Six years in the past, CouchJockey was a small-time Twitch streamer, broadcasting Hearthstone in an try and make a reputation for himself. At the moment, he is the artistic director for The Convergence, one of the vital widespread and acclaimed Elden Ring mods, which provides many new bosses and magic spells to the sport, in addition to overhauling lots of its extra controversial facets. It has been fairly a journey for the modder, and he says it began with a easy “magic mod” for Darkish Souls 3, a challenge that blossomed into one thing way more bold.
Throughout his early streaming days, CouchJockey was impressed by no-hit runs of Darkish Souls 3 within the type of experts like HappyHob and Distortion2, who popularized the idea. He accomplished plenty of magic-focused hitless challenges over the subsequent few months, gaining fairly just a few followers within the course of. Nevertheless, after a whole bunch of hours enjoying Darkish Souls 3, a fellow participant named TigerG92 heard him complaining in regards to the lack of spell choices in a sure mod on-stream, and Tiger recommended that they fight making new spells themselves. That was the start of the Convergence.
The Souls collection on PC has come a good distance from the infamously damaged Darkish Souls 1 port, which could not even run larger than 30fps. A small however devoted modding neighborhood has fashioned round every recreation within the collection, and there are a handful of well-known, well-regarded mods for every entry, akin to Daughters of Ash for Darkish Souls 1 (in addition to the upcoming Dusk). If you happen to’re aware of Darkish Souls 3 modding, you’ve got definitely heard of the Convergence earlier than, and that is for a superb cause: It is a shockingly polished product, even by the excessive requirements of From Software program itself. Nevertheless, today, the Elden Ring incarnation of the mod is arguably better-known, even when it is nonetheless in improvement.
CouchJockey says that making a magic-themed modification for Darkish Souls 3 was a pure outgrowth of his streaming expertise. “I had already devoted about 3,000 hours to the sport,” he explains. “I already had a depth of information for it, in addition to some sturdy opinions about what may very well be higher about it.”
![This archdruid is one of Dark Souls 3 Convergence's most memorable fights.](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_super/1596/15969599/4184623-convergence.jpg)
Magic has at all times occupied a novel place within the Souls games–many gamers keep away from it solely, and it must be sturdy sufficient to be viable with out overpowering the melee fight that many view because the sturdy core of the collection. CouchJockey says that spell design is a “ripe design house” for Souls modders for 2 principal causes: The spells are comparatively simple to make, and those that enjoyment of mage builds usually really feel that the choices within the base recreation do not go far sufficient.
One of many Convergence’s boldest design selections is probably its most simple. With a purpose to make spellcasting extra viable, the mod repeatedly regenerates the participant’s FP. In vanilla Darkish Souls 3, gamers have to make use of an Ashen Estus Flask to refill the bar as a substitute. Although this allowed CouchJockey and his design group to make spells that price large quantities of mana with out penalty, the Elden Ring model of this mechanic is far slower than the DS3 equal. “We wished to produce other sources of FP [mana] regen as an essential facet of buff design,” CouchJockey explains. “We discovered that having some regen in any respect was ample to stop roadblocks.”
Convergence DS3 encompasses a frankly overwhelming variety of new spells, and plenty of of them belong to varsities of magic which are extra at dwelling in Skyrim than any Souls recreation. Cryomancy, aeromancy, geomancy, druidism, and darkish miracles are simply a number of the choices that you would be able to construct for, and you’ll select to focus on one or follow a basic combine. The sport’s two spellcasting stats of religion and intelligence every correspond to a number of of those colleges (typically each), although you finally should dump loads of assets right into a employees or different spell instrument to maximise your effectiveness with every faculty.
Although the enhancements to magic are ostensibly the main target of Convergence DS3, it has much more to supply than that. CouchJockey notes that the mod was the primary to implement a brand new map piece with its personal distinctive collisions–a important achievement, to make certain, and one achieved largely due to group member AronTheBaron. Convergence DS3 provides a stunning quantity of latest paths, enemies, and even distinctive boss battles to the bottom recreation. CouchJockey says that he is notably pleased with a kind of bosses, Archdruid Caimar, who makes use of animations from Sekiro’s Owl struggle to create a brand new problem for veteran gamers. It even has two ultra-hard variations of two current bosses, the Abyss Watchers and Yhorm the Big, as a capstone problem for true masochists on the market.
With all this mentioned, nevertheless, CouchJockey notes that the choice to make a model of the mod for Elden Ring was basically a no brainer, with intentions courting again to the sport’s announcement. Nevertheless, although the group initially wished to attend “just a few years” after launch for the modding scene to develop–and for From Software program to launch any and all potential DLCs–those plans have been scrubbed as soon as they really performed the sport for themselves.
![The Convergence Elden Ring still isn't done, but it's already one of the best mods for a From Software game ever.](https://www.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_super/1596/15969599/4184625-theconvergence.jpg)
As CouchJockey places it: “We felt very strongly that the sport may gain advantage from our type overhaul. Particularly when it comes to quality-of-life options, the truth that lots of the base recreation spell colleges felt unfinished, and the world map had a lot under-leveraged house. Basically, in our view, DS3 didn’t actually need the ‘Convergence therapy,’ however Elden Ring appeared to be crying out for it.”
Provided that Elden Ring’s modding scene continues to be in its nascent levels solely a 12 months after launch, CouchJockey says that the sport presents its personal issues when in comparison with DS3. He cites Elden Ring’s sheer measurement as the principle challenge–though the Convergence DS3 took 18 months to make, the ER model continues to be in alpha after a full 12 months of improvement. He says that the group is being extra picky with porting enemy fashions or weapons from different video games, although he acknowledges that the group makes use of animations from exterior titles due to restricted choice inside Elden Ring itself. Although he says {that a} positive steadiness is a key a part of the attraction of the Souls titles, the group is presently extra centered on including new content material than adjusting what’s there, just because it’s going to be simpler to steadiness when the entire items are in place.
Nonetheless, as a complete, CouchJockey describes Convergence ER’s improvement as continuing “forward of schedule,” whereas additionally noting that the shared title between the 2 mods does not appear to trigger a lot confusion. In line with him, the mod will add extra weapons, armor, spells, bosses, quests, and even new so-called “legacy dungeons” by the point it is completed.
It is unclear when that may occur, however provided that Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC hasn’t come out but, you’ll be able to anticipate it to proceed previous that. And regardless that it is nonetheless in alpha, CouchJockey is already fairly pleased with Convergence ER. After the group finishes this mod, most of them plan to discovered a brand new recreation studio with the intention to proceed their careers in recreation design. He cites the boss struggle with Skarde, Crucible’s Betrayer as a selected spotlight of the mod’s present state–if you have not performed it but, simply know that this boss lastly shuts Gideon up for good. If you happen to play Souls video games on PC, these are two mods which are positively value a look–especially in the event you wish to sling spells with one of the best of them.
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