3 Ways to Pause Elden Ring

Everyone has experienced the moment when Radahn's area attacks in phase II untether you, and you are thoroughly telegraphed into his move set, torch in hand, and prepared to leap once your one to two-second attack window is reached. All of a sudden, the sounds of the actual world interrupt, and your infant has just woken up from their slumber.

You walk to the crib while listening in terror and pain, and you exclaim, "AwwwhhhhhhHHHHHHHH!" as your Tarnished lets out the same grotesque death roar that you have heard more than a hundred times by now.

You realize that your time is limited and that entropy has taken over, but you don't blame the baby because they don't comprehend that "The game is online, and I can't pause it." The games you used to sit and enjoy, unhindered and fully absorbed, can be broken at any time.

Elden Ring, our favorite GOTY winner, demonstrated to the world that games can exist without being condescending to the player and that you can have a genuinely "Mature" gaming experience that doesn't depend on Atreus and Aloy giving away every challenge.

This game requires the player to "earn the right" to exist in its universe by paying attention to their surroundings, working hard to identify adversary weaknesses, and doing their legwork.

Although it's a really fantastic game, it suffers from the same flaw that has hampered all mainline Souls games since the beginning: the absence of a pause button. Individuals become really irate when this is brought up. In any case, here are three enjoyable and practical methods for pausing Elden Ring.

1: The Obvious One

You've probably seen comments that you can actually pause the game by navigating to a menu (following or proceeding with a smug remark about being awful at the game for whatever reason) if you're even remotely familiar with the topic. You can accomplish this on any console by navigating to any menu or even the map, which is essentially just the menu description on the map. Navigate to the menu explanation after entering a help menu.

  • Consoles: All
  • Method: Menu
  • Mode: Offline
  • Set up time: 0 (Unintended game function)
  • Pros: Accessible without modding
  • Cons: Time taken for multiple button presses

The game has been paused. As long as you play offline, this will function on any console. It's not as immediate as one would like, though, and it's best to do it in a safe area where you might not even need to halt the game.

2: Pause Elden Ring Through Decky Loader

I'll do you a favor: why don't you push a single button to pause everything instantly? What if I told you that you already have the necessary files on hand? Users of EmuDeck may already be familiar with the Decky Loader tool, which is simple to use through the user interface and applies on-the-fly changes to your Steam deck through plugins.

A cute little plug-in named "Pause the Game" is available in the marketplace and does precisely that. Put the game on hold. After installation, you'll see that you can either choose to pause by entering a menu or you can configure it to wait any game simply by clicking the Steam button.

  • Consoles: Steam Deck
  • Method: UI mod
  • Mode: Offline
  • Set up time: 5min (with Decky) 10min (without Decky)
  • Pros: Instant pausing system-wide, quick setup
  • Cons: Steam Deck only, dependant on Decky functioning

This is a game changer for any game with un-pausable cutscenes and requires minimal setup. I urge all Steam Deck users to do this; I can't stress it enough.

3: Straight up Modding the Game

Alright, I'll make it worse: What about using mods in the game itself? Yes, using a mod loader, individuals have meticulously coded the feature to pause the game using blood, sweat, tears, and sugar-free Monster Energy. Anyone who has modded Skyrim or Dark Souls III understands that mod loaders act as a link between the game and your hubris (mods), and those who were unaware of this until now are aware of it. Although this is typically limited to PCs, it is possible to accomplish this on Steam Deck!

It takes some time to download and set up the mod loader, but it's simple and needs your preferred PC. The mod may be downloaded considerably more quickly. You can choose your preferred button combination and pause immediately for the best potty breaks, but if it doesn't work right away, you'll have to troubleshoot.

  • Consoles: PC, Steam Deck
  • Method: Game mod
  • Mode: Offline (duh)
  • Set up time: 15-20min (hopefully)
  • Pros: Game-level pausing with the ability to layer on more mods.
  • Cons: Setup is more involved and less beginner-friendly

Conclusion of Some Sort

I appreciate you not clicking away! Beyond this point, though, there is no helpful information. This little fact about why Souls-like games ACTUALLY don't let you pause will surprise you if you're aiming for a 100% article run. I am unable to locate one.

I have read article after article, forum after forum, entire of quotes from the Bible and all-caps tirades, but I have yet to find an honest, verified explanation that makes sense beyond mean-spirited, elitist nonsense about making the game unnecessarily tricky and creating ground-breaking innovations that go beyond modern game design.

What do I think? The most basic one possible. The website is constructed using actual sticks and duct tape. Microsoft never bothered to code the game into offline mode or purposefully establish parity between the two modes because the game was meant to be played exclusively online.

In my opinion, the engine settings and net code used by Souls games simply do not handle syncing and desyncing with the server while in-game. Japanese developers have a propensity to simplify their online handling of their games. You are still sent to the title screen if your Internet lags even a little.

Similar circumstances exist in Monster Hunter, although even in solitary mode, there is a pause built into the user interface, and you can select the mode you want to play in while in the game (only via the hub, but you get the idea). If you force it, Souls titles already have it, so it's actually not a big problem. Perhaps you simply want to get online for a little while to avoid being raided, but doing so will require a complete reset.

If you don't think their online system is ridiculous, take the base game after the DLC, for example. The game won't let me connect to the servers because their infrastructure rejects me for not having a specific file saved locally, even though I didn't purchase the DLC. Ever since the DLC was made available on Steam Deck, it has been broken.

I'm a huge fan of Kingdom Come Deliverance and Famito Ueda, so this jank doesn't make me not like the game. The most innovative artistic and gameplay elements are frequently found in the most janky and under-optimized environments.

However, once such settings are improved, it may not be easy to return to them. To preserve my sanity in the interim, I stop Elden Ring and turn off the "Pausing in Souls Games" section of the Internet using the Decky plug-in.