Watch out, Shadow of the Erdtree players: Elden Ring is suffering a new bug on Steam Deck
Donât go leaving the Lands Between unattended too long
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun
After years of anticipation, Elden Ringâs first – and only – expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is finally out as of today. While there are plenty of intriguing secrets hiding in the new corner (itâs a big corner) of the Lands Between, Steam Deck players might stumble upon a not-so-welcome new discovery too, courtesy of a bug that can make your game unresponsive.
The issue stems from Elden Ringâs 1.12 patch, which was released yesterday in the lead-up to Shadow of the Erdtreeâs launch. As well as adding support for the expansion itself and some general tweaks and balances, the latest update introduced some fresh haircuts, a handy new âRecent Itemsâ tab in your inventory and a fairly major change to the gameâs final boss fight, which now lets you summon your trusty ghost horse Torrent.
Unfortunately, along with those lovely new features came an unexpected bug on the Steam Deck confirmed by Elden Ringâs official TwiXer account. The bug appears to affect the game as a whole – meaning it doesnât matter whether youâre playing the base Elden Ring or Shadow of the Erdtree – and essentially leaves the game inoperable by refusing to accept inputs if the Steam Deck is left inactive for longer than five minutes while playing.
That doesnât seem all that unlikely to happen if youâre, say, waiting on a summon before tackling a difficult boss or even if you just squat down at a site of grace while you go and make a cuppa. Elden Ringâs diligent auto-saving and the suggestion youâd have to be somewhere in the game where youâre not doing anything anyway means youâre perhaps unlikely to lose much progress unless youâre especially unfortunate (or you get invaded), but having to reboot the game if you leave it a few seconds too long is a faff regardless.
Note: a Steam Deck related issue has been identified and a hotfix is being worked on.
Leaving your Steam Deck inactive for more than 5 minutes may stop the game from accepting inputs.
We apologize for inconvenience.
The date and time of the hotfix will be announced separately.
â ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) June 20, 2024 The good news is that FromSoftware are on it, confirming that theyâre working on a hotfix to squish the irritating bug. The middling news is that they canât confirm a time or date for when that fix will arrive just yet, so youâll just need to tend to your Steam Deck a little more closely than usual in the meantime.
While certainly not a dealbreaker, the extra bit of grit is more noticeable given Elden Ringâs otherwise wonderfully smooth showing on the Deck, which James found to continue in Shadow of the Erdtree. There have been some reports of a separate error message flagging a warning of âInappropriate activity detectedâ and blocking online play, too, though From are yet to confirm the cause or solution for that problem.
