Elden Ring 2024 Backstab Guide: Master PvP Tactics for Multiplayer Success
Backstabbing is the backbone of any Souls-Borne game, and Elden Ring is no exception. As of 2024, we are getting new patches for the game, and also the release of Elden Ring DLC - Shadow of the Erdtree. As a preparational note, you might be interested in learning everything about backstabbing in the game. For that, we have here our Elden Ring 2024 Backstab Guide, where we will show you how to win PvP Multiplayer combat using the art of Backstabbing in Elden Ring.
Souls games are based on extremely ruthless and difficult combat where the enemies (both PvP and PvE) can kill you in one or two hits. Thus, there is a backdoor here that allows you to get the upper hand. This backdoor is backstabbing, but it isn’t fairly easy, rather there is a whole algorithm behind it, which you can utilize to chomp a portion of your enemy’s health. With that being said, let’s get started with the guide.
The Grab in Elden Ring Backstab
Elden Ring works on a peer-to-peer connection between players, and to make sense, the code has to be broken down into segments before it can be translated into in-game actions.
A backstab is broken down first to determine whether or not the attacking player cues a backstab attempt, which we call a grab, and then second to determine whether or not that backstab was successful. For the grab to occur, the attacking player must meet two checks.
Players have something called a grab box, which looks something like a rectangle behind their body. Within this grab box, if another player goes for an attack, they have the potential to cue a backstab. At the edges of this grab box is what's known as a false grab box.
A false grab box is a space where the player is still in range to be locked into a backstab cue, but it will never be successful. The second check that needs to be met is a direction check, requiring that the attacking player is facing the same direction that the opponent is facing, within 15 degrees. Now, once the grab initiates, another check has to take place to determine whether or not the backstab was successful.
These checks are two-sided confirmations and need to be met by the person being backstabbed for your backstab to be successful. First, the opponent has to stay within the grab box determined by your player. If they walk outside of that range before the grab animation is completed on their screen, then they'll escape the grab.
The second check is another angle check. For this one, the opponent has to rotate at least 135 degrees in the opposite direction of where they were originally facing to escape the grab. This does not mean the same thing as facing you within 135 degrees if you stand off to their side when you cue a backstab, and they rotate to face you directly, then it's likely that they'll still get sucked into a backstab if they didn't rotate that full 135 degrees.
So, you go for the initial cue, you meet the distance check by being within the grab box, you meet the initial angle check by facing the same angle as the opponent, the cue occurs, and if the opponent is unable to move outside of the range of the grab box, and they're unable to rotate that 135 degrees, then your backstab will be successful.
The Frame Data
Latency is always going to be a major factor when talking about anything PvP-related in Elden Ring. The higher latency that you have to the opponent, the higher the likelihood that they'll have either gotten far enough away or rotated far enough to escape the backstab. But the grab itself is one of the fastest attack animations in the game.
The grab animation is only 7 frames, and on the 7th frame, if the checks are successful, then the opponent is forced into a backstab. But the time it takes for the opposing player's character to rotate 180 degrees is only about 4 frames.
Add that on top of whatever amount of latency that you have to them, throw in an artificial latency added by easy anti-cheat, boost the strength of the nearby mecha wave, and you've got yourself like 3 seconds that the opponent has to stand completely and utterly still for the backstab to complete.
Elden Ring Techniques of Backstabbing
But now let's get into how you land it. There are 4 main techniques that you can use to reliably and consistently get backstabs.
Roll Backstabs
This is the easiest of the bunch to set up, and depending on your matchup, one of the least reliable. A roll backstab is performed by rolling behind the opponent as they swing, unlocking, and turning your character to face them as you exit your roll to initiate the grab. The timing on this is fairly precise.
You have to have fully exited your roll and turned to face the opponent to meet the required angle check to get the grab. If you queue the attack before you've satisfied the angle check, then you'll just get a normal rolling attack instead. What makes this so unreliable is the fact that anytime you roll against an opponent, you'll always be what's called frame disadvantaged.
This is a term to describe that if you go for an attack at the same time as your opponent, then they will come out first. It takes a total of 29 frames after executing the roll to and a backstab.
So, if your opponent can swing their weapon again, or roll out within the window of time, then they'll likely escape the grab. So against small weapons, this type of grab is pretty much impossible if the opponent continues to press their attack.
But against larger, slower weapons, there's some room for opportunity. But against any setup, you'll have an easier time landing this type of backstabbing if you go for it after rolling a running or jumping attack. These have a longer recovery than the standing attacks, giving you more room to work with.
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Strafe Backstabs
Strafe backstabs are performed by maneuvering around the opponent's hitbox to avoid their hit entirely and position yourself ready at their back to get a grab while they're still in their attack animation. This is significantly harder to perform, but it has more consistent results.
