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When players first encounter Patches in Elden Ring, they will likely trigger a fight with him by opening a chest nearby. While the player is looking at their new loot, Patches will charge at them out of the darkness, accusing them of being a thief. He fights the player with a combination of spear, shield, and acid mist which he will drink and spit at them. Once Patches reaches half-health, he will beg for his life. If spared, he becomes a merchant that the player will encounter throughout the game.
This pattern is one that is seen across most of Patches’ appearances in some form. He will try to trick and kill the player, only to quickly beg for his life as soon as he is caught again. Elden Ring’s version of Patches is actually one of the most straightforward when it comes to fighting, as others tend to rely even more on trickery, stealth, and long-ranged attacks. This could tip off the player to Patches’ true identity within FromSoft’s many different worlds.
Patches first appeared in Fromsoftware’s mech series Armored Core in the installment Armored Core: For Answer. In it, he is a mercenary called “Patch The Good Luck” who attacks the player using stealthier methods but will surrender once his health gets too low. This cemented his pattern for most of his future appearances in FromSoftware games. However, he would step up his levels of trickery in subsequent installments.
In Demon’s Souls Patches will try to lure the player to their deaths twice, once by getting them to pursue a treasure guarded by a tough enemy, the other time by kicking them into a pit. He tries to repeat the pit trick in Dark Souls, and he even disguises himself as a different NPC by stealing their armor in Dark Souls 3. Some players also believe he has shown up under different names, like the eye-patch-wearing Anayama in Sekiro. This penchant for trickery may explain why Patches can appear across different FromSoft universes.
Tricksters have appeared in many different folk stories across different cultures, like France’s Reynard the Fox or Coyote in many Indigenous American stories. Similar to these characters, Patches has appeared across different Fromsoftware universes in different forms. Perhaps the closest parallel between Patches and tricksters of legend is his appearance as Patches the Spider in Bloodborne, which could be an allusion to the legendary trickster Anansi.
Patches is an interesting and somewhat enigmatic character. Though players have a good understanding of how he will behave, his true nature has yet to be given a canon explanation. It will be interesting to see if Patches returns in any FromSoftware games following Elden Ring, but players will have to be careful if he appears near any pits.