Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff has indicated that the company’s controversial Search Party feature might not always be just for lost dogs, . A creepy surveillance tool being used to surveil. Who could ?
“I believe that the foundation we created with Search Party, first for finding dogs, will end up becoming one of the most important pieces of tech and innovation to truly unlock the impact of our mission,” Siminoff wrote in an email to staffers. “You can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods. So many things to do to get there but for the first time ever we have the chance to fully complete what we started.”
The words “zero out crime in neighborhoods” are particularly troubling. It is, however, worth noting that this is just an email and doesn’t necessarily indicate a plan by the company. Siminoff wrote the email back in October when , which was months . He did end the thread by noting he couldn’t “wait to show everyone else all the exciting things we are building over the years to come.”
One of those things could be the recently-launched “Familiar Faces” tool, which uses facial recognition to identify people that wander into the frame of a Ring camera. It seems to me that a combination of the Search Party tech, which uses the combined might of connected Ring cameras, with the Familiar Faces tech could make for a very powerful surveillance tool that excels at finding specific individuals.
Siminoff also suggested in an earlier email to staffers that Ring technology could have been used to catch Charlie Kirk’s killer by leveraging the company’s Community Requests feature. This is a tool that allows cops to ask camera owners for footage, thanks to a partnership with the police tech company Axon.
Ring had via a partnership with a surveillance company called Flock Safety. The companies after a Super Bowl ad spotlighting the Search Party tool triggered public outcry. Ring didn’t cite public sentiment for this decision, rather saying the integration would require “significantly more time and resources than anticipated.”
Ring has responded to 404 Media’s reporting, saying in an email that Search Party “does not process human biometrics or track people” and that “sharing has always been the camera owner’s choice.” This response did not provide any information as to what the future will hold for the company’s toolset.
The organization has been . “Our mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods has been at the core of everything we do at Ring,” founding chief Jamie Siminoff said when Amazon back in 2018.
In a striking strategic pivot, Amazon’s Ring has officially called off its planned partnership with police surveillance provider Flock Safety.
The decision marks a sudden retreat from a collaboration that would have significantly expanded law enforcement access to private doorbell footage.
While Ring officially claims the integration was scrapped because it required “significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” the move follows a week of intense public scrutiny and a high-profile marketing blunder.
The primary catalyst for the backlash was a 30-second advertisement aired during the Super Bowl. The ad touted Ring’s “Search Party” feature, demonstrating how the company’s AI can “surveil” a neighbourhood to help locate a lost dog.
While intended to showcase a helpful community tool, the imagery of a co-ordinated, AI-powered neighbourhood sweep struck a nerve. In today’s political climate, critics quickly voiced fears that technology designed to identify pets could effortlessly be repurposed to track humans, effectively turning suburban streets into a dragnet for state surveillance.
Public anxiety was further heightened by Ring’s recent rollout of facial recognition capabilities. To many, the “Search Party” ad felt like a short leap toward a permanent surveillance infrastructure. This outcry led many users to begin disabling the feature entirely, signalling a breakdown in trust.
The partnership with Flock Safety, a company best known for automatic licence plate readers and a centralized database used by agencies like ICE, only amplified these concerns, as it would have allowed police to bypass certain warrants by requesting footage directly through Ring’s platform.
Ring had previously faced criticism for sharing videos with law enforcement without court orders, a practice it appeared to drop in 2024. The Flock alliance was seen by many as a quiet return to those police-friendly policies.
By calling off the deal, Ring and Flock have avoided a deepening controversy, though the “Search Party” backlash highlights a growing tension between consumer convenience and the encroaching reality of neighbourhood surveillance. For now, Ring insists the decision was mutual and that no customer footage was ever shared with Flock.
The head of Instagram has defended his platform against claims it caused mental health damage to minors, arguing in a California court that even seemingly excessive use of social media does not equal an addiction. Adam Mosseri, who has led Instagram for eight years, testified in the landmark trial that began this week in Los Angeles, making him the first high-profile executive to appear. It is expected to last six weeks, and serve as a test of legal arguments aimed at holding tech firms accountable for impacts on young people. BBC
The world is in peril,” warned the former head of Anthropic’s Safeguards Research team as he headed for the exit. A researcher for OpenAI, similarly on the way out, said that the technology has “a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.” They’re part of a wave of artificial intelligence researchers and executives who aren’t just leaving their employers — they’re loudly ringing the alarm bell on the way out. CNN
Decades after the first demonstration of brain computer interfaces, we have reached a “tipping point” in creating the first reliable devices that can read our thoughts, according to the man who pioneered the technology. Professor John Donoghue, who developed BrainGate – the first “brain chip” – at Brown University in Rhode Island, has just shared in the Queen Elizabeth Prize, the world’s preeminent engineering award, in recognition of his work to “unlock” the minds of people with paralysis. Sky News
The person behind an anonymous social media account that posts AI videos of UK politicians has been identified as a man who has spent time in prison for multiple hate crimes directed towards Jewish people. Joshua Bonehill-Paine was identified by Channel 4 News as the owner of Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical X account that created AI videos depicting politicians such as Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham apparently singing popular songs from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Barry Manilow and Elton John with altered, politically themed lyrics. Guardian
Ring’s new Search Party featurehas once again drawn backlash for the company. A 30-second ad that aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl showed Ring cameras “surveilling” neighborhoods to locate a lost dog. In the current political climate, a prime-time ad celebrating neighborhood surveillance struck a nerve. People voiced concerns across social media that the AI-powered technology Ring uses to identify dogs could soon be used to search for humans. Combined with Ring’s recent rollout of its new facial recognition capability, it feels like a short leap for a pet-finding feature to be turned into a tool for state surveillance. The Verge
Image: Foundry
Apple has just released iOS 26.3 to iPhones everywhere, and as expected, it’s a relatively small update. With iOS 26.4 already on the horizon, and rumored to introduce substantial changes, including a Gemini-powered Siri, this release is more about incremental improvements that set the stage for big upcoming changes. That said, iOS 26.3 still introduces a few notable additions, especially when it comes to device switching, privacy, and new capabilities for users in the EU. Read on as we break down everything new in iOS 26.3. MacWorld
Security camera company Ring has launched a new public tool to help people determine if a given video has been edited in some way, including with generative AI technology. And while the tool has some limitations, it’s a step in the right direction that all video platforms should be working on to help us determine what’s real in the AI age.
Users can visit the Ring Verify landing page and upload any Ring video that they’re wondering about. The company describes its system like a “security seal on a package.” If even a second has been edited out or it’s been cropped, the “seal breaks,” as it were.
“Ring Verify works for all Ring videos, no matter which Ring device recorded them,” the company said in a blog post announcing the program. “There’s nothing to set up—it’s automatically included with every video that was downloaded from December 2025 moving forward. Whether you’re receiving footage from a neighbor, reviewing a video for a claim, or checking that a shared video is the real deal, you can now verify it’s authentic Ring footage that hasn’t been tampered with.”
A spokesperson for Ring told Gizmodo that the feature, “was built using C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) protocol, which aims to prove the content authentically came from a given source (Ring), and does operate using a metadata signature.” That signature only works to tell whether something is definitively authentic, and users can’t necessarily call anything that isn’t verified “fake.” But it’s a helpful way to quickly check if a video shared with you has been tampered with.
As the Verge points out, this new tool doesn’t really help with the most common potential use case. If you’re wondering whether that home security camera footage you’re seeing on TikTok or Instagram is real, this isn’t going to tell you that. And that’s a shame. Because security camera footage is some of the most difficult AI-generated footage to parse when it comes to authenticity.
The common fisheye warp of a security camera or the nighttime pixelation that’s expected from home cameras is often used to hide the telltale signs that a given video has been manipulated. But if you upload a video you found on TikTok or Instagram it’s likely to have been edited in some way (either by length or aspect ratio) which will mean the Verify tool will tell you it’s been altered. However, those alterations don’t necessarily mean that it’s AI.
Google has a digital watermark program called SynthID that recently became accessible to all users on Gemini. Uploading an image to Gemini, it will be able to tell you whether the image was created using Google’s AI generator tools. But, again, the capabilities there are limited. Just because it’s missing the invisible watermark doesn’t mean that it’s “real.” It just means Google didn’t help create it.
These tools are admittedly imperfect, but at least it’s something for the time being. Because AI generated images are getting scary good. And everyone now has to be on their toes. AI fakes aren’t going away anytime soon. And you really can’t blindly believe anything you see on the internet anymore.
True Ventures co-founder Jon Callaghan doesn’t think we’ll be using smartphones the way we do now in five years — and maybe not at all in 10.
For a venture capitalist whose firm has had some big winners over its two decades – from consumer brands like Fitbit, Ring, and Peloton, to enterprise software makers HashiCorp and Duo Security – that’s more than armchair theorizing; it’s a thesis on which True Ventures is actively betting.
True hasn’t gotten this far by following the crowd. The Bay Area firm has largely operated under the radar despite managing roughly $6 billion across 12 core seed funds and four “select,” opportunity-style funds that it has used to pour more capital into portfolio companies that are gaining momentum. While other VCs have grown more promotional – building personal brands on social media and podcasts to attract founders and deal flow – True has gone in the opposite direction, quietly cultivating a tight network of repeat founders. The strategy seems to be working: according to Callaghan, the firm boasts 63 exits with gains and seven IPOs amid a portfolio of some 300 companies assembled over its 20-year history.
Three of True’s four recent exits in the fourth quarter of 2025 involved repeat founders who came back to work with the firm again after previous successes, says Callaghan. Still, it’s Callaghan’s thinking about the future of human-computer interaction that really stands out in a sea of AI hype and mega-rounds.
“We’re not going to be using iPhones in 10 years,” Callaghan says flatly. “I kind of don’t think we’ll be using them in five years – or let’s say something different that’s a little safer – we’re going to be using them in very different ways.”
His argument is simple: our phones are lousy at being the interface between humans and intelligence. “The way we take them out right now to send a text to confirm this or send you some message or write an email – [that’s] super inefficient, [and] not a great interface,” he explains. “[They’re] prone to error, prone to disruption [of] our normal lives.”
So sure is he of this that True has been spending years exploring alternative interfaces – software-based, hardware-based, everything in between. It’s the same instinct that led True to bet early on Fitbit before wearables were obvious, to invest in Peloton after hundreds of other VCs said ‘no thanks,’ and to back Ring when founder Jamie Siminoff kept running out of money and even the judges on “Shark Tank” turned him away. Each time, the bet looked questionable, says Callaghan. Each time, the bet was on a new way for humans to interact with technology that felt more natural than what came before.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026
The latest manifestation of this thesis is Sandbar, a hardware device that Callaghan describes as a “thought companion” — or, in more mundane terms, a voice-activated ring worn on the index finger. Its singular purpose: capturing and organizing your thoughts through voice notes. It’s not trying to be another Humane AI Pin or compete with Oura’s health tracking. “It does one thing really well,” Callaghan says. “But that one thing is a fundamental human behavioral need that is missing from technology today.”
The idea isn’t to passively record ambient audio but to be there when an idea strikes, serving as a kind of thought partner. It’s attached to an app, leverages AI, and, according to Callaghan, represents a very different philosophy about how we should interact with intelligence.
What drew True to Sandbar founders Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong wasn’t just the product, though. “When we met Mina, we were just absolutely aligned on vision,” Callaghan recalls. True’s team had already been thinking for years about alternative interfaces, making targeted investments around that possibility. They’d met with dozens of founders, as a result. But the approach of Fahmi and Hong – who previously worked together on neural interfaces at CTRL-Labs, a startup acquired by Meta in 2019 – stood out. “It’s about what [the ring] enables. It’s about the behavior it enables that we will very soon realize we can’t live without.”
There’s an echo here of Callaghan’s old line about Peloton: “It’s not about the bike.” To some, the bike – even its earliest iteration – was compelling. But Peloton was really about the behavior it enabled and the community it created; the bike was just the vessel.
