Elden Ring’s vibrating heartbeat mystery might be solved

A mysterious controller vibration mimicking a heartbeat has been driving Elden Ring players crazy. However, one keen-eyed fan has claimed they’ve finally worked out the source of the pulsing.

If you’ve been playing Shadow of the Erdtree and felt your controller vibrate at random times while exploring the map, don’t worry, you’re not imagining things. Reasoning has been provided to solve the mystery via a post from a player on X/Twitter.

While exploring Shadow of the Erdtree, me and many others have noticed the controller will sometimes randomly(?) vibrate in a kind of "heartbeat" pulse. No one seems to have figured out what it means yet.

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) June 22, 2024

The mysterious vibrating has driven Elden Ring players up the wall in their Shadow of the Erdtree playthroughs. This has led to fans thinking it’s either a secret quest, a glitch, or the intensity of the DLC might have proved too much for their controllers.

“I thought I was crazy. I started the game over so I’m not by Mohg yet, but I’ve been hearing actual audible heartbeats in Limgrave and Liurnia,” one player said.

Another added, “That’s from the game? I genuinely thought my controller was breaking.”

Many players have thought the vibration issue may be exclusive to the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller after using it to play the DLC, “Could something be unintentionally triggering the haptic feedback somehow?”

Depending on your point of view, the source is either disappointing or relieving as it may be just a nearby enemy’s attack. According to one player, Bloodfiends, large Omen-like enemies you can find early in some settlements in Shadow of the Erdtree, possess a wind-up attack that causes controllers to vibrate.

“The Bloodfiends do this charge where they drag their weapon across the ground. It seems if the ones fighting in the first area (South of Castle Ensis) are spawned in and fighting you’ll feel it if you’re in range,” they stated in a reply.

Oh, I figured this out in my playthrough because it drove me nuts.

The Bloodfiends do this charge where they drag their weapon across the ground. It seems if the ones fighting in the first area (South of Castle Ensis) are spawned in and fighting you'll feel it if youre in range.

— Peeve (@Peeverson) June 22, 2024

Though rather anti-climactic, the alternative potentially being a silent quest where you would follow the intensity of the heartbeat vibration until you find the source does make this reveal rather dull.

“It’s either a glitch or meant to bleed through because you’re close to them. Wouldn’t be the first time things bled through and got patched out.” one player alternatively suggested, noting the range of the vibration of the attack pulls into question whether the effect is intentional.

Shadow of the Erdtree is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, and players are calling the massive DLC “Elden Ring 2”.