2 years after release, there are still mysteries left to be uncovered in Elden Ring. The background of this friendly dog was one of them, until now.
The presence of dogs usually induces cold sweat and shaky hands among FromSoft fans, as these nasty creatures are typically not pleasant company. Due to their unpredictability and agility, even the proudest warriors have been cornered by them at some point. However, one dog in Elden Ring has always been an exception, and now we finally know why.
The Mystery Of The Friendly Dog In Elden Ring Has Been Solved – Here's Why He Doesn't Bite
In Elden Ring, almost everything wants to see you dead. But there is this one dog in Leyndell that refuses to attack you, unless you attack first. YouTuber and data miner Zullie the Witch finally found out what causes this strange behavior.
To understand what is happening, we first need to look at how enemies in Elden Ring work. Many of them are chilling in an idle animation until you, the player, approach them. This will wake them up, getting ready to beat up your tarnished booty. In general, this happens when you enter a specific area that triggers event scripts, alerting enemies and starting a new animation sequence (keep this in mind).
Zullie has now examined the script of the said dog in the game's code and discovered that it was supposed to be triggered along with its buddy, the Misbegotten. However, our furry friend has another wake up event programmed, that prevents the actual event from being triggered. A softlock, so to speak. Removing this additional event would allow the dog to proceed as planned alongside the Misbegotten.
Remember the designated area, I was talking about? As it turns out, our good boy also has such an area that is tied to this exact additional event. When entering a specific region outside the Colosseum, you trigger the wake-up animation of the dog, just as intended.
While Zullie can't explain why this event is tied to a completely different area, she simply suspects a typo in the coding. Perhaps the dog was originally supposed to be lounging elsewhere in the sun, and they just forgot to move the designated area with him.Whatever the reason for this slip-up was, we're glad that FromSoftware hasn't patched out this little ray of sunshine yet.