Musician Anna Ellsworth shows on her YouTube channel how she defeats bosses in Elden Ring at level 1 by using her harp as a controller. She explains how this crazy control works.
For fans of Fromsoftware games, it has become a tradition over the years to master the SoulsBorne games with the most absurd controllers. On the long list of crazy ideas are dance mats, Donkey Kong bongos, and even bananas.
The musician Anna Ellsworth has now added her harp to this list, with which she calmly beats bosses in Elden Ring and Dark Souls 1.
On her YouTube channel, you can find not only harp covers of anime and gaming songs but also videos of her battles against Margit or the much-hated Tree Sentinel.
Anna plays as a level 1 character who does not wear armor. While she uses a katana against Margit, she beats the Tree Sentinel with the good old club.
But other Souls bosses are not safe from Anna’s harp either. In an older video, she shows how she defeats the famous duo Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls 1, again using her harp as a controller.
The two bosses have driven many players to madness:
“It’s not as reliable as pressing a button”
How does the control work? In her video on YouTube, Anna reveals some details about the function of her harp controller. Her harp is connected to the PC via a Dusty-Strings pickup. Pickups are usually used to amplify the sound of string instruments like guitars or harps.
Using the music software MiGiC and Bome MIDI Translator, the notes from the harp were then converted into controller commands. With one string, Anna can send her character into auto-run. That means he will keep running straight until the same string stops the character or other commands follow.
Additional strings have been assigned to various directional keys, as well as the normal attack, healing, and dodging. In a comment on YouTube, Anna states that she is considering additional key mappings for the future, which could allow for item switching and special attacks.
These are the problems: While Anna is definitely having fun with her unusual controller, she explains that the strings of a harp are not as reliable when it comes to input. Sometimes the software does not recognize the correct tone, and the character attacks instead of healing.
There is also the issue that the strings of a harp continue to sound until you physically stop them. The program can interpret this as a command as well.
Nevertheless, she does better through the SoulsBorne games than most of us would in her place.
Many SoulsBorne players love to take on challenges and master the games in unusual ways. The YouTuber Bushy, for example, used a mod to turn Elden Ring into a hell filled with women with swords:
