Hardcore players are looking for new challenges in Elden Ring and are beating the game in unusual ways. For example, with completely crazy controllers that you wouldn’t normally think of.
Games from developer FromSoftware are known for their crunchy difficulty, and Elden Ring is no exception. However, for some fans of the series, the challenge is not enough, and after the credits roll, they look for new ways to play through the game.
This leads to speedruns or mods that turn every enemy in the game into the hardest boss . Other players seek the challenge in the control and play Elden Ring with really crazy controllers. Here are 4 of them.
Harp
The musician Anna Ellsworth has been playing harp professionally for many years and has already participated in major gaming concerts like “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses”. She is now bringing her passion for her work into gaming.
In a video on her YouTube channel, she shows how she has turned her harp into a controller. With it, she beats bosses like Margit, who was hated by many for his difficulty right at the release of Elden Ring, at level 1 and naked.
The harp is connected to the PC via a pickup, and the individual strings act as “keys”. The “key mapping” is managed through special software, wherein Anna has assigned her strings the functions for auto-run, different directions, dodging, and healing.
Drawing Tablet
An old proverb says that the pen is mightier than the sword. The Elden Ring fan TheSGTTaco has decided that the pen is also mightier than a controller and has repurposed his drawing tablet.
In several videos, he showed how he defeated various bosses in Elden Ring using the stylus and the touch controls of a tablet. This included Margit on the difficulty level New Game +7 and Margott. The movements of the stylus indicated the movement direction for the character, while dodging is activated by one of the control buttons of the tablet.
In a comment, the reddit user explained that modifying controllers is not uncharted territory for him. He does it regularly to help people who cannot play with normal controllers due to disabilities.
E-Guitar
Guitars used as controllers have become well known and accepted since the popular Guitar Hero games. However, Guitar Hero is specifically designed for this type of control, whereas Elden Ring is not.
However, that didn’t stop YouTuber LT_Tom from using his e-guitar as a controller for the game. In the video, you can see on an overlay which buttons of the Xbox controller are being pressed while he plays the guitar. The guitar controls are, however, “minimal” and can be confusing, leading to occasional unintended actions like suddenly jumping or using healing while at full HP.
From the chords and riffs that emerged from the rhythm of the battles, LT_Tom ended up composing a song at the end of his adventure in Elden Ring.
Bananas
Though it may sound strange, bananas have almost become one of the more traditional controllers in SoulsBorne games. Dark Souls 1 was already played through with this crazy control scheme, so it’s no wonder that YouTuber SuperLouis64 has brought out his bananas for Elden Ring as well.
With a setup of a total of 12 bananas, he hacks through the game, noting in the video that this controller “is very strange and smells very bad”. Each banana corresponds to a button of the PS5 controller:
- On the right side are the movement bananas, such as forward banana, backward banana, etc.
- On the left side, you find the actions like jump banana, attack banana, or dodge banana.
Louis admits that he actually needs 24 bananas for the complete PS5 setup and is missing some buttons. Nevertheless, he managed to play through Elden Ring completely with it. That is more than many people achieve with proper controllers.
What do you think of the absurd controllers? Do you know of even stranger ways to play games, or have you even tried them yourself? Share your experiences and opinions in the comments.
