Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s premier open-world game, with literally hundreds of areas to explore and bosses to defeat. The scale of Lands Between is overwhelming at times, and you’ll no doubt need to take a break at some point. Like many Souls-likes, just opening the menu doesn’t stop the action, so is there a way to pause everything in Elden Ring? The answer is complicated.
How to Pause the Game in Elden Ring
Elden Ring does not have a “traditional” pause button. Opening the menu to change gear, check your character’s status, or check your inventory stops nothing. You can even walk around with it open. FOR Actually pause Elden Ring, open any menu, save settings, then press the Help button and finally select Menu Explanation. You will find the corresponding help message at the bottom of the menu screen.
Gamepur screenshot
Once the menu explanation opens, Elden Ring officially shuts down. Neither you nor anything in the game world will be able to move, interact or anything else. In fact, pausing Elden Ring using this method disables all input you can make except pressing Close.
There’s a catch: if you’ve summoned a friend or a random yellow ghost to help you, or if there’s an invader and/or hunter in your world, you won’t be able to pause the game. The old joke about pausing an online game also applies to Elden Ring. To reactivate the pause, you will need to:
- Send your ghosts home with Finger Severer
- Defeat the area boss to make ghosts come home naturally.
- Defeat the invader and send your ghosts home
In other words, if you are playing online, you cannot suspend Elden Ring. And while you can play solo, we still recommend exiting the main menu. Elden Ring automatically saves every time you do, making it safer to exit to protect both your character and save files.
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