The highly anticipated Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is set to debut on June 20, 2024. As I delved into interviews with the game director and immersed myself in countless viewings of the trailer, the sheer scale and impact of this expansion surpassed my initial expectations. Particularly striking is the introduction of 8 new weapon types, among them an intriguing unarmed Elden Ring Items for sale.
A closer examination of the trailer reveals its opening scenes unfolding in a familiar locale – the boss arena hosting Mohg and the Miquella Cocoon. Notably, Miquella emerges as a pivotal figure, serving as the entry point to the enigmatic Land of Shadow, a revelation officially confirmed by game director Hitaka Miyazaki.
Expansive New Map
Good to know is that this will be a new map entirely separate from the base game. You are able to seamlessly travel between the 2, so after warping to these new lands for the first time, I’m assuming you can freely fast travel between points of grace on this map and the old one.
You can also see from these first trailer shorts of Elden Ring that the Land of Shadow seems pretty big for one. From Software says it’s their biggest expansion to date. So, it is a good idea to buy Elden Ring Runes in davance.
But what is interesting is that they compare the map size of the DLC to the size of Limgrave, so the entire first region of the map, saying it might be even bigger in scale.
Explore The Land of Shadow
Now the one thing I’m not so stoked about is that Miyazaki also confirmed this new map will contain another poison swamp. I hope this is not the first area we have to conquer. And while the poison swamp is pretty scary, the most terrifying thing in this new environment is the giant twisted tree at the center of it.
One of the main reasons we as tarnished come to the Land of Shadow is Mika. Mika is a very important character in the lore. He’s one of the few members of the royal family we haven’t met and is spoken of very highly by other characters in the game. He’s also an emperion, someone with the potential of becoming a god, and I think that’s one of the reasons why he came to the Land of Shadow.
Another one is that he is tracing the footsteps of his mother, Amica, who has also visited these lands for reasons Mika wants to discover. So for lore fans, it sounds like we’re getting a ton of answers to mysteries that still remain from Elden Ring.
New Weapons
And while I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for any story details, the main reason for exploring the new map is to find all the cool new spells and Elden Ring items. There will be 8 entirely new weapon types for the DLC, and I think we already get a glimpse of a couple of them in the trailer.
There are some backhand-wielded scimitars also seem to give you access to a sideways quick step and dual wielding, and rapid-firing throwing knives also seem like a really powerful addition to your skill set. You can get these weapons by your Elden Ring Runes.
Progression Mechanic
And speaking of that game, Shadow of the Erdtree will also have a unique progression mechanic that Miyazaki compared to attack power from Sekiro. So on top of regular level progression, you’ll be able to level your combat power specifically for the DLC area, which is done to encourage exploration even more because you can’t go to a different region to level up like in Elden Ring.
On the note of exploration, the Land of Shadow will largely follow the same structure as the map regions in the base game. So you can expect large open areas to explore with interesting landmarks that hide loot and secrets, major and minor dungeons that will probably end in a boss fight. The large-scale legacy dungeons that play out more like a stage from Darksouls or Bloodborne.
Formidable Bosses
The main core is of course the bosses, there are 10 of them in total. Some of these will be optional, and Miyazaki also teases there might be some that are on Malenia level of challenge. I feel like we’ve only seen 2 so far, one of which being this lion-human centipede mashup.
But I did notice the curved horns and a lion-like face, which makes me think this creature is part of the Omen or Misbegotten. It looks like a formidable opponent as it moves very unpredictably and also has access to lightning powers.
But the main attraction for the DLC seems to be a new character called Messmer the Impaler, who wields a new type of fire magic from the looks of it and a really cool-looking sword spear that I bet we can get as a reward for beating him. And we did learn a bit more about him with many signs pointing towards him being on the same level of power as the bosses from the Elden Ring.
The throne he is sitting on in the key art is the same as the ones in Moro’s Boss Arena, which were reserved for characters like Melenia and Morold himself. The clearly visible red hair and the fact that his name starts with an M means there is definitely a possibility he’s related to the current Elden Lord Radagon and most likely to Amica, Mika, and Melenia as well.
Final Thought
However, Miyazaki has confirmed in an interview with Famitsu that the DLC takes place on the same timeline as the base Elden Ring game, so we won’t be traveling to the distant past or future. We will definitely look forward to the fight when we learn more.
