When I first stepped into the Caelid Colosseum back in late 2022, I felt the surge of a hundred Tarnished warriors ready to tear each other apart—and amid the chaos, a lone Spirit Ash summon stood like a forgotten gladiator. The surprise Elden Ring Colosseum update arrived like a bolt from the blue on the eve of The Game Awards, handing us dedicated PvP arenas, structured duels, team brawls, and a brutal free-for-all mode. It was FromSoftware finally acknowledging the hunger for structured multiplayer, and the community rightly rejoiced. Yet here in 2026, with three years of hindsight, I can’t shake the feeling that one locked gate never truly opened: the potential for a full-fledged, Pokémon-esque monster battler right inside the Lands Between.

The update didn’t disappoint when it came to raw variety. One-on-one duels sat at the core, naturally, letting the classic FromSoftware honor fight thrive without invasions muddying the waters. Team combat flipped the script—suddenly, strategies around healing, positioning, and synchronized aggression became the talk of every roundtable hold. And then there was the Spirit Ash-enabled chaos of the Caelid arena, where up to six players could unleash their favorite spectral companions while trying to stay alive. On paper, it sounded like an absolute riot. In practice? It was a slugfest. Walk to opposite corners, summon your Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche, and watch two AI puppets smack each other while you dodged stray fireballs. The dream of a deeper, more tactical creature combat system remained just that—a dream.

Let me paint a picture of what could have been—and what many of us still crave. Imagine a separate Colosseum queue where you don’t swing a sword at all. Instead, you draft a team of three Spirit Ashes from Elden Ring’s massive roster, each with their own FP cost, elemental affinities, and behaviors. Latenna the Albinauric as your long-range artillery, supported by the nimble Stormhawk Deenh for buffs, while a tanky Banished Knight Oleg draws aggro. Suddenly, the Colosseum becomes a tactical battleground of rock-paper-scissors resistances: holy beats undead, lightning stuns iron-clad foes, fire melts rot. This isn’t merely a fantasy—FromSoftware already built the foundation. The Colosseum system introduced mode-specific rules; balance changes exclusive to PvP proved they could tweak numbers without impacting PvE. Applying that logic to Spirit Ashes would let them limit the notorious Mimic Tear, adjust FP costs for fair team budgeting, and even introduce Pokémon-style type matchups simply by modifying damage values in arena matches.

🔥 The existing mechanics already hint at such depth. Did you know Cleanrot Knight Finlay’s rot buildup can be completely negated by a Flame, Cleanse Me incantation from a Perfumer Tricia summon on the opposite team? Or that the Ancestral Follower’s spirit bow deals magic damage that shreds medium shields? These interactions happen accidentally in PvE, but a dedicated mode would make them the centerpiece of high-level play. Modders have proven the concept works spectacularly. Since the early Dark Souls days, content creators have pitted bosses and enemies against each other in elaborate tournaments; Elden Ring saw an explosion of such videos, from Radahn vs. Malenia to monstrous free-for-alls. The Colosseum seemed like the perfect moment for FromSoftware to canonize that chaos, but the door was left ajar rather than thrown open.

What about 2026, you ask? Well, the landscape has shifted. FromSoftware has moved on to newer projects, and the Elden Ring playerbase has matured into a dedicated core. The PvP scene remains vibrant, but the official Spirit Ash modes are stale—still just the same summon-and-watch dance. The community, however, never stops innovating. Mods like “Spirit Arena Overhaul” have gained traction, introducing custom lobbies where players select Ashes from an in-game roster, complete with stat sheets, cooldowns, and even spectator modes. The experience feels almost official, and it’s bittersweet, because it underscores what an official implementation could have achieved with proper matchmaking and ranked play.

⚔️ From a competitive angle, a Pokémon-style Spirit Ash mode would do wonders for accessibility. Not every player wants to memorize frame data or react-parry a dual-wielding bleed build. Letting them theorycraft creature lineups would draw in a whole new type of competitor—one who thrives on turn-based-looking, real-time tactical combat. Imagine ranked seasons with tier lists, ban/pick phases before matches, and even seasonal balance patches adjusting a Spirit Ash’s poise or FP efficiency. The mind games would be exquisite: does your opponent lead with a high-damage but slow Omenkiller Rollo, or a sneaky Rotten Stray to proc scarlet rot early? Do you save your Demi-Human mob for a late-game swarm, or do you try to overwhelm them immediately?

I’ll be honest: I still hop into the Caelid arena every few weeks with a friend, and we impose our own rules—no player attacks, first summon to fall loses the round. It’s fun, but it’s a pale imitation of the structured experience I know Elden Ring could deliver. The Colosseum update gave us the stage, the crowd, and the spotlight; it just forgot to hand us the script for the monster show we’ve all been craving. As 2026 rolls on, I hold onto a sliver of hope that a future patch—or perhaps a spiritual successor—will finally unlock that gate. Until then, I’ll keep dreaming of a Lands Between Pokémon League, and I suspect I’m far from alone.