Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree Gameplay and Story

updated_at: September 24, 2025 05:20

published_at: February 20, 2024 20:35

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Elden Ring (Main Page)		Release Date		Gameplay & Story		Review

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Gameplay

Shadow of the Erdtree is set in an entirely new region simply known as the Land of Shadow, a mysterious and dark realm filled with vast maps, dungeons, and enemies. The Land of Shadow is roughly the size of Limgrave, the first accessible area of Elden RIng, and is shrouded by the Erdtree's shadow. Shadow of the Erdtree features a ton of new areas to explore, new weapons to wield, new abilities and spells to cast, and even more lore bombs to drop.

The DLC starts by interacting with Miquella's withered hand in Mohgwyn Palace. Moreover, revealed in an interview with FromSoftware's president Hidetaka Miyazaki, Shadow of the Erdtree has over 10 new boss fights and eight new weapon categories while retaining the structure of the base game with open fields, dungeons, and other areas.

While the difficulty of FromSoftware games have always been challenging to say the least, it will take a similar route to Dark Souls 3's Ringed City DLC and Bloodborne's The Old Hunters DLC where it will be similar to the scaling of the endgame of the base game. Several enemies and bosses have already been shown in the trailer such as Messmer the Impaler, a horse-riding monstrosity with a boomerang for a weapon, and many more.

The new map will be somewhat larger than Limgrave, or the base game's first area, as confirmed by Miyazaki. Furthermore, he also confirmed the existence of a poisonous swamp area as expected from each and every Soulsborne game from FromSoftware and even said that he realized that he liked creating poisoned swamps and that it was "a little place of introspection and reflection" for him.

New Enemy?

The official Elden Ring Twitter(X) account posted a seemingly new entity that takes a form of a bipedal ignited brazier fashioned into a tree golem. This creature was seen in the first DLC trailer for a short while, but the image makes it obvious as to how gargantuan it is compared to the other human characters.

New Weapon Types and New Weapon Attacks

In an exclusive three hour preview event, more details about the DLC describing eight brand new weapon types namely the following:
⚫︎ Light Greatsword
⚫︎ Martial Arts
⚫︎ Beast Claws
⚫︎ Perfume Bottles
⚫︎ Reverse Grip Swords
⚫︎ Throwing Daggers
⚫︎ Dueling Shield
⚫︎ Great Katana

For the case of Perfume Bottles and Throwing Daggers, these weapons are actual ranged weapons which is new to the series as most ranged options are tied to consumables, spells, incantations, and the like. However, these are new weapons that give players a ranged playstyle without committing to being stationary when doing so.

In the case of Martial Arts and Beast Claws, these are unique movesets with some similarities to past weapons that the series have had, specifically the Bone Fists from Dark Souls 2 and Beast Claws from Bloodborne respectively. In addition to new weapon types, the existence of Throwing Weapons have also been added in the DLC. These weapons have a throwing attack for their Heavy Attack (R2) which doesn't have ammunition or resources used. The discovered weapons during the preview were a throwing axe, throwing spear, and a throwing greathammer.

Shadow Realm Blessing

In addition to the gameplay additions, the DLC also has a new system named the "Shadow Realm Blessing" for progression exclusively for the Land of Shadow. New consumables called the "Scadutree Fragments" are used to strengthen your blessing which increases your damage output and decreases incoming damage in the DLC area. These consumables are only usable in Sites of Grace similar to Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears in the base game.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Story Plot

Players battle through the new region and are guided by Empyrean Miquella to the Land of Shadow. The Land of Shadow is where the goddess Marika first set foot, a land purged in an unsung battle and set ablaze by Messmer’s flame. It was to this land that Miquella departed, divesting himself of all things Golden: his flesh, his strength, his lineage. Players quests culminate in a decision to make involving Miquella.