An Elden Ring player has shown off a strange PvP interaction that appears to show a ritual sacrifice taking place in the game. The PvP side of Elden Ring has consistently produced some interesting results, but this interaction is one that players won't see every day.
Ever since it was first released in 2022, Elden Ring has earned a reputation as one of the most popular action RPGs of all time. Developer FromSoftware took its popular Dark Souls formula and tested it alongside an open world, and the incredible results speak for themselves. Although FromSoftware is famous for crafting brutal yet fulfilling PvE combat, Elden Ring includes a strong PvP element that allows players to try their skills against other gamers. As this clip shows, not everyone is there to strictly test themselves, with some gamers having other plans in mind.
This clip was posted by Reddiotr rokstarkux, and shows two players facing off in the Colosseum. However, rather than attack each other, the other player just starts stabbing themselves, before dying in front of the Merika statue. While some Elden Ring PvP players come overprepared, it seems this player wasn't prepared for the occasion at all, instead taking another way out of the fight. The Redditor doesn't even attempt to continue the fight, and instead seems to watch on in bemusement as the player completes what can only be described as a ritual sacrifice.
Gamers in their thread had their theories about the strange event. Some speculated that it was rank manipulation, allowing them to face lower-ranked combatants in future fights. Smurfing is looked down upon in any PvP game, and Elden Ring is no different, as it can turn away newer players from the game if they're getting easily stomped by better players. There are unwritten rules of Elden Ring's PvP community, and smurfing would certainly fall into that, so hopefully this is just a player having fun rather than any deliberate rank manipulation.
Even if Elden Ring's PvP isn't a key element of the game, it's great that it remains an option for players. Most games benefit from the addition of some form of social interaction, even if it's only a small implementation. While some gamers break Elden Ring's PvP with some incredibly powerful one-hit kill builds, there are still plenty of players out there who want to play on an even playing field in the game, and for that reason the feature earns its place.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.