Elden Ring's mods range from tranquil ones that tweak color filters to the more chaotic ones--like Thomas The Tank Engine, a meme in the various mod communities, making a cartoonish cameo in the otherwise tonally serious game.

　　The Elden Ring mod community continues to be both practical--lots of helpful camera and rune recovery mode tweaks are trending on Nexus Mods--and creative in their projects. Below are a couple eye-catching mods that have made rounds on the internet or are, to put it simply, cool.

　　

Spirit Ash Summon Mod

King Bore, a Dark Souls modder, created a mod that replaces Spirit Ash summons with two unexpected NPCs, the mausoleum and chariot. Spirit Ashes can be summoned by the Spirit Calling Bell during battles, and come in various spectral forms--like wolves and jellyfish. The walking chariot and mausoleum, however, are meant originally to be annoying overworld enemies. But with King Bore's mod, they're now allies. Very effective ones, as you can see in the video below.

　　#ELDENRING

　　this spirit ash is insanely broken, no idea what fromsoft was thinking pic.twitter.com/7HxnYh0flQ

　　— king bore haha/geeeeeorge (@king_bore_haha) March 22, 2022

　　Explaining the motivation behind creating the mod, King Bore tells GameSpot, "From Soft introduced a very cool new system in Elden Ring for summoning, and I wanted to figure out how it worked. And when I mess around with something cool, my first instinct is to do something stupid and funny." (Truly, King Bore is a person who lives in the same spirit as From Soft games.)

　　The next NPC to turn into a Spirit Ash Summon on King Bore's list are the electric orbs, or as King Bore calls them, "the sentient mercury orbs." King Bore also looks forward to modding the "several spiritual successors to the infamous Dark Souls Bonewheels" in Elden Ring. "It's tradition for me to do dumb stuff with Bonewheels so I wouldn't dare neglect them," he says.

　　Out of personal curiosity, I asked if even bosses could be turned into Spirit Ash summons. Turns out it may be possible to get Malenia as a helper. "Yeah, basically all characters are up for grabs. Some bosses probably will bug out because they expect map-specific regions though," King Bore says.

　　

Photo-Mode Mod

On the opposite side of the hilarity spectrum, and on the more practical side, Frans 'Otis_Inf' Bouma made a photo-mode mod for Elden Ring. It comes with camera control, a pause button, and a cloaking effect that makes you invisible to enemies. The mod is perfect for strolling through the environment and checking out nooks and crannies without fear of sudden death.

　　Bouma is known for making photo-mode mods for a lot of other games, including Assassin's Creed Origins, Devil May Cry 5, and more. Speaking to GameSpot, Bouma explains that his passion for creating photo-mode mods comes from his hobby of taking photos. "As an avid virtual photographer, I need photo-modes and tools to create the best shots possible. Often shipped photo-modes in games are lacking or simply non-existent. Because I write software for a living I thought, why not create better photo-modes so I can create better shots? It turned out making the photo-mode mods is a lot of fun, so I guess you could say one hobby led to another one."

　　Bouma's personal favorite area to take photos in Elden Ring is East Liurnia, but the ones he's seen the most screenshots from are "probably West Limgrave, as areas deeper into the game require one to make it there first."

　　This Elden Ring photo-mode mod is locked behind a Patreon (previously it was free for a while), so here's hoping From Software doesn't request a takedown.

　　

Easy Mode Mod (and Hard Mode Mod)

Elden Ring is hard--very hard. So it's no surprise someone's come up with a saving grace--an easy mode mod. Odashikonbu, an Elden Ring modder, came up with an easy mode mod (for offline use only) that features three different editions: damage reduction and player damage bonus, damage reduction and rune bonus, as well as an even more generous version.The damage mod reduces damage players take by 50% while increasing their damage output by 25%. The rune bonus version is exactly what it sounds--in addition to damage reduction, players pick up 10 times more runes and get more flasks.

　　Odashikonbu's mod--their first one ever, actually-- is inspired by the Dark Souls easy mod and the Sekiro easy mod. Speaking to GameSpot, Odashikonbu says they were inspired to create an easy mode because they "love the story and lore of Elden Ring and would feel sad if players give up clearing the game due to difficulty."

　　For future mod ideas, Odashikonbu also wants to make it easier to parry and dodge. These changes, however, need to be done through editing game assets, which Odashikonbu still finds difficult as a budding modder.

　　In contrast to Odashikonbu's easy mode, there's an Elden Ring hard mode mod out there for those who hunger for an even more difficult experience than the standard one. Enemy AI has been enhanced, and chillingly, npcs will "look for you longer and harder when they hear you."

　　

Tree Sentinel Thomas Mod

Thomas The Tank Engine strikes again in another video game's mod. After a long storied history of popping up in Skyrim and Resident Evil Village mods, Thomas appears as the Tree Sentinel's trusty steed (bottom half?) in Elden Ring. It was already terrifying enough to fight the Limgrave boss, but now with Thomas' placid uncanny smile, the fight becomes ten times as scary.

　　Speaking of other uncanny mods featuring characters from other media, modder Garden of Eyes also created an abomination where Homer Simpson can be found in the Lands Between.

　　Elden Ring mods have already peaked lol pic.twitter.com/YrUGXXtK2j

　　— Oshwire Toyko (@DaveOshry) March 27, 2022

　　

Pretty Prisoner Clothing Mod

Okay, so--yes, this one is perhaps a bit of an interest only to me. But it also surprisingly has some traction on Nexus Mods, so I can't be the only one who really cares about fashion in Elden Ring. Kjyutg made a prisoner clothing mod, turning the drab starter wear into an elegant deep blue garb with bright red embellishments.

　　Kjyutg's clothing mod in Elden RingSpeaking to GameSpot, Kjyutg--a new mod maker from China--comments that it's their first mod for Elden Ring (though they've made clothing mods for other games). Kjyut also states that the Prisoner's clothing redesign takes inspiration from Okatsu in Nioh. They have more Elden Ring mods on the way, so stay tuned to see more of their fashionable redesigns.

　　Elden Ring Guides

　　What Happens In Elden Ring? The Game's Story, Part 1: Limgrave Elden Ring Rune Farming: The Best Early Areas To Level Up Fast What To Do First In Elden Ring: Best Route, Weapons, And Important Map Locations + Show More Elden Ring Guides Links (7) Elden Ring: Best Weapons You Can Find Early In Limgrave Elden Ring Margit The Fell Omen Guide - Recommended Level And How To Beat The First Boss Elden Ring: How To Upgrade Weapons - Smithing Stones Explained Elden Ring Tips For Beginners: Learning The Ways Of The Lands Between How To Level Up In Elden Ring, Stats Explained Elden Ring: Best Keepsakes To Pick During Character Creation Elden Ring Map: Where To Find Your First Map Fragment