There was one thing magical about that first playthrough of Elden Ring – when every part was new and there was a prevailing sense of discovery and awe as I rode by means of The Lands Between, stumbling upon the horrors of Caelid, the lovely vistas of Limgrave and Liurnia, and the treasures that awaited after a difficult dungeon. Which is why my three hours with Elden Ring’s DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree was so thrilling, as a result of it felt like I used to be taking part in Elden Ring once more for the first time, in a model new realm to discover, with new discoveries, new surprises, new gear, and also you’d higher consider new challenges, even regardless of my supplied stage 150 character with end-game stage gear.
My three hour play session started at the Cocoon of the Empyrean Website of Grace, which is the place you do battle with the non-obligatory boss Mohg: The Lord of Blood. However this time, as a substitute of an empty boss room, there was an NPC named Leda there as properly, who requested me if I too was beckoned by Miquella. By analyzing the cocoon with Miquella’s withered arm ominously hanging out, I used to be whisked away to the Realm of Shadow.
It’s exhausting to get a way for simply how massive the Realm of Shadow really is, however I’ll say that my first steps out into it have been undoubtedly reminiscent of the first time I emerged from the elevator and opened the doorways into Limgrave. There have been apparent areas of curiosity proper from the get-go for me to discover, like a crypt that was on to my left, some scorched ruins straight up forward, a big fortress far off in the distance, and the towering flaming brazier enemy from the trailer roaming round simply on the horizon.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (Steam Code)
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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a paid DLC enlargement for Elden Ring releasing on June 21 for PC and consoles. Gamers will hunt down the god Miquella in a shadowed world full of new biomes, dungeons, and executives.
In fact, in true Elden Ring trend, the very first enemy I encountered ended up murdering me, as if to reassure me that regardless of my stage 150 character with a +25 power scaled axe, together with 80 factors allotted to power, this DLC wasn’t going to be a cake stroll for folks with finish sport builds which have run out of issues to problem them in the base sport. It wasn’t even a boss, it was only a random enemy that determined to drop down from above whereas I used to be exploring some ruins, with its dual-wielded chakrams that stored me tumbling backwards as I attempted to dodge its twirling dance that by no means appeared to finish.
As soon as I acquired my revenge and a paltry couple thousand runes for my hassle – once more, this was only a regular run-of-the-mill enemy – I made a break down the crushed path and wound up at the first massive dungeon of the DLC: Belurat. The last word objective of the DLC is to observe Miquella’s crosses, which primarily act as Miquella’s footprints and signpost the plot-critical path. The primary one I discovered additionally got here with a message that learn: “The Gate of Divinity Lies in the Tower sealed by Shadow. That’s certainly the place Variety Miquella is headed. We aren’t any Empyreans however we should find the path that can lead us there. I’ll observe the crosses east.”
Belurat itself was a pretty big dungeon that was someplace between the measurement of one thing like Stormveil Citadel and Citadel Morne. It’s not fairly the measurement of a Legacy Dungeon from the predominant sport, however nonetheless fairly prolonged and stuffed with loads of non-obligatory aspect paths, many of which I didn’t get the alternative to totally discover. It was a fortress stuffed with all types of new nasties, from scorpions of each the small and gigantic varieties, to comparatively weak guards that loved to cover round corners ready to ambush me, to Gravebirds that sat perched on the ramparts, to closely armored knights with big weapons that will often use shoulder expenses to bash into me from 15 toes away. Each enemy I fought was a brand new encounter for me to study, which was an thrilling problem to beat.
The boss of Belurat is one that you simply little question will keep in mind when you watched the reveal trailer. It’s known as the Divine Beast, Dancing Lion. It was a tough combat, and one which required me to make use of one of the new summons in Shadow of the Erdtree: Black Knight Commander Andreas, together with swapping my weapon from the heavy hitting Fireknight’s Hearth Greatsword to the far more nimble Backhand Blade, which allowed me to hit and run far more simply. Maybe the coolest side of this explicit boss was the indisputable fact that its second section has it alternating between ice and lightning energy ups, forcing you to additionally should deal with both random lightning strikes, or huge AOE ice assaults that construct up frostbite, on prime of additionally avoiding his heavy hitting assaults.
Ultimately I prevailed, gaining the Lion’s head to put on as a helmet (horrifying, however cool), and his remembrance, and moved on to the second predominant dungeon: Citadel Ensis. This place jogged my memory far more of the Caria Manor, minus, you already know, all of the horrifying hand monsters. There have been heaps of magic-wielding enemies, together with an enormous in Carian Armor that was very like Bol’s from one of the evergaol boss fights, and a particularly tough Carian Knight that delivered to thoughts the combat in opposition to the enemy that guarded Renalla’s chambers in the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Becoming, as a result of this enemy guarded Relanna, who I in all probability spent at the very least 30 to 40 minutes making an attempt to beat.
Relanna was undoubtedly the hardest boss to take down throughout the preview window, combining fearsome melee sword abilities with extraordinarily highly effective magic assaults. In her second section, her two swords could be imbued with purple and blue flames, giving all of them new assaults that will set the area ablaze and make them extraordinarily tough to get out of the manner of. And simply after I thought I had the win in the bag, she’d float up in the sky and forged a model of Renalla’s Full Moon that will crash into the floor for 3 devastating shockwaves that would mainly one-shot me from full well being.
If it isn’t clear already, Shadow of the Erdtree is tough, however you’re not left utterly with no lifeline. Scattered all through the Realm of Shadow are Scadurtree Fragments that may be introduced again to a website of grace and turned in, very like you’d a Sacred Tear, or Golden Seed. These fragments will lower the quantity of injury enemies deal to you, however solely when you’re in the Realm of Shadow. Along with that, you may as well discover Revered Spirit Ash blessings, which could be turned in the similar manner, however these will as a substitute enhance the quantity of injury dealt by your spirit summons.
Whereas I didn’t get to discover the non-obligatory paths as a lot as I’d have appreciated in my three hours of playtime, I nonetheless managed to seek out loads of model new weapons, talismans, armor units, cookbooks and crafting guides, and even an Historical Dragon Smithing Stone. The brand new weapons have been very cool too, with some actually distinctive properties and weapon arts that made them behave fairly otherwise from something in the predominant sport. The Heavy Smithscript Axe, as an illustration, might be thrown with a press of the heavy assault button, with none kind of value or useful resource tied to it, making it very efficient each at a distance and shut up. The Milady weapon artwork places you right into a stance together with your arm stretched out to the aspect, and from the stance you are able to do a quantity of cool follow-ups, like a leaping and lunging stab that’s very reminiscent of one of Malenia’s assaults. The Backhand Blade really could be cut up into two swords if you twin wield it and has an excellent sick weapon ability that has you dashing to an enemy’s aspect for a stab to their ribs.
I felt like I achieved rather a lot in my three hours of playtime with Shadow of the Erdtree, however even then, it nonetheless felt like there was a lot left on the desk. Proper when my time ended, I used to be nearly to discover a path marked by one other one of Miquella’s crosses that led down into what appeared like one of FromSoftware’s well-known poison swamps, and simply by listening in on different gamers at the occasion, it was clear that I missed at the very least one different dungeon with a seemingly thrilling boss combat that I’m very a lot trying ahead to making an attempt myself. Fortuitously the wait isn’t for much longer now as Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is ready to launch on June 21.
Mitchell Saltzman is a senior guides producer at IGN. You’ll find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit