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Elden Ring patch 1.03 busts your build

Elden Ring patch 1.03 is here with plenty to shout about - you've got a new NPC, more quest steps, and certain weapons and items have been chopped down to size

Elden Ring patch 1.03: a wretch poses against a deep red sky
Iain Harris

Published:

Elden Ring 

Elden Ring has got its first significant shakeup thanks to patch 1.03. Alongside some neat new additions and performance-boosting fixes, you’ve got some pretty sweeping balance changes. Essentially, your build might be busted if you’ve been using one of the best Elden Ring weapons or items.

The update decreases Ash of War, Hoarfrost Stomp’s damage and increases cast time, which certainly dents a few popular Elden Ring speedrun strategies. FromSoftware has also fixed a bug with Ash of War, Determination, and Royale Knight’s Resolve that applied damage buffs to other weapons without those skills. Sword of Night and Flame’s weapon skill has also been lowered, which affects damage.

The Elden Ring team has also shrunk the damage spirit summons do when the Mimic Tear Item is used and changed their overall behaviour. There are “other enemy and weapon balance changes”, too, though FromSoftware hasn’t listed them. Looking on Reddit, a few players report that the Moonveil Katana has been cut down to size.

It’s not all bad news, though. The latest Elden Ring patch adds the ability to record an icon and the name of an NPC on the map when you encounter them, which is handy. There’s also a new NPC called Jar-Bairn and more quest phases for Diallos, Nepheli Loux, Kenneth Haight, and Gatekeeper Gostoc.

Elden Ring patch 1.03 notes:

Bug Fixed

  • Fixed a bug that prevented summoned NPCs from taking damage in some boss battles.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the player from obtaining an item after a boss battle.
  • Fixed a bug that causes the dialogue to be skipped when talking to NPCs and using custom key configurations.
  • Fixed a bug that causes the player to freeze when riding.
  • Fixed a bug that causes arcane to scale incorrectly for some weapons.
  • In situations where the player cannot obtain more than two Elden Ring talisman pouches, added talisman pouch to Twin Maiden Husks shop line up.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the user from warping to sites of grace from the map at the end of the game.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the player from moving to the next area after the battle with the Fire Giant.
  • Fixed a bug that causes some weapons to have incorrect scaling after strengthening.
  • Fixed a bug that causes some weapons not to use stat scaling.
  • Fixed hang-ups in certain occasions.
  • Fixed a bug which incorrectly displays multiplayer area boundary when playing online.
  • Fixed a bug that allows player to activate Erdtree Greatshield’s weapon skill without absorbing an attack using a special combination of item and incantation.
  • Fixed a bug which causes Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation to have different effects.
  • Fixed a bug with the Ash of War, Determination and Royal Knight’s Resolve, where the damage buff will also apply to other weapons without that skill.
  • Adjusted the visual effect of Unseen Form spell.
  • Deleted the Ragged armour set from the game, which was mistakenly obtainable in previous patch.
  • Fixed a bug that causes some hostile NPCs to drop Furlcalling Finger Remedy.
  • Fixed a bug that causes incorrect sound effect to play in some situations.
  • Fixed a bug which causes visual animation and hitboxes to not be displayed correctly on some maps.
  • Fixed bugs which causes incorrect visual and behaviour for some enemies.
  • Fixed a bug that causes incorrect stat parameters for some armour.
    Text fixes.
  • Other performance improvement and bug fixes.

Balance Changes

  • Increased the drop rate of Smithing Stone for some enemies.
  • Added Smithing Stone to some early game shop lineup.
  • Increased shield’s effectiveness.
  • Increased the damage for all offensive cracked pot items.
  • Increased the damage for the following items: Spark Aromatic/Poison Spraymist.
  • Increased the effect duration for the following items: Uplifting Aromatic/ Ironjar Aromatic.
  • Increased HP healing for Torrent when using the following items: Rowa Raisin/ Sweet Raisin/ Frozen Raisin.
  • Reduced FP consumption and increased the damage of the following sorceries: Glintstone Cometshard/ Comet/ Night Comet.
  • Increased the damage of the following sorceries: Gravity Well/ Collapsing Stars/ Crystal Barrage.
  • Decreased FP consumption of the following sorceries: Star Shower/ Rock Blaster/ Gavel of Haima/ Founding Rain of Stars/ Stars of Ruin/Greatblade Phalanx/Magic Downpour/Loretta’s Greatbow/Loretta’s Mastery/ Carian Greatsword/ Carian Piercer/ Shard Spiral.
  • Raised projectile speed and range of Great Glintstone Shard.
  • Decreased Ash of War, Hoarfrost Stomp’s damage and increase cast time.
  • Increased Ash of War, Bloody Slash’s self-inflict damage while slightly lowering the damage and increasing the cast time.
  • Decreased weapon skill, Sword of Night and Flame’s damage.
  • Increased FP consumption and lower duration of Ash of War, Barricade Shield.
  • Changed FP consumption timing of Ash of War, Prelate’s Charge.
  • Decreased the damage of spirit summoned when using the item Mimic Tear Ash and changed the spirit’s behaviour pattern.
  • Other enemy and weapon balance changes.

For more of the best Elden Ring builds that haven’t been broken by the patch, you can follow that link.

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Our former deputy news editor now writes for GamesRadar. A big fan of JRPGs and sci-fi games, Iain's at home dressing up in Final Fantasy XIV, though he's no stranger to Genshin Impact or GTA Online.