Elden Ring finally gets ray tracing today

Elden Ring wasn’t even out yet when FromSoftware said the game would have ray tracing at some point in the future, so it’s safe to say we’ve been waiting for it for a while. As it turns out, it took the talented developers a year and a few changes to deliver on the promise.

Update 1.09 is now available to download for Elden Ring on all platforms, but its most notable change is the option to enable ray tracing on PC, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox family. It’s worth mentioning that the implementation may not live up to your wildest hopes, as the patch notes make it absolutely clear that using ray tracing “may” impact framerate and resolution, so we should probably expect future updates to further improve the game performance.

The update apparently also includes some good, old balance tweaks, which could mean your builds get better or worse. Here is the full list of changes:

New feature

• Added ray tracing support for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC versions.

Ray tracing can be enabled in the settings menu:
PS5/XSX: Ray Tracing > Game Options
PC: Graphics > Ray Tracing Quality

Note that performance such as frame rate and resolution may suffer when using ray tracing.

Here’s what you need to enjoy this feature on PC:

Lowest (1080p – Low Quality – Low Ray Tracing)
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 8 GB or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, 12 GB
Memory: 16 GB memory

Recommended (1080p – High Quality – High Ray Tracing)
OS: Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 8 GB or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, 16 GB
Memory: 16 GB memory

PvP-exclusive balance adjusts

• Inevitable Frenzy spell power and grab angle have been increased.
• Life Stealing Fist skill power, range, and grab angle have all been increased.
• Reduced the power of two-handed jump attacks.
• Reduced the power of heavy and heavy run attacks of the claw weapon type.
• Reduced the power of the Genesis Shower spell.
• Reduced spell enhancement effect of terracotta spells.
• Reduce the damage and calming damage of the Golden Wave skill when it hits the opponent at a certain distance.
• Reduced the effectiveness of the Resolve and Royal Knight Resolve skills.
• Reduced the effectiveness of Jellyfish Shield’s Contagious Rage ability.
• Reduced the effectiveness of the Claw Talisman.
• Reduced the effectiveness of Bloodlord’s Talisman of Rapture.
• Reduced the attack damage buff granted by the White Mask Helm.
• Reduced jump attack damage buff granted by Raptor Black Feather Armor.
• Reduced the damage buffs of Magic Shrouded Rift, Fire Shrouded Rift, Lightning Shrouded Ridden Tears, and Holy Shrouded Ridden Tears when activated by the Wonderful Physiopathic Vial.

general balance adjustment

• Added an invulnerability window when the Colosseum respawns.
• Increased scaling of the following properties when infusing certain Ashes of War into weapons:

magic/fire/fire art/lightning/holy

• Increased attribute scaling for the following weapon types:

Greatsword/ Greataxe/ Hammer/ Flail/ Sledgehammer/ Great Weapon

• Increased the speed, range and recovery time of some attacks for the following weapon types:

Sledgehammer/Great Axe/Greatsword/Curved Greatsword

• Flail Weapon Changes:

– Increased the speed of certain attacks.
– Reduced attack recovery time.
– Increased composure when attacking with two hands.

• Increased sprint attack speed and reduced attack recovery time for the following weapon types:

Straight Sword/ Curved Sword/ Katana/ Double Edged Sword/ Axe/ Hammer/ Halberd

• Increased first attack speed for the following weapon types:

Straight Sword/Curved Sword/Whip

• Increased the speed of the shield counters for the following weapon types:

Straight Sword/ Great Sword/ Great Sword/ Great Curved Sword/ Katana/ Double Edged Sword/ Axe/ Large Axe/ Flail/ Sledgehammer/ Spear/ Large Spear/ Halberd

• Reduced attack recovery time for whip weapons.
• Increased damage of claw weapons.
• Added holy damage and faith scaling to large clubs.
• Increases damage negation when blocking holy damage and reduces damage negation when blocking other affinity damage.
• Increased the effectiveness of the Double Bladed Talisman.
• Slightly shortened roll stroke for light equipment weight.
• Reduced the hitbox size of some attacks for the following weapon types:

Thrust Sword/ Heavy Push Sword/ Spear/ Spear/ Halberd

Ashes of War Adjustments

• Life Stealing Fist: Increases target grab range.
• Surge of Faith: Increased projectile spawn rate.
• Flame Spit: Increased the shield speed and block amount of the skill – Adjusted the angle of the fireball.
• Flame Tongue: Increases the guard speed and block capacity of the skill.
• Big Mouth Bubble: Increases projectile spawn rate and reduces recovery time.
• Serpent’s Bite: Reduces the amount of time you can roll after using this skill.
• Milos’ Scream: Increased calming damage at close range.
• Spear Summoning Ritual: Increased projectile spawn rate.
• Cursed Blood Slash: Increased projectile spawn rate and reduced recovery time.
• Gold Breaker: Reduced recovery time.
• I order you, kneel down! : Increase attack generation speed.
• Starcaller Cry: Increased the speed of follow-up attacks.
• Spinning Wheel: Increased attack spawn rate – Increased roll and heavy attack cancel times when using skills.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Crimson Rot status buildup was not reflecting correctly when giving the Ant Rapier Cold Affinity.
• Fixed a bug where the Crimson Rot status buildup was not reflecting correctly when giving the Rotten Greataxe a blood affinity.
• Fixed a bug where certain attacks from Guerrilla, Death Ritual Spear, and Lucerne would have unexpected physical attack scaling.
• Fixed a bug where the Night Knight Sword would not increase mounted attack damage.
• Fixed a bug where Duelist’s Greataxe and Rotten Greataxe would not increase the damage of charged attacks.
• Fixed a bug where the Roaring Medal Amulet effect would not increase the power of certain spells.
• Fixed a bug that reduced the power of some skills while under the effect of Golden Oath.
• Fixed a bug that caused the effects of the Resolve and Royal Knights Resolve skills to be added to other skills cast with right-handed weapons when cast from a left-handed weapon.
• Fixed a bug that reduced right-handed weapon crit when activating Resolve or Royal Knight’s Resolve on a left-handed weapon.
• Fixed a bug where Status Rollup was inadvertently added to certain weapon skills
• Fixed a bug where the power and special effects of left-handed weapons could be added to skills cast with right-handed weapons.
• Fixed a bug that caused the equipped Sacrificial Branch to be consumed when the player died in the Colosseum.
• Fixed camera position when respawning in the Colosseum.
• Fixed a bug where a player, when dying from a death status effect, would get credit for the kill in the Colosseum, not the player who caused the status effect.
• Improved stability of Colosseum matchmaking.
• Fixed a bug related to level correction when raiders use Phantom Bloodfinger.
• Fixed a bug that could cause disconnects from other players in certain locations during multiplayer.
• Improved stability in online multiplayer games.
• [PS4]Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash when using the Finger Cutter on a summoned NPC while offline.
• Fixed a bug related to certain enemies not rendering or behaving as expected.
• Various performance improvements and other bug fixes.