This philosophy of betting on new behaviors — not just new gadgets — also explains how True has managed to stay disciplined about capital. Even as AI startups raise hundreds of millions at billion-dollar valuations out of the gate, True insists that it’s able to stick to what it does best, which is to write seed checks of $3 million to $6 million for 15% to 20% ownership in startups that it often gets to see first.
Callaghan says True will raise more money to fund what’s working, but he’s not interested in raising billions of dollars. “Like, why? You don’t need that to build something amazing today.”
That same measured approach colors his view of the broader AI boom. While he says (when asked) that he believes OpenAI could soon be worth a trillion dollars, and while he calls this the most powerful compute wave we’ve seen, Callaghan sees warning signs in the circular financing deals backing hyperscalers and their $5 trillion in projected CapEx spending on data centers and chips. “We’re in a very capital intense part of the cycle, and that is worrisome,” he notes.
That said, he’s optimistic about where the real opportunities lie. Callaghan thinks the greatest value creation is ahead of us – not in the infrastructure layer but in the application layer, where new interfaces will enable entirely new behaviors.
It all comes back to his core investing philosophy, which sounds almost romantic — the kind of pitch-perfect VC wisdom that would ring hollow from most people: “It should be scary and lonely and you should be called crazy,” Callaghan says about early-stage investing done right. “And it should be really blurry and ambiguous, but you should be with a team that you really believe in.” Five to ten years later, he says, you’ll know if you were on to something.
Either way, based on True’s track record of betting on hardware that many others missed – fitness trackers, connected bikes, smart doorbells, and now thought-capturing rings – it’s worth paying attention when Callaghan says the phone’s days are numbered. Being early is the whole point — and the trend lines support his thesis: the smartphone market is effectively saturated, growing at barely 2% annually, while wearables — smartwatches, rings, and voice-enabled devices — are expanding at double-digit rates.
Something’s shifting in how we want to interact with technology, and True is placing its bets accordingly.
Pictured above, Sandbar’s Stream ring. For much more from our conversation with Callaghan, tune in to the StrictlyVC Download podcast next week; new episodes drop every Tuesday.
Beating Google to the announcement of new smart home devices by a day, Amazon today unveiled a family of new Ring doorbell cameras with “Retinal Vision”—all powered by its more intelligent and conversational Alexa+, of course. Amazon also announced new Bli
If you haven’t been paying attention to camera-equipped home doorbells and smart cameras that infused with AI and computer vision, new Ring cameras can send AI summary notifications that describe what’s happening in footage. No more parsing through hours and hours of footage to find a specific clip.
New products announced at Amazon’s event include the $180 Wired Doobell Plus 2K, $60 Indoor Cam Plus 2K, $200 Outdoor Cam Pro 4K, $250 Spotlight Cma Pro 4K, $$250 Wired Doorbell Pro 4K, and $280 Floodlight Cam Pro 4K. Yeah, that’s a lot of cameras.
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who rejoined Amazon earlier this year, said with “Retinal Vision,” Ring doorbell cameras will be able to see better in low light and come with 10x enhanced zoom. A feature called “Retinal Tuning” allows Ring’s new smart cameras to record even better video with color night vision.
“Ring reimagined what the doorbell could be, but it’s now redefining what home security should be,” said Amazon hardware chief Panos Panay.
On the Blink home security camera front, there’s the new $50 Blink Mini 2K+ and $90 Blink Outdoor 2K+. The cameras have 2K-resolution video, 4x zoom, color night vision, and improved audio capture with noise cancellation. Amazon says the batteries in the Blink cameras “last years.”
Then, there’s the $100 Blink Arc, a security system with two cameras that cover two high-res video feeds to create a 180-degree panoramic view. “No more blind spots,” Amazon claims.
If you’ve been considering a video doorbell for your front door, Prime Day deals may have just what you’re looking for at a good price. A great deal already available is on the latest Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, which is 47 percent off and down to only $80.
The Battery Doorbell Plus offers a 150-by-150-degree “head to toe” field of vision and 1536p high-resolution video. This makes it a lot easier to see boxes dropped off at your front door since it doesn’t cut off the bottom of the image like a lot of video doorbells.
Ring
Pick one up now for almost half off ahead of Prime Day.
This model features motion detection, privacy zones, color night vision and Live View with two-way talk, among other features. Installation is a breeze since you don’t have to hardwire it to your existing doorbell wiring. Most users report that the battery lasts between several weeks and several months depending on how users set up the video doorbell, with power-heavy features like motion detection consuming more battery life.
With most video doorbells today, you need a subscription to get the most out of them, and Ring is no exception. Features like package alerts require a Ring Home plan, with tiers ranging from Basic for $5 per month to Premium for $20 per month. You’ll also need a plan to store your video event history.
Former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton, who rose to become one of the most popular fighters in the sport, has died. He was 46.Hatton was found dead at his home in Greater Manchester, Britain’s Press Association reported Sunday.Police said they are not treating the death as suspicious.”Officers were called by a member of the public to attend Bowlacre Road, Hyde, Tameside, at 6:45am today where they found the body of a 46-year-old man,” Greater Manchester Police said in a statement. “There are not currently believed to be any suspicious circumstances.”Police would not reveal the identity of the man, but said they were working with his family to provide a statement for media.Friends of Hatton were quick to pay tribute Sunday morning. “Today we lost not only one of Britain’s greatest boxers, but a friend, a mentor, a warrior, Ricky Hatton,” said another former world champion, Amir Khan on X.”Rip to the legend Ricky Hatton may he rip,” former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said in an Instagram post, with photos of the pair together. “There will only ever be 1 Ricky Hatton. can’t believe this so young.”News of Hatton’s death comes two months after he announced he would make a return to boxing in December in a professional bout against Eisa Al Dah in Dubai.Hatton won world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight.He rose through amateur and domestic levels and at the height of his career shared the ring with the best boxers of his generation, including Kostya Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.Hatton’s down-to-earth demeanor also endeared him to fans across the world, and he was open about the mental health issues he endured upon his retirement from the ring.”As fighters, we tell ourselves we’re strong — we train, we sweat, we take hits, we get up. But sometimes the hardest fight happens in silence, in the mind,” Khan added on X. “Mental health isn’t weakness. It’s part of being human. And we must talk about it. We must reach out. We must lean on each other.”Hatton went on to become a trainer, coaching Zhanat Zhakiyanov to a world bantamweight title win in 2017.
