Elden Ring update tweaks balance, adds NPC markers and more

pocket-lint.com:

(Pocket-lint) — Elden Ring's latest update has rolled out, and it's a more chunky one than many players will have been expecting, not just tweaking some weapon balance elements but also adding whole new phases to quests and a huge map feature.

The biggest change is a quality of life one, adding a small marker to your map to let you know where NPCs you've met are so that you don't have to manually mark them all to keep track of things. This will be hugely useful to those trying to track where their questlines are at.

We've hopped on to check it out, and it works perfectly (although it makes some of our diligent map-marking obsolete, sadly).

There's also an all-new questline with a new NPC, Jar-Bairn, which sounds fun, while new phases have been added to the quests of existing NPCs Diallos, Nepheli Loux, Kenneth Haight and Gatekeeper Gostoc. Some of these characters did seem at a loose end, so it looks like they always had more phases in mind.

The game will also now offer summonable NPC characters in a wider range of arenas, a welcome change for those who aren't dabbling in real online summons too much, and there is some new music for nighttime ambience.

A host of bug fixes have also arrived, and a load of weapon and power balancing, too. This includes a nerf to the much-loved Mimic Tear Ash, which was our personal tool of choice for boss fights but will now be less powerful.

It should be easier to find Smithing Stones for weapon upgrades in the early game, which is also a very welcome change, and a bunch of spells have become less expensive to cast.

This is a gaming phone that's been designed from the ground up for the absolute best performance possible.

For the full patch notes, check out Bandai Namco's post here, and