Elden Ring allows players to team up with their friends in co-op to explore the Lands Between together, slaying bosses and finding secrets. However, starting an Elden Ring co-op session leaves one open to attack from PvP invaders. These PvP invaders can cause real problems for Elden Ring players by killing them and ruining their progress in a certain area, but some are especially nefarious.

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Reddit user PeatzzzZ recently had an encounter with an Elden Ring PvP invader who dropped an item in their game world. Upon picking up the item, PeatzzzZ discovered that it was the Brave’s Cord Circlet, something that isn’t obtainable in the game through normal methods. While the Brave’s Cord Circlet has a description and stats, it’s an item that was cut from the game and players aren’t able to get it through actual gameplay. FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have been known to ban players for having these kinds of hacked items in their inventory, and so it’s likely that PeatzzzZ will face some consequences even though it’s not really their fault that they have it.

Elden Ring’s online features are a huge part of the experience, so it would be very unfortunate to get banned for a mistake like this. But because this issue exists, it’s best for Elden Ring players to be cautious whenever picking up items for strangers, especially PvP invaders with malicious intent.

Not all Elden Ring PvP invaders drop items that can get others banned from the game, of course. There are some that have used Elden Ring PvP invasions to drop humorous items for host players and their co-op partners to collect. For example, one fan was pretending to be an Elden Ring Door Dasher, popping into other players’ games, dropping a Boiled Crab, and then leaving.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the Elden Ring PvP experience evolves moving forward. Rumor has it that leaked Elden Ring DLC will have a PvP-focus, but no official details about it have been announced at the time of this writing.

Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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