We are now two days away from the launch of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, which has arrived to glowing reviews, as expected, the highest rated game content of the year and the highest raid expansion of any game ever. So yes, you should be excited.
You should also be prepared, but perhaps less so than you might imagine. First, I want to start with what you do not need to do, and that is try to grind really hard to get your power level up super high before the DLC starts. Past a certain point it will not help you at all.
The way the DLC works is that it flattens the difficulty curve instantly, for all players. If you are strong enough to do the thing you do need to do, beat Mohg to access the DLC, you are strong enough to play Shadow of the Erdtree. I mean, you’re going to get destroyed initially, but that’s sort of the point of FromSoft games, and this is more or less like starting a 1.5 sequel.
For example, I played the DLC starting at around level 170 or so. The Washington Post’s Gene Park started at 700, a result of his crazy grinding of the first game. But our experiences seemed essentially similar in terms of the difficulty curve of the DLC. That’s because the main way you power up in the game is through two new currencies, Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes. These increase your attack and defense, and your summons, scaled on your current power level. But it is overwhelmingly the case that simply finding those fragments is what makes you stronger in time, some of which appear when you find very clearly marked Sites of Grace, some of which are found delving the deepest dungeons in the map.
There’s just no reason to do some sort of huge rune farm the next 48 hours, and I’m not convinced traditional leveling in the DLC itself, though you do get tons of runes, is going to benefit you even a fraction of the amount that you see from those two upgrade currencies.
So again, the only thing you really have to do is beat Mohg, and in turn, be strong enough to beat Mohg. I made a whole guide about that here so I won’t go through the whole process again, but the general idea is that you should probably be at least level 80 to be in his palace and take him on. Others would say 100. Others would say 150. But I just don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule because this is so build and skill dependent. Again, the point is, if you can beat him, you are ready for the DLC. If you cannot, you are not, nor can you even access the DLC, which is kind of genius design if you ask me.
But if he’s dead, no, you don’t need to jam in a bunch of last minute power as there’s simply no point. Take it easy, and just enjoy the launch.
Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.