There are plenty of mysteries in Elden Ring, though some require extra effort to unearth.
JesterPatches, a data miner and modder specializing in FromSoftware titles, found 128 peculiar icons buried away in Elden Ring’s files. Most are of in-game characters, enemy types, and various animal life found throughout the Lands Between. Jesterpatches believes these icons hint that Elden Ring was going to have a bestiary at one point. It makes sense, given the nature of what these tiny portraits entail, though all anyone can do is speculate about the purpose of these icons.
Check them out in the screenshots below. I must say, the artwork for these is incredibly sick.
Looking through the game files I came across a few icons making me believe that a bestiary was planned at some point.
There are 128 icons showing different NPCs. Each NPC shown has 2 icons, one greyed out and another one filled in, so it could be not found and found. pic.twitter.com/9b0Tj6ckm3
— JesterPatches (@JesterPatches) March 27, 2022
Shame they couldn’t be in the actual game. With how monstrously successful Elden Ring is, secrets like this likely won’t remain hidden for long. Just the other week, someone found an invisible wall that took multiple hits to reveal what was inside — further proof that Soulsborne fans leave no stone(wall) unturned.
Just when I finished these tweets, EvilCookie posted something new to the modding Discord, great find: pic.twitter.com/WGBhoDDhOu
— JesterPatches (@JesterPatches) March 27, 2022
Stuff like this will likely crop up in Elden Ring circles for quite some time, especially with such an active speedrunning community eager to break the game in every way possible.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
