Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree completion time

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree was expected to be a massive expansion, and even the game's creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki confirmed that the DLC would be roughly the size of Limgrave. Miyazaki-san also mentioned that Shadow of the Erdtree would take about 30 to 40 hours to complete for a normal playthrough, which is quite a lot for what is essentially a DLC.

However, it seems Miyazaki-san hugely undersold the actual content density and map size of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Not only does the Realm of Shadow far surpass Limgrave, but it's almost the size of the base game itself, barring a few optional regions.

And much like the base game, it can take quite some time to go through the entirety of Shadow of the Erdtree. Although you can technically finish the expansion much faster than the base game itself, doing so means skipping out on a majority of the content the DLC has to offer. Here's a look at how long it will take for you to finish Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

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How long does it take to beat Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC?

Shadow of the Erdtree, much like Elden Ring's base game, takes roughly 40-50 hours, on a normal playthrough with an end-game optimized build. This includes completing a healthy dose of optional dungeons, NPC questlines, and essentially all the major boss fights, i.e., those that drop their Remembrances.

If you want to beeline through the DLC, you can do so in roughly 20-25 hours, depending on how fast you defeat the bosses. However, given Shadow of the Erdtree's steep difficulty curve and the new strength scaling system via the Scadutree Fragments, beelining through the DLC can be a bit tough.

As for the completionist playthrough, you're looking at 80-100 hours, easily. While the map of the Realm of Shadow might look a bit smaller compared to that of the Lands Between, it's much more vertical, with plenty of hidden regions for players to discover on their own.

Do note that completion time in souls-likes and especially FromSoftware's brand of souls-likes, tends to depend heavily on players' skill. Additionally, unlike traditional open-world games, Elden Ring doesn't rely on quest markers and objective trackers, requiring players to figure out how to complete quests on their own.

The lack of hand-holding is also a major factor as to why the first playthrough of Elden Ring is always longer than subsequent runs. Additionally, if you plan to use a guide for the DLC, you can shave off a few more hours. A guide-based playthrough should last somewhere between 25-30 hours, based on how many bosses you defeat and dungeons you clear.