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Difficulty has always been a talking point when it comes to all soulslike games from developer FromSoftware, including Elden Ring. As such, it's no surprise that the same seems to be happening once again with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. However, it seems this time around, even some hardcore soulslike fans are taking issue with this expansion's steep difficulty curve.
The DLC started on an incredibly positive note, getting glowing reviews from critics. Even on Steam, the expansion initially received an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review rating from early adopters. However, as of writing this article, Elden Ring's recently released DLC sits at "Mixed" on Valve's storefront.
The reason for that is its steep difficulty. As someone who's currently making his way through the DLC and is pretty happy with the level of challenge it offers, I can't help but ask myself if Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is too difficult for most players, or are they simply going into it with the wrong expectations?
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Note: This article is purely subjective and reflects the author's opinions.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is challenging sure, but is it unfairly difficult?
One of the biggest and probably the only major complaints I've ever had with all past FromSoftware DLCs involves their difficulty and how easy it was to simply steamroll through them on a standard playthrough. However, if you were on New Game+ or god forbid NG+7, then you were going to have a much harder time going through the same content.
This honestly never felt right to me. As someone who came to the Dark Souls games pretty late, I attempted the DLCs right before I fought the final boss of the base game. By that time, I was already over-leveled for the rest of the content and the DLC barely felt anything more difficult than the late-game sections.
With Shadow of the Erdtree, however, this never felt to be the case. I was incentivized to explore the world, not only for hidden secrets or loot but also for the newly added Scadutree Fragments. These are essentially the means through which you increase your character's base attack power and also defense, but exclusively for the DLC.
In Shadow of the Erdtree, your character's base stats don't really matter all that much. What does count is how many Scadutree Fragments you find. I think this is where most players are struggling with the expansion. You see, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is meant to be difficult. It's late-game content after all.
However, at the same time, it offers you plenty of options that you can use to your advantage to make the experience much more tolerable, or dare I say, easier. You're not meant to steamroll through the content here, regardless of what level your character is at. Instead, the DLC heavily incentivizes exploration and experimentation.
FromSoftware already knew fans were prepared for the DLC with their end-game characters and fully upgraded weapons. And honestly, I think the steep difficulty in the opening sections of the Shadow of the Erdtree is a great fit for a DLC that is marketed as end-game content. After all, FromSoftware never said it'd be a cakewalk.
So, no, I don't think that Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is too difficult. It's just like any other FromSoftware game, with difficulty that feels both crushing and satisfying at the same time. Yes, some bosses are quite challenging, perhaps even more so than what most fans might've expected. However, the DLC's difficulty, to me, never felt unfair.
For anyone who is struggling with Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree, I highly recommend taking your time to explore and also experiment with the new weapons, armor, and talismans. Don't try to rush through the content just because you're level 250 and have enough Vigor to survive Malenia's Waterfowl Dance and Scarlet Aoenia.
Just like Elden Ring's base game, Shadow of the Erdtree isn't meant to be played in haste. Take your time to explore the Realm of Shadow and complete side dungeons, NPC quests, as well as optional boss fights. You never know what new thing you will find that might just end up giving you the edge that you need against the next main story boss.
I started the DLC with a level 170 Strength-Faith build and the Blasphemous Blade as well as the Erdtree Seal as my primary armaments. However, I'm currently running a Strength-Arcane build simply because of a weapon that I found in one of the optional dungeons, which helped me defeat some of the toughest mid to late-game bosses in this DLC.
