Soul games have not only one of the largest fan bases out of the many gaming categories but also very dedicated and enthusiastic players. It’s not by chance: soulslike is known for its deep lore, mod capabilities, high levels of difficulty, and insisting on telling the story to environmental elements.
FromSoftware game developers in Elden Rings gave us a large open world, enabled crafting of tools, advanced fighting, attack, and melee mechanics paired with stunning visuals, art design, and graphics. It is arguably one of the best soul games out there, and earlier this month, modders released the new survival mod files to the public.
Pitch Black Nights, Potentially Fatal diseases and Thirst
As if running through the Lands Between with the undead lurking in every corner and dark cave is not hard enough. The game designers make us contend with changes in environmental temperatures and hunger. The mod adds mechanics like darker nights, hunger, a weapon crafting tree, disease, and drops in heat. Elden Ring’s survival mode makes the game even more demanding.
The Survival Mode’s Origins: Grimrukh.
During the last week of April, legendary Dark Souls Modder Grimrukh posted a request for Elden Ring mod submissions. The superb and fan favourite Dark Souls: Nightfall and Dark Souls: Daughters of Ash mods and later standalone sequels may have given you some familiarity with Grimrukh’s moniker for expecting the best.
The suggestion request came through his Twitter account, @grimrukh. FromSoftware’s new mod was called “survival mode”, as the tweet replies and suggestions were brutal and made the already difficult game hellish. YouTuber and Streamer Lobosjr @Lobosjrgaming suggested the following things:
- Nighttime be made incredibly darker; you will need a torch
- The game should add a hunger and thirst meter forcing you to craft food and drinks
- Cold temperature builds up Frostbite, and higher temperatures cause heat exhaustion, although certain armor can mitigate the freezing cold
- Players have a chance of getting diseases and infections from wounds
Elden Ring fans were thrilled that the game modder heeded their call, and work on the punishing survival mode for the game began.
How to Download and Install the Survival Mod in Elden Ring
- Before proceeding with any steps, turn off the Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and install the mod engine 2 or UXM.
- You can find this Grimrukh-created mod on Nexusmods. Make sure you use the Download option to download the mod manually.
- You may access Elden Ring’s file directory by extracting all necessary files from your PC to this location. The following is the default installation path for Elden Ring: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDENRING\Game
- Don’t forget that players can find crucial instructions in the README text file. To begin the Survival Mode, run SurvivalModeDarkness.exe and EldenRing.exe.
What Features Does the Survival Mod Have?
Survival Mode is an extensive overhaul mod that introduces many gameplay mechanics. The files needed to install the game mod are relatively more significant than more minor game mods at 116.9MBs.
Four sets of mechanics:
- Survival
- Weapon Tree
- Diseases
- Darkness
Survival
Elden Ring can now be termed a survival game because of this set of mechanics. Your character can now die not only from damage from enemies but from hunger, dehydration, and disease. Crafting food and drinks is now essential to survive. Gamers must actively whip up items that fend off hunger, temperature effects, and thirst. Your spiritual horse and companion will not be of help; the mod also affects Torrent.
The lighting system may be the most difficult to adapt. In proper survival games style, nighttime is punishing, to say the least. If you don’t have a torch or any other light source, you won’t be able to see more than two feet ahead of you. Bearing in mind that you are in the Lands between. A pack of Runebears might be waiting behind a bush to attack.
Weapon Tree
Lobos, who got to try out the mod the morning before the public release, praised this new weapons system. He spent more than seven hours grinding through the game on the mod and was impressed with the weapon tree he helped Mooney design. The mod forces players to craft their weapons instead of buying or finding them in the wild.”
The craft system will need you to have more Elden Ring runes this means more farming adding to a survivability factor. The new large and complex weapons component took the most effort, and the team hopes it meets the standards of players who like such a system,” said Steve Mooney before he introduced and credited team members.
How to Play The Survival Mode
If you are looking for an excuse to play through Elden Rings for the third time in a row and find another way of killing Malenia, the survival mode is a perfect kicker. Grimrukh and the team behind the mod have indicated that it is highly configurable, letting players choose what they would like. Survival Mode lets you activate and disable various features to suit your desires. For example, you might like the darker nights but don’t want to worry about looking for water simultaneously.
Diseases increase the game’s difficulty and are a big part of the mod. We love the fact that these diseases are region-specific. The plague of Limgrave featured in the trailer accelerates the effects of hunger and thirst. Players now can craft medicines and cures for the diseases. In addition, your avatar will develop immunity to certain diseases. Developing resistance is a good feature as the player will not struggle with the recurring diseases.
Your avatar can hunt and cook meat from wild game. Chase down deer and combine it with a smoldering butterfly to get some seared steak. Remember the extreme cold temperatures in the mod? You can combat that with hot soups cooked and crafted from the menus.
Can I get banned for using the Survival mod in Elden Ring?
Just like all other Elden Ring mods, you have to be cautious. Moding your game by changing the game files and dependencies can have unintended consequences. Unless you deactivate the EAC NexusMod insists, you will not get banned. But players with the mod installed should avoid interacting with other vanilla video gamers since the game has similar mechanics. Gamers can get banned if they cross-play with vanilla players.
Are Elden Ring Runes useful in the Survival Mode?
Farming and owning as many Elden Ring runes become very important with tons of crafting options and tiers to upgrade to. Elden Ring’s primary currency is the rune, which you can spend to improve your weapons and armor, purchase stuff, and even level up your abilities in the game. They are usually rewarded by defeating monsters and selling goods and are essential to gameplay and growth.
It is possible to have up to a 3+ modifier on your weapons using runes, particularly Golden runes.
Conclusion
The Elden Ring survival mod released in June marks one of the most extensive mods to the game yet. It brings an extra edge to the game, forcing players to keep track of much more than the many creatures and the exciting story.
The mod revamps the weapon system, insisting players craft their weapons-making Elden Ring runes even more precious. It rewards players who like the extra challenge. That’s all on how to download and play the new survival mod in Elden Ring. Can you survive?