Cut content that has been found in the Elden Ring game files reveals a quest line that would have greatly expanded on the Mimic Tear, one of the most interesting and useful items in the game. The Mimic Tear was incredibly powerful when the game launched, and even after a nerf, it's still one of Elden Ring's best Spirit Ashes. Congealing into a silvery version of the player, the Mimic Tear is the only Spirit Ash needed, especially when it's fully upgraded. Currently players just have to defeat the Mimic Tear in Nokron, Eternal City and find a chest in Night's Sacred Ground in order to acquire the Spirit Ash, but FromSoftware may have originally envisioned an entire quest line leading up to the boss fight.
In the release version of Elden Ring, the Mimic Tear - like much of the game's obtuse narrative - relies on environmental context and item descriptions to convey its circumstances to the player. Underground in the Eternal Cities of Nokron and Nokstella, players encounter an abundance of shape-shifting Silver Tears. The Mimic Tears are described as the results of attempts by the Eternal City to create a lord. Creation of beings is a common theme throughout the game, such as with Elden Ring's two completely different kinds of Albinaurics, but the original concept for the Mimic Tear would have been a much more personal tale.
The Mimic Tear side quest that was cut would have put a spin on what made it into the game's lore, introducing a Silver Tear that has gained sentience. As seen in a video from Nullrinn on YouTube, players would have encountered a Silver Tear named Asimi that pleads not to be killed, hoping to explore its newfound self-awareness. Asimi offers a mutually beneficial arrangement - the Silver Tear will infect the Tarnished instead of being killed, granting untold power to the host.
Asimi's Cut Quest Might've Ended With Elden Ring's Mimic Tear Boss
Asimi seemingly would have hibernated inside the Tarnished until the player managed to kill Starscourge Radahn and open the way to Elden Ring's Nokron, Eternal City, or found the path to Nokstrella. There, she would have asked the player to seek out two chalices, each hidden in an Eternal City. The chalices have similarly been cut from the game, but drinking their contents would have empowered Asimi in some way. The ending of the quest line is unclear, but based on dialog from Asimi that describes becoming "a perfect whole" with the Tarnished, Nullrinn speculates that Asimi would have become the Mimic Tear boss fight after copying the player's appearance.
Cutting this quest from the game unfortunately removes some additional flair from not only the Mimic Tear, but the main quest as well. Asimi likely wouldn't have become one of the bosses required to finish Elden Ring's story, but the dialog before killing the doppelgänger reveals that Asimi was planning on biding her time while the Tarnished became Elden Lord, hoping to eventually usurp the throne, taking over the player's life as a copy. The Mimic Tear Spirit Ashes probably would have been granted at some point in the side quest, maybe after Asimi had been pacified.
The extra narrative associated with the Mimic Tear would have justified its dominance in the gameplay meta as well. Instead of being an innocuous Silver Tear that can imitate the player, Asimi's quest line would have added so much more context to the overpowered item, explaining its strength as a genuine copy of the Tarnished that will eventually sit on the throne. The journey into and through Nokron is still memorable, but the final showdown against the Mimic Tear in Elden Ring would've been even better with the cut content.
Source: Nullrinn/YouTube