Elden Ring seemingly once featured items and quests that focused on exploring NPCs dreams.
Lance McDonald, a prominent dataminer who's previously revealed secrets in Demon's Souls and Bloodborne, explored the mechanic using 2021's network test version of Elden Ring (spotted by Eurogamer).
Though cut from the final game, the content had a unique, fully voiced and animated character called Monk Jiko who requested the player bring him Dream Mist - an item acquired from the dreams of certain NPCs.
I worked really hard on this video you should look at it and tell your friend(s) to look at it https://t.co/bU7soHcJP0
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) April 11, 2022
Exploration was limited in the early version of Elden Ring but McDonald showed two sleeping characters, a Wolf and Land Octopus, with a "dense fog of sleep" floating around them, indicating that Dream Mist could be extracted.
These were exchanged with Monk Jiko (who was found at the Scavenger's Shack location) for Dreambrew, an item that could be given to different NPCs, sending them to sleep and prompting new dialogue options based on the dreams they had.
McDonald's video shows Dreambrew being used with an early character, Merchant Kalé. After a short bit of voiced dialogue, a message appears saying, "After drinking, he sleeps. His sleep is disturbed by a nightmare of his eyes being burned by the frenzied flame".
McDonald says that Monk Jiko originally had a questline that would weave across much of the game world, and that many characters in the game have unused dialogue related to it. A similar mechanic was seen in previous FromSoftware title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, where players could uncover new information about the characters and world by sharing a cup of sake with certain NPCs.
Players have uncovered several other bizarre secrets in Elden Ring including a way to make one of its toughest bosses defeat itself, a pair of fancy underwear hidden away in the game files, and a hidden wall that only opens after 50 hits.
In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."
To make those choices with the best available information, check out our full guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.