The Elden Ring map has a few chokepoints and one of the main obstacles in players' paths is Godrick the Grafted. This is the first demi-god that most players will face and, for those of average ability like myself, he is one tough cookie.
This being the age of the internet, of course, that's just made Godrick a target. People like modder and content creator SuperLouis64 look at this guy and see a different kind of challenge: what's the most ludicrous way he can be beaten?
Well, how about with a controller made of bananas?
THE BANANA CONTROLLER WORKS 🍌AND WE BEAT GODRICK WITH THEM LETS GO #ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/ZOjzYb8SgoMarch 8, 2022
There are eleven bananas total wired into a circuit box—not enough to replicate every single button on a pad, though it's possible some of them are pulling double duty. It's difficult to work out from the video exactly how this device is operating, so I asked the creator:
"Long story short I've hooked up each banana to an HID," writes Louis. "Each banana pretty much turns into keyboard inputs kind of like an Arduino set-up with push buttons. However instead of push buttons they are bananas 😆. I've done a bit of coding to turn them into a PS4 controller to be picked up by my PC or PS5 depending on what station I want to play it on!"
Louis64 does loads of this kind of controller modding, and last week was using the Switch's Ring Fit controller to bum around in the Lands Between:
Louis clearly loves this stuff and calls himself, with every justification, a controller bender. He's also played Final Fantasy XIV through the medium of pizza and, rather wittily, played Cyberpunk 2077 by controlling it with T-poses . So Godrick can't rest easy: this is probably just the start.
There is also something undeniably amusing in thinking about FromSoftware HQ, and all those talented designers that spent so long fine-tuning the Godrick battle and creating a genuinely fearsome challenge for players. Today they can come in to work, turn on their PCs, and see that somewhere in the world is a man who humbled Godrick by hitting fruit.
Elden Ring had a huge launch week: it neared a million concurrent players on Steam, and the thirst for runes became so popular that there's now a burgeoning trade for them on eBay. It has also spawned countless funny deaths.