MANCHESTER, England —
Former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton, who rose to become one of the most popular fighters in the sport, has died. He was 46.
Hatton was found dead at his home in Greater Manchester, Britain’s Press Association reported Sunday.
Police said they are not treating the death as suspicious.
“Officers were called by a member of the public to attend Bowlacre Road, Hyde, Tameside, at 6:45am today where they found the body of a 46-year-old man,” Greater Manchester Police said in a statement. “There are not currently believed to be any suspicious circumstances.”
Police would not reveal the identity of the man, but said they were working with his family to provide a statement for media.
Friends of Hatton were quick to pay tribute Sunday morning.
“Today we lost not only one of Britain’s greatest boxers, but a friend, a mentor, a warrior, Ricky Hatton,” said another former world champion, Amir Khan on X.
“Rip to the legend Ricky Hatton may he rip,” former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said in an Instagram post, with photos of the pair together. “There will only ever be 1 Ricky Hatton. can’t believe this so young.”
News of Hatton’s death comes two months after he announced he would make a return to boxing in December in a professional bout against Eisa Al Dah in Dubai.
Hatton won world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight.
He rose through amateur and domestic levels and at the height of his career shared the ring with the best boxers of his generation, including Kostya Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Hatton’s down-to-earth demeanor also endeared him to fans across the world, and he was open about the mental health issues he endured upon his retirement from the ring.
“As fighters, we tell ourselves we’re strong — we train, we sweat, we take hits, we get up. But sometimes the hardest fight happens in silence, in the mind,” Khan added on X. “Mental health isn’t weakness. It’s part of being human. And we must talk about it. We must reach out. We must lean on each other.”
Hatton went on to become a trainer, coaching Zhanat Zhakiyanov to a world bantamweight title win in 2017.
The Hays County Pet Resource Center is now a part of Neighbors by Ring, a public safety mobile app to share hyperlocal updates with Ring camera users in Hays County. Ring aims to connect residents with public safety agencies through the Neighbors App to create safer, more informed communities.
Was anyone going to tell me I’ve been pronouncing “scadutree” wrong, or did I have to find out from a TikTok comment?
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC introduces consumables called Scadutree fragments. These are found at Sites of Grace in the Land of Shadow, and they’re used to power up your character.
“That’s a silly-looking word,” I thought when I first read about them, mentally pronouncing it as “skad-oo-tree.”
But the word “scadu” is derived from the Old English “sceadu,” and should be pronounced more like “shadu,” or, you know, “shadow.” Shadow-tree. This information comes from distressed linguistics majors and history enthusiasts all over the internet, including Reddit, X, and the comments of our own TiKTok page.
This shouldn’t exactly have come as a surprise. Elden Ring has long used Old and Middle English, as well as Welsh and Irish words that Americans never learned to pronounce. I certainly breathed a sigh of relief when certified Irishman Cian Maher did us yanks a service by tweeting the correct pronunciation of the Lands Between’s Siofra River before I ever had to say the word out loud.
Gonna blow all non-Irish Elden Ring players’ minds: Siofra is pronounced Sheef-rah
The devotion to including Celtic languages like Welsh and Irish in translations of FromSoft games is genuinely cool. Over decades of English colonization these languages were repressed, often banned, and are still considered endangered.
Old and Middle English words like “scadu” and “gaol” are from a different linguistic family, but it’s always exciting to learn how not to embarrass myself when I talk.
The Abyssal Woods from Elden Ring’s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is a land of horrors and madness. Frenzied Flame followers inhabit the woods and nightmarish creatures skulk about. It can be quite tricky to reach as you’ll need to do a bit of exploration, but should you find its entrance, you’ll be warned to turn back whence you came.
Should you heed their warnings and retreat? Or should you continue on face the madness? Read on to find out how to get to the Abyssal Woods in Elden Ring.
How to get to the Abyssal Woods in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
To find the Abyssal Woods, you’ll first need to reach the Ruins of Unte, which is hidden behind an illusionary wall in the Shadow Keep.
Graphic: Johnny Yu | Source images: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Jeffrey Parkin
Starting from the Storehouse, First Floor Site of Grace, head down the elevator behind you, which will lead you back towards the main gate of the Shadow Keep.
Defeat or run past the Fire Knight, and turn to the left towards the golden boats. On the left side of the path, you’ll find a ladder leading down to a lower level of the Shadow Keep. Climb down the ladder and walk into the waterfall to reveal a hidden space.
Graphic: Johnny Yu | Source images: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Johnny Yu
Go down the ladder ahead of you and follow the path to find a room with the “Domain of Dragons” painting. On the southwestern wall, you’ll spot two torches and a seemingly ordinary wall between them. Hit the space between the two torches to reveal an illusionary wall.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Johnny Yu
Follow the path to find a stone coffin that will take you to the Castle Watering Hole Site of Grace.
From the Castle Watering Hole Site of Grace, head southeast to find a pathway along the rockface, which has the Recluses’ River Upstream Site of Grace. Follow the path and jump over the gaps until you can cross over to the path on your right.
Graphic: Johnny Yu | Source images: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
Continue along the path and drop off the southern end to find the Recluses’ River Downstream Site of Grace. Look over the eastern edge of the cliff to find gravestones that lead to the bottom of the waterfall. Hop your way to the bottom and head southeast to find another set of gravestones at the edge of the cliff.
Graphic: Johnny Yu | Source images: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
Make your way to the bottom of the cliff and cut through the woods to the east to find the entrance to the Darklight Catacombs. Progress through the Darklight Catacombs and defeat Jori, Elder Inquisitor to make it to the Abyssal Woods.
At first, Thiollier is just a vendor for poison-related items, but his full story — along with St. Trina’s — will take the rest of your time in the Shadow Realm to play out.
Our Elden Ring DLC guide will walk you through where to find Thiollier and St. Trina, and all the steps you’ll need to take to complete their questline.
