Let’s get down to business. Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is definitely, positively, the same old thing. After spending three hours poring over a portion of its monumental-looking map, I came away satisfied with two things: First, it’s not a great reinvention—but second, it doesn’t need to be. It ultimately builds on the foundations of one of the greatest games ever made; a little more would have been enough.
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In other words, this brief hands-on experience left me excited, excited, and eager to learn more. When I got home, I Elden Ringboot up New Game Plus, start roaming around the game, and make a new save that can boot the expansion. It got me into the rut of Elden Ring all over again.
To access the expansion DLC content, you’ll need to defeat Elden Ring’s two main bosses: Caelid’s powerful general Radahn and the Machiavellian Omen Mohg. From the latter’s boss arena, you can be teleported to the Shadowlands via the newly added “Touch the Withered Arm” invitation. Without much fanfare, you’ll be taken to a brand new area to search for the whereabouts of Miquella, one of the key characters in The Lands Between who went missing in the main game.
In hands-on, I was able to play around with a chunk of the map – specifically, the area defined by the first map fragment you pick up after a few steps in this new adventure. It’s hard to tell without collecting more map fragments and actually seeing how much explorable area there is, but zooming out and switching between the discrete Lands of Shadow and The Lands Between maps, it seems that FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki is roughly correct when he compares its size to Elden Ring’s opening area, Limgrave. Land of Shadow does look roughly equivalent to the original. Ringgrave
But in addition to feeling big, there’s also a greater sense of density. That’s the density of the material, the density of the biomes, the enemies, and so on. A lot of things are crammed into this area. The actual gameplay basically encouraged us to walk towards two different dungeons – the less challenging one Ensis Castleand the larger “legacy dungeon” scale Beirut CastleI won’t give away any details, but obviously both games have notable bosses – Beirut is home to the “Dragon Dance” boss you’ll have seen in the trailer, as well as numerous paths and challenges along the way, and a whole host of new enemies to face.
The hands-on version sets the character level at 150 – but despite this high level, the preview is still a challenge. Part of this is, of course, getting used to the new weapons and abilities. The expansion will offer eight new weapon classes and over 100 new actual weapon items, as well as new armor, amulets, and other gear. In this version, I was surprised to see that martial arts unarmed weapons are actually equipped by default in a faith/intelligence mage-style build, forming a kind of mysterious master class with magical physical strikes.
For players who may be entering the DLC at a lower level, there’s a new mechanic to help them out – the Scadutree Blessing. This is a lot like collecting Gold Seeds and the like to enhance your healing options in the main game, but this mechanic permanently buffs your damage and resistances – but only in Shadowlands. There’s also a similar item that buffs Soul Ashes as well. Because these items must be found and then redeemed in the Land of Grace, they’re ultimately optional. For the greatest challenge, you can choose not to redeem them; a simple but elegant nod to ensure this DLC expansion satisfies both those seeking an end-game challenge with bloody fingers, and those who want to unravel more of the lore.
As shown in the trailer, the legend is carried by a group of new characters. Miquela’s knights, servants, and followers are following the footsteps of the High Celestials in the Shadowlands. Each new character has their own background and story; one knight named Freya once fought alongside Rodan. Another served Mog. A neurotic merchant assists them. They come to this mysterious land because they hope to find Miquela and follow her footsteps. This ragtag group of warriors has the aura of allies you meet in the Fortress of the Round Table. Of course, some are friendlier than others. They gather around “Miquela’s Crosses”, shining signposts that seem to mark the places where Miquela gave up some part of their lives.
The Shadowlands is some kind of twisted version of the In-Between, but not quite the opposite. The Eid tree stands, but it’s broken. The geography of the map is completely different. But hints of connections between these worlds abound and fuel the lore within me.
In a quiet corner, I found a place of worship, the “Church of Solace,” which had the familiar shape of Marika’s Church from Underground. It was guarded by a knight, and the statue atop the church was headless. Soon after, I stumbled upon something called the “Pillar of Suppression,” inscribed with the words “The very center of Underground. All forms of death rush here, only to be suppressed.” My interest was thoroughly piqued. After the event, I asked PR if my favorite Souls lore YouTuber would also be playing this version. I need a two-hour video on that pillar, stat.
Fighting the Dancing Dragon at the end of the Belurat dungeon, Shadow of the Erdtree’s thrill hit me like a bolt of lightning as the boss rushes in to hit you. It’s simple: in my opinion, the best expansions and DLC do one of two things. They either shake up the game, surprising it with something new and unexpected… or they show that the developers have finally freed themselves from the difficult and ever-changing elements of game development and are able to build on the most solid foundations. This allows them to stretch the boundaries of game design to their maximum limits – and sometimes even stretch those boundaries.
It’s hard to tell from just three hours of gameplay, but Shadow of the Erdtree seems to fall into the latter category. It’s a triumphant tour de force for FromSoftware. It stretches, it jabs, it expands, as the official use of the word expansion (rather than DLC) suggests – but it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Beirut Castle, for example, feels like a natural evolution of a place like Stormveil, similar in size and style but with a different nature of challenge.
Likewise, the Dragon Dance boss seems to play with player expectations of the main game—it’s an unpredictable fight, with enemies that tremble with the elements and whose elemental attacks are deadly. Not everyone can beat this boss; I did, but only barely. “I’m so close to victory, I’m sick,” I wrote in my notebook.
What I played in three hours was only a small taste of what Shadow Trees has to offer. It retains the open-ended structure of Elden Ring, too–so my choice between “three paths” and two sizable dungeons (plus a few smaller distractions) in a tiny designated area wasn’t really representative of me. In fact, I could have gone off the beaten path, but Bandai Namco reps would have been ready to wrest the controller from my hands if I’d ventured beyond the confines of the preview. But the point is: there’s clearly a lot going on here. This new map is clearly very dense. You can tell at a glance.
Honestly, I was ready for more. A lot of great games have come out in the two years since Elden Ring was released – but this expansion may very well be the perfect “full stop” to a game that offered industry-defining design ideas. Sometimes, less is more. Sometimes, however, more It was just more. Sometimes it just wasn’t enough. Two years later, I found that Elden Ring was exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t wait for the full version – luckily, the wait wasn’t long.
Shadow Trees is a massive $40 expansion pack for Elden Ring, the game’s only expansion pack. It’s coming soon. June 21 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and requires owning a copy of the base game.