Elden Ring Players Are Getting Obliterated By This Dog
The dogs in "Elden Ring" are no joke — well, except for when they are. However, the actual dog enemies in the title tend to cause more frustration than joy. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that spent time in any other FromSoftware Souls games, as packs of vicious dogs are some of the first deplorable foes players tend to come across in the titles. Any hesitation or remorse a player might feel for slaying canines in a video game will quickly tumble out the window as characters find themselves besieged by a rapid assault of chomping maws.
But, in "Elden Ring" the dog enemies are up to a lot more than their usual tricks, there are some dogs that can hit way above their pay grade. Putting things into perspective, these dogs deal more damage with a full attack than the demigod Starscourge Radahn. While these particular doggos aren't the first variation encountered by players in the Lands Between, it's only a matter of time before characters stumble into the domain of one of the deadliest enemies in the game. Here's the story behind the dogs in "Elden Ring" that are dispatching players faster than bosses.
These Deadly Dogs Don't Play Fair
It didn't take players too long to realize there was something amiss with some of the dogs in "Elden Ring." There are a few variants of the canine enemies, and there's one, in particular, that's causing all the grief. The pocked and bloody dogs found throughout the Lands Between have proven themselves deadly beyond their counterparts, capable of doing over 11,000 damage to players with a single combo — some five times the maximum HP a player would have with a vitality stat of 99 (per PC Gamer). This curiosity got some players thinking that maybe this kind of assault wasn't intentional.
Soulsborne community dataminer and modder Zullie the Witch felt the same way, and after a little digging, they discovered that these boss-level dog attacks were actually the result of a bug. Posting a video detailing their findings on YouTube, Zullie the Witch partnered with Meowmaritus, an expert in FromSoftware games' frame data, to figure out what's actually happening. The long and short of Zullie the Witch and Meowmaritus' findings are that there's an issue with how the dogs register hits on players and the animations they're allowed to use. The result is blazing fast attacks that deal tons of damage to players and inflict the Bleed effect to add insult to injury.
For the time being, all players can do is wait and hope FromSoftware addresses the issue. Until then, players should keep their distance from these deadly dogs.