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The game-sized Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC finally launched last week, but while it's an incredible one-of-a-kind experience — as I wrote in my review, it's the easiest 10/10 score I've ever given — there's an annoying bug in the PC version of the ARPG right now that can make it difficult to play multiplayer. It was seemingly introduced when the expansion came out on June 21, survived the 1.12.2 Calibration Update, and has been a troublesome source of frustration ever since.
That bug is the erroneous appearance of the "Inappropriate activity detected" warning that can occur when summoning or being summoned for co-op, which then boots you to the main menu and locks you from starting the game in online mode, forcing you to restart it. It's supposed to kick you out of the game whenever Elden Ring's anti-cheat (you can disable it for offline play) detects foreign software, but clearly it's not working properly right now. Thankfully, there are no reports of permanent bans happening as a result of this glitch, but it's still vexing to have to close and reopen the game each time it's encountered.
Luckily, Elden Ring developer FromSoftware is aware of the issue, and is surely working to address it as soon as possible. In the meantime, though, the studio has provided a workaround fix you can use to solve the problem: verifying the integrity of Elden Ring's game files on Steam.
"An issue has been identified regarding the PC Version of Elden Ring. The message 'Inappropriate activity detected' may appear without cheating," reads the notice FromSoftware posted on Friday morning. "To fix this issue, please verify the integrity of the game's files before restarting the game. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Verifying game files is very easy to do, and will only take a few minutes of your time. To verify Elden Ring's, do the following:
1. First, right-click Elden Ring in your Steam Library.
2. Next, select Properties...
3. In the window that opens, select the Installed Files tab.
4. Lastly, select the Verify integrity of game files button and wait for the process to finish.
Once the verification is complete — Steam may redownload some files if it's necessary to do so — you're good to go, and should be able to jump back into Elden Ring without having to worry about this bug occurring. Have fun exploring the Land of Shadow with jolly cooperators, and remember to do this again if you happen to run into the glitch once more in the future.
Does this fix work for Elden Ring on Steam Deck?
While Tarnished champions using Valve's Steam Deck handheld are no doubt hopeful that this workaround will work for them, everything I've seen from players replying to FromSoftware's post indicates that sadly, this fix is ineffective on that platform. This — along with another major problem the developers are working on a fix for — is one of Elden Ring's biggest Steam Deck bugs, so hopefully it's taken care of sooner rather than later.
Outside of Steam Deck-related issues and a few other Elden Ring DLC launch bugs, though, Shadow of the Erdtree's arrival on PC has been, overall, relatively smooth. There are still reports of some performance issues related to framerate and stuttering, however.
The good news? Earlier this week, FromSoftware said bug fixes are accompanying "balance adjustments" in a future patch that the studio is working on in the wake of "Mixed" reviews and difficulty-related feedback, so all the aforementioned problems may not be problems for much longer.
The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is finally here, and it makes one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of all time even better. It's out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC for $39.99.
