Souls games like Elden Ring cannot be paused. A mod remedies this – but you have to make compromises.
Should From Software’s games be able to be paused? It’s a discussion Souls fans have been having for quite some time. But now there is a new mod for Elden Ring that blows the whistle on it. Because a modder’s project delivers a beginner-friendly pause function that one or two players might consider an outrage.
Tips for before starting the game: If you have just started Elden Ring yourself and need some help getting started, we will of course help you: In our beginner’s guide, we provide you with 14 useful tips that we ourselves would have liked to have known beforehand.
Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide: 14 things we wish we’d known beforehand
What exactly does the mod do?
Whether it’s Dark Souls, Bloodborne or Elden Ring, developer From Software’s games are basically impossible to pause. And while for some this is part of the gaming experience, for others the lack of such an essential convenience feature deters them from even attempting titles like Elden Ring.
For each of us has undoubtedly been in the unfortunate situation of gaining the upper hand in a fierce boss fight, while suddenly something urgent comes up. Whether it’s because your offspring demands attention, the cat starts throwing up or the doorbell just rings – games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne know no mercy here.
That’s why the modder (TechieW) wants to remedy this. His mod with the simple name (Pause the Game) delivers exactly what it promises. Once you have downloaded and installed it, you can pause Elden Ring at any time – no matter whether you are fighting a big boss, being chased by a horde of wolves or simply exploring the game world.
According to TechieW, the mod also has a completely different use: If you pause the game at the right moment, you can take particularly beautiful screenshots. So the mod could also be interesting for fans of Elden Ring who would have liked a photo mode.
What you need to know
No online functions: If you are interested in the mod, you have to be prepared for compromises. Because with a pause function, the online and thus multiplayer functions of Elden Ring are simply no longer accessible. So you can’t go on a boss hunt together with friends or duel with other players.
Only without Anti-Cheat: You will also have to deactivate Easy Anti-Cheat every time you start the game, which means that Elden Ring will start in offline mode. You can find more information below.
How download and installation work
The download and installation of Pause the Game is quite simple, as with most NexusMods projects. To do so, simply proceed as follows:
* Go to the Pause the Game page (NexusMods).
* Start the download
* Open the zip folder and put the contents into the appropriate game folder, which you can usually find under this file path: C:/steamlibrary/steamapps/common/ELDENRING/game/
Now all you have to do before starting the game is deactivate Easy Anti-Cheat. This also works quite straightforwardly:
* Open the folder in your Steam files where you installed Elden Ring.
* Open steamapps, then Elden Ring and Game
* Change the name of the file start_protected_game.exe
* Make a copy of elden_ring.exe
* Renames this copy to start_protected_game.exe
* Starts the game
If you don’t want to use the mod any more, you can easily undo the file name change. By the way, you can already get more out of the graphics of Elden Ring with the help of mods. Just take a look at the following article:
Elden Ring: Mod gets everything out of the graphics with 4K and ray tracing
Why can’t Souls games be paused?
There are definitely a few good reasons why From Software has chosen not to include a pause function in its own Souls games. The most obvious, of course, is that it would make implementing online features such as co-op play much more complicated.
Git gud: But for many fans, not being able to take a break in hectic situations is simply part of the Souls experience: For example, once a fight has been started, it has to be carried through to the bitter end. Likewise, there is no real sense of security, which of course contributes a lot to the atmosphere.
In fact, there would also be a danger that some players would take advantage of the pause function to bring a boss to his knees by unfair means: If games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne or Elden Ring could be paused at any time, it would make it much easier to anticipate certain moves of big enemies. Whether that would be legitimate or lazy play in a single-player game is, of course, for everyone to decide for themselves.
What do you think about a pause function in games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne or Dark Souls: Do you miss the feature? Or do you prefer to do without it in favour of atmosphere? Let us know in the comments!
