Fall damage is a conundrum for players in Elden Ring and a Youtube video has covered it. With the return of a dedicated jump button from FromSoftWare’s previous title, Sekiro, and the addition of Torrent, the double-jumping steed, Players have more tools than ever to explore the vast expanse of terrain that the Lands Between has to offer.
Despite the affordances given to players to hop and step over obstacles, there comes a time when a player would need to come down cliffs, which has become a confusing endeavor in Elden Ring. Players can take what looks to be a survivable jump, and end up falling to their death as they touch the ground on their steed. Or on the contrary, they can survive steep jumps, with only half of their health being taken away. This has led to some rather conflicting perceptions in the community towards what causes fall damage, and when would falls start killing players.
A video posted on YouTube by a user called Illusory Wall has provided some in-depth answers in regards to the nature of fall damage in Elden Ring. The video goes into rather extensive detail as to when height starts causing fall damage, the height at which they become lethal, and the issues that could lead to a player taking fall damage when they assumed they wouldn’t.
A few things of note can be observed from the video. Starting with the increase to fall height before fall damage becomes a factor. In previous FromSoftware titles, the fall height before a player starts taking damage from a fall is 5 meters. This has been increased to 16 meters in Elden Ring. However, the cut-off for lethal falls hasn’t changed, which is 20 meters. This causes players to develop a false sense of security regarding taking falls.
Secondly, players can misjudge the amount of fall damage that they can take. With a gradual increase from 30% HP loss starting at 16 meters and capping out at 50% HP loss just below 20 meters, players might overestimate the height at which they can land a fall and survive due to them losing no more than half of their HP, even if the cliff was just slightly below the cut-off.
The last thing of interest is whether or not a player’s made any contact with the surface before their landing. If a player were to have slid off a cliff and landed on the ground, players will incur fall damage as though they’ve jumped off the cliff initially. The same can be said for sliding off a cliff on Torrent, where the landing could also incur fall damage as a result of the game perceiving the player as simply having jumped that height in the first place.
The video also covers other factors that affect fall damage, such as dexterity and weight load. But the points above should be the essentials that need considering by players whenever they are traversing the Lands Between on foot or horseback.
Elden Ring is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
