Shadow of the Erdtree has ground me into dust, which is why I recommend it

Elden Ring was my first leap into FromSoftware titles (and Dark-Souls-like games generally), and I fell in deep. Over more than 200 hours, I ate up the cryptic lore, learned lots of timings, and came to appreciate the feeling of achievement through perseverance.

Months ago, in preparation for Elden Ring’s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree (also on PlayStation and Xbox, arriving June 21), I ditched the save file with which I had beaten the game and started over. I wanted to try out big swords and magic casting. I wanted to try a few new side quests. And I wanted to have a fresh experience with the game before Shadow arrived.

I have had a very fresh experience, in that this DLC has made me feel like I’m still in the first hour of my first game. Reader, this expansion is mopping the floor with me. It looked at my resume, which has “Elden Lord” as its most recent job title, and has tossed it into the slush pile. If you’re wondering whether Shadow would, like Elden Ring, provide a different kind of challenge and offer, like the base game, easier paths for Souls newcomer: No, not really. At least not until you’re already far along. This DLC is for people who beat Elden Ring, or all but beat it, and want capital-M More.

That should be great news for longtime Souls devotees, who fondly recall the difficulty spikes of some of earlier games’ DLC or those who want a slightly more linear, dungeon-by-dungeon, boss-by-boss experience. For everybody else, I’d suggest waiting until you’re confidently through most of the main game—and for the giant wiki/YouTube apparatus around the game to catch up and provide some guidance.

What “ready for the DLC” really means

Technically, you can play Shadow of the Erdtree once you’ve done two things in Elden Ring: beaten Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood. Radahn is a mid-game boss, and Mohg is generally encountered in the later stages. But, perhaps anticipating the DLC, the game makes it so you can get to Mohg relatively early by using a certain item.

Just getting to a level where you’re reasonably ready to tackle Mohg will be a lot. As of a week ago, more than 60 percent of players on Steam (PC) had not yet beaten Mohg; that number is even higher on consoles. On my replay, I got to about level 105 at around 50 hours, but I remembered a lot about both the mechanics and the map. I had the item to travel to Mohg and the other item that makes him easier to beat. Maybe it’s strange to avoid spoilers for a game that came out more than two years ago, but, again, the majority of players have not gotten this far.

I took down Mohg in one try; I’m not bragging, just setting expectations. I had a fully upgraded Moonlight Greatsword, a host of spells, a fully upgraded Mimic Tear spirit helper, and a build that was focused on Intelligence (for the sword and spell casting), but could also wear decent armor while still adequately rolling. Up until this point, I was surprised by how much easier the bosses and dungeons I revisited had felt (except the Valiant Gargoyle, which was just as hard).

I stepped into the DLC, I wandered around a bit, killed a few shambling souls (“Shadows of the Dead”), and found a sealed chasm (“Blackgaol”) in the first area. The knight inside took me out, repeatedly, usually in two quick sword flicks. Sometimes he’d change it up and perforate me with gatling-speed flaming crossbow bolts, or a wave emanating from his sword. Most of the time, he didn’t even touch his healing flask before I saw “YOU DIED.”

Ah, but most Elden Ring players will remember that the game put an intentionally way-too-hard enemy in the very first open area, almost as a lesson about leveling up and coming back. So I hauled my character and bruised ego toward a nearby ruins, filled mostly with more dead Shadows. The first big “legacy dungeon,” Belurat, Tower Settlement, was just around the corner. I headed in and started compiling my first of what must be 100 deaths by now.

There are the lumbering Shadows, yes, but there are also their bigger brothers, who love to ambush with a leaping strike and take me down in two hits. There are Man-Flies, which unsurprisingly swarm and latched onto my head, killing me if I wasn’t at full health (40 Vigor, if you must know). There are Gravebirds, which, like all birds in Elden Ring, are absolute jerks that mess with your camera angles. And there are Horned Warriors, who are big, fast, relentless, and responsible for maybe a dozen each of my deaths.

At level 105, with a known build strategy centered around a weapon often regarded as overpowered, and all the knowledge I had of the game’s systems and strategies, I was barely hanging on, occasionally inching forward. What gives?

Why does this feel so hard?

Complaining that a FromSoftware game is too difficult is a tricky debate, one we’ve dug into before. It feels to me like Shadow is overall more unforgiving than the base game, with more ambushes, more damage from standard enemies, and bosses with overwhelming attack patterns, at least from what I’ve read. Being efficient with my runes (experience points) and cautious with my save points while playing through the main game, I felt adequate to almost every challenge. In Shadow, I am lost, I am struggling, and learning how to get out of the bigger fights alive is taking some time.

I ran this experience by a friend who has played most of the mainline Souls games. The add-ons for these games should be hard, they told me; nobody who made it this far into the main game wants a $40 DLC to feel like a push-over. They also noted that Souls games had traditionally focused more on technique, memorization, and, yes, perseverance, than level grinding, min-maxing, and extensive wiki reading. That’s what they like about Souls games. What I like—exploration, research, essentially winning through attrition—will be easier to do once the wider world has gotten its hands on this expansion.

Mechanically, FromSoftware has also tried to make Shadow as similar an experience for as many players as possible. Two items in the game, Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, offer attack/defend and spirit companion bonuses, respectively, that are separate from the main game, and only apply while you’re in the DLC. Specifically, those bonuses apply percentage boosts to your existing stats, rather than another base number. I’ve hunted down as many of those blessings as exist in the areas I can get to, and I do not feel like I’ve got a significant edge on the first major boss, but they’ve helped a good deal.

That tough road ahead looks fun

Because your humble reviewer, now feeling especially humble, has not made it very far into the map, the plot, or even the equipment of Shadow, I can’t be too explicit about what’s ahead. Based on what FromSoftware has provided reviewers, and on what others have seen and said, I think anyone who really enjoyed the base game, and has a mind for patiently progressing through numerous defeats, will get their money’s worth from Shadow. If you haven’t beaten Mohg yet (the long way), and you’re not sure how much time you want to put in before you try this expansion, you really should wait to see if you get there first.

The first two bosses are cool as heck, in a devastatingly fatal way. The new spells, techniques, and weapons—especially including hand-to-hand fighting, or the “Dryleaf Sect”—make me want to keep trying. I want to beat a Furnace Golem on horseback, learn all the new spells in the Cathedral of Manus Metyr, and visit the more brightly colored Hinterland and Stone Coffin Fissure. And I want to complain with my friends about the Abyssal Woods, which I’m sure are an absolute nightmare of traps and surprises.

I don’t have any particular technical notes about how the game runs, because it is essentially running the same for me as the base game runs. By the time I get to any area bogged down in frame rate stutters, we can assume a patch will have arrived. Your mileage may vary, but probably not by much off your prior experience.

But first, I am going to go back to the base game for a bit, level up some more and pick up a few more items. Most of all, I’m going to let the people who are really great at these kinds of games get through it, share their knowledge back, and then play it my way. Shadow of the Erdtree is definitely an expansion, both outward in area and upward in base difficulty. If you’ve already purchased it and find yourself bouncing off it, give yourself some time, some grace (in-game and out), and come back when you’re ready.