For Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Japan’s FromSoftware had to meet a bar that seemed impossibly high. [Note: For more on this high bar, see our previous article about the video game Elden Ring.]
Shadow of the Erdtree is what’s called a DLC: downloadable content. Not to be confused with a full sequel, DLC is extra content for a game which gets distributed post-release. Traditionally a DLC will add a couple new areas, some new weapons to play around with, some new bosses to fight. If you played PC games in the the aughts, it’s similar to what was called an expansion pack back then, sans the extra disc. These digital-only releases require that you have already purchased the base game; they traditionally include around 5-10 hours of new gameplay and cost $10-20. It’s a good way for developers to get extra mileage out of their product (a lot of the groundwork has already been laid, so plenty of digital assets can be reused), and for fans to spend extra time with a game they’ve enjoyed.
Beginning with their dark fantasy cult classic Dark Souls in 2011, nearly every major FromSoftware release (with the notable exception of 2019’s Sekiro) has had one or more DLC packs released within a year of the base game. Beloved by critics and FromSoft’s rabid fan base alike, each DLC has gone on to include what is arguably each game’s best content. FromSoftware, a studio renowned for the difficulty of its titles, seems to view these as a special challenge to their player base, and to themselves as creators.
With the assumption that anyone interested in these products will have completed the base game, when it comes to DLC the developer pulls no punches. Its most challenging boss fights have appeared in these supplementary releases. From Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King’s brutal Fume Knight, to Bloodborne: The Old Hunters’ horrifying Orphan of Kos, with his unforgettable placental boomerang (you read that correctly), to the unyielding wall that is Dark Souls III: The Ringed City’s Darkeater Midir, these are the fights that keep fans talking for years to come. With each DLC the studio has achieved new heights in environment design and art direction, and fleshed out key pieces of obscure lore with battles of melancholic majesty like Dark Souls’ eponymous Artorias the Abysswalker, or The Ringed City’s Slave Knight Gael.
The Massive Success of Elden Ring
In 2022, FromSoftware released Elden Ring, its greatest success to date. Transferring the Dark Souls template into an open world allowed players to take on steep challenges at their own pace. George R.R. Martin lent his talents to the creation of a vast universe and its eons of history for players to uncover. As of June of this year, the game has sold over 25 million units worldwide, more than the entire Dark Souls series combined. It is by leaps and bounds FromSoftware’s grandest and most profitable effort to date.
So, given the pedigree of the studio’s DLCs, anticipation for Elden Ring’s follow up could not have been higher. It seemed a forgone conclusion that From Software would seek to capitalize on the success of their new megahit, and speculation about what form the DLC would take began almost from the moment of the base game’s release.
Then – 6 months passed with no word. Then another 6 months. Prior to Elden Ring, the longest gap between the release of any FromSoft game and its DLC was 11 months (for Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss). As Elden Ring’s one year anniversary approached, anticipation of an announcement reached a fever pitch. The anniversary came and went. Then, three days later, on a random Tuesday as they seem to enjoy, FromSoftware released a .jpeg. In it, an illustration depicted the demigod Miquella atop Torrent, the player’s steed, riding toward a black twisted tree on the horizon beneath the title we are now familiar with. No release date.
It was real. But fans would have to steel themselves. Another year would pass before more word came. The subreddit’s 3 million members became frantic. Speculation abounded. The DLC was in development hell. Or it had been canceled in favor of Elden Ring 2. Or it wasn’t coming at all.
Finally, on Elden Ring’s second anniversary (another random Tuesday), a gameplay trailer dropped with a release date and a price tag. June 21, 2024. $40. Messmer, the game’s new villain, got a glorious introduction. The trailer was picked apart, every frame put to scrutiny. But the question remained: if From Software had been working on the DLC for two and half years by the time of its release, and it was priced at $40, how big was this thing? And how would they top the difficulty of the base game, as they had done in previous DLC? Elden Ring’s most difficult, and optional boss, Malenia, Blade of Miquella, had already sent shockwaves through the community two years before.
