Psychologist plays Elden Ring with her brain alone

Twitch streamer Perri “Perrikaryal” Karyal has brought a whole new meaning to From Software games being cerebral, given that she plays Elden Ring with just her brain.

Players have been finding unique ways to take on From Software’s difficult games with unusual controllers for a long time. Given that most gamers struggle with areas of Soulslike games using a normal controller, it’s become a point of pride to beat the games on unusual setups. Some have even beaten the toughest bosses in the game with a dance pad. The latest of these to gain attention is a streamer playing Elden Ring with nothing but her brain.

Elden Ring brain controls done via EEG

Twitch streamer Perrikayal has rigged up an EEG, electroencephalogram, machine in order to play Elden Ring. An EEG machine reads brain activity through a set of sensors placed upon a person’s head. It’s not as simple as just plugging it in and booting up Elden Ring, though. The machine has to be customized to recognize certain sets of brain activity as specific commands, and those commands have to be linked to keybinds. According to Perri, it takes hours and hours of training for the machine to consistently recognize a single new command. Despite this great barrier, she has managed to get all of the necessary commands set up on her EEG and is able to play Elden Ring.

She is playing Elden Ring… with her brain. Twitch streamer @perrikaryal has hooked up an EEG to her brain, where different brain activity is key bound to different abilities in game

I am frikin mindblown pic.twitter.com/lzquC2DdV4

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) January 23, 2023

Gaming personality Jake Lucky posted clips of Karyal’s setup and her demonstrating gameplay to Twitter. These clips rapidly gained millions of views and tons of attention towards the Twitch streamer’s incredibly unique approach to Elden Ring.

According to Lucky, the next steps in the streamer’s journey with this unique way to play Elden Ring would involve tying certain sets of brain activity to multiple actions. This could let her chain multiple commands into a single thought, like dodge rolling and immediately casting a spell. For now however, each individual action requires its own set of brain activity, making playing Elden Ring with her brain extremely difficult. Despite these challenges, she’s still able to dispatch bosses with powerful sorceries and some backup from Spirit Ashes.