If you can successfully strafe a hit, then you can position yourself behind the opponent's back while they're still in the recovery of their attack, and they'll be unable to rotate or run out of the grab.
Strafing works differently against each type of weapon. But specifically, when strafing for a backstab, it's better to be unlocked with your camera angled down so that you can get a better view of your positioning for the strafe, and so that you can manually adjust your angle to get the grab.
More often than not, after strafing a hit, you won't have the correct angle to initiate a backstab. So, by unlocking, you can free a new character to match the opponent's. This gets a little weird with some animations that torque the opponent's body, making it difficult to tell exactly where they're facing, a good example of this being sword dance.
Pivot Backstabs
But even harder than a strafe backstab is a pivot. The idea of the pivot backstab is that you run past your opponent as they swing their weapon, then immediately 1AD your character to get the grab. You have to be sprinting to get into position on time, which also puts you at risk of getting stuck in a pivot lock animation. To avoid the pivot lock, it's safest to have a shield equipped since you can't get stuck in the pivot animation when you're actively blocking. So you run past while holding the block, then let go of the movement stick and the sprint button so that it resets back to neutral, then immediately pull it back down so that you 1AD your character and initiate the grab.
If your movement stick does not fully pass through neutral, or if you do not let go of sprint, then you'll Q a running attack instead. The pivot itself can be very difficult, but for a little extra flash for the same effect, you can use a backstep or reverse backstep to accomplish the same goal.
Roll Catch Backstabs
You can roll-catch an opponent out of their I-frames with a backstab as long as you have the proper timing and positioning. There are two ways to do this. If the opponent is unlocked and rolling directly away from you, then you can sprint up to keep pace with them and initiate the grab as they exit their roll.
The opponent loses I-frames as their foot touches the ground, and it's at this moment that you want to initiate the grab. And since rolling slows down the player's travel speed, they'll be unable to escape the grab as long as you have good positioning. This one takes some practice, but with some effort, you can generally get this grab within one or two rolls if the opponent is panic-rolling.
The other type of backstab is a forward roll catch. This uses the same concept, but it just applies when the opponent is rolling toward you. You position yourself in the same way, being ready to initiate the grab, right as their foot touches the ground, and pulling them into a backstab.
This is probably the most important type of backstab to learn because it's going to be the most common mistake that people make that you can take advantage of to get a backstab on them. Any time that you whiff this backstab is likely due to poor positioning. You have to be positioned as close as possible to where they exit their roll to initiate the grab.
Otherwise, if they roll twice, then they'll escape the range of the grab box. Similar to how it works with strafe backstabs, you can use some fancy backstabs to get this type of roll catch as well.
So, these are the types and techniques of backstabs we are going to mention in our Elden Ring 2024 Backstab Guide. You can choose a combinational backstab as well.
Mistakes in Elden Ring PvP Backstabbing
Backstab fishing is challenging, and in Elden Ring, there's a lot of nuance that makes it more difficult than it ever was in past games. One of the most common reasons why you might whiff a backstab is just due to how you read your latency to the opponent.
On higher latency, you have to queue a backstab animation very early in advance to get a grab, unless your opponent is just standing there and lets it happen.
The easiest way to tell if your timing is good or not is to be looking for phantom hits, the blood splatter effect of an opponent after you try and hit them. If the blood splatter comes out much later than when the attack crossed their body, then you're dealing with high latency, and you need to adjust your grab to earlier timing.
You can get a grab on almost anything, but of course, it's going to be more consistent and reliable against players with less latency.
We find that grabs start becoming unreasonable around 160 ms of latency, but if you're just not getting backstab grabs at all and you just keep getting normal R1s, then it will be due to your angle check.
The angle check is very precise, and if you're locked onto your opponent, then you're likely to be a few degrees off unless you're standing directly behind them. And in most cases, you won't be.
So by unlocking from the target and manually setting your angle before going for the grab, you can dramatically improve the consistency of your grabs. Then the last major reason why your backstabs will tend to fail is somewhat related to lock-on, and this one is exclusive to Elden Ring.
There are two input drops that you'll find most common when it comes to backstabs. The first one is associated with letting go of the block at the same time that you stop sprinting. If you stop sprinting and drop the block, then your attack input will be dropped, causing you to just stand there and look in despair as your fish gets away from you.
Conclusion
Backstabbing is considered one of the hardest things to do in Elden Ring, even in 2024, after years have passed. But, it is equally essential for players who want to finish their enemies quicker in PvP, and it also works flawlessly in PvE. For better understanding, we compiled this Elden Ring 2024 Backstab Guide, where we show you how the hit-box for backstabbing works in the game, what are the frame rates for this, and all the techniques you can use for backstabbing your enemies in Elden Ring. Hope this helps you prepare for the Elden Ring DLC - Shadow of the Erdtree.
