Shadow of the Erdtree is getting closer and closer, but don’t worry: Our guide will tell you how to prepare perfectly for the addon
New weapon categories, new spells, new enemies and a completely new game world: Shadow of the Erdtree is a huge expansion for Elden Ring.
Fulfill the requirements for the DLC
- Accessand necessary bosses: The DLC will be accessible through the game world, not via the game menu. To enter the DLC, you must touch the arm of Miquella in the Palace of the Blood Lord. The arm hangs out of the giant cocoon there.
To unlock access, you must defeat the two bosses Star Scourge Radahn and the Prince of Blood Mogh in the Palace of Blood - Perfect level: We recommend leveling your characterto at least level 125and having at least 60 power (Vigor) skill. The difficulty of the DLC will be on the level of endgame content and from experience FromSoftware’s DLCs are quite a bit harder than the main game content.
- New Game +: If you are already in the New Game +X in the game, i.e. if you have increased the difficulty of the game by X new journeys after the final boss, then the DLC will also be harder.
So if you are already in New Game +7, which is currently the hardest level of Elden Ring, then the DLC will also be at NG +7 level. In this case, you should prepare a new character.
Don’t worry, according to Miyazakithe DLC will not change anything in the main game No new endings, no changes to the questlines in the main game. So if you create a new character for the DLC, you don’t have to do anything except level up and defeat Radahn and Mogh.
Prepare the best buffs
We already know that the addon will have its own progression system, similar to the one in Sekiro. This would mean that every story-relevant boss will make you stronger
Miyazaki has hinted that this system is optional and also that it only works for the game world of the DLC – so the progression system has no effect on the main game.
You can still prepare, however, and can already give yourself additional offensive and defensive stats with buffs. The best buffs you should definitely have in your bag for the DLC are:
- flame, give me powerasbody buff
(+20 percent physical damage and +20 percent fire damage, 30 sec. duration) - Cooked CrabasBody Buff
(+20 percent physical damage reduction, 60 sec duration) - Shabriri’s HowlasBody Buff
(+25 percent damage and -30 percent damage reduction, 40 sec. duration) - Golden OathasAurabuff
(+15 percent damage and +10 percent damage reduction, 80 sec. duration) - Gather!from the Halberd Commander’s Standard asAurabuff
(+20 percent damage and +20 percent damage reduction, 30 sec duration) - Blessing of the Earth TreeasLife Regeneration Buff
(+12LP per second, 90 sec. duration) - Bloodflame BladeasWeapon Buff
(+0.4x Faith scaling of Signet Fire damage and additional +40 bleed buildup over 2 seconds, 60 sec duration) - Contagious rageof the jellyfish shield asunique buff
(20 percent more damage, 30 sec. duration) - Revenge Oathof the Greatsword of Transplantation asunique buff
(+5 to all attributes for 60 seconds and additional balance for 5 seconds)
Wizards benefit enormously from theTerra Magica This spell draws a sigil on the ground that increases your magic damage by 35 percent if you stand in the sigil while casting. This is aunique buff
This is what you should keep in mind
Rule of thumb: You can only have one buff of each buff type active.For example, “Flame, Give Me Power” and “Shabriri’s Howl” cancel each other out, as they are both body buffs. Unique buffs are an exception and can be stacked at will, even with other unique buffs! Damage increase stacks multiplicatively with buffs that increase your damage percentage.
“Shabriri’s Howl” causes you to take 30 percent more damage, so “Flame, Give Me Power” is better as abody bufffor fire and/or physical damage. It is inefficient to take 30 percent more damage to inflict 5 percent more damage with Shabriri’s Howl than Flame, Give Me Power grants you.
However, “Shabriri’s Howl” also improves magic and holy damage and is therefore without alternative for magic and holy builds to increase the damage so much. If you’re going for physical and fire damage, you should always go for “Flame, Give Me Power”.