Well, the wait is over, and the answers are here. Shadow of the Erdtree is huge. And hugely difficult.
A World of Unparalleled Verticality
The first thing players may notice upon… touching Miquella’s withered arm at the Cocoon of the Empyrean to enter the Land of Shadow… is that the world of the DLC is dense. Though the whole map (which will take some time to unlock) is significantly smaller than that of the base game, it has an unparalleled level of verticality. Paths branch in seemingly endless directions. Cliffs rear above and crevasses yawn below, all beckoning with vague mystery. And all is leered over by the great, putrescent Scadutree, knotted with black and dripping with golden sap.
I, like many others, kept my character from the base game at level 150, hoping not to be “overleveled” for the DLC’s new challenges. The first minor boss players are likely to encounter, the Blackgaol Knight, quickly dispelled any worry on that front. I had been playing for all of ten minutes when I wandered into his unassuming mausoleum beneath the towering cliffs to the west. With his cramped arena, lunging attacks, and repeating crossbow, he took me close to another hour to defeat.
An ongoing question in previous From Software DLCs was at what level players should tackle the new content. From Software’s titles are RPGs, meaning players will accrue experience as they defeat enemies to make their characters more powerful. Since DLCs are traditionally designed with the endgame in mind, power level can be a tricky balance. Players will want to enter the DLC at a high enough level to overcome new obstacles, but not so high that the DLC won’t pose any challenge. Given the extended lapse between Elden Ring and its DLC, this could have proved more of an issue than ever. But for Shadow of the Erdtree, From Software has devised an elegant new solution.
Scattered across the map players will find a number of new key items called Scadutree Fragments. Players can use these fragments at checkpoints to add to their Scadutree Blessing, a new stat which greatly enhances your character’s damage output and damage negation. This power boost will only be in effect in the new map; the base game remains as it was. Players can continue to level their character in the traditional method, but those levels will have a fraction the impact of their Blessing level. And as things stand, players will want as many Blessings as they can get.
What works so well about this addition is not only do Scadutree Fragments address the problem of power scaling, they also hugely encourage exploration. While some players may resent the notion, there is little reward for sprinting from boss to boss. Players must navigate the labyrinthine Land of Shadow and all its hidden corners if they want to approach each fight with full preparedness. Alternatively, players can opt out if they desire the extra challenge.
Showstopping Boss Challenges
And there are challenges aplenty. Elden Ring bosses can largely be grouped into two categories: minor or “field” bosses which lie at the end of smaller, optional dungeons; and “remembrance” bosses, which tend to be story-driven, and wait at pivotal junctures of the game’s larger “legacy” dungeons. Shadow of the Erdtree has blessed us with, depending how you count, more than 50 new bosses, 11 of which are remembrances. A small handful of these are copy-pasted from the base game, and some are new designs that themselves repeat. But however you count, it’s a pretty staggering number.
The remembrances, top to bottom, are showstoppers. While I have my favorites, each unique encounter from art direction to moveset is a wildly memorable, and skill-testing experience. Even those well-versed in the base game’s mechanics will be up against it from the very start. At the risk of repeating myself, it is highly recommended to raise your Blessing level even before tackling Belurat, the first legacy dungeon players are likely to discover.
Like the DLCs before it, Shadow of the Erdtree makes Elden Ring look like a walk in the park. In the canon of FromSoft only a small handful of bosses, their names whispered in hushed tones, rank in the S-tier of difficulty. To give some perspective, I would add at least four of this DLC’s bosses to that short list.
Despite being the now highest-rated DLC of all time on Metacritic (just beating out The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine), Shadow of the Erdtree has in fact become the victim of review-bombing on the Steam marketplace, with players citing its difficulty as their primary complaint.
