Elden Ring’s Mad Pumpkin Head Showcases the Power of Positioning

The Mad Pumpkin Head is a boss that players are likely to find early enough in Elden Ring for the lessons the encounter teaches to have a significant impact. This early lesson comes mostly from the way that the Mad Pumpkin Head can mess with Elden Ring’s camera and the player’s reliance on keeping it focused on enemies.

Careful positioning has been a major contributor to player success across the entire Soulsborne series, with calculating where a dodge will leave the Tarnished sometimes being as important as timing the input perfectly. Since the same trend continues into Elden Ring, an early boss like Mad Pumpkin Head is a great way to get new players up to speed with how much of an impact positioning will have on performance.

Related

The Elden Ring DLC Wait Has Started Another Absurd Community Challenge

With no release date for Shadow of the Erdtree in sight, a determined Elden Ring player is facing Godfrey every day until the DLC is out.

The Importance of Players’ Location and Positioning

Mad Pumpkin Head Teaches Proper Positioning

The key to fighting the Mad Pumpkin Head and its lesser variants comes from avoiding the giant pumpkin helmet that the boss is named after. Given that this helmet is the only armor that the Mad Pumpkin Head wears, it should be little surprise to find that any attack that connects with it will deal heavily reduced damage. Some attacks can even bounce off of the helmet entirely, depending on the type of damage being inflicted and how effectively the player character can wield their current weapon.

In order to get around this defensive point, a player’s best strategy is to get around the advantage by sidestepping completely behind the Mad Pumpkin Head. Of course, the tight enemy tracking in Elden Ring does make this solution difficult to maintain for extended periods of time, or even to fully get completely behind the boss in the first place. So, dodging towards and behind the Mad Pumpkin Head right as an attack is about to land is usually the best option, as this will leave the player in the perfect position to counter without worrying too much about the helmet.

Mastering Weapon Movesets

A second key skill that the Mad Pumpkin Head is able to hammer home for the player is mastery of their own weapons. While it is possible to get through the game flailing around wildly with whatever attack will fit in a given punish window, mastery of a moveset will always lead to more successful encounters with enemies and bosses. In the case of the Mad Pumpkin Head, this means choosing weapons like Elden Ring‘s halberds that have a wide, horizontal swing to swipe under the helmet and avoiding the need to position behind in the first place.

Mastery of a weapon can also help mitigate the risk of striking the Mad Pumpkin Head’s helmet and deflecting off the armor. Considering that this type of reaction can easily lead to getting hit with a massive counter by the boss, avoiding this state is a key factor to staying alive throughout the fight. So, if players have access to something like a Moonveil’s light Unsheath attack, then it might be best to stick to those attacks entirely. Otherwise, waiting for the proper position is the key when a weapon’s moveset doesn’t allow for frequent attacks.

Elden Ring Breaks the Soulsborne Lock-On Crutch

A common issue that players run into across the entire Soulsborne series is becoming overly reliant on the lock-on system in order to make sure their attacks are connecting with enemies. However, in many cases, the lock-on system in Elden Ring can be as detrimental as it is helpful, as it struggles to follow giant, fast-moving enemies across an arena. In the case of Mad Pumpkin Head, this comes in the form of the lock-on system forcing attacks to hit the helmet. The result is a situation where aiming freely without the lock-on could lead to delivering better damage than relying on the system to target the enemy normally can.

Elden Ring

$20 $40 Save $20

Elden Ring is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set in a world co-created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the influential Dark Souls video game series, and George R.R. Martin, the author of the best-selling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. This collaboration between two renowned creators has resulted in FromSoftware’s largest game to date, filled with danger and discovery at every turn. Hidetaka Miyazaki, president and game director of FromSoftware, has a history of directing highly acclaimed games in franchises such as Armored Core and Dark Souls.

Released

February 25, 2022

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op , Online Multiplayer

Engine

Proprietary

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

How Long To Beat

58 Hours

Metascore

96

Platforms That Support Crossplay

PS4 & PS5 and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

PS Plus Availability

N/A

MORE: Unlucky Elden Ring Player Has Their Epic Dragon Fight Ruined By an Unlikely Source