Elden Ring’s pre-Erdtree patch makes a big, surprise quality-of-life change: You can finally summon Torrent for the final fight against the big boss

Elden Ring’s big pre-Shadow of the Erdtree update is now live, and one of the biggest changes is one that wasn’t previously teased: Yes, it’s true, you can now summon Torrent for the final fight against the Elden Beast.

Torrent enables significantly increased mobility during combat—horses, even weird magic ones, are a lot faster than people—and an awful lot of players really felt its absence during the climactic battle, which takes place in a large, open arena against a highly mobile boss. That’s reflected in the immediate positive reaction to the change, which was casually noted in a single line stuffed in the middle of the “new inventory features” section.

Interestingly, some players said the change isn’t so much a nerf of the Elden Beast fight, but just a quality of life change. “It doesn’t make the fight easier just less annoying to keep running around everywhere,” redditor SirSabza wrote. “With how big Elden Beast is I’d rather not get knocked off my horse every 5 seconds.”