Elden Ring DLC known bugs at launch, Steam Deck issues, and all workarounds discovered so far
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After what felt like an eternity, Elden Ring's much-anticipated DLC expansion, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has finally arrived and was well worth the wait. In just under a day, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has already captured the imagination and hearts of fans and critics everywhere for adding dozens of hours worth of new gameplay content, new challenging bosses to fight, new zones to explore, new lore to unravel, and more. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree even managed to supplant Witcher 3: Blood & Wine for the highest-rated DLC of all time.
Unfortunately what should be a joyous day for all has been mired for some. After Elden Ring's 1.12 patch went live, players shortly encountered unexpected bugs and issues ruining the game's performance or even preventing them from playing the DLC outright. Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware are aware of the issues and are working around the clock to get them fixed ASAP.
In the meantime, we have decided to lend a helping help by tracking down all the known bugs and technical hiccups found so far for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Additionally, we will also provide tips on how to work around these issues until they are fixed by the developers.
Steam Deck issues
Shortly after the DLC went live, various issues have been when playing Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree on Steam Deck. What went wrong is that the DLC introduced anti-cheat systems into Elden Ring.
These anti-cheat systems were intentionally designed to stop players from cheating in the game's online PvP content but have unfortunately caused error messages to pop up when playing online on the Steam Deck. Even worse, is that if you leave the Steam Deck idle for more than five minutes, it will cause the game to stop reading your inputs, preventing you from playing the game.
FromSoftware has stated on social media that they are aware of this issue and are quickly preparing a hotfix to get rid of this technical issue. They will announce when the hotfix will be implemented at a later date.
While waiting, you can check out our guide on how to disable Elden Ring's anti-cheat systems to temporarily prevent these issues while playing on Steam Deck. Be warned though that you won't be able to play online if you disable them as the anti-cheat systems are required for Elden Ring's multiplayer features to work.
PC issues
Players have also encountered some bugs on the PC version. People have reported on Steam and Reddit that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's framerate would occasionally stutter, freezing the game for a brief second or two. Players have fiddled around with their NVIDIA graphics card settings and are playing the DLC with the best PC graphics cards on the market, yet they still have these performance issues.
While this stuttering bug doesn't happen too frequently to be egregiously game-breaking, it can be an annoying and unfair hurdle when tackling the DLC's difficult bosses like the Divine Beast Dancing Lion or Rellana, Twin Moon Knight.
There have also been reports on Reddit of people having issues when trying to summon multiple players into their world to play Elden Ring's co-op feature together. Often times when a player summons another person and tries to add a third player to their party, they would get the "Unable to summon" message instead and then be forced to summon an NPC ally to fill in. (People have also reported this issue affects the console versions as well).
Unfortunately, no workarounds have been found for these issues at this time. FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment have yet to comment that they're aware of these issues so we will have to be patient for official word from them for a hotfix to patch them up. Some users on Steam hope that upcoming NVIDIA or AMD driver patches may help but we will have to wait and see to find out.
Sometimes bugs can be worse to deal with than Elden Ring's bosses
These are all the bugs and technical issues that have been discovered so far. While it is sad to see this amazing expansion to one of the best Xbox games and best PC games released in years get dragged down by bugs, we, fortunately, live in an age where games don't stay bugged forever.
We will continue to monitor the situation and let you know when these bugs get fixed in future patches.
Elden Ring's long-awaited DLC expansion, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is finally available to purchase after releasing on June 21, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC via Steam. There's even a Collector's Edition of the DLC to buy with several awesome collectibles bundled along with the game.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree | $34.89 at CDKeys (Xbox)
Shadow of the Erdtree is Elden Ring at its most refined, with the base game's overly formulaic elements cut away and some of FromSoftware's best boss fights. The result is a 40-hour-long masterpiece of a DLC that's an absolute must-play for any Soulsborne fan.
Also see: Shadow of the Erdtree (PC, $37.09) | Deluxe Edition (PC, $90.89)
Collector's Edition: Bandai Namco Store (€249.99)View Deal
