Although the game is known for its punishing boss fights, much of Elden Ring's combat is centered around its lesser enemies that spawn all over the place in both the open world and the game's numerous dungeons. While boss fights are a challenge, Elden Ring players may find themselves in danger when a random group of soldiers or a massive rune bear come barreling out of the wilderness to attack.
One of the game's more formidable enemies are the cleanrot knights. These gold-armored menaces have varying movesets depending on their armaments, with one throwing out ranged spells and another thrusting towards players with their spear. They also have high poise and a beefy health bar, especially the boss version of Elden Ring's cleanrot knights.
However, perhaps the most devastating and glitchy attack in the knights' arsenals is a grab attack specifically utilized by knights with a spear. While technically labeled as a grab, the strike is actually an impaling attack that deals heavy damage, automatically applies scarlet rot, and throws players away from the knight. If that all wasn't bad enough, the attack has some pretty interesting effects, such as Elden Ring cleanrot knights being able to grab multiple players. Recently, a player found the attack has another quirk in that it is able to go through walls.
Reddit user joker141 was the unfortunate soul who discovered this effect, which promptly sent them falling to their death. In the clip, joker141 had sent an elevator back down the shaft in case they died. However, they quickly found themselves assailed by the aforementioned cleanrot knight and attempted to hide in the elevator room. Unfortunately, the knight had apparently expected this and decided to impale joker141 through the wall before sending them flying down the aforementioned elevator shaft. Contrasting another Elden Ring player jumping to their own death, joker141 had no chance to avoid their death, perishing at the hands of an enemy wall-hacking.
Reddit users found the clip hilarious and were quick to crack jokes about it. One user joked that joker141 should have expected the attack and simply dodged out of the way. Another user was kinder, suggesting that any weapon larger than a straight sword can stagger the cleanrot knights. Many other users joked about FromSoftware walls ignoring collision, saying this same event has happened many times with many different enemies over the years.
Though the jokes were funny, joker141's death was not their fault, but simply the culmination of unlucky circumstances. Had the cleanrot knight decided to respect wall physics or if the elevator had simply been up instead of down, joker141 could have lived to fight another day. Perhaps, instead of banning Elden Ring players for accidentally picking up hacked items, Bandai Namco should ban this cleanrot knight for hacking instead.
Elden Ring is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
