Elden Ring’s latest update – patch 1.04 – may have only been released mere hours ago, but players have already discovered that, as if the game wasn’t already hard enough, it brings with it an unexpected bug that makes one boss fight even more difficult (spoilers ahead).
The bug was first brought to The Loadout’s attention by a Reddit post from ‘Demonboy995.’ “Malenia is healing without actually hitting the player after the patch,” they say about ones of the game’s later bosses. “This is on PS5. I got summoned 8 times after the patch and it happened every time.” The short video does indeed show Malenia jumping towards the player and attacking, but even though the player dodges, Malenia somehow recovers a chunk of her health.
This is corroborated by a lengthier YouTube video from ‘GoDaddy,’ which depicts a five minute long fight against the boss. Unlike Demonboy995, GoDaddy was the host of the game and not just a cooperator. Interestingly, when Melania attacks near the host’s character itself, she does not heal herself; when she attacks the cooperators that were summoned by GoDaddy, her lifesteal seems to ignore i-frames and recover health. “The bug does not affect the host, only the cooperator,” GoDaddy confirms in the video’s description.
“So something in patch 1.04 must have broke Malenia because now she lifesteals through your i-frames and from attacking the air,” Twitter user Siegwander says, providing even more evidence for this being a widespread issue. “This happened on PS5 and in every co-op session I’ve seen so far.”
So, it appears that if you summon other players into your game to help fight Malenia, it is only those that are summoned that are affected by this bug, but the host isn’t.
There haven’t been any official announcements from the Elden Ring team yet as the issue is so fresh, but hopefully they’ll be along shortly to make the game slightly easier for you. Hopefully.