It seems like every day we learn about some new piece of Elden Ring content that didn’t survive to launch, but this one is a doozy. At some point in the game’s development, acquiring the potent Mimic Tear summon would have apparently required completion of a lengthy questline.
Earlier this month, Elden Ring archaeologist Nullrinn released a detailed video in which they dig into the game’s files to recreate an unused quest, complete with voice acting, involving a sentient Silver Tear enemy. Asimi, as the blob would have called itself, originally met you at a shack occupied only by a painting in the final game. Tarnished intrigued by Asimi’s promise of “strength untold” were prompted to literally ingest the amorphous creature, allowing it to travel within them as a would-be parasite.
What followed was Asimi’s attempts to find special chalices in Elden Ring’s two Eternal City locations. Drinking from these chalices—icons of which still linger in the game’s files—rejuvenated Asimi and let it “form a perfect whole.” Asimi would then leave the player’s body as an identical clone of their character and, sometime later, attack them to take the Tarnished’s place as potential Elden Lord.
Many believe completing Asimi’s story was the original path by which Elden Ring players acquired the Mimic Tear spirit ashes. Although no data exists to prove this theory, it only makes sense. As the game works now, this summon is simply waiting in a chest behind an imp statue seal, a rather anticlimactic method for rewarding Elden Ring players with the game’s most powerful spirit ashes. Wouldn’t it have been more fitting to put them at the end of a cool quest?
As with pretty much every video game in existence, it’s clear that sacrifices had to be made to get Elden Ring out the door. And that’s totally fine, of course. The game is still a wonderful, immense adventure in the trademark FromSoftware style, with tons still left to discover. But this cut storyline would have no doubt made the Mimic Tear’s usefulness more understandable (not to mention more narratively meaningful) in the long run.