Thecooked crabis always good as a body buff if you have problems with a boss, as it reduces the damage you take by 20 percent. In order for the Blackguard to sell it to you, you must have made friends with him before you enter House Vulcan for the first time, otherwise you will only get the weaker boiled shrimp!
Attention: The invocation“Protection of the Black Flame “entices with 35 percent damage reduction, but also reduces the value of each healing you receive by 20 percent. Compared to the boiled crab, this is simply not worth it in boss fights!
You can also strengthen your weapon withweapon buffssuch as the barbarian roar or the holy blade. Weapon buffs disappear as soon as you no longer have the weapon in your hand. If you want to buff two weapons with weapon buffs, always start with the left weapon in two-handed wielding and then switch to two-handed wielding to buff the right weapon, otherwise it is impossible to apply a weapon buff to both weapons at the same time.
Attention: Weapon buffs cannot be buffed on weapons with non-physical affinitiesOnly weapons with Standard, Heavy, Solid and Quality affinity can be boosted with weapon buffs!
In addition to all buffs, you can still takeunique buffssuch as the transplanted sword’s vengeance or the jellyfish shield’s buff. The jellyfish shield buff will also disappear as soon as you no longer have the shield in your hand! So this buff is only good for builds that work with a one-handed weapon or staff/seal
The Golden Oathhas an invocation version and a war ash version. The golden oath invocation offers 4 percent more damage increase and 2.5 percent more damage resistance and lasts almost twice as long as the golden oath war ash. Accordingly, you should use the invocation for optimal effect.
Theregenerative Crystal Tears, such as the Crimson Crystal Tear, will cancel out otherregenerative buffs, such as theBlessing of the Earth Tree. So be careful if you want to stack themAll other tearscan be stacked through the bottle of miraculous medicine with buffs without worry. They are consideredunique buffs
Farm rune bows
Use rune bows to activate the power of your great rune
- Formelee fighterswe recommendMorgott’s Great Rune(+25 percent health) to get started with the DLC.
- For pureWizardsandProphetswe recommendRadahn’s great rune(+15 percent health, stamina and focus points).
- Forall players under level 100we recommendGodrick’s Great Rune(+5 on all attributes).
To get the coveted rune bows and accumulate a small supply, it is advisable to either help other players with bosses or to collect rune bows through successful PvP battles.
Attention: You do not get rune arcs for successful coliseum battles – you can only get the valuable rune arcs by invading and defeating red phantoms as a golden phantom.
PvP should be the fastest way to get the rune bow farm, as you as a helping phantom are always dependent on your protégé not dying. In PvP, it’s all about you
If you decide to farm rune arcs through invasions, be sure to also use theblue ransom ring, because if you defeat a red phantom as a blue phantom, you will also receive rune arcs as a reward.
Runebows can also be farmed from giant rats, but the drop chance is soberingly low. TheElden Ring Wiki from Fextralife
calculates a drop chance of less than 1 percent.
Find all forge stones
In the DLC we will of course get a bunch of new weapons. So the perfect preparation definitely includes having all the sound pearls for forge stones. This will allow you to upgrade every new weapon in your possession without any problems
If you hand in these Sound Pearls to the Twin Maiden Cloaks in the Round Table Fortress, you can buy the Forge Stones from them endlessly.
Except for the best forge stones, which you can use to upgrade your weapons. You should therefore also collect these in order to be able to level up as many of the cool new weapons as possible
Without question, there will also be some of the coveted forge stones for the maximum weapon level in the DLC, so don’t despair if you’ve already used up all the ones you can currently get.
Reskill attributes
Did you know that you can reskill with larval tears if you don’t like your build? You can find the tears mainly in the eternal cities of Nokron and Nokstella, but occasionally also on shapeshifters on the surface.
Once you have defeated Rennala, the boss of the Raya Lucaria Academy, you can reskill her using Larval Tears. Perfect for trying out builds with the new weapon types from the addon.
