. Incidentally, there are NPCs in the game who can be summoned to fight with you in boss battles if certain conditions are met. Some NPCs have rather complicated summoning conditions, and there have been reports in the past of people discovering them only after playing for several hundred hours. It is possible that the undiscovered secrets may have something to do with this aspect of the game. Aside from all the lore analysis and theorizing, there’s also players doing good old footwork by punching walls. 

As an aside, in reaction to Miyazaki’s statement, Japanese players have drawn a humorous parallel with the lore of Japanese manga/anime series One Piece. They liken Miyazaki’s words to the last words of pirate king Gol. D Roger, who sparked the “Golden Age of Pirates” right before dying by calling on people to discover his treasures. 

Aside from memes, the “search for secrets” seems to have also once again drawn attention to the meticulous level of detail in Elden Ring. Users expressed new admiration for the narrative-driven placement of items and objects around enemies, as well as the fact that the same type of enemy can attack in different ways depending on the region in which it appears. Since the remaining secrets are said to be “very few,” Miyazaki’s comments seem to have provided an opportunity for users to share “trivia” discoveries that have not been discussed up until now. Now is the perfect time to take the time to explore The Lands Between before the release of the DLC on June 21. 

The Elden Ring DLC “Shadow of the Erdtree” is scheduled for release on June 21 for the PC (Steam), PS4/PS5 and Xbox series X|S/Xbox One.     

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-02-24 12:40 JST)