Elden Ring gets huge quality-of-life features patch right before Shadow of the Erdtree, including an inventory change I've wanted for years

The day before Shadow of the Erdtree launches next week, Elden Ring will receive a new patch with some significant quality-of-life features, including an inventory change that denotes all new items.

FromSoftware just announced that Elden Ring will get a new update next week on June 20, the day before Shadow of the Erdtree's launch (don't forget you need to defeat Mohg in Elden Ring if you're planning on jumping in). As seen below, one of the big features of the new patch is that "newly obtained items will be marked with a '!'" and a brand new inventory tab called 'Recent Items' will also be added for players to see all the recent spoils they've acquired.

This is a huge feature for a FromSoftware game, and it's somewhat surprising that it's taken Elden Ring so long to receive a Recent Items inventory tab. You've always had to memorize the name of a new item you've received if you want to inspect it in your inventory later on, and if you acquire an item in the heat of battle, it can be oddly hard to remember its name.

Additionally, the new update will enable active Summoning Pools to carry over to successive playthroughs - a nice little feature for veterans out there. Finally, there are five new hairstyles for Tarnished in the new Elden Ring update, one of which you can see in the new screenshot just below. You can use these whenever you like - either during character creation or when you're remaking your Tarnished later on.

This is all great news, but there's also bad news elsewhere: Elden Ring's most annoying enemy is returning in Shadow of the Erdtree, and it might be even worse this time around.

Check out our guide on how to start the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in Elden Ring so you know how to begin the expansion on June 21.