Elden Ring's Horse Nearly Had Another Use

Even though "Elden Ring" was released a month ago, players are still making discoveries in the Lands Between. Unfortunately, however, much of the content circulating in the community can't be explored by the average player. Instead, these discoveries require players to manipulate the game's files to test unreleased content. Dataminers are having a field day with exploring elements of "Elden Ring" left on the cutting room floor. For example, a few savvy players have found what looks to be a kind of Pokedex that was cut from "Elden Ring."

Recently, players have also made an interesting discovery involving the game's magical Spirit Steed, Torrent. Of course, Torrent is already a helpful companion thanks to its double jump, ability to appear out of thin air, and impressive speed, but it seems the mount had more to do in earlier versions of "Elden Ring." Players have managed to trigger some of Torrent's cut animations by manipulating the game files. For example, Torrent can eat grass and shake its mane in earlier builds of the game. The complete showcase of all of these animations can be viewed in a YouTube video by Zullie the Witch.

Even more exciting is the fact that players have also discovered Torrent could kick enemies, which lends evidence to a popular fan theory. 

Interestingly, it seems Torrent was originally meant to have a devastating kick that sent enemies flying into the air. Torrent's attack consists of an animation that sees them lifting their hind legs and bucking. However, landing this attack is difficult, as the horse often has trouble backing up when a player is locked-on. Additionally, the attack does no damage and only launches small enemies into the air, so it wouldn't have much use outside of fighting weak enemies and offering a bit of crowd control.

The limitations of Torrent's attack and the variety of animations scrapped give more credibility to the theory that Torrent could have roamed the world alongside the player, similar to Roach in the "Witcher 3." According to Zullie the Witch's video, players first came to this theory during the game's early Network Test, during which the game offered a "ride" prompt. The backward kick could have been a defensive attack for Torrent to use when the player wasn't actively riding the mount.

FromSoftware isn't done with the world of "Elden Ring," so if there's a sequel, maybe Torrent will get some of its old abilities back.