Thiollier and St. Trina locations
You’ll meet Thiollier first near the Pillar Path Cross Site of Grace in Gravesite Plain. You can reach him there before you take on Castle Ensis.
Later, after you enter Shadow Keep, you’ll be able to find St. Trina in the Cerulean Coast at the Garden of Deep Purple Site of Grace, and Thiollier will move to be with her there.
Thiollier first meeting in Graveyard Plain
There’s not really a rush to go find Thiollier at his initial location by Pillar Path Cross Site of Grace, but, since his questline overlaps with Moore’s, it’s probably best to get that initial meeting out of the way early before things get complicated. You can get there before tackling Castle Ensis by crossing Ellac Greatbridge, and then just taking the right inside the solider camp.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Once you reach the Pillar Path Cross Site of Grace and Miquella’s Cross, chat with Thiollier and exhaust his dialogue.
Check in with Moore after meeting Thiollier
After you have your first talk with Thiollier, head back to the Main Gate Cross Site of Grace in front of Belurat. Check in with Moore and talk to him, and he’ll give you some Black Syrup for Thiollier.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Head across to Pillar Path Cross Site of Grace to give the Black Syrup and then ask about the Black Syrup. Choose I’m tired of life next, and Thiollier will hand you Thiollier’s Concoction. This is an item you’ll use with the Dragon Communion Priestess on Igon’s questline.
Break the great rune (and the charm)
Before you can make any more progress, you need to break a great rune that’s blocking your path. You probably haven’t even seen it yet, but it’s time to get it out of the way.
To break it, you need to approachShadow Keep. Just before you reach the front door, you’ll get a pair of messages — “Somewhere, a great rune has broken…” and “And so too has a powerful charm.” These both generally relate to Miquella and the NPCs you’ve met so far. For Thiollier and St. Trina specifically, the great rune was blocking a path you’ll need to head to now.
Reach the Stone Coffin Fissure and defeat the Putrescent Knight
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
All the way at the southern tip of the Southern Shores, there’s a fissure you can climb (fall) down. That’s your next stop. At the bottom, you’ll find the The Fissure Site of Grace at the entrance to the Cerulean Coast and the Stone Coffin Fissure — this is where the rune we broke was blocking your progress.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
A bit further along, you’ll face the Putrescent Knight and unlock the Garden of Deep Purple Site of Grace. Once you do, you’ll be right near where St. Trina has been hiding.
Head into the tunnel by the Garden of Deep Purple Site of Grace to meet St. Trina. She’s not very talkative. Don’t do anything with her yet. Instead, leave and then go check in with Thiollier.
Tell Thiollier about St. Trina’s whereabouts
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Go back to the Pillar Path Cross Site of Grace and speak with Thiollier. Tell him St. Trina’s whereabouts, and he’ll relocate.
Imbibe the nectar
The next part of their questline is a little confusing (and dark). Head back to the Garden of Deep Purple and go chat with Thiollier.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Ignore his warnings, and go talk to St. Trina. When you have the option, choose to imbibe nectar. Just like Thiollier said, this will kill you immediately. That’s the plan, though, so trust the process.
Keep respawning at the site of grace and then imbibing the nectar over and over — four times in a row — until you start hearing St. Trina’s voice on the black screen before you respawn.
Defeat Thiollier
Once you hear St. Trina’s words, head back and try to pass the message on to Thiollier. It’ll take two tries, and he won’t be receptive.
Imbibe the nectar (and die) again. You’ll hear a bit more from St. Trina in the darkness.
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
When you respawn, you’ll get invaded by Thiollier. Defeat him to pick up the St. Trina’s Smile talisman.
Pass on St. Trina’s words
Head into the cave and talk to Thiollier again. Drink the nectar again. Die again.
This time, when you respawn and speak to him again, Thiollier will finally hear you out. Pass on St. Trina’s words to him.
Burn the Sealing Tree
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
St. Trina and Thiollier’s questline won’t come to an end for a while. You’ll have to finish Shadow Keep, cross the Rauh Ruins, defeat Romina, Saint of the Bud at the Church of the Bud, and then finally use Messmer’s Kindling to burn the Sealing Tree.
That will open the Tower of Shadow and teleport you to the Enir-Ilim: Outer Wall Site of Grace in Enir-Ilim. Before you explore too far, though, it’s time to check in on Thiollier one last time.
Talk to Thiollier
Head back to the Garden of Deep Purple and talk to Thiollier — he won’t have much to say. Imbibe St. Trina’s nectar again, hear what she has to say now, and then return to Thiollier.
He probably still won’t have anything to say, but this will ensure you can summon him for…
Summon Thiollier to fight Leda and her allies
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
After you make it all the way through all of Enir-Ilim, you’ll come to a large arena where you face off against Needle Knight Leda and her allies — Redmane Freyja, Dryleaf Dane, and, possibly, Sir Moore.
You can summon Thiollier and, if you’ve followed his questline, Sir Ansbach to aid you in the fight.
Thiollier’s fight isn’t over yet.
Summon Thiollier for the final boss fight
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
After defeating Leda, you’ll make your way up to the Divine Gate for the game’s final boss fight. Before you step through the fog wall, there will (might) be summon signs for your allies, Ansbach and Thiollier.
No matter how the fight goes down, rest at the new Gate of Divinity Site of Grace. After, you’ll find Thiollier dead nearby where you can pick up Thiollier’s Hidden Needle and Thiollier’s set of armor. (Ansbach may be here as well.)
Receive St. Trina’s Blossom
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
With the fight done, head back to the Garden of the Purple Deep one last time. You’ll find St. Trina dead as well, but she left you the St. Trina’s Blossom (quite fetching) headgear.
Ben, Steve Ahlman, and Matt James discuss the biggest news from this week’s Nintendo Direct (including a Legend of Zelda with playable Zelda and proof of life for Metroid Prime 4), gaming’s suddenly stacked release schedule for the rest of 2024, and what the Switch 2’s launch lineup could look like. Then they reflect on the legacy of Elden Ring and share their spoiler-free early impressions of its acclaimed new expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.
Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Steve Ahlman and Matt James Producer: Devon Renaldo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC poses one big question, the type of earthshaking query that can rattle the philosophical foundation of any gamer’s mindset: “What if Elden Ring, but more?”
In truth, you’re the only person who can answer that question for yourself. But if you’ve played a bunch of the base game — and hit all the pre-requisites for accessing the DLC — one look at Shadow of the Erdtree is likely enough impetus to sigh, sit down, and recognize it’s time to do it all again.
As with all things Elden Ring, there’s no need to brave this expansion alone. Start with our guide on the recommended level for Shadow of the Erdtree, then see what to do first in the Elden Ring DLC, or get lost in our interactive map. From there, if you find yourself stuck on any of the byzantine legacy dungeons, check out our walkthroughs for Belurat, Castle Ensis, and Shadow Keep.
Yes, “more Elden Ring” might sound like a daunting proposition. But Shadow of the Erdtree retains one quality that made the base game such a standout: It’s way easier (and way more fun) when you phone a friend.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will send players on a new journey this summer to the Land of Shadow, where they will learn more about one of the game’s most mysterious demigods, Miquella of the Haligtree.
Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki says that players will track Miquella on their journey through the Land of Shadow, “tracing his path and following in his footsteps, trying to see what he’s going to do there,” similar to how players followed the light of grace in the base game. Players will also discover what compelled Queen Marika, who shattered the Elden Ring in the game’s story, to visit the Land of Shadow.
Elden Ring players who haven’t pored over the bits of lore scattered throughout the game’s dialogue and item descriptions may not know much about Miquella, and about his role in the game’s story. We’re here to tell you what you need to know so you don’t have to watch an hourlong lore video that unpacks it all.
Who is Miquella in Elden Ring?
A statue depicting Malenia and MiquellaImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella of the Haligtree is a demigod in the world of Elden Ring and a being known as an Empyrean. That means he is a candidate to succeed Queen Marika as the vessel for the Elden Ring.
We don’t really see Miquella in the game, but he’s the older twin brother of Malenia, the fearsome, rot-afflicted boss who resides at the base of the Haligtree. An offspring of the game’s penultimate boss, Radagon, and Marika (who are, uh, the same person), Miquella only appears in withered cocoon form in the main game’s story. As teased in Shadow of the Erdtree’s reveal trailer, Miquella’s cocoon will be the doorway to the Land of Shadow when the DLC launches.
Malenia and Miquella were both born with terrible afflictions: Malenia with rot that would consume her limbs and sight, and Miquella with eternal childhood. Statues of the brother-sister duo are scattered throughout the Haligtree, showing full-grown Malenia embracing her twin, who is stuck in the body of a young boy. Other statues show the twins at a younger age being embraced by their older sibling, Godwyn the Golden.
Malenia calls Miqeulla “the most fearsome Empyrean of all,” with the wisdom and the allure of a god. Miquella is also said to be beloved by many, and can compel the affections of others.
What’s Miquella’s relationship to Malenia? And Mohg?
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Malenia and Miquella were close. The former fought to protect her brother, earning her the name Malenia, Blade of Miquella. Miquella was similarly protective, and worked unsuccessfully to develop a remedy for Malenia’s rot affliction. One of Miquella’s inventions was an unalloyed golden needle, which players can use to undo the Flame of Frenzy. (Miquella strived to “ward away the meddling of Outer Gods,” according to the description of Miquella’s Needle; an Outer God appears to be responsible for the spread of rot, too.)
As part of his work to cure his sister and after leaving the faith known as the Golden Order, Miquella sought to create a new Erdtree, nurturing a sapling with his own blood. This endeavor would fail and produce the Haligtree, which would become a haven for the meek and afflicted. Miquella ultimately embedded himself within the Haligtree to grow it, residing in the cocoon, but he was kidnapped by Mohg, the Lord of Blood, who sought to become Miquella’s consort.
That’s why Mohg has Miquella’s cocoon in his chambers. Mohg essentially stole Miquella from his Haligtree womb, in which the Empyrean now appears to have grown older compared to his previous boylike form.
If Miquella’s stuck in that cocoon, how is he also in the Land of Shadow?
Miquella’s arm juts from his cracked cocoon in Mohg’s palaceImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella is said to have “divest[ed] himself of his flesh, his strength, and his lineage,” according to Shadow of the Erdtree’s official description. Miquella may not be a purely physical being in the DLC, and the Land of Shadow may not be a purely physical space; FromSoftware has a history of sending players to alternate time periods and dreamlike spaces in its expansions for games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Furthermore, there’s well-supported speculation that Miquella is connected to a character named St. Trina, who is also unseen in Elden Ring. Trina is said to be a mysterious character of ambiguous gender who has close associations with sleep and dreams, according to a few in-game item descriptions. Followers of St. Trina are said to look for her while they sleep, and we know that Miquella has been slumbering for some time.
Both Trina and Miquella are also associated with nearly identical in-game items — Trina’s Lily and Miquella’s Lilly — that may connect them in still-unclear ways. However, in content that was discovered to have been cut from Elden Ring, it’s hinted that Miquella and St. Trina are actually the same person. That connection could be explained or confirmed in Shadow of the Erdtree, insofar as things ever get “explained” in FromSoftware games.
Reach has fallen in the Halo TV universe. If you know anything about the lore of the Halo games, you know that the next thing that’s supposed to happen is Master Chief escaping from Covenant forces above Reach, his ship getting attacked, and then promptly crashing onto the series’ first Halo ring. In other words, this is basically the moment where the action starts. That is not what happened in the Halo TV series. Instead, Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his friends took a reflective excursion to a backwater planet that felt a lot more like a detour than character development.
After escaping Reach, Chief and everyone else on the escape ship with him (which is basically all of the still-living series regulars except for Kate Kennedy’s Kai), visit Aleria, a small dirt farming planet with plenty of land to spare and nearly toxic soil. After an episode as big and exciting as the Fall of Reach, this feels like a very HBO-style respite: the kind of episode dedicated to taking stock of the characters we lost and examining the new shape of the world after a big shake-up. But those shows earn those reflective episodes with consistent quality before them, and they tend to make those quiet episodes feel ever bigger and more important than the loud ones. That was certainly not the case in Halo season 2’s fifth episode.
Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount Plus
In defense of the Halo series’ entire premise, it has no obligation to follow the events of the games directly. Since the show’s announcement, the creative team behind it has been careful to specify that this series takes place in the “Silver Timeline,” which is completely separate from the canon of the games. So going somewhere other than Halo after the Fall of Reach isn’t really a problem. The problem is that the show once again fails the most basic and important test of doing interesting things with those changes.
The series seems convinced that the audience loves and cares about its side characters. But they’re just not interesting. During this episode the most coherent plotline we spend time with involves Soren (the wonderful Bokeem Woodbine, trying his best as always) and his wife searching for their child. We see them question various people around the village, and even find someone they think is keeping their kid from them. But by the end of the episode, they discover that he was actually kidnapped by the UNSC — an organization we almost exclusively know at this point as the military that loves kidnapping children. It’s a bland, “no shit” reveal that feels both too obvious and totally meaningless at the same time. Another of the episode’s plotlines involves Riz, a Spartan who was introduced just a few episodes ago, deciding that she wants to be a farmer now that she is too injured to be a Spartan.
With plotlines this boring, about characters that the show never really does a good job of convincing us to care about, it’s getting awfully hard not to long for the circular perfection and alien weirdness of the Halo rings that give this franchise its name. So why aren’t we there yet?
The answer seems to lie in the Halo show’s approach to the rings in general. The series clearly recognizes one of the great strengths of the first game was that Halo was profoundly mysterious. But the show is approaching that mystery in a very different way than the original game did.
Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount Plus
For the game, the mystery of Halo was in how little information you had about both the alien ring and the video game’s world. Aside from the basic premise of humanity being on the back foot in a war against aliens, almost everything else was a black box. So when you crash-land on Halo in the game’s second level (a level also called “Halo”), the path is clear for the game to slowly reveal its secrets about Forerunners, the Covenant religion, the Flood, 343 Guilty Spark, and everything else that feels commonplace in the series today. The TV series, on the other hand, decided to make Halo a destination. Instead of giving us no lore, it’s been stacking up piles and piles of lore through its first two seasons and dangling the Halo ring in front of his via characters’ prophetic visions. This path to Halo isn’t inherently bad; a well-done buildup and reveal can make for a fantastic moment in a TV show. But like the Hatch in Lost, the key is that you have to show the audience why the thing is mysterious and important — you have to really prove it to us, not just have characters bombard us with insistent dialogue that it matters. And more importantly, the characters actually have to get into it eventually.
None of this is to say that the show has run out of time to make it to Halo, or even that it can’t be good once it gets there. But it is to say that the journey there so far has felt profoundly misjudged and way too slow, and it’s starting to feel like it might not happen at all. In this episode, Makee (Charlie Murphy) tries to convince the Arbiter to go to the Halo rings because she insists that the Prophets are lying about the Great Journey, telling the rest of the Covenant fanciful stories about its importance and transcending the physical realm, but never actually planning to take them along on their trip to divinity. Now, I’m not saying that the Halo series is the Prophets and we’re the rest of the Covenant, but I am saying that our lack of a journey to a Halo ring is starting to feel a little suspicious, and they’re running out of time to convince me we’re really going.
2022 was truly the year of Elden Ring, with FromSoftware’s latest game exploding into the mainstream unlike anything it had previously created. As such, a lot of people played and finished Elden Ring. In fact, according to one set of data, Elden Ring was the most completed game of 2022. But funnily enough, the same source also pegs it as the game players were most likely to abandon before reaching the end.
If you’ve read Kotaku (or any other gaming website) in 2022, you are likely already familiar with Elden Ring, the latest game from Dark Souls creators FromSoftware. And like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Elden Ring is a tough-as-nails action-RPG with a heavy focus on mystery, world-building, and boss fights. However, this time around FromSoftware added a true open world to its popular “Soulslike” formula. The end result? One of 2022’s most acclaimed, best-selling games. The open world in particular helped sway many to try Elden Ring for the first time, letting players avoid harder areas until later and ostensibly making it easier to finish than past FromSoftware adventures. And it seems that design choice paid off.
According to data on HowLongToBeat.com, Elden Ring is 2022’s most completed game, with nearly 6,000 users of the site reporting they have played and finished the massive open-world RPG. That’s an impressive number when you look at the runner-up games on the list. Stray, that adorable futuristic cat game, was completed by nearly 4,000 users. Meanwhile, in third with 2,500 completions, was Game Freak and Nintendo’s Switch hit, Pokemon Legends: Arceus. To see such a big and difficult game top the list is both a sign that Elden Ring is very good and also a hint at the kind of audience that is primarily using HowLongToBeat.com.
Screenshot: Howlongtobeat.com / Kotaku
But perhaps more interesting is that Elden Ring is also the most “retired” game. When users “retire” from a game on Howlongtobeat.com it means they have given up on it, either permanently or temporarily. Now, even though only 261 players officially retired from Elden Ring on the site, that’s still more than double any other game in 2022. Even if the dataset is a bit small and weird (how many people are logging into this site to admit defeat?) it’s still an interesting data point.
This all makes sense to me. Elden Ring was the most talked-about game of 2022, and with that many people playing, it makes sense that a good chunk of them might give up on it. Other data seems to suggest around half the people playing Elden Ring never reached the end. So I buy that Elden Ring could be the most completed game of 2022 while also being the game more people gave up on than anything else.
Some other interesting 2022 data from the site: Turns out Elden Ring is also on the most backlogs, has the most reviews, and is the longest game of 2022. However, Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us Part 1 is the most positively reviewed game, and Diablo Immortal is the worst-reviewed.
After over a decade of FromSoftware games holding court as the quintessential ‘git gud’ franchise, locking those of us without a masochist bent out of the discourse, Elden Ring’s open world opened up the gates for an entirely new player base. As such, it catapulted the work of Hidetaka Miyezaki to entirely new heights: Elden Ring is by far the best-selling FromSoftware title, it’s snatching up GOTY awards like Rowa Fruit, and it’s still generating passionate conversations 10 months after its release.
