Elden Ring: The Best Mods You Should Download

Elden Ring: The Best Mods You Should Download

You might think the PC version of Elden Ring's bugs and performance issues make it the worst version of the game, but fans are quickly discovering that the appeal of Elden Ring's best mods is hard to ignore.

Thanks to sites like Nexus Mods, gamers can download and install fan-made programs and add-ons that have changed Elden Ring significantly. Some mods, like changing Greatsword's model to resemble Cloud's Buster Sword, are cosmetic only, while others inspect the game's code via a cheat menu. Of course, not all mods are created equal and there are some that greatly enhance the already great experience in some way.

Now, a word of warning: Elden Ring uses Easy Anti-Cheat, an anti-cheat system. This program will potentially ruin your day if it detects even the best mods, so for your own sanity, don't use mods without disabling Easy Anti-Cheat. More importantly, only use these mods when offline. If you want to play online, disable all mods if you value your game account.

Best Elden Ring Mods: Mod Loader and Anti-Cheat Toggler

We're cheating a bit with this (unintentionally), but let's face the facts: disabling Easy Anti-Cheat to play with mods and then re-enabling it if you want to play online is a catchphrase. This process also requires you to uninstall every mod on your copy of Elden Ring. That's why some modders decided to make mods just for mods.

The Anti-Cheat Toggle and Offline Launcher and Manual Mod Installer mods are pretty self explanatory. The first one painlessly closes Easy Anti-Cheat and starts Elden Ring in offline mode when enabled, while the other automatically adds every .dll-based mod stored in its private folder to the game. If you want to play with mods, simply open Anti-Cheat Toggler and Mod Loader and disable them if you want to play online. Elden Ring's anti-cheat software cannot detect any mod if there is no mod to detect.

Best Handed Ring Mods: Pause Game

While Soulsborne games are primarily known for their tough but fair difficulty, historically the lack of a simple pause feature has always been divisive. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a notable exception to this tradition, but Elden Ring players have found some sort of in-game workaround thanks to the Help menu. However, the modders went a step further and created a special pause function for the game.

If you download the Pause the Game mod, you can pause Elden Ring while navigating the in-game menus. It doesn't matter if you take out the trash or have a drink; As long as you install this mod, the action stops whenever you want.

Best Hand Ring Mods: Easy Mode

Gaming difficulty is a hot topic these days. Games like Elden Ring are designed with only one level of challenging challenge to make every victory feel even sweeter. Admittedly, not everyone is up to the task (or interested in getting involved in the process), so players often get into heated debate over difficulty modes. Quite a few fans want FromSoftware to design games with an "easy" option available, and while that seems unlikely, modders are more than happy to offer a surprisingly useful alternative.

The Easy Mod mod for Elden Ring …umm…makes the game easy. With this mod, players take 50% less damage, deal 25% more damage and get 10 times the normal number of runes. This fan-made mod doesn't take Elden Ring for a walk in the park by any means, but it does offer a nice challenge alternative.

Even if you don't want to install this exclusive mod, the internet is full of other fan-made changes that help ease players into the challenges of Elden Ring. For example, AutoRecover HP and FP mode automatically fills 0.5% of your HP bar every two seconds and recovers two FPs every second. Again, this mod doesn't make Elden Ring much easier, but it certainly does make it a bit easier.

Best Handed Ring Mods: Hard Mode

Many players reject the idea of ​​difficulty modes in Soulsborne games on the grounds that they don't like easy modes, but forget that a difficulty slider can provide an even greater challenge. If Devil May Cry games can have an extremely brutal mode that causes players to die in one hit, why not a similar feature in Elden Ring?

Since Elden Ring doesn't have an official hard(er) mod, the modders kept moving forward and created the Prepare to Die (Hard Mode) mod. This unofficial patch significantly increases enemy stats. For example, enemies in an NG run will sport equivalent health, stamina, damage, and defensiveness to enemies in NG+. Also, every enemy creature in the game is smarter and more alert as they can see and hear players from afar. For now, this mod could be the ultimate Soulsborne challenge.

Best Hand Ring Mods: PS5/PS4 Controller UI

Thanks to the magic of cables, wi-fi, and Bluetooth, PC gamers can connect Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch controllers to their gaming systems and play Elden Ring the way they want. However, computer ports usually only have button prompts for keyboards and Xbox controllers, including Elden Ring. The modders undertook to fix this oversight.

PS5 PS4 Controller UI mode is pretty self explanatory; unofficial patch replaces all internal texture files related to button prompts with ones for PS4 Dualshock and PS5 Dualsense controllers. The experience would be cosmetic if it didn't really help players understand which buttons to press.

Best Hand Ring Mods: Fix Camera

It's no secret that Elden Ring's camera sucks. Many players complain about how they misbehave, especially when the character moves. While the staff at FromSoftware could fix the game's camera in a future update (or an eventual sequel), the mod makers have already mitigated the issue.

True to its name, Fix the Camera mod fixes Elden Ring's built-in camera system. In the vanilla experience, the camera lazily swings around to keep the characters centered on the screen, causing motion sickness for many players. The mod, meanwhile, allows the camera to pull the character towards the center of the screen, which not only looks smoother but also works faster than the modless camera. With any luck, FromSoftware will take inspiration from this mod for future camera fixes.

Best Elden Ring Mods: Elden ReShade – HDR FX

Elden Ring is the finest Soulsborne ever produced by FromSoftware. However, there is always room for improvements, and modders are often the first to provide them.

One of the most notable early graphics mods for Elden Ring is Elden ReShade – HDR FX mod, which adds high dynamic range (HDR) lighting. What is HDR, you ask? Unlike ray tracing, it simulates how light behaves, but does not greatly affect performance. As a result, the mod provides better colors, skyboxes, and contrast without cutting frame rates. This type of mod is a must for gamers who want to squeeze every teraflop from their super-powered gaming rig.
Best-Hand Ring Mods: Advanced Moveset Utility

While Elden Ring offers mouse and keyboard control options, Soulsborne games are usually best played with a controller. They tend to feel like they were designed with just joysticks and custom button layouts in mind. While we're still waiting for FromSoftware to really understand what the optimized Soulsborne keyboard and mouse controls look like, modders can offer an attractive alternative.

EMU Light – Enhanced Moveset Utility mod allows players to remap button layouts for easier use. For example, rolling/stepping back and sprinting use the same button on the vanilla Elden Ring, but this mod allows players to map the function to two different buttons. When the EMU is active, players are less likely to roll when they want to run, and vice versa. However, the most striking feature of the mod is the "fast release" function. Yes, EMU allows players to map different spells and items to different hotkeys on the keyboard and also use certain controller button combinations to quickly access these hotkeys.

As long as players can remember which items and enchantments belong to which toggles, they can access these enchantments and items faster than usual. After all, the difference between a life-saving sack of bottles and death is often only a second.

Best-Hand Ring Mods: Thomas the Tank Engine, Homer Simpson, Shrek, and More

Finally, if you want to have some fun with Elden Ring and don't mind breaking the "immersion", consider downloading one of the game's many character skin mods.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like if the Tree Sentinel boss used Thomas the Tank Engine instead of an armored horse, this mod is for you. There are even mods that let you play as Homer Simpson and fight Shrek and Donkey, but unfortunately these don't seem to have been added to the Nexus Mods yet.