McDonald restored a scene of Miquella planting the Haligtree

Dataminer Lance McDonald, known for an unofficial 60-frame patch for Bloodborne, pulled an unfinished cutscene out of the Elden Ring files. In it, Miquella plants the Haligtree. The scene was never finished, so the picture may not match what the studio would have shipped.

It plays on another version of Malenia's arena, at the roots of the tree, where Miquella slept until Mohg took him. The files contain a sapling model. Miquella plants it, the trunk grows, and it starts to give off something like blood. McDonald says the clip was meant to play after the player obtained the left half of the Dectus Medallion and rested at a Site of Grace.

In the finished game the Grand Lift of Dectus carries you from Liurnia of the Lakes to the Altus Plateau, and the path to the Haligtree through the Consecrated Snowfield is locked behind the Grand Lift of Rold. The location may once have been more mandatory, or tied more tightly to Altus. The clip itself does not explain how the world was rebuilt during development.

The Haligtree was conceived as a rival to the Erdtree and a refuge for those persecuted by Marika's Golden Order. In the voice files Miquella says the tree will be a place where living things can flourish under Malenia's protection. The scene was likely cut once the area became optional: finishing the game does not require a visit.

Shadow of the Erdtree, which puts Miquella at the center of the story, looked like a natural place to restore the clip. Reaching Mohgwyn Palace does not require the Haligtree either. The main path runs through the Consecrated Snowfield. Without a mandatory visit to the tree, the scene would still have stood apart.