Elden Ring’s New Colosseum Update Arrives With Three New PvP Modes

The Lands Between is ringing its calling bell once more. Fans awaiting Elden Ring’s PvP-focused update 1.08 can now jump in to challenge each other in epic showdowns that are sure to show off some of the most impressive builds out there. The update arrives with some expected opportunities for direct, 1v1 challenges, plus a few other chaotic twists.

Today’s update to Elden Ring is arguably more of a DLC than a simple patch. Just under 2GB in size, the update opens up colosseums in Limgrave, Leyndell, and Caelid. Players can fight one another across a suite of game modes and rules all focused on PvP. Fighting other players is a time-honoured tradition in the world of soulslikes, particularly in FromSoftware’s games. After all, a core feature of Elden Ring and FromSoft’s previous Souls games is the ability to invade other players (and in turn get invaded yourself), one of the best ways to show off the intricacies and power of your build.

Those looking for intense, yet respectful (I’m sure) 1v1 showdowns will be pleased to find “Duel” mode in the Leyndell colosseum. With zero respawns, it’s you and your build against a fellow Tarnished. But if you’re into something a bit more hectic, the Limgrave colosseum offers a straight-up, every-Tarnished-for-themselves battle with “Combat Ordeal.” The person with the most points for kills can claim victory.

That’s not all the Limgrave colosseum has to offer. With “United Combat,” two teams of two will square off. Respawn is active here, but whoever scores the most kills wins. In general, 2v2 game modes are really interesting displays of cooperation and tactics, so it’ll be exciting to see how this plays out in Elden Ring.

And if you’re into summoning spirits to fight alongside you, the Caelid colosseum permits the use of Spirit Ashes to cause all of the problems for your combatants across the different PvP modes listed above.

The update also brings some adjustments to PvP across the board. These include:

• Reduced thrusting weapons counterattack damage.
• Reduced guard efficiency when attacking with your shield up for some weapon types.
• The poise damage of the following weapons have been reduced (Weapon Arts poise damage remains unchanged): Straight Swords / Thrusting Swords / Heavy Thrusting Swords / Curved Swords / Axes / Spears / Twinblade Swords / Katanas
• Reduced the poise damage of the Incantation Bestial Sling.
• Reduced the power of the Spell Carian Slicer.

Other adjustments to game mechanics, attack speed, recovery time, stagger damage, and more arrive with the update. For those curious, the full details are listed in the official patch notes here.

As a gamer who (and this is a technical term) sucks at Elden Ring, I’m actually quite curious to hop into these colosseums — where I will get owned, I’m sure. But sparring with others is often one of the best ways to get better at a game and it sure beats dealing with the strange freaks and monsters roaming about on the map.