FromSoftware’s souls like have always not offered the possibility of pausing your game (Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is the only exception in recent years, not being attributable to the Souls genre).
The philosophy of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s studio has not changed with Elden Ring, and not even in the new open-world action-RPG it is possible to temporarily pause your game. If a mod had already allowed PC players to remedy this “lack”, now we discover how all users could take advantage of a simple trick to suspend the game in progress.
As demonstrated in the clip below, players can pause Elden Ring by consulting the Equipment in the menu, activating the “Help” function and then clicking on “Explanation”.
The in-game action won’t stop until the final step (when the menu explanation pops up on the screen), so you’ll need to be quick and agile enough with navigation, but once it’s done the pause will be instant. You will still be able to hear the music, but there will be no footsteps or sword strikes to threaten your character.
Certainly a slightly cumbersome method, but in case they knock on the door of the house or you run away from going to the bathroom while exploring the Interregnum, you will now know how to get by.