Over the course of several months, dataminers have managed to uncover several pieces of unused content in Elden Ring, suggesting that developer FromSoftware could currently be working on DLC for the game.
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Dexerto rounded up several prior rumors, along with citing Elden Ring‘s success and positive reception, along with unused assets remaining in the game, and prior DLC releases for Dark Souls III and other Soulslike titles.
Based on the launch date of Dark Souls III in April of 2016 and compared to the release dates for the Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City expansions — which became available in October of 2016 and March of 2017, respectively — Dexerto speculated the purported Elden Ring DLC release date.
Elden Ring hit store shelves late in February of this year. As per the prediction, however, downloadable content for the game should have released six to seven months after launch, which unfortunately means the now long gone Fall 2022.
However, it’s also worth noting the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders may have pushed back FromSoftware’s efforts. Even so, Elden Ring‘s delay was only for one month. Much like other Soulslikes, the outlet also theorized the DLC could extend the base game’s ending.
Turning to the datamining itself, YouTuber Lance McDonald’s video on the game’s cut content was cited. It referred to a seemingly cut quest, where a monk would task players with gathering “dream mist” from sleeping enemies in exchange for “dreambrew.” Dexerto speculates this and additional cut content could return as DLC.
Eurogamer also took note of a video by YouTube creator “Garden of Eyes” regarding “Miquella DLC & secret boss dialogue,” adding even more fuel to the speculation fire, though perhaps with more evidence the alluded content could return as DLC.
While players only find the arm of Miquella, twin brother of Malenia, Garden of Eyes claims that a model of his whole body was found via datamining — which features functional skeletal animation that suggests it was more than just an environment object. Cut dialogue from Malenia is also phrased as though the player had killed Miquella, or that he would be involved with her boss fight.
Part of Malenia’s cut dialogue, noted as being in her second phase, has her talk about giving Miquella a “gift of abundance.” Garden of Eyes points out other cut content includes the “Abundance and Decay Twinblade” weapon and notes Miquella’s Great Rune would have been the Rune of Abundance.
A cut NPC called Rhico also states they are a servant of St. Trina, and would have revealed to the player this was Miquella. Along with in-game lore stating “Some say she [St. Trinia] is a comely young girl, others are sure he is a boy,” the Sword of St. Trina also inflicts sleep on foes. Both Rhico and the game’s official lore state Miquella is sleeping or dreaming.
Garden of Eyes proposed, much like with Fia, there could be DLC where players enter Miquella’s dream and his cocoon provides a unique way to enter an additional area. Combined with McDonald’s datamine, it seems there is plenty of dream-themed material for FromSoftware to work with.
Dexerto also cited dataminer @sekirodubi, who shared what they had found in October. The user summarized these findings as “New hair for DLC, new map files from audio banks m20, and m45 (no more info on this), new Colosseum map files, assets, textures, and Lots of subtle map changes, like at most divine towers,” pointing out, however, that “Textures don’t work due to lack of DLC files,” and added that “More doors to be opened still.”
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Dexerto points out that Caelid’s coliseum is blocked by a Giant Pot Warrior in the game, noting that this particular instance would be well suited for PvP DLC. Further, it could also house the return of a player controlled boss, as seen in prior Souls games but not yet seen in Elden Ring.
Dark Souls III added such a boss — Halflight, Spear of the Church — in The Ringed City DLC. While the PvP element is pure speculation by Dexerto, it too seems likely the coliseum could be a DLC area.
Code stating “CONDITION_TYPE_COLLUSIUM” would further support this claim. “The colosseum plot thickens… I wonder if this is DS3 leftovers or actual ER stuff,” @sekirodubi mused. “Also EGG.” What the “egg” condition could entail is currently unclear.
@sekirodubi also made a claim that could be shocking at first glance, asserting, “So… in the section where boss flags are declared they left out room for 30 flags for DLC purposes. So, I’m not saying the DLCs are going to add 30 new bosses, but they made room for as many of those.”
Further more, NPCs who could be in the DLC are referred to as “Someone Yet Unseen.” However, this appears to be a placeholder name for 16 different NPCs.
“Alright, copium time. In Elden Ring there’s a few NPC entries in the files called ‘Someone Yet Unseen’, @sekirodubi explains. “The IDs look like nothing in particular, unless you take the first 4 digits as an increasing series, and the last 4 as map IDs… then you get what’s on the 2nd image.” The images show sixteen different IDs, each associated with locations in Limgrave, Mt. Gelmir, and more.
While arguments can be made that cut content does not always lead to DLC, some new content added in an update would suggest DLC is planned for the game. The 1.07 update, launched October 13th, revealed new information on the upcoming ray tracing which- pun aside- shed light on two new areas.
“The latest update for Elden Ring adds menu strings related to ray tracing features,” McDonald explained. He later added that his datamining efforts uncovered “The update also includes references to two new maps that do not yet otherwise exist in the game data.”
Using more technical terms, @sekirodubi responded to McDonald’s original thread, “The new maps are m20, and m45… m20 has same numbering as Legacy dungeons, m45 is brand new… Dynamic Loading Casting,” crediting Twitter user @MagicalShion for those findings.
One claim that Dexerto also discussed was an alleged leak from July of this year, supposedly showing Bandai Namco’s upcoming releases for 2023, including “Elden Ring: Barbarians of the Badlands” supposedly for Q3 FY2023. While it did come shortly after Bandai Namco confirmed they had been hacked, the purported leak featured several errors and dubious claims.
There were games listed that should have already released, based on Bandai Namco’s Fiscal Years running from April 1st the prior year to March 31st. As Q1 FY2023 should include April, May, and June 2022, we didn’t see a new Armored Core game at that time (though one has been rumored), and Dragon Ball: The Breakers launched October 14th 2022.
Combined with Barbarians of the Badlands being a rather blatant subtitle compared to FromSoftware’s usual efforts, as users on Reddit discussed, and the alleged leak almost being a wish-list of much requested sequels and big-names (even when said games are still being supported with DLC, such as Dragon Ball FighterZ), it may be that Dexerto’s faith was misplaced.
Nonetheless, the outlet espouses that exploring beyond Elden Ring‘s Lands Between could be a potential DLC location, being tied to Godfrey and the Tarnished.
This is even after the source of the leak, @hy_plus, admitted, as per Google Translate’s machine translation, “That picture actually spread the unreliable news that was circulating in China, so I deleted it first.”
Do the two new areas align with dreamscapes and coliseums? Does the Bandai Namco ransomware leak hold more credibility than first assumed? Will Elden Ring‘s all but inevitable DLC reuse cut content, or bring something entirely new?