By subtly divesting from the tried and true FromSoftware formula and giving us a game unshackled by a single, punishing, linear path, EldenRing offered up the Lands Between on a beautifully ornate (but slightly Tarnished) silver platter. And we gobbled that shit up.
Feeding The Difficulty Discourse Machine
These guys are called Abductor Virgins, and they suck. Image: FromSoftware
The Souls game discourse has almost solely revolved around difficulty. Before Elden Ring was released, FromSoftware’s Yasuhiro Kitao told Eurogamer that the game was “made for all sorts of players,” not just “hardened veterans.” This sent the fanboys into a tailspin, but it piqued the interest of those who have never been able to enjoy the punishing gameplay of FromSoft’s oeuvre.
I wrote about Kitao’s quotes back when I was at GamesRadar, suggesting that what would make Elden Ring great would be its approachability, and that that approachability was made possible by its open world. It’s a helluva lot easier to avoid difficult areas if you can run around them on horseback, but previous Souls games forced you to choose between the difficult path and the bang-your-head-against-the-wall-because-it’s-impossible path. The promise of ample choice made me think that maybe, just maybe, Elden Ring could be a game I’d enjoy.
Image: FromSoftware / Kotaku
Conversely, Forbes published a response to my piece, one that hoped Elden Ring’s open world wouldn’t ruin the FromSoftware vibes by focusing too much on “making these games approachable rather than tough and gritty.” This was months before the release date, but the discourse machine turned and turned and turned, smoke spewing from every inch, its cogs grinding and grating with each new take chucked into its gaping maw.
Until February came, and brought with it the Lands Between, wide open for exploration like a darker, deadlier Breath of the Wild. Players quickly learned that most of them were accidentally skipping the combat tutorial, and a bit more slowly learned that the first boss (that fucking Tree Sentinel) was avoidable. Many of us who could never latch onto a FromSoft game willingly clung to Elden Ring’s teat, as we learned we could, in fact, get on a horse and fuck off away from some horrifying eldritch beast.
As we collectively made our way through Elden Ring, we were given the gift that comes only with truly open-world games: seemingly endless discoveries by ourselves, our friends, and other players on the internet.
Braving Brutal Battles For A Glimpse Of Beauty
Need a hand?Image: FromSoftware
The beauty of Elden Ring lies in its world that teems, bubbles, and spews with both friendly and deadly life, that tantalizes and terrifies with its landscapes, that beckons and shuns you in a single breath. I find this beauty in so many moments during my time with the game, like when I accidentally descend down to the Siofra River, not too long into my playthrough.
In Limgrave, I step on a platform and am whisked down, down, down, until I emerge into an astounding space: a fully realized night sky in a variety of bruise colors, littered with pinholes of light. Crumbling classical architecture obfuscates my view of this impossible galaxy and tombstones line the path leading away from the platform, which glowed a bizarre green during my descent but now lies dormant.
I am, as the kids say, gagged, and stumble aimlessly away from the platform, paying little attention to what enemies may lie in my path for the first time since booting up Elden Ring. This is a mistake I quickly pay for, as I walk directly into a horde of Claymen. They move slowly, but they hurt, and I am severely underleveled for this area. One of the weaponless magic conjurers takes me out in seconds with his weird bubbles, sending me back to the Site of Grace right next to the platform that brought me here. When I go back to fetch my several hundred runes, the same guy takes me out again.
“Fuck that,” I mumble before stepping on the stone circle at the center of the lift. “I’ll come back later.”
And I do, just much, much later. After I’ve discovered I’m a battle mage with an affinity for gravity magic and summons, and long after I fell the Tree Sentinel with a single Rock Sling, I return to the Siofra River from a completely different direction, and lay waste to its inhabitants. Then, after I’ve collected every last item dropped by a fallen NPC and picked all the Ghost Glovewort my eyes can see, I allow myself a second to breathe. I glance up at that still-impossible night sky, and exhale. I earned this. Elden Ring, unlike other FromSoftware games, gave me ample chances to amass the tools and experience I’d need to earn a brief respite.
Elden Ring Eternal
I’m an Aries.Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
But Elden Ring isn’t just somber and serious, it’s not just hours of grueling gameplay with brief, meditative breaks. It’s goofy as hell, like all FromSoftware games inherently are. There are stupid, dirty messages littered all over the ground, dozens upon dozens of ways to die that will make you chuckle in disbelief, and the ever-popular but always somewhat broken online play that encourages players to fuck with one another.
It’s this combination of punishing play, engaging story (thanks, George R.R. Martin), and asinine antics that make FromSoftware games, especially this one, so special. Elden Ring gives you enemies like Starscourge Radahn, who will in one moment beat the brakes off of you with gigantic meteors flung from a blood-red sky and in another send you into a fit of hysterics when you realize that he is, in fact, sitting on top of a very tiny horse. Elden Ring plays with you, offering up prophecies and moral quandaries that will have you scratching your head, but undercutting it with both accidental and purposeful absurdism.
Screenshot: FromSoftware
Elden Ring gives you a gigantic turtle wearing a pope hat. It gives you strange, unsettling storylines about grapes that are actually eyeballs. It tucks a giant bat grandma away amongst a rocky outcropping and gives her a haunting song to sing ad infinitum—or until you slash at her leathery, gray skin. It deflates your hope in humankind at one juncture just to build it back up again at the next.
It lets you explore this incredibly fucked-up world for hours upon hours, fall in love with some of its characters and revile the rest, taxing you physically and mentally with enemies plucked from the deepest depths of game design hell, and at the end, it presents you with a few options that don’t really fucking matter. It does all of this while making itself playable for us FromSoft plebeians, which therefore (brilliantly) means more of us will be talking about it than any game that came before.
When we inevitably look back at Elden Ring a decade from now, it will be difficult for us to remember exactly how much it defined the zeitgeist, just how far it permeated popular culture outside of gaming, and just how much we couldn’t stop talking about it. But now, ten months after its release, it’s hard to imagine we ever existed in a world without it.