We dissect the notorious Elden Ring cyber-trap where hackers exploited cut content and Anti-Cheat blind spots to trigger 180-day bans for thousands of victims.
In April 2022, just weeks after Elden Ring's triumphant launch and at the peak of its player community's growth, a bizarre and terrifying event unfolded that would become one of gaming's most notorious
security incidents. Players who had invested hundreds of hours into mastering FromSoftware's punishing open-world masterpiece suddenly found themselves facing a message that declared them guilty of cheating
- and sentenced them to a 180-day ban from online play. The strangest part? These players hadn't cheated at all. Their only crime was picking up an item from the ground. The Forbidden Item: Underwear That
Should Never Have Existed Deep within Elden Ring's game files existed an item called Deathbed Smalls - a piece of undergarment belonging to Fia, the mysterious woman who embraces players at the Roundtable
Hold hub area and grants them a blessing. This item, essentially a thong or pair of skimpy underwear, was cut from the final release by FromSoftware during the late stages of development. In technical
terms, it became "cut content" - data that exists in the game's code but has no legitimate means of acquisition. [IMAGE_PLACEHOLDER_1] The reason for removing this item was never officially disclosed,
but many industry analysts believe FromSoftware wanted to avoid unnecessary controversy around the game's content. Fia is one of Elden Ring's most complex narrative characters, playing a crucial role in
one of the game's multiple endings through an extensive questline. Having her underwear as an equippable item could have led to unwanted interpretations of her character and potentially distracted from
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