A new Elden Ring datamine has revealed scrapped underground maps and NPCs

Elden Ring is already a massive game, but according to what fans and dataminers have found hidden in its files ever since its release two years ago, the game could have been even larger. Now, someone has found some previously unseen underground maps for content that was cut from the final version of the game.

YouTuber Sekiro Dubi found a new set of unused maps (and their respective assets) that went unused in the final version of Elden Ring, but which were still hidden deep in the game files. They posted all of this in a YouTube video (below), in which they go into detail about them: as it turns out, these unused maps connect the Deeproot Depths directly with the Consecrated Snowfield. The maps would have seen the player journey through a cavern (here still untextured but colored in light blue with terrain geometry clearly visible), with an elevator at the end of the road.

This elevator brings the player to an unused NPC named “Rhico”, who then mentions that they’ve opened a passage somewhere due to what they have done. This could have been used as an alternate way to get to the Mountaintops of the Giants without having to defeat Morgott at the Capital, which possibly hints at the developers having continued on with the trend of alternate paths for players to find like in the earlier parts of the game, instead of the more linear approach they had to take with the later regions.

As it stands, fans have found remains of huge amounts of content that was eventually cut from the final game. This situation however is not that surprising for long-time fans of FromSoftware: almost every game they’ve made since Demon’s Souls has included in its files remnants of their many iterations, which in turn have hinted to concepts that would materialize in later titles by the same devs.

For example, Elden Ring brought back many ideas and concepts that were once cut from the Dark Souls games, like the Tree Spirit enemies. In Dark Souls 3 promotional art there was the silhouette of a large snake-like enemy that never actually appeared in the game, and dataminers back then found unused files for an enemy internally called “SnakeSoul”. By comparing those files with the Tree Spirits, it seems to be that FromSoftware rescued that work and polished it to bring these monstrous enemies to life.

Similarly, many other enemies can trace their origins to previous FromSoftware titles and works, from Demon’s Souls to Sekiro and Bloodborne. Now, players are hoping that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC brings forth even more of these unused ideas to the forefront.