Exploits and glitches are a staple of FromSoftware games, used in everything from speedruns to PvP, and Elden Ring is no exception. Since the game's release, the community has shared dozens of rune farming methods, boss skips, and damage exploits. Every patch fixes at least a few of these tricks, but players will always find more, and a game as massive as Elden Ring will never be completely airtight. Most exploits were removed for a reason, but some were just harmless features that added unorthodox fun to Elden Ring, a game famous for breaking conventions.
The most recent major patch was 1.05, which fixed a particularly debilitating issue in online play that corrupted save files. Hackers would invade players' worlds and alter their save files, teleporting them outside of the map's boundaries and forcing them to fall repeatedly to their deaths. This is a prime example of a worthwhile fix, but there have also been a few "improvements" that arguably never needed to happen.
The exploit whose absence is perhaps the most heartbreaking has to be the original "zip" glitch, a trick speedrunners use to teleport slingshot-style across the map. This was removed back in patch 1.03 and is notoriously hard to execute; only PC players with a powerful computer can pull it off, and it basically requires frame-perfect movement. Once a player does pull it off, they often need to attempt it dozens of times to land in a precise location in Elden Ring's massive Lands Between map because of factors like equipment weight and starting height. This glitch is admittedly somewhat "game-breaking," but it is also fairly harmless, as it has no practical application outside of speedrunning, and one could argue that speedrunning is simply a unique way to enjoy a game outside its intended use.
The Elden Ring "Zip" Glitch Never Needed To Be Patched
The complicated thing about the zip glitch is that it's (sort of) not completely fixed. It was gone for a while, prompting speedrunners to stick to patch 1.02, but the community soon found new ways to teleport themselves throughout the Lands Between. A new zip glitch emerged (or players found a new way to execute the original), followed by the "Wrong Warp" glitch and the "Pegasus" glitch, both of which are just similar ways of circumventing movement limitations and skipping some of Elden Ring's many bosses. Both were targeted by patch 1.04, but "Wrong Warp" persisted with different conditions, leading to seeker TV's under-six-minute speedrun. The Elden Ring speedrunning community has cooled down since patch 1.04, but speedrunners will always find a way to skip major areas, so as long as invaders can't use these exploits maliciously, there seems to be no harm in giving players the option. Speedruns have categories specifically to take these kinds of glitches into account, after all.
It is not clear whether zips and other teleportation tricks can still be used in patch 1.05. What is confirmed is that 1.05 got rid of "chain casting," which allowed players to cast spells in quick succession by pairing fast spells with slow ones, severely downgrading Elden Ring's lore-infused sorcery system. This change was a bit divisive, as many magic users viewed "chain casting" as less of a cheap artifice and more of a necessary strategy to make mage builds viable in PvP. Regardless, there were less drastic measures FromSoftware could have taken to mitigate the issue without harshly nerfing magic. Elden Ring took similarly extreme measures when they fixed the unblockable Ice Spear Ash of War glitch, forsaking higher-priority PvP balance adjustments to enfeeble a spell that was never particularly overpowered anyway.
Source: seeker TV/YouTube