Elden Ring Game Files Reveal A Bestiary May Have Been Planned
Ava Hudson
Updated on April 02, 2026
Elden Ring might actually have a bestiary planned for the game but it wasn’t added for some reason, a recent report reveals.
- MORE: How to Get to Church of Repose in Elden Ring
Elden Ring was undoubtedly one of the most hyped games for a while, and after a long wait, it was finally released last month. To no surprise, From Software delivered once again and in fact, managed to even surpass the expectations of both fans and critics. The game shares a number of core aspects with the other Souls games, but at the same time, it has some unique aspects which make it stand out. Apart from the open-world feature, there are various new mechanics which has added a nice little touch to the genre.
Elden Ring Game Files Reveal A Bestiary May Have Been Planned
According to Souls modder JesterPatches, Elden Ring was supposed to have a bestiary. Jester was going through the game files when he noticed that there are around 128 icons that represent the various NPCs in the game. There are two icons per NPC, one with a darker color tone. This could possibly mean that the icons were for NPCs who were discovered and not discovered. So all in all, there were icons for 64 NPCs.
So there are 64 unique icons. Ranging from regular soldiers, nobels, to animals, demi-humans, even Godskins and a few I don't even recognize, but I don't see any major bosses in here.
My favorites so far what I would assume are "Caelid Dog", "Caelid Crow" and the "Pigeon".
— JesterPatches (@JesterPatches) March 27, 2022
The modder states that the icons represent a large number of NPCs that are already present in the game. Notably, it is also stated that there were some who were new to him, so it could mean that there were certain NPCs that were possibly omitted from the game. As far as the bosses are concerned, they were not a part of the Bestiary, which does make sense to some extent.
While the Bestiary is not present in Elden Ring, a number of players have voiced their concerns over its absence. That being said, it does make sense as to why developers didn’t add it to the game. From Software games are known to have a mystery around them, so it could very much mean that a bestiary would take away the very essence of the genre.
