Update 03/20/22: Well-known Dark Souls hacker Zullie pointed out in a Twitter thread that this wall may not in fact have been an intentionally obtuse trick on the part of the developers. Rather, the game’s files identify the wall as an object with 9999 HP, which in previous games would usually signal an “unbreakable” object that could only be destroyed by an event trigger.
Crucially, though, in previous games those objects would also have maxed-out defense, meaning that they would take no damage from player weaponry and could only be destroyed by the intended trigger. In Elden Ring, the devs seem to have forgotten to give the wall 9999 defense alongside its boosted HP, meaning that a sufficiently determined player can hack away at the wall until it crumbles. As such, this breakable wall may not, in fact, signal Miyazaki’s delight in tormenting players, but instead could simply be an oversight, to be patched out in a future update.
Original story: It takes a lot to bring FromSoftware fans to the brink of despair. In a series of games built on challenge, patience, and punishment, this peculiar subset of gaming aficionado seems capable of taking it all very much on the chin (except for the idea of an easy mode). But the eagle-eared could almost hear the sighs of exasperation across the world today, when players discovered that some illusory walls in Elden Ring could take multiple hits to reveal their true nature.
Twitter user Iron Pineapple today shared a video clip from Redditor teristam, in which they hack away at a wall in Elden Ring dozens of times before it eventually crumbles away. Replies to the tweet, which at the time of writing has over 20,000 likes and over 5,000 retweets, lamented this inscrutable game design choice. Many players wondered how on earth they were supposed to find all the game’s secrets if they were expected to hit every suspicious-looking wall twenty or thirty times, though some truly die-hard FromSoft fans displayed an almost masochistic delight at the reveal.
As with so many things in Elden Ring, it’s unclear just how many of these durable illusory walls exist in the game, and it’s possible that players will never know for sure. All they can do is wander the Lands Between hacking at every wall they can find, while Miyazaki no doubt chuckles to himself from on high.
