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Welcome Tarnished
Elden Ring is the first FromSoft game that fully clicked for me and it is the only one that I have managed to complete so naturally I was excited to try this extensive DLC and even started a new playthrough in the run-up to release. So how does Shadow of the Erdtree build upon the success of the main game?
Before we start
One of the weirdest things about Shadow of the Erdtree is how to access this new content. You need to have progressed through the base game enough to defeat 2 bosses, General Radahn and Mohg in order to be able to access Miquella’s cocoon and enter the Land of Shadow. I feel like this makes sense from a narrative perspective but it really needs to be clear - both for newer players and older ones who may have missed Mohg (an optional boss).
Building for Success
My favourite part of Elden Ring is finding new weapons, spells, and gear in order to make increasingly bonkers and powerful builds, and so I often used special items to redistribute my stats to try out new things. Shadow of the Erdtree certainly does not disappoint in this regard as there is a huge amount of new gear for Tarnished to get their greedy hands on. During my journey in the Land of Shadow, I found multiple weapons and spells that tempted me to respec, mostly boss weapons. There are 8 new weapon types as well, ranging from hand-to-hand arts, great katanas, and (my personal favourite of these) backhand blades - basically swords that are held in a reversed grip. There are so many tempting options that you can find with a bit of exploring and there is something for everyone, for instance you might not be keen on a new incantation on offer but someone else might adjust their build around it.
Explore to Succeed
The most important new items that exploration rewards are known as Scadutree fragments and revered spirit ashes and these are linked to the balancing system for Shadow of the Erdtree. These items are used for boosting your damage and damage reduction, and then the same for your spirit ash summons. Essentially, these improve your strength in the DLC area, which means that your power in the main game doesn’t fully translate across. The Scadutree fragments should be your main priority when exploring the map as it makes a huge difference against the many enemies and bosses that you will face, most likely over and over again! Without these buffs, boss fights will become far more punishing.
“You Died”
Now this probably comes as no surprise but Shadow of the Erdtree is really difficult. Literally the first enemy (a cartwheeling disc thrower) absolutely destroyed me and I certainly won’t be alone in that! The first optional mini boss I found took me a worryingly long time to beat, but gave me an armour set I used for a good chunk of my playthrough so I always had that extra incentive to keep throwing myself into these encounters. There are plenty of new enemy types to face and I was pleasantly surprised in how few enemy types were lifted from the base game. You can’t afford to let your guard down at all, even the basic foot soldiers pack a real punch if you aren’t ready!
The bosses here are absolutely wild just like in the original and a real challenge to get through. Naturally I don’t want to get into spoiler territory but I will talk about my favourite as they are heavily featured in the marketing - Messmer the Impaler. He is an aggressive fighter that utilises a greatspear and wide sweeping flame attacks, among other tricks, but most importantly he feels like a suitable challenge and beating him was a real highlight of the DLC. The other highlight is a rather interesting fight in the run up to the final boss but I will leave that one as a surprise.
For the most part, I enjoyed all the bosses in this DLC and I managed to beat all of those that rewarded Remembrances (used to gain boss weapons and spells), yet there was one that felt overly punishing and needed another respec purely to counteract them. I admit it was a rush beating them in the end but it did not feel quite as satisfying as beating Messmer which felt like a deserved and well-earned victory rather than a brutal slog. This is a FromSoft game so difficult boss fights are expected but this one did feel like a far harsher difficult spike than the rest of the expansion.
Mapping the Land of Shadow
One of the most impressive aspects of Shadow of the Erdtree is the size of the map and the variety in areas. You start out in the Gravesite Plains, overlooking a vast field of spiritual graves. Ahead you can spy a great lumbering furnace golem, a great castle, and the huge Scadutree. I was instantly taken back to when I first stepped out into Lands Between in the original game and set off to explore (before that previously mentioned enemy ruthlessly put me down). I don’t want to spoil any of the locales themselves but the main legacy dungeons of this DLC are among some of the best Elden Ring has to offer. One is absolutely vast and filled with tricky foes and multiple paths in and out, while the smallest on offer has a real tense and spooky atmosphere.
The overall map of the Land of Shadow is huge and it really does pack a lot into that space thanks to a large amount of verticality. This is a double edged sword however, with the map being incredibly hard to read in some areas. Some regions are directly above others and so the map is essentially useless when you are underneath them. There are areas that feel far less populated than earlier ones as well. Also in typical FromSoft style, there is an entire chunk of the map that is inaccessible unless you do a very specific thing in a very specific place - something which I inevitably had to look up in order to access.
Uncovered Lore
I won’t pretend to be an expert on the lore of Elden Ring but Shadow of the Erdtree does serve to enrich the lore of the main game, both through NPCs and item descriptions. There are some genuinely big revelations and interesting facts that you can uncover throughout. The NPCs that you meet and their quests were some of the most interesting and easy enough to follow - even if progressing them can be a bit tricky just like in the base game. It is worth noting that the DLC does not actually affect the endings on offer in the main game, which does make narrative sense, but I felt that as a result I was not as invested in the actual plot as I was in the original.
Conclusion
While I really enjoyed my time with Shadow of the Erdtree, I found that I was playing to explore the map and try out new weapon and spell builds to clear my way through the dungeons, rather than expand my knowledge of the lore. Anyone who wants to re-experience that feeling of discovery and steadily facing stronger threats that they had in the base game will find plenty to enjoy here. For me, Shadow of the Erdtree recaptured that feeling, but I have to say that this is a DLC that is all about the journey, rather than the destination itself.