FromSoftware’s games have never included a difficulty setting. In addition to Elden Ring’s open world, its innovative solution to make the game accessible to more players was to allow the unrestricted use of “summons” during boss fights. Basically, you can call on a little spectral friend to fight alongside you. This can draw a boss’s attacks away from the player, letting you sneak some hits in while you’re not the focus of their ire. Veteran players, and masochists like myself, can choose not to use them. The beauty of the system is that everyone beats the same game. You are free to play however makes you happy.
The bosses of Shadow of the Erdtree, however, have been retuned. Summons, while still a great aid, no longer draw a boss’s aggression the way they once did. Bosses will change the target of their attacks mid-combo, and commit larger area attacks that can hit the player whether the focus is trained on them or not. It’s a brilliant way to raise the level of difficulty for players of all stripes. In the end, the greatest gift these games can give is the bliss of achievement. From Software has been so generous as to grant that insidious gift to all.
Not only will bosses shift more of their focus onto the player, attack combos have grown in length and variety. Traditionally the ebb and flow of a FromSoft boss fight involves the player waiting for a flurry of attacks to finish, and searching for windows in which to counterattack, or “punish” their opponent. Maybe a boss winds up for a huge heavy attack; if the player successfully dodges, the boss will take a generous amount of time to recover and reset, during which time the player can get in a heavy attack of their own. These punish windows have grown brief and scarce. If the player elects not to use summons, some amount of each fight will have to be truly learned. Without a basic familiarity with a boss’s moveset, there’s virtually no chance. These fights cannot be brute forced with high damage output.
That said, the player is presented with a plethora of their own new tools. The DLC has added a whopping 95 new weapons (with 8 new weapon categories), 39 ability-augmenting talismans, 42 spells, 25 weapon skills or “Ashes of War”, and 20 new spirit summons. While not all are slam dunks, I found ample toys to play with during my time in the Land of Shadow.
The leveling system in Elden Ring requires that players pick a combination of stats to focus on, with different weapon groups available for different builds. I went in with a Strength build, and within a few hours was rewarded with a half-dozen new weapons I couldn’t wait to try. The Greatsword of Solitude, dropped by the aforementioned Blackgaol Knight (dastard!), I used for exploration throughout my playthrough. But the challenges are so severe, and presented in such variety, I found myself encouraged to experiment with playstyle and damage type significantly more than in the base game. A boss might be susceptible to fire, frostbite, bleed, or any number of various elements and status effects, and the game presents you with endless tools to take advantage of these weaknesses. If you are stuck, stop banging your head against the wall and try a different strategy. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Weapon upgrade materials are plentiful in supply, and dropped by nearly every enemy. Even the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones, required to achieve a weapon’s max level, are scattered throughout the map and guarded by nasties of all kinds. Players should have no fear in expending resources on anything that strikes their fancy. It’s worth it to find playstyles that appeal to you, and you won’t be punished for it. If your entire build isn’t working, there are 9 more larval tears to be found, on top of the base game’s 17, which allow you to fully respec your character.
DLC Story and Lore
Like the rest of FromSoft’s oeuvre, the plot of Elden Ring is wildly complex, and buried in item descriptions and scant snatches of dialogue. It principally concerns the cosmology of its fantastical world, and the dynastic struggle for godhood between Queen Marika the Eternal and her brood of warring demigod children. The story’s intricacy has spawned an entire sub-industry of YouTube lore experts whose videos themselves rack up millions of views.
The DLC principally concerns itself with the journey of Miquella, a son of Queen Marika cursed with eternal childhood, and his feminine alter ego St. Trina, an avatar of sleep and dreams. Miquella has traveled to a hidden dimension known as the Land of Shadow, sealed by Queen Marika to obscure her true origins and the horrors committed in her ascent to godhood. Seeking to cleanse the land of his mother’s sins, Miquella seeks godhood himself, and the player is tasked with following Miquella’s footsteps as he casts off his body and his fate.
