New Elden Ring glitch makes colossal weapons unstoppable in PvP

Elden Ring
(Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Players have discovered a new Elden Ring glitch following the recent arrival of the Colosseum Update.
  • The glitch allows players to perform insanely fast crouch poke attacks with any weapon, including colossal weapons that are supposed to have their high damage offset by slow speed.
  • All players have to do to use the exploit is equip a straight sword, thrusting sword, heavy thrusting sword, twinblade, or torch in their offhand, and the weapon they want to crouch poke with in their main hand.

Recently, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware released a free DLC called the Colosseum Update for the game, expanding its PvP options with several new arenas as well as a variety of new game modes. Naturally, many fans have since travelled back to the Lands Between to try out the new content. While doing so, though, players have discovered an exploit that the update introduced, and it's easily one of the most overpowered glitches I've ever seen in a FromSoftware "Soulsborne" game. And the worst part is, it doesn't even take effort to use.

The glitch is extremely simple, yet incredibly deadly. To take advantage of it, all you have to do is equip a straight sword, thrusting sword, heavy thrusting sword, twinblade, or a torch in your offhand, and then the weapon in your main hand will gain the ability to do what's often referred to as a "crouch poke" attack. This move, executed by doing a standard crouch and light attack combo, allows you to perform a quick forward thrust. It's supposed to be exclusive to thrusting weapons and colossal swords (the speed of it was nerfed significantly for the latter), but thanks to this new glitch, you can make any Elden Ring weapon use it — including massive colossal weapons like the Giant-Crusher or the Staff of the Avatar.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

These are some of the best Elden Ring weapons in terms of raw damage and hitstun severity, but are balanced out by their slower attack speed and recovery time, as well as their average overall range. With the crouch poke exploit, however, all of these downsides are negated. Crouch pokes give colossal weapons an extremely fast attack speed and a ton of range, and since the move doesn't have many recovery frames, it's possible to hit opponents with another crouch poke before the hitstun from the first one wears off.

Pretty much the only way to survive against someone using a colossal weapon to crouch poke is to make sure you never get hit by one, lest you end up getting stunlocked and killed. That's easier said than done, though, due to the extremely high speed of crouch poke attacks. Ultimately, it's probably best to just avoid fighting players that have one of the aforementioned weapons in their offhand with a colossal weapon whenever possible until this glitch gets patched. Keep an eye out for them if you're planning on checking out the Elden Ring Colosseum Update.

Elden Ring is here, and it's available for $60 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PCs, and PlayStation systems. It's one of the best Xbox games you can play right now if you're a fan of challenging action RPGs, and we strongly recommend it. Between its amazing gameplay, phenomenal presentation, and its staggering amount of overall content, it's an absolute triumph.

Elden Ring

Elden Ring

FromSoftware's latest role-playing game took the world by storm, and it got even bigger and better with the free Colosseum Update. Team up and take on opponents in groups or battle to the bitter end in honorable 1v1 duels.

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Brendan Lowry

Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).