While FromSoftware has improved its RPGs in exciting ways over the past 13 years, it has also brought many of players' biggest criticisms along the way -- and Elden Ring is no different. One ever-present problem in FromSoftware games is the presence of maladjusted players taking advantage of exploits and glitches. With over 12 million players, it's no surprise that it's happening in Elden Ring, too. The latest example is egregious, involves self-parrying the Glintstone Phalanx sorcery, and can be used to one-shot opponents in PvP.
The exploit in question actually involves multiple unintended glitches, as well as damage scaling that FromSoftware almost certainly didn't intend. It starts with two abilities. The first is the sorcery known as Glintstone Phalanx, which when cast creates a "defensive arch" or magical blades above the player that automatically targets any nearby enemies. The second is Ash of War: Thop's Barrier, which can be placed on a shield to allow players to parry not just martial attacks, but also sorceries. Together, they're a deadly combination.
The first glitch involved in the exploit is that Elden Ring players are able to self-parry. That's right, players can parry their own sorceries with Thop's Barrier Ash of War. The second glitch is that parrying Glintstone Phalanx causes the sorcery's damage to scale outrageously. Parrying Glintstone Phalanx will reflect it as a spell that can one-shot an enemy.
Those two glitches, when used together, should make obvious how outrageously powerful this exploit is. Someone can cast Glintstone Phalanx and then parry it all by themself, turning it into an instant-kill ability. Unfortunately, there's even more, as a third glitch makes it even worse. Self-parrying Glintstone Phalanx will cause the parried spell-cast to be invisible until it shoots toward the enemy.
A post on Reddit shows what it's like to go up against someone using the exploit in PvP. They invade another world, see two opponents walking towards them, and then do a wave emote. A sorcerer opponent waves back, and before their waving emote ends the Glintstone Phalanx parry appears mid-air, flies out, and kills the player instantly. They didn't even see their opponent do a parry. They were dead before they'd walked around the corner.
FromSoftware has, up until now, had a mixed record responding to urgent gameplay balance issues. It's possible that this Glintstone Phalanx parry exploit could be patched within the next week or two, or it could linger. PvP players would be well-served to be wary of sorcerers with small/medium shields doing parry motions, though.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
