The DLCs for Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne (among others) are well known for their immense difficulty, with names that have become legendary within the community like Sister Friede, Gael, or the Orphan of Kos. There is good reason to hope, or fear, depending on your level of play, that Elden Ring’s Shadow of Erdtree DLC will follow the same path.
Our opinion on the difficulty of Shadow of the Erdtree
For reference, we have completed all of FromSoftware’s games and their expansions since Demon’s Souls, including Sekiro’s boss runs. So we have significant experience with their licenses, but with a level of play that is nothing extraordinary, since it often requires training on difficult bosses. We do not do “challenge runs” or speedrunning.
We managed to kill all the bosses in the DLC except the last one, without using any summons, whether they were NPCs or spirits like the Mimic. The difficulty is clearly high, much higher than in the base game. Only the very last bosses are comparable to those in the DLC, like Malenia, Placidusax or Haorah Loux for example, and there are now about fifteen of them with an equivalent or higher difficulty level.
That being said, it’s still quite manageable with preparation and training. Only the very last boss really felt like a cut above the rest, and almost impossible to beat with our skill level, unless you use Mimic, or spend several days learning how to perfectly manage the fight. So it’s still reasonable.
The rest of Shadow Realm follows the formula we’ve come to expect from Elden Ring. While there are more formidable normal enemies, and vicious traps that will occasionally kill you, the presence of Marika’s emblems and grace sites simply slows you down most of the time.
In short, aside from a few specific bosses at the end of the story or optional sections, the DLC is difficult, but not to the point of blocking players who managed to reach it on their own. On the other hand, if you had to get help from other players to unlock the DLC, and Mohg the Bloodlord was insurmountable no matter what you tried, then the expansion is probably too difficult for you.
Some ways to reduce the difficulty
- The most obvious way is to accumulate levels by farming runes. Their impact has a limit from a certain point, but one should not underestimate the advantages offered by Faith for example, with powerful reinforcement spells to cast before a boss.
- The DLC introduces a system of permanent blessings to activate by collecting items in the Shadow Realm. This will stack damage and defense bonuses. Taking the time to collect as many of these items as possible before taking on the bosses will make your life much easier.
- In case you missed it, the summoning of Imitation Tear, aka the Mimic, will drastically reduce the difficulty of the fights, since it is overpowered.
- Some bosses let you summon golden NPCs to assist you, but they aren’t always very good, and they increase the bosses’ health. At least, that’s the case for those summoned outside the boss room, those summoned inside don’t have this counterpart.
- It’s very random, but summoning other players to do co-op is obviously the ultimate solution to your problems. As long as you find someone good enough to kill the boss, you’ll be able to get past the obstacle. Just try not to die in this case.
- The ultimate method on PC is to use mods that reduce the difficulty. It’s not glorious, but the important thing is to play the way you want. Be careful, however, not to ruin your enjoyment of the game by making the adventure too easy.
