Summary
The Spirit-Caller Snail is a unique enemy inElden Ringthat raises the stakes of encounters thanks to a subterfuge utilized by no other hostile creature. This is because in most encounters, players will be pitted against other bosses, like thepowerful Crucible Knightsor the Godskin Duo, in seemingly never-ending gauntlets before ever seeing the Spirit-Caller Snail.
With two encounters against the Spirit-Caller Snail tucked away in obscure optional dungeons, it’s likely that players will have already run into the enemies that accompany this boss in one of their previous iterations throughoutElden Ring. That familiarity with these companion enemies then helps to emphasize the surprise that comes the first time one of the additional bosses is dealt with.
The Spirit-Caller Snail’s Backup Goes Beyond the Norm for Duo Bosses
Bait-and-Switch Post Victory
Regardless of which Spirit-Caller Snail is encountered first, players will have little idea of what is in store for them, although there are some context clues that hint at trouble brewing. For one, players will be greeted by an enemy that they’ve likely fought already at this point, either taking the form of a Crucible Knight or theElden Ring’s imposing Godskin Apostle. However, while fighting what appears to be the boss, the health bar at the bottom of the screen fails to move in any meaningful way, all the way until the player manages to come out victorious against one of these two difficult enemy types. Then the Spirit-Caller Snail reveals the trick, by immediately summoning a new enemy for the player to face, equally as difficult as the one they’ve already dealt with.
In the case of the boss at theend of the Spiritcaller Cave, some of the spectacle has already been given away, even if there is no way to shut down the fight early in this encounter. However, for the version in Road’s End Catacombs that summons the Crucible Knight, there is almost no warning that a second Crucible Knight is set to appear after the death of the first one. It’s one of the best examples of a bait-and-switch inElden Ring, as players are likely to be caught somewhat off-guard by the sudden appearance of a second boss, whether it be a Crucible Knight of a Godskin Noble.
Elden Ring’s Bosses Continue to Use the Player’s Toolkit, But Better
As is often the case for any FromSoftware title, the spectacle of this boss goes well beyond the mechanics of the encounter or the difficulty of the fight. For the Spirit-Caller Snail, this comes down to the way that the boss is capable of mimicking a player ability, but with much more powerful results than a Tarnished could hope to achieve. This is the ability to summon spirits with the aid of Spirit Ashes andthe Spirit Calling Bell granted by Ranniearly on inElden Ring.
The Spirit-Caller Snail isn’t even the only enemy to use the Spirit Calling Bell’s abilities, asCommander Niall also summons spirit companionsat the start of his fight as well. However, while Niall is able to summon the same types of enemies that players are able to, a pair of Banished Knights, the strength of his bell seems to be similarly limited to more ordinary enemies. This is what separates the Spirit-Caller Snail from the player and similar enemies, because these creatures are capable of summoning boss-level enemies to come assist them.
Giving the Spirit-Caller Snails such a powerful ability has interesting lore implications, and could even hint to how the people of The Lands Between discovered spirit summoning in the first place. It is possible that the bells held by the player and Commanders Niall and O’Neil are imitations of the natural abilities of the Spirit-Calling Snails. This is another example of howElden Ring’s lore still has secretsfor players to uncover, even two whole years after launch.
Elden Ring
WHERE TO PLAY
ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
