PerriKaryal is a tech creator on Twitch with a Master’s degree in psychology, and she ain’t afraid to use it. Her latest headlining project is a largely hands-free control scheme using an EEG. The brain cap detects distinct peaks of brain activity, which the streamer’s brain-computer-interface coding then interprets as gamepad inputs. So, yes, of course, she’s used it to beat multiple Elden Ring bosses in ‘mind control’ challenge runs.
I recently chatted to the Twitch streamer about taking on Elden Ring Nightreign with her big brain, but what I neglected to mention in my earlier feature was that this demo was a PlayStation 5 exclusive. This presented its own obstacle to navigate, as PerriKaryal’s control setup is largely locked to PC.
She says, “I had to go all around the houses [to get it to] work on different consoles. But now that I’ve got that, I can do it on any console. Now the mind control will work on Nintendo! It will work on a phone, which is very cool… I don’t know if Nintendo will let me, but maybe.”
No, I didn’t ask the streamer, ‘Mind control on the Switch 2 when?’—but I am thinking about ‘mind control in Splatoon’ very strongly now. At any rate, maybe this means we’ll see a ‘mind control’ run of The Duskbloods sometime soon.
Still, nothing about PerriKaryals’ setup comes easily. For one thing, all of the in-game actions are on a one-second delay due to latency, complicating even basic coordination with online teammates in Nightreign.
She elaborates, “Something I have to do in Soulslike games, that I don’t necessarily have to do in other games, is really know what’s coming next one whole second before [in-game enemies] do it. And sometimes I get it wrong, and sometimes it just doesn’t work.”
After all, imagining pushing a block to dodge and spinning a plate to attack is all well and good in Shadow of the Erdtree—but as the brain-computer-interface software can’t tell the difference between two separate thoughts, a hectic boss fight like the Divine Beast Dancing Lion requires a huge amount of focus.
The Twitch streamer elaborates, “Like there’s a really clear attack that this boss is doing, and he’s definitely 100% about to beat me up. And I can see it coming, and I’m trying to dodge or block or whatever. Well, now it’s not working for whatever reason, probably because there’s a big, beefy man who’s about to hit me, and I’m a little bit stressed out about it!”
For these reasons, it took the tech creator about seven hours to defeat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, while Malenia in the base game took far, far longer. After revealing the rot goddess took over 14 hours to beat on stream, plus hours of training besides, PerriKaryal jokes, “I think there might be something wrong with me, honestly.”
As someone who never managed to get good at Soulslikes myself, I’m compelled to ask what keeps the streamer going through attempt, after attempt, after attempt to beat an Elden Ring boss with just her brain.
She admits the EEG can uncomfortably press on her skull during longer streams, and that juggling the abstract mental commands required by her BCI software used to be draining. However, after so much practice, “even Soulslike games become quite meditative.”
“If it’s within my wheelhouse, I can’t not.”
She tells me, “Honestly, it’s the same as any Dark Souls player, really. It’s the reward of mastery…you know that you can do it, and you kind of have to. And I think, as a person, I’m quite like that anyway; if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. If it’s within my wheelhouse, I can’t not.”
If I’ve learnt anything from 64 hours with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33—other than my index knuckle probably shouldn’t twinge like that—it’s that I can definitely learn to parry. Perhaps I can take inspiration from PerriKaryal’s determination and finally give Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice another go.
