Elden Ring’s Fall Damage Is Needlessly Hard To Guess

Elden Ring received early tests to showcase gameplay in the beautiful Lands Between, but one area in particular – fall damage – has already proven to be confusing and perhaps not fully understood. Since none of the official trailers have really touched the subject, including Elden Ring’s new overview trailer, it’s been left up to Closed Network Test players and other early users to fill in the gaps. However, even with access privileges, fall damage remains more of a mystery than an answered question, and it’s mostly due to the unique topography and travel options in the Lands Between.

Elden Ring is an open-world, dark fantasy action RPG title, which means that there are many areas with different options for players to choose from. One of the crucial elements in this RPG world is choosing how to traverse the topography. Players can either move around on foot and enjoy the Lands Between at a slower pace, or they can use a horse, which makes Elden Ring‘s combat interesting. Depending on the location in the world – both methods will come in handy – as some parts offer beautiful visuals and close-encounter combat, while other parts require cliff jumping, ascending, and descending to different levels of geography. However, the inevitable question of fall damage eventually comes to the surface once realizing the kind of world and navigation methods that Elden Ring has to offer.

Elden Ring most definitely does have fall damage, both while on foot and on horseback. What’s harder to judge is when a player might actually take fall damage and how much will actually be taken. But this feels quite different from a game like Dark Souls, where damage would increase the further one fell, ultimately resulting in death if the fall was far enough. In Elden Ring, players can fall from far greater heights without being hurt, but this makes it harder to know how far a fall will kill them outright. Elden Ring‘s launches this week, so it’s not likely that the mystery will go unsolved for long, but for now, it’s a somewhat confusing system to navigate.

Players Won’t Have To Worry About Elden Ring’s Fall Damage Too Much

Unless a player has problems consistently falling off massive cliffs, fall damage isn’t going to be much of a bother in Elden Ring. Even after falling off massive cliffs, most characters will be able to survive a considerable fall. Upgrading skills such as Dexterity will also help with fall damage, which ensures that stealthier, faster characters can make quick surprise attacks on enemies at different levels of elevation. Some players have even managed to trick Elden Ring bosses off cliffs in order to defeat them. It’s safe to say that unconventional fighting tactics are on offer.

If players aren’t aware of their surroundings in the middle of a fight they can fall off cliffs and potentially die if their health is already low, and characters with lower Dexterity stats will find the window between taking no damage and dying to be smaller. Such characters will do well to pay more attention to their surroundings, as this isn’t like other games where characters won’t take any fall damage whatsoever, which was the case in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Fans will be able to experience Elden Ring’s exploratory dangers for themselves on February 25.

About The Author

Preston Pearl
(55 Articles Published)

Preston Pearl is a contributing writer based out of the US. He publishes work for the Game Features sector of Screen Rant.

While being a Secondary English education major at Kentucky State University and educator in Frankfort, KY; he also spends time writing fictional short stories, gaming, weight lifting, and — most importantly — enjoying time with friends and family.

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