An Elden Ring hacker that has been causing other players to receive bans says his actions are a “necessary evil” and wants to get caught.
Elden Ring FAQ: Every Guide You’ll Need
The infamous hacker began causing havoc in Dark Souls, but now Malcolm Reynolds has returned. Sadly, it’s not the Firefly character that is causing all the mayhem. Well, at least I think it’s not.
Reynolds has been invading players’ games over the years and now in Elden Ring, which has caused the players being invaded to receive soft bans.
How is he getting players banned?
When invading unsuspecting players, not only does he kill the player with overpowered spells, but his spells are hacked to place an invalid item in the player’s inventory. This results in a soft ban by FromSoftware. Furthermore, Malcolm Reyolds does not receive a ban.
The item placed in the inventory is called “Pavel” and while this item is within Elden Ring’s coding, it’s not in the actual game. So as an invalid item, the game believes that the invaded player is cheating and then gets banned.
Why is the hacker doing this?
Speaking to Kotaku, Reynolds claims that he’s exposing Elden Ring’s flawed anti-cheat system which can apparently be easily exploited. As proven by the hacker himself.
Reynolds believes that his actions are a “necessary evil.” Though as flawed as the anti-cheat system might be, I think the player who has bought Elden Ring getting banned for no fault of their own, might think differently.
“How you manage to bypass Easy Anti-Cheat is another thing,” Reynolds told Kotaku. “There’s basically a mask over the anti-cheat. While this mask is on the game [only] cares about ‘who it is’ and ‘what it’s doing,’ but once you take that mask off the anti-cheat, the game doesn’t care who it is anymore.”
Reynolds’ added: “I’m necessary evil. You might be asking if getting caught is part of the plan, and yes, it is. If I pull it off will the game die? I don’t think so, but maybe Bandai will fix it. Time to go mobile.”
Is he a necessary evil?
Malcolm Reynolds uploaded a video of his antics to YouTube, and the comments are full of players not agreeing with his motives. In fact, it appears to be overwhelmingly against what he claims to be doing.
“I appreciate that this is to raise awareness of a broken system, but this seems less like trying to teach someone about a problem, and more like an excuse to ruin people’s experience with a game they want to play, “ said a commenter on the video.
“Necessary evils tend to be less necessary than their perpetrators believe. The anti-cheat is a problem, but at what point do your actions stop being an example, and start being a part of the problem you’re complaining about?”
Apparently, there are some comments on the video that support the actions of Malcolm Reynolds, but you’ll have to do quite a bit of scrolling to find them. My advice, if you realise your being invaded by this player, it might be best to quickly exit the game before being attacked.
What are your thoughts on the Elden Ring hacker, is he really a necessary evil? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: FromSoftware