Thomas the Tank Engine is in Elden Ring now

What is it with Thomas the Tank Engine? The grinning, googly-eyed locomotive is everywhere: Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Hearts 3, Fallout 4, Resident Evil 2, hell, he's even in Valheim. And now, courtesy of the new Tree Sentinel Thomas Mod, he has taken his inevitable place in Elden Ring.

A Tree Sentinel is an optional boss in Elden Ring who appears very early in the game—you can see one almost as soon as you step out into the world. And they're hard to miss: They're large, armored humanoids riding large, armored steeds and packing shields and battleaxes that are disproportionately massive even compared to the Sentinels' outsized frames. Bluntly intimidating, in other words, at least when you first encounter them.

This mod takes a bit of that edge off by replacing the Sentinel's mighty horse with the smiling, wide-eyed Thomas. He moves like a horse, he sounds like a horse, but there's no mistaking that blue and red paint job, or those dead eyes and rictus grin. But based on the test video above, it's not just the Sentinel's steed who gets the Thomas treatment: You get to ride Thomas too! If that's your thing, I mean. 

The one downside to this mod is that it's more complex than most to install. Instead of just dropping DLL files into the “mods” folder (and ensuring that you're playing offline), you'll need to unpack your game using a modded version of UXM to unpack and patch the game, and then unzip the Thomas mod archive into the Elden Ring folder. It's a lot—frankly, more than I'm prepared to take on.

Honestly, even if it was a straight DLL drop I don't think I'd want to play with this mod running full time. Thomas is cute, but man, he clashes. And do I want to be the guy who buried a scarred iron blade in the little guy's forehead? I don't think so. I don't need that on my conscience.