Elden Ring Bugs, Known Issues, and Workarounds

The creators of the Dark Souls Series have just released Elden Ring, their latest open-world take on the frustrating but rewarding genre. With that said though, the game has tons of bugs and issues on the PC and consoles that have been plaguing Elden Ring right from the very get-go. Therefore, we’ve accumulated a list of all the bugs, known issues, and their workarounds for the game.

As of yet, there seem to be no fixes for these particular issues from the developers themselves. However, as you’ll be able to see down below, some workarounds have already been released by keen fans. If you want to find them out yourself, take a look at the known bugs and issues for Elden Ring down below. We have already discussed on how to fix some game crashing issues and tweak graphics settings.

Elden Ring Known Issues, Bugs and Workarounds

Here is an official (and also an unofficial) list of all the Elden Ring known issues and bugs, revealed by From Software and the player community, as of updated on February 24, 2022. If you are facing an issue other than the following ones, please let us know in the comments down below and we’re going to it:

Known Issues List by Bandai Namco:

Main items to be revised

• Regarding the problem of the mouse being too sensitive in the PC version
  • We will be sending out a patch for this issue in the near future.
• Regarding the problem of Easy Anti-Cheat failing to launch when the Steam account name is set to 2-byte characters.
  • We are aware of the cause of this issue and will be providing a patch in the near future.
• Regarding the phenomenon of frame rate and other performance-related issues during gameplay. We will be constantly working to improve the game so that it can be played comfortably on various PC environments and platforms.
  • For the PC version, updating your graphics card drivers to the latest version may significantly improve performance.
• About the phenomenon of game data that does not save correctly in the PlayStation 5 version
  • If the PS5 console is unexpectedly turned off while playing a game or in rest mode, saved data may not be saved correctly.
  • We are aware of the cause of this issue and are working on a patch to correct it, but until the patch is released, please save your game manually by exiting the game regularly.
  • Game data will be saved correctly if you quit the game by opening the system menu using the OPTION button and selecting “Quit Game.”

Easy Anti-Cheat Launch Error

The installation of Easy Anti-Cheat fails and the game could not be launched under certain circumstances. Players are getting the “Easy Anti-Cheat Launch Error. Failed to initialize the game launcher” error and cannot start the game. This seems to be only happening on PC.

The devs have taken note of this issue and are working hard to fix it. We are certain that a new hotfix for PC will launch soon that will address this problem.

Frame Rate Drops

If you are facing frame rate drops in Elden Ring, this may be due to old GPU drivers or it could simply be a game issue. For a quick workaround, you can try to lower down the resolution of your game and see if that fixes anything. Further more, you can limit the game to just 30 FPS which should get rid of most of the problems.

Alternatively, check out our best graphics settings guide for Elden Ring.

Slow Unpacking

If the game is unpacking really slow, that only means the files have been compressed in a bad way and that is why it will take longer to decrypt and decompress everything. And since the game size is extremely large, players with a HDD instead of a SSD will face slower times. Sadly, there is nothing you can do right now. Your Steam has to unpack and set up 49 GB of game data.

The way pre-loading works is you download an encrypted version of the game that is inaccessible until the release date – which is today. Once the game is officially launched, Steam “unpacks” (decrypts) the game files through the Steam client.

60 FPS Limit

There are early reports that you cannot go above 60 FPS on the PC, and for many players, this is a huge deal. We are sure a fix or a future patch will enable this, but not a lot of players are happy right now as support forums are full of complaints.

Cannot Play on Launch

Are you struggling to launch the game from Steam even though the countdown is over? Simply restarting the Steam client might start the unpacking process for you.

“Failed to initialize game launcher” Error

Are you also getting this error? You are not alone and there are so many other players just like you. For now, try restarting the Steam client or verify the integrity of the game files. We have some tips here that might help you, or you will have to wait for the developers to roll out a quick fix or patch.

The Game Won’t Launch

This is an issue that seems to be exclusive to PC players. When you try to launch the game, nothing happens. Regardless of the hardware specs, players have reported that they cannot start the game no matter what. Even reinstalling the game does not do the trick. While this is a rare issue, it still exists and should be addressed immediately. A solution that might work for you is to disable the Steam overlay for Elden Ring.

Poor Optimization

Once again, this seems to be a PC-only problem. Many players have reported that they are facing extreme FPS drops and stuttering. Even if your system is well above the required specs, you will still face problems on PC. Players have tried to lower the resolution and graphics but nothing seems to work. The devs are aware of this and are working on a patch right now.

Controller Not Working On PC

It is quite common to play the Souls games with a controller. However, you might have noticed that your controller doesn’t work when you plug it in. The game does not detect it at all. This is an extremely common issue that many players are facing. Check out the full list of controller settings and default keybinds here.

The reason is that Elden Ring is detecting another device as a controller. This can be either your HDD or any other USB device connected to your PC. We would suggest that you remove other non-essential USB devices (including keyboard, mouse, etc) but even then you are not guaranteed that the controller will work.

Crash After White Screen

Another issue that is only on PC, the game crashes after a random white or black screen. We are not certain why this happens or if there is a fix for this but many players are facing this problem. Needless to say that the game hasn’t had a good launch on PC so far.

NOTE: This is an updating post, we’ll be adding more issues and fixes as soon as they arise. Thank you for your support!

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As always, we’ll be providing you with complete information about the patch notes for Elden Ring as soon as they are released with the above fixes. You can also join the official Steam forums to report problems. Are you facing an issue other than the ones mentioned above? Let us know in the comments down below!

Elden Ring is now out for the PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One platforms. If you want to learn more about game news and patch notes, make sure to check out our Patch Notes section.