The horse-riding mechanic in Elden Ring, FromSoftware's latest dark fantasy RPG, is primarily designed to help players explore the game's open-world environment and fend off certain dangerous enemies. To preserve the game's balance, a player's ability to summon their "spectral steed" is disabled in dungeon areas, as well as during co-op sessions and PvP invasions. Does this mean that PvP combat and mounted combat in Elden Ring are fundamentally incompatible, or could certain gameplay mechanics from previous FromSoftware games be adapted to create special scenarios where players could challenge each other to jousts online?
In previous FromSoftware fantasy RPGs such as Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls trilogy, the world maps and levels were very much massive dungeons straight out of old-school D&D, filled with chokepoints, narrative passageways, death traps, enemy gauntlets, and poison swamps that forced players to watch their surroundings closely and search for shortcuts. Elden Ring wound up transforming this philosophy of level design by introducing a new open-world environment filled with "Legacy Dungeons," field bosses, and wandering throngs of enemies. To swiftly traverse this open world and better handle the threats within it, players of Elden Ring can use a "Spectral Steed Whistle" to summon a horned horse called Torrent, capable of double-jumping and galloping fast.
Currently, players of Elden Ring lose the ability to summon their "Spectral Steed" whenever they enter a dungeon area, summon a co-op partner, or get invaded by a player using the "Bloody Finger" multiplayer item. It's understandable why developers at FromSoftware would make this gameplay choice; the speed and double-jumping abilities of a "Spectral Steed" would be awkward in the cramped tunnels of a dungeon, while cooperators and invaders could easily get separated from their hosts if everyone was allowed to ride around on horseback. Even so, the horse-riding mechanics of Elden Ring offer an intriguing opportunity to shake up the multiplayer mechanics of FromSoftware RPGs in a fun, refreshing way. Indeed, there are two established multiplayer modes from previous FromSoftware games – one introduced in Demon's Souls, the other in Dark Souls – that may well let Elden Ring players challenge each other to mounted combat without breaking the game as a whole.
Elden Ring Horseback PvP In A Special Jousting Arena
The Artorias of the Abyss DLC for the first Dark Souls game introduced a new PvP mechanic to the "Soulslike" genre of RPGs called "Battle of Stoicism" – a special arena environment where players could fight each other in one-on-one duels, team battles, or free-for-all brawls of up to four people. Arena PvP returned in Dark Souls 3 with the release of the Ashes of Ariandal and The Ringed City DLCs, giving players the chance to fight in four different arena spaces and customize different variables in the PvP matches they hosted (like the number of contestants and quantity of healing flasks).
In the recent Network Test for Elden Ring, multiplayer items such as the "Duelist's Furled Finger" or "Taunter's Tongue" gave players of a host world the ability to voluntarily lure in PvP invaders and host informal fighting tournaments. A proper arena mode in the final version of Elden Ring could give players a more formal environment for engaging in honorable duels without having to worry about ambush tactics from invaders or "Ganks" from the host player and their cooperative summons. Arena maps, or special dungeons with a finite yet open space, might also let FromSoftware implement a balanced form of horse-mounted PvP.
A Romanesque gladiatorial arena, as seen in Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3, would let groups of players duke it out in grand melees. Alternately, an Elden Ring PvP Arena Mode could be modeled after the "tiltyards" and "list fields" used to host the jousting tournaments of Late Medieval Europe. Flanked by bleachers full of (undead) spectators, separated by a long wooden rail (that could be destroyed) players could charge each other on horseback, trying to knock each other off with weapons like the Lance or even powerful magic spells.
The item descriptions for the "Crucible Armor Set" and "Ordovis' Greatsword," equipment found in a carriage in the Elden Ring Network Test, may hint at a PvP Arena mode that can be unlocked in the full release version of Elden Ring. The "Ordovis' Greatsword" description references a knight named Ordovis, a hero said to be "one of the two honored as foremost among the knights of the Crucible," while the descriptions for the "Crucible Armor Set" go into more detail about a "life's crucible" located within the golden Erdtree seen on the horizon of Elden Ring's open world. The term "Crucible" may not necessarily refer to a combat arena, but a gameplay mode where players could duel beneath the shade and roots of a world tree would be truly interesting.
Elden Ring's Spectral Steed Could Be Used In A PvP Boss Fight
Before the multiplayer arenas of Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 3, the dark fantasy RPG Demon's Souls had a boss fight against the "Old Monk," an invading player from another world who entered the boss room and squared off against the host player with their pre-selected weapons and a constantly replenishing stream of Homing Soul Arrows. FromSoftware continued to experiment with this "PvP Invader as a Boss" concept in other fantasy RPGs of theirs; the "Mirror Knight" Boss in Dark Souls 2 could summon invading players from their reflective shield, while members of the "Spears Of The Church" Covenant in Dark Souls 3 could be summoned to oppose other players whenever they initiated the "Halflight: Spear Of The Church" boss fight.
A PvP boss fight with mechanics akin to the "Halflight" boss fight from Dark Souls 3 may be another way for FromSoftware to implement balanced horse-mounted PvP in Elden Ring. By equipping a special covenant item or invading in a special part of the game world, players could summon themselves onto the back of a fearsome, monstrous steed, playing the part of an equestrian boss to Elden Ring's "Tree Sentinel" or "Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa" from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. In a PvP boss fight like this, invaders could duel with the player on horseback, using their equipped weapons, skills, and spells along with devastating attacks unique to the "Boss Steed" they're riding.