An Elden Ring streamer is playing FromSoftware's game completely hands-free.
Not quite satisfied with beating Elden Ring with the power of their mind, streamer Perrikaryal is now taking on FromSoftware's latest without even using their hands. Footage of the monumental feat can be seen just below in the streamer's tweet, where they showcase a fight against the Soldier of Godrick boss entirely hands-free.
Our first trial of our COMPLETELY HANDS-FREE mind-control game controller was a success! There's still a lot to do but I'm hugely proud of this moment... pic.twitter.com/nCIZid70wiMay 10, 2023
Perrikaryal explains to us that she's able to move by simply tilting her head and utilizing gyro controls. "The mental commands work the same as last time through using visualisations that cause certain patterns of brain activity which are then remembered by the BCI and keybinded," the streamer further elaborates.
"What I've done this time is use the Emotiv API and some Python programming to create a controller which combines all the data from the eeg into one holistic thing," perrikaryal continues. "Then I can convert my controller into a virtual xbox controller." So the streamer is putting together a virtual Xbox controller in their brain? Wicked.
"I'm adding more and more inputs and integrating different kinds of data such as eye tracking, facial expressions, and emotion recognition (excitement, focus etc.) as well," she adds. Although she's just fighting Elden Ring's bosses hands-free for now, perrikaryal says her goal is to bind "every input you'd ever need for any game."
And yes, that's actually a realistic goal for the streamer's setup. "I absolutely think I will," she replies when asked if it's a genuine possibility. "Every step along this journey I've thought - or someone else has said - that this was impossible and there was no way... and then we just keep doing it. Absolutely we will."
We're not honestly sure where we go from here. How can anyone play a FromSoftware game in a stranger way than with their brain? We've seen a streamer beat every Elden Ring boss using a Bop-It controller, so we're not exactly short on the weirdness factor around here, but who knows how the entire thing could escalate from here.
One can only hope we'll see even more strange practices emerge from Elden Ring streamers in the future. We could even see a resurgence in weird playthroughs when Shadow of the Erdtree eventually drops.
Check out our Elden Ring DLC guide for a complete look forward to the future of FromSoftware's ace game.
