Against the greatest dragon of the Elden Ring, even the Archdrake from Dark Souls 3 looks puny. Image: YouTube/Zullie the Witch
There’s an old fantasy saying that you shouldn’t wake up a sleeping dragon. But of course, most heroes can’t resist poking the snoring giant reptile with their sword and then defeating it in dramatic combat. This risky habit apparently also plagues dataminer Zullie The Witch in Elden Ring.
The world freezes when the dragon rises
What could go wrong if you wake up the colossal dragon Greyoll, who doesn’t actually become active in the Elden Ring? Well, you could crash the entire game world with it. And that’s actually a shame:
Elden Ring
The open world gives me an almost forgotten feeling
Who is Greyoll again? The mighty mother dragon slumbers quite peacefully in Caelid. She is protected by her significantly smaller, but still nasty dragon children, who really heat you up if you get too close. She’s an optional boss that you don’t fight directly – instead she loses a portion of her life for each Dragon Sprout defeated. In our guide we explain how it is even easier and you can get (well, almost) 70,000 runes in one fell swoop.
But thanks to Zullie’s work, you can actually mess with the dragon yourself. In a video, Zullie explains exactly how awakening works and what happens when you mess with Greyoll. It’s best to take a look for yourself:
link to YouTube content
Why can you wake up inactive NPCs?
Greyoll isn’t the only giant NPC Zullie has activated. The video also shows the giant Great-Jar vase suddenly rising. The fact that this works, although the creatures are intended more as background elements, has a simple reason that the video explains.
Elden Ring uses some enemy models in different size variants, Greyoll is the giant version of their babies, Great-Jar is a towering “Pot Boy”. And they not only share the look, but also the animations with their little doppelgangers – even if they don’t actually need them. In concrete terms, this means that Great-Jar stands up in the same way as a small jar.
Pot Boy became a fan favorite after the first Elden Ring trailer.
There’s even more to Greyoll: she even has actual combat animations complete with hitboxes. That means you can also use a mod to battle the largest dragon in the Elden Ring, at least in theory. In practice, the gigantic beast quickly crashes the entire game. The animations for the 180 meter long flying lizard simply require too much computing power, which is reflected in lags and finally in a complete freeze.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, Greyoll is a lot taller than Demon’s Souls’ Dragon God, which is said to be around 103 meters tall. The only dragon in the Souls games that might be bigger than that is the dead Gransax, though it’s not a real character model. How long will it take for modders to bring it to life anyway?
Elden Ring: View the Characters of the GS Editorial Team
Are you interested in the complex lore of Elden Ring? Then you can read with us why one of the hardest bosses is also the most tragic. And if you are looking for valuable tips for your trips into the wide world, then you are in good hands in our large guide collection for Elden Ring.
