Elden Ring's 1.03 patch made one of its most unusual characters easier to find

pcgamer.com:

Having sunk 140 hours into Elden Ring (opens in new tab)over the last month, I thought I had been pretty thorough in exploring From Software's massive open world RPG. But apparently, I still managed to miss an entire questline surrounding a character encountered near the start of the game. And it seems I'm not the only Tarnished who strolled right past this character, as it turns out that Elden Ring's 1.03 patch has made him considerably easier to find(opens in new tab).

Minor spoilers for Elden Ring follow:

The character in question is known as Boc the Seamster, a demi-human who, unlike most of his ilk, is not openly hostile to the player upon encountering him. He initially appears in Limgrave, the game's starting area. But he's incredibly hard to spot because he's disguised as a bush. Like some other side-characters, he does call out to nearby players, but in his original implemenation, you could only hear him if you were practically on top of him anyway. Even then, you might not spot him amid the foliage of Limgrave's forests.

As of last month's 1.03 patch, however, Boc has been made considerably easier to locate. The range of his callout has been significantly increased, while From has also added a rare purple item nearby to lure players toward Boc's hiding place. You can see the changes yourself in the Twitter video below, posted by the Souls-focussed Youtuber Illusory Wall:

But wait, there's more! The distance from which his dialog triggers was massively expanded. Like it wasn't just doubled or tripled, it reaches out MUCH further, allowing you to hear him from the road. pic.twitter.com/c5KRTqyLqWApril 5, 2022

The change speaks to the fine balancing act Elden Ring attempt with its approach to quest design. FromSoft