Elden Ring players are celebrating its sublime hitboxes with gifs

Elden Ring an armored knight ducks under an enemy swing while readying his own sword to attack.

(Image credit: From Software via Background-Wear-1626)

So one of my favorite things is Hitbox porn. Recently-released action RPG Elden Ring is a gold mine of it, filled with perfect dodges just under attacks, crouches that lead to missed thrusts, and leaps that carry you over the sweeping of a giant halberd.

Naturally, this article is rife with visual and character spoilers for Elden Ring.

Part of what makes nice hitboxes so pleasant is that hitboxes are so often terrible. Sword goes near you? You're hit. Doesn't matter if the model didn't even touch you. Anyway, with Elden Ring hitting the public this week it's a festival of delight if you, like me, want to watch people not get hit by things.

Let's start with a prime example, via Reddit, where the recovery crouch after a leaping attack with an—honestly, I think that's an entire ship's anchor—puts a character under this boss' swipe.

those_accurate_hitboxes_are_something from r/Eldenring

Check this one, a luckily-timed weapon art sends the player into a crouch and swing... just to one side of the enemy's thrust.

The greatsword stamp is for tanking hits... but sometimes it just puts you underneath their guard instead.

hitbox_orgasm from r/Eldenring

Rather see some magic? Check out this barely-dodged phantasmal sword.

the_hitbox_just_saved_my_ass_again from r/Eldenring

Here's one of the magical horse Torrent getting summoned under a player just in time to avoid a sweeping sword.

This, however, is my favorite. A post made in response to someone else's flawed understanding of a game mechanic... effortless use of a weapon art to dodge under the attack.

to_the_guy_saying_bad_hitboxes from r/Eldenring

That's not to say all the hitboxes in the game are perfect—there are a few that feel really wonky. There are also those enemy attacks with tracking that just... well, it's like heat seeking axes or whatever.

But for the most part they're crisp and perfect.

For more Elden Ring stuff, check out our game page. You can also read the full review of Elden Ring here, where our Tyler Colp said "Elden Ring is junk food for FromSoftware fans. It's more of what I already adore, but family sized. It has everything that makes these games so intoxicating, and that lodges their intricate fiction into my brain." Exhilarating!

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.