Every game leaves something on the cutting room floor, whether it’s a small item piece or major features and systems. Most of the time, these items are never added—though sometimes it is perhaps reworked for DLC. Either way, cut content is always interesting as to what it could’ve meant for a game. Case in point, Elden Ring is a massive game and one with plenty of interesting cut content. After all, the base game features as many questions as these pieces of cut content pose for it, too.
None of this is likely to manifest somehow in Elden Ring, though updates are finishing quest lines, adding features like NPC locations to the map, and more. At the same time, some of this would have had major implications for Elden Ring's main story, certain fan-favorite items like the Mimic Tear summon, and much, much more. It's interesting, then, to see how a few pieces of cut content could have fundamentally changed (or may still change) The Lands Between.
Cut Elden Ring Content: Dream Mist
Lance McDonald has discovered several pieces of cut content, including for something called Dream Mist or Dream Brew. This would have included a quest for a monk named Jiko, which would have spanned Elden Ring’s map and ultimately resulted in the player acquiring the Dream Brew. This would have made NPCs fall asleep and allowed players to enter their dream—something very similar to how players face Lichdragon Fortissax in Fia’s questline.
Cut dialogue could also suggest that this was somehow tied to the Three Fingers and the Frenzied Flame, as there is a reference to the Outer God. It could also somehow tie to Miquella’s dream-like state in the Haligtree. It’s ultimately known, but the Dream Mist had a ton of in-game potential.
An item called St. Trina’s Crystal Ball was also discovered, seemingly as the way to steal dreams from Elden Ring NPCs. Thus, this was likely a major larger system originally, so it's unlikely to re-appear in the game unless it is part of some major DLC.
Cut Elden Ring Content: Asimi Quest Line
The Asimi Quest Line, cut from the game, featured the Tarnished encountering an intelligent Silver Tear named Asimi, who would take the player’s form and, later in the game, be fought. It was an entire questline, instead of a simple boss fight, prior to the release of the game, leading some to believe that the quest reward was originally the Mimic Tear Summon. It seems this quest line would have also shed new discoveries on the Eternal Cities in Elden Ring.
Cut Elden Ring Content: Colosseum
Where a fog cloud covers the map in Elden Ring is the central power of all the Divine Towers. Coincidence? This is unlikely. Many believe it is where the Cut Colosseum would have been visible on the map at, although its access point was in Limgrave and elsewhere. This would have been a PvP arena and potentially tied back to the creation of the Elden Ring, narratively speaking.
Cut Elden Ring Content: Age of Absolute
Not to be confused with the “leaked” Age of Absolute ending released on April Fools’ Day, the Age of Absolute is a reference found in data mines. The phrasing has led some to believe it was a cut ending for Elden Ring, while others think it could be tied to DLC (the former seems more likely). Nothing outside this is known about the potential ending, though that hasn’t stopped many from speculating on its meaning.
Cut Elden Ring Content: A Bestiary
Although more speculative than other entries listed above, players found a series of highlighted and darkened icons corresponding to various NPCs in the game. This has led many to believe that a bestiary was once planned for Elden Ring.
Minor Elden Ring Content That Was Cut From the Game
The above may be the biggest, most well-known pieces of cut Elden Ring content, but there were a lot of small things left on the cutting room floor, too. They include, but are not limited to,
- References that Miquella was St. Trina
- Brave’s Set – an Armor set that some speculate will be tied to a PvP Arena Colosseum DLC
- Deathbed Armor Set
- Ragged Set
- Millicent’s Set
- Erdtree Codex – Something tied to Incantations in Elden Ring.
- Deathsbane Jerky – A consumable
- Limgrave’s Burning Heads
- Likely a lot of other small, miscellaneous items and dialogue.
It’s possible, outside of major DLC, that some of this content is included in future Elden Ring updates, although that’s not certain for anything listed here.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
