THE Shadow Keep Backdoor is a difficult location to find in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but locating this important exit is essential to tracking down the final Scadutree fragment and unlocking one of the most secret areas of the Shadow Realm: the back -country.
In this guide, we will show you the exact route you need to take from Shadow Keep in order to go to the back door of Shadow Dungeon, and what you need to do once you get there – because you’ll need to do something quite unusual to find the entrance to the backcountry. So keep reading below to find out exactly where is the back door to the Shadow Keep and how to find it.
Watch on YouTube
How to get to the Shadow Keep Back Gate
The quickest way to find the back door to Shadow Keep is from the Site of Grace.Warehouse, rear section‘, accessible only by passing through the east side of Shadow Keep via the church district. You will also need to use this entrance to beat Messmer, the Impaler, as he too is only accessible via this route to the warehouse.
From this Site of Grace, head west and use the ladder on your right to access the upper levels of Shadow Keep.
Once at the top, go up the stairs on the right. You can fight the Fire Knight here if you want, but you can also sneak around without being seen if you prefer.
At the top of the stairs, another Fire Knight patrols the ground, so again, you may want to stay back and sneak up behind him if you want to avoid a fight. Sneak around the two shelves in front of you, but do not go to the next section of the floor. Instead, turn around and you will see a hole in the wall.
Jump through this makeshift window and continue up the rickety wooden stairs to the outer side of the tower. Take it 6x Shaded Sunflowers And 1x Blessed Bone Fragment remove the two corpses as you go.
At the top of the scaffolding, you will enter the warehouse and will have the opportunity to activate the grace site.Deposit, Loft‘. Do so immediately and get into the small elevator in front of you.
You will now be in the rafters of the Storehouse, and that’s a long time, long at the bottom if you fall (the kind that results in instant death most of the time), so you’ll need to watch your step as you make your way through this level of the warehouse.
Start by going left and follow the beams around the corner. Needless to say, there are both enemy bats and bat-like gargoyle statues here, but it’s pretty easy to tell them apart if you go slowly. Just make sure you don’t fall when the bats come down to attack you.
Before using the ladder to climb to the next set of rafters, be sure to collect the 7x thin beast bones around the corner. Now climb the ladder. Turn left and follow the beams (the right is an unfortunate dead end), and collect the 4x Forge Stone (7) of the corpse in the middle of the beams.
Continue around and after fighting the next bat, stop when you get to the large cog below you. Here is one of the new Shadow of the Erdtree spells: “Anger from afar‘, which you will have to deposit and collect. Do it slowly, as you don’t want to fall too far or too fast.
To continue, you’ll need a head start on this next section, as you’ll need to jump to the wooden platform jutting out to the north. Hold your stomach as you perform this vital leap.
Then, climb back up the ladder to the level you were on before going down to claim the spell. You will need to be careful in this next section, because there is a Fire Knight here who can easily push you back to death with a powerful wind spell. You will see them directly in front of you when you reach the top of the ladder.
If you want to stay and fight him, do so in this corner of the room, as there is a platform below you to grab onto directly to your right. The spell has a very long range, so you won’t be safe even from the ladder.
If you get knocked down on the lower platform, drop down to the elevator below you to get back up to the correct level (but not before exploring the level where the elevator is, as you’ll find a dead body (and a other). Fire Knight based on a dagger, what joy) here with 1x Rune of an Unsung Hero plunder. This can be consumed for 50,000 runes, but whatever you do, don’t use it right away, as you wouldn’t want to die and potentially lose all those precious runes.
The elevator will take you right back next to the Fire Knight Wizard, and if you’re smart, you can probably attack him at long range from the elevator with relative safety. However, if you prefer not to deal with the Fire Knight when you reach the top of that ladder facing him, simply run (walk) for your life (slowly) to the left (in a northwest direction) from as possible. when you reach the top of the ladder.
Go down the ladder to your left and claim the 4x Rada Fruits of the corpse below. Then turn right (heading northeast) and go down the second ladder to the platform with the opening to the outside.
Once outside, use the (very small) elevator on your right. It will take you to a lower wooden platform, which has another (much larger) elevator that will take you down to the lower level of Shadow Dungeon.
Once at the bottom, activate the Site of Grace’Shadow Dungeon, back door‘
Congratulations! You have reached the back door of the Shadow Keep. Now, two options are available to you:
- Continue straight to face Commander Gaiuswho is a Remembrance boss and stands in the way of five (yes, five) Scadutree Shards near the Chalice of Scaduview.
- Head straight to the room with a large statue to begin your journey into the hinterland.
Before you do anything, you should still visit the room with the statue, as there is another Scadutree fragment to claim here.
How to get to the Hinterland from the Shadow Keep Back gate
On the ground, you will also see a message on a white tablet that says: “Have pity. For crazy shamans“. The meaning of this message is not immediately obvious, and you may also be wondering: This is a dead end, how do I get to the Hinterland from here?
Well what you need to do is perform the O Mother gesture in front of the statue.
After a second or two, the statue will begin to automatically move to the right, revealing a new door leading to the Shadow Dungeon. This leads into the Scaduview hinterland and is an important region for progress Ymir’s questline and find the location of the ruins map he gave you at the Cathedral of Manus Metyr.
That’s all to get to the back door of the Shadow Keep. We will have more tips on how to find the secret of the ruins map soon.
Need help? Here’s what to do first in Shadow of the Erdtree, along with our list of Erdtree bosses and all the Erdtree grace sites we’ve found so far.
