Elden Ring PC players are being urged by others on social media to play offline for the time being, as some invaders are employing a game-breaking hack that can lock players in an endless loop of death.
As reported by Eurogamer, insidious players are making use of Elden Ring's PvP invasion feature to introduce a hack that corrupts save data and forces a crash. Upon logging in again, players will find themselves endlessly falling in a void, triggering an inescapable cycle of death.
It sounds like a cruel microcosm of Elden Ring's often punishingly high difficulty, albeit with this hack, there's no hope of ever overcoming the obstacle in your way. Not even quitting and reloading the game will free you from the cycle, and as a result, players have taken to social media to warn Elden Ring PC players about the hack, which you can see demonstrated in the tweet below.
⚠️Elden Ring PSA for PC players⚠️There's an exploit going around on PC where hackers will corrupt your save file while you're invaded. First they will crash your game, and when you open it back up, your character will be constantly falling to their death... pic.twitter.com/8et3bl8T1IMarch 18, 2022
Neither From Software or publisher Bandai Namco have commented on the hack as of yet. So if you're playing Elden Ring on PC, and concerned about having your 70-plus hour save corrupted, it's best to play offline for now until the hack is addressed in a patch, which will hopefully come sooner rather than later.
If you're determined to play Elden Ring on PC online, still, for other features such as co-op and the game's excellent messaging system, invasions are thankfully quite rare unless you're actively seeking them. However, we'd still recommend playing offline for now just to be on the safe side.
It's not the first time a From Software title has been plagued with exploits like this. Later on in its life, Dark Souls 3 invaders employed a similar hack that brought progression screeching to a halt.
When will Elden Ring's PC woes end?
Elden Ring has had a bit of a rough time on PC since launch. Elden Ring's PC performance hasn't been stellar, with frequent stuttering and missing features like ultrawide support. While performance has been considerably more stable on the Steam Deck, playing Elden Ring on Valve's portable machine won't be enough to save you from these hacking invaders.
While patches for Elden Ring have been releasing at a steady clip on PC, From Software will likely want to act fast to nip this invasion hack in the bud. Of course, backing up your Elden Ring save is a viable option, but it's certainly not something players should have to worry about in the first place.
Considering how vast your journey across The Lands Between ends up being in Elden Ring, having to start all over again because of an inescapable hack isn't an easy sell for anyone, let alone the among most devout of the ranks of the Tarnished.
