In Elden Ring there are many difficult enemies with unfair mechanics, but one in particular frustrates many players, and it works differently than you think.
Which mechanic is it? In Elden Ring, the bosses seem to have an advantage over you in certain aspects. One of these is that they know what you are doing faster than you do.
This becomes quite evident when drinking a healing potion. The healing potion isn’t even really in hand before the boss takes advantage of that moment of weakness and strikes.
Why do many players get frustrated by this? For many players, the so-called “Heal Punish” is annoying because it seems there is nothing you can do about it. Recently on Reddit, there was a new post where players expressed their frustration about the “Heal Punish”, but it also became clear that many do not understand how it works.
The post creator, IDKwhyimhereanymore1, writes: “It’s clear as day. She makes a thrust, stands around, but as soon as you drink, she thrusts again immediately. It has gotten to the point where she did it three times in a row, twice in the same fight.
And I tried to ‘get around’ it. A few seconds after the first wait and then drink, but she would just stand there and wait. And if you get surprised by the second one and keep trying to drink, she goes for the third time.”
However, the mechanic works differently than he believes, and you can make use of it.
Here you can see the first trailer for the Elden Ring DLC “Shadow of the Erdtree”.
The enemies don’t know, they just see
How does the mechanic work? The mechanic is less unfair than you think. The enemies don’t know when you press the button for the healing potion that you are drinking it, but only when your character starts the animation.
The artificial intelligence behind the bosses in Elden Ring is trained to attack at that moment, but only when it sees it based on the animation.
Admittedly, one of the first frames of the animation is enough to trigger the attack, but with that knowledge, you can also outsmart the bosses.
The mechanic explains itself easiest in a video, so you can watch the video from Zullie the Witch here:
How can you outsmart the bosses? Since the bosses only see what you do based on your animation, you can use that to your advantage. For example, you can roll and then immediately drink a healing potion. This gives you a moment longer before the opponent attacks you, or you may not get hit at all.
If the enemies used the so-called “Input-Reading”, you would be punished even before you start to heal.
The video also shows that some abilities cause no reaction from the bosses at all, which can also be exploited to defeat the bosses.
If you still can’t defeat the bosses despite the tricks, a legendary player can help you for a short time: Community legend no longer wants to defeat Malenia for you: ‘I’ve had enough of it’
