FromSoftware games are known among fans for revealing numerous removed content after release. Elden Ring is a goldmine for modders and dataminers due to its size, who find many things here. This includes a whole quest with its own game mechanics: “Mother Alcohol”.
What is this quest about?
- The well-known dataminer Lance McDonald discovered a whole quest along with NPCs and various associated mechanics in the files of Elden Ring.
- In this quest, you must search for a substance called “Sleep Mist” for the monk Jiko.
- In exchange, you receive “Dreambrew”, which translates roughly to “Dream Brew”.
- This mechanic allows you to extract further information from other NPCs through the drink in new dialogue lines.
Lance has restored the data he found and got it running in an earlier version of the PS4 version of Elden Ring. You can watch everything in the video here:
Cut quest had its own “Dream” mechanic
This is how the quest unfolds: Interestingly, the NPC is located in the hut where you find the NPC Roderika in the finished game. Roderika is a key character in Elden Ring, allowing you to improve spirits.
In the network test version of Elden Ring, instead of Roderika, the monk Jiko could be found. Like the other NPCs, he is an odd character who claims to have been seduced by the “Mother of Alcohol”.
Then he offers the “Dreambrew” drink when you bring him the right ingredients: Sleep Mist or Dream Mist.
Here, other NPCs come into play that no longer exist in Elden Ring. These are creatures like wolves or octopuses that lie sleeping around the area. Unlike usual, they do not wake up when you walk around them.
If the quest is active, you can see the Dream Mist swirling around their heads. For one drink, you need 2 Dream Mists.
What does the drink bring? You can now hand this Dream Brew to other NPCs. The video shows how the merchant Kalé is an example.
As soon as he drinks the Dream Brew, he falls asleep. However, the subtitles of the game reveal a detail that suggests a dark secret of the NPC. This apparently worked similarly with many or possibly even all characters you can talk to.
Moreover, the concept of sleep and dreams plays a role in Elden Ring. Sleep is a status effect, and sleeping and dreaming has a direct connection to the demigod Miquella.
Interestingly, this aspect of the lore has hardly been addressed in the main game while modders and dataminers continue to compile cut content that is directly or indirectly related to Miquella. Therefore, players smell a potential topic for a possible DLC.
Mechanic was supposed to promote exploration, many cut dialogues still hidden
This is what the dataminer says about the quest and its mechanics: According to Lance, the quest was likely intended as a means to reward players for exploration.
After all, with each dream, you should uncover more information about the characters of the Lands Between. The game files of Elden Ring still contain many dialogue lines that were removed from the actual game.
The monk Jiko was probably meant to have a much larger role in the main story of Elden Ring. Why FromSoftware decided to remove all this remains speculation.
Lance also suspects that they may have kept these contents for a later date. Speculation has been rife about possible DLCs since release, and with every new revelation of “cut content” by modders and dataminers, these speculations are fueled.
Fun fact: A mechanic for extracting further story details from NPCs through an alcoholic beverage already existed in a previous FromSoftware game.
The last title before Elden Ring, Sekiro, had precisely such a mechanic. You could find various types of sake in the game world and offer them as gifts to certain NPCs.
This led to further conversations in which the characters revealed insights into their thoughts and backgrounds or even gave useful tips.
If you want to know more about Sekiro, we have already presented it in our special: If you enjoyed Elden Ring, here are 2 games from the same creators that you should definitely check out