The Land of Shadow can seem a foreboding place, but the player is met there by a colorful cast of characters. From Software is known for its forlorn, endearing, and sinister NPCs (non-player characters), moving around the world map to offer cryptic advice and tidbits of lore. Shadow of the Erdtree boasts one of their more memorable casts. From Ansbach, erstwhile servant of Mohg who wishes to right the wrongs of the past; to Thiollier, the soft-spoken purveyor of poison and devotee of St. Trina; to Igon, a vengeful dragon hunter based on Gregory Peck’s Ahab from the 1956 Moby Dick; each character to cross your path will enrich your journey and leave a lasting impression.
As a lore enthusiast, I found certain aspects of the game illuminating, and others rather frustrating. Some aspects of Miquella’s character, well-established in the base game, seemed almost willfully ignored. Without spoiling things, I’ll just say we got a lot less than I was expecting in certain directions, and a lot more in others. The game’s conclusion in particular has caused quite a stir online. I’m still sorting through my own feelings on the matter, but the final conflict itself is excellent (as is its OST!), and a major test of patience. Though certain areas and encounters left me unfulfilled from a lore perspective, one particular sidequest blindsided me, and altered my entire conception of the game’s universe. I found it, in many ways, more impactful than the resolution of the main quest.
Unlike the ancient history uncovered throughout the base game, much of Shadow of the Erdtree’s plot plays out in the present. Characters you meet have active roles in ongoing events, and the player is tasked with making some difficult decisions of their own. One moment in particular left me completely paralyzed, and after finally making my decision I was overcome with regret. It has always been a gift of the studio’s to impart pathos and weight to their NPCs through the subtlest characterizations, and the DLC is no exception. While the conclusion of Miquella’s tale left me with a litany of questions, the convergence of NPC questlines toward the end of the game was possibly FromSoft’s finest yet.
As always, the environmental storytelling is truly peerless. The DLC includes some of FromSoft’s best, and the interconnected map is a triumph, and the highlight of the game. The original Dark Souls featured a single interconnected map, and this felt closer to that in spirit than anything the studio has produced since. The DLC itself feels comparable to an entire Dark Souls game built within the world of Elden Ring.
Overwhelmingly Challenging
Shadow of the Erdtree has, inarguably, set a new standard for DLC and redefined what the term can mean. A brief playthrough should take 30-40 hours; my own effort, exploring each corner of the map, completing all questlines to the best of my ability, and finding all Scadutree Fragments, took more than 70.
The ambition of Shadow of the Erdtree is both its strength and its plight. It is so huge, so overwhelming, and so difficult, I found myself constantly forgetting it was not, in fact, Elden Ring 2. And found myself, perhaps unfairly, wanting more.
Certain areas feel oddly empty. A few lore-centric dungeons are briefer than their base game equivalents. On several occasions, rounding a corner after a fascinating stretch of exploration, I was disappointed to find a repeat mini-boss copied from the base game. Again, I don’t think these are fair critiques of a DLC; but Shadow’s overall level of ambition and competency makes these routine design choices feel like missteps.
Still, my ultimate impression is of a masterpiece. Besting themselves in art direction, the DLC holds a few of my favorite areas the studio has ever produced. The same goes for creature designs, NPCs, and boss encounters. At least one of each I would hold as a new series standard. The highs are benchmarks, and lessons, I hope, for the studio going forward. As obscure and difficult as it can be, sections of the DLC felt more “gamey” and accessible than I would ever have expected of FromSoftware, and I can’t wait to see how they incorporate these elements into whatever they do next.
As for the difficulty, there’s not much I can say. If you weren’t already sold on the base game, this entry is most likely not for you. Yet, while my patience and skill were tested, I walked away from the experience a better player. In the end, that’s the most I can ask.
Whether this is the end of Elden Ring or the first step, it is a resounding statement that will echo in gaming for decades to come. The endless wait has only made it all the more special. I’m excited – to be excited – for whatever comes next.
Until then, as Messmer would say: “Oh, lightless creature, embrace thine oblivion, just as I.”
