8 Video Game Moments You Didn't Realise Were Tricking You
1. The Gatekeeper Tax - Elden Ring
FromSoftware's latest masterpiece Elden Ring is, predictably, full of surprises. Every game from the acclaimed developers has at least a few tricks up its sleeve, but one early NPC in their latest effort absolutely takes the cake.
As soon as you rock up to the title's first major dungeon, Stormview Castle, you'll encounter a shady-looking gatekeeper. He offers you a bit of advice: use the tunnel to his left that the guards don't know about or, alternatively, he can open the front gate for you. The latter option is certain death by way of a ballista strike, while the former allows you to sneak into the castle proper.
Shortly after this though, you might not realise that your runes - the currency you gain from killing enemies and get one chance to recover if you die - may not be acting right. For some reason, the runes you retrieve after dying are fewer than those you died with, in some cases meaning that you can actually lose all them even if you're retrieving them, should you encounter a tough boss that requires a few re-tries.
This isn't a glitch or some kind of debuff, but actually the Gatekeeper sneaking in every time you die to take a cut of the runes for himself. Nothing in the game suggests this though, and you'll only notice should you search online to figure out why this is happening.