The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

How to Pause Elden Ring Explained


How to Pause in Elden Ring (All Platforms) 4
Credit: FromSoftware

Elden Ring is finally here; the wait for FromSoftware's next masterpiece is finally over. Gamers across the world are venturing forth into the world of Elden Ring, and the consensus is pretty unanimous: Elden Ring is amazing, aside from its technical issues. Plus, the game is oftentimes extremely challenging, giving FromSoftware fans the adrenaline rush they so crave. However, you can't easily pause the intense RPG action if you need to take a break, which can create problems. Luckily, you can actually pause the game, if you know where to look. In this article, we'll explain how to pause in Elden Ring.

How to Pause in Elden Ring (All Platforms)

How to Pause in Elden Ring (All Platforms)
click to enlarge
+ 3
Credit: FromSoftware

There isn't a pause button in Elden Ring, so normally, you've got to get yourself to a safe enough location and then quit the game to effectively pause it, or you can simply leave your PC or console running and hope you're not near enough to any enemies. That's about all you can really do.

Many appreciate that you can't pause most FromSoftware games because it makes every encounter feel meaningful. You know there's no easy way out, even if you actually have something to do in the real world. However, many appreciate the convenience, and when playing a video game, it's best to be able to play at your own pace.

Related: Elden Ring PC Framerate/FPS Unlock Mod Explained

If you want to take matters into your own hands, you can. You can actually pause Elden Ring if you use the game's own internal menu system to your advantage. Here's how:

  1. Press start or ESC to open up the menu when you're in-game.
  2. Open any menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
  3. Press the back button to show contextual options.
  4. Choose the menu explanation option.

Once you've selected the menu explanation option, your game will pause. This feature of the menu system is supposed to explain what things do, like what the Equipment menu itself does. It's such a fundamental piece of information, the game freezes gameplay until you've finished reading the explanation.

It's a bit of a process in that it takes more than a few inputs to actually pause the game, but muscle memory is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, it's pretty clear that this isn't an intended mechanic, though. You aren't intended to be able to pause the game by doing this series of actions, so this may get eventually patched out of the game.

Related: Don't Fear: Elden Ring Has An Easy Mode, If You Want It

However, at the time of writing, it still works, and as it's simply a feature of the game, using it won't get you banned or otherwise in trouble if you take advantage of it while you can. Obviously, you can pause the game in multiplayer, so even if you try it, it won't work, even if you aren't risking anything by doing so.

Ultimately, this is a nice feature to know about if you ever need to use it, but it's not very reliable and it'll probably get patched out of the game eventually. This means that for consoles there won't be an in-game way to pause, but on PC, there are mods.

How to Pause Elden Ring on PC

How to Pause in Elden Ring (All Platforms) 2
click to enlarge
+ 3
Credit: FromSoftware

On PC, you can pause Elden Ring using the above method, but you can also install a mod that lets you pause your game whenever you'd like at the press of a button.

One such mod is called Pause the game. You can install the mod pretty simply by placing its files in your game's directory, and it does what you think it does: it binds pausing the game to a key, and you can even change the key if you'd like.

Related: Elden Ring Performance Problems/Issues Explained

There is a major drawback though, you can't play online using this mod, even if you aren't actually in somebody else's world or someone's in yours. You have to disable Elden Ring's anti-cheat and actually play the game fully offline to use the mod.

You can look for other mods, doubtlessly there will be others, but in the end, this drawback will be the same. Elden Ring uses a rather invasive form of anti-cheat software, so you can't actually play the game online with mods, because then you risk getting your account banned as you'll be flagged as some sort of cheater.

Like previous FrmSoftware games, it may not seem like it at first, but multiplayer is a big part of the game. It's not just about invasions and co-op either, even messages on the ground written by other players eventually become a part of the FromSoftware experience. You will have to let go of all that if you'd like to mod Elden Ring on PC.

Related: Is Elden Ring Like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Demon's Souls?

How to Pause in Elden Ring (All Platforms) 3
click to enlarge
+ 3
Credit: FromSoftware

This goes for other major Elden Ring mods like the FPS Unlock mod. This mod allows you to run Elden Ring at framerates above 60 FPS as well as adjust your FOV and play the game on unique aspect ratios like 21:9, none of which the game actually supports officially.

Unfortunately, many Elden Ring mods are bringing functionality to the game that should have probably been there at the beginning, and you'll have to make some fairly major sacrifices to get that functionality via mods. But if you don't care about multiplayer and play Elden Ring on PC, the choice is clear.

A word of caution: Be careful when modding FromSoftware games. If you look up a certain FromSoftware mod, or even mods in general, and try to see what people's experiences are playing online with them and not actually doing multiplayer are, many people will report they've had no issues.

Related: Elden Ring PC Issues, Glitches, Bugs, Problems, and More Explained

Many other people will say they've gotten banned for the most minor or unbelievable offense imaginable. Ultimately, it's very much so not a consistent policy applied on FromSoftware's end, which means that rolling the dice on your account getting banned is never a good idea.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Tech & Games and Gaming page.