Elden Ring patch 1.17 will arrive Friday, August 28, alongside the new Tarnished Pack DLC, adding a few classes, cosmetics, NPC events, and buyable items.
The patch notes from publisher Bandai Namco are more substantial than expected, and chock-full of buffs.
The Tarnished Pack itself adds the Idus Knight and Heavy Knight starting classes, three outfits for your mount Torrent, NPC invasions in Caelid and Leyndell, and some "weapons that can be purchased from merchants or found in the Lands Between." The pack is bigger news for Nintendo fans, as it's also bringing Elden Ring to the Switch 2.
Though the Tarnished Pack is $5, everyone will get to experience the changes in version 1.17 for free. The headliner is a change to "certain items found in the field or obtained by defeating certain powerful enemies in the Realm of Shadow." These items will now be of "higher-tier" or "other treasures." FromSoftware is being characteristically vague, but I'm hoping this translates into fewer junk items marked as rare. For years, players have moaned about the onslaught of Arteria Leafs and Rune Arcs. Will we finally be spared?
Most of the patch is weapon, spell, and shield buffs. Importantly, tons of greatshields have had their guard boost increased and their weight reduced, making them more competitive with medium shields.
The once-broken perfume bottles had their attack power increased, the Smithscript weapons will deal more damage with throwing attacks, and Rellana's Twin Blades got a welcome critical hit buff.
Buffed spells include Founding Rain of Stars, Carian Retaliation, Meteorite, Meteorite of Astel, Gravitational Missile, Feather of the Divine Bird, O Flame, and the previously memed Rain of Fire, all generally enjoying more damage, quicker casting, or greater range.
A few parry skills were also buffed. The basic Parry skill, Thops's Barrier, and Storm Wall are all sporting "improved parry performance." Storm Wall and Thops's Barrier are more niche than parrying attacks to set enemies up for critical hits, but deflecting ranged attacks can be handy too.
The only real nerf in here is to Rakshasa's Great Katana, which will cause users to take more damage in PvP mid-attack, and cause a longer attack delay when wielded in the left hand. Rugalea's Roar, Rotten Breath, and Ekzykes's Decay also got small PvP-exclusive nerfs.
Elden Ring is more than four years old at this point, so this Tarnished Edition patch could well be the last sizable update we ever see. "We will continue to make improvements so that you can enjoy ELDEN RING more comfortably," the patch notes conclude.
Meanwhile, FromSoftware is coming up on the release of The Duskbloods, and apparently has multiple other games in the works. After Elden Ring Nightreign and The Duskbloods, the studio will seemingly return to its usual single-player adventures.
