Elden Ring update 1.07 paves the way for ray-tracing and new areas in a massive new patch

Elden Ring update 1.07 has just dropped, and intrepid dataminers have already uncovered evidence of some of the upcoming changes FromSoft is planning.

The key takeaway from the patch notes is that balance changes will now differ between PvE and PvP, ensuring your favourite boss-chopping weapon doesn't get nerfed because too many players are using it to cheese each other. That means a suite of adjustments to a wide array of weapons, skills, spells, and incantations - by our count, there are hundreds of total changes in what's shaping up to be a massive patch.

Elsewhere, however, players have noticed that the developer appears to be preparing for a graphical update by way of ray-tracing. Soulsborne expert Lance McDonald shared the work of dataminer sennoutantei, who discovered that "the latest update for Elden Ring adds menu strings related to ray tracing features."

Those strings appear to be a warning for players toggling on ray-tracing, stating that enabling the feature "will lock performance settings to prioritize quality."

McDonald also states that the update "includes references to two new maps that do not yet otherwise exist in the game data." That could be yet another nod to the widely-anticipated Elden Ring DLC, which originally surfaced via a massive and previously-unknown Colosseum. 

Today's update seems to be paving the way for those new features, rather than beginning to introduce them outright. It's not uncommon for evidence of future changes to a game to appear in its files in advance of actual release, so that's likely what's happening here.

Jumping back in? Here are the best Elden Ring rune farming locations.