A guide to "ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree," from DLC release conditions to factors to keep in mind when exploring the shadow lands.

Item

DLC "SotE" release condition is the defeat of Ladern and Morg.

Cliff Road to Dynasty" is the best place for leveling up.

In the land of shadows, take full advantage of the "blessing of the shadow tree.

Weapons and battle techniques that can inflict heavy damage with a single blow are recommended.

The condition for releasing the DLC "SotE" is to defeat Ladern and Morg.

In order to challenge the DLC "SotE," you must first defeat the two major bosses that appear in the main game, " Radahn the Star Crusher " and " Morg, Lord of Blood. Below is a rough outline of the process for fighting the two major bosses.

Two ways to release the Ladern Festival

In order to fight Radahn, one must first trigger the " Radahn Festival" event at the Red Lion Castle, located in the southeast of Keilidh, east of the overall map.

The condition for the Ladern Festival is to advance the event involving the witch Lani or to touch one of the " blessings " on the Alter Plateau in the northern part of the map. You can choose either one, but personally, I prefer to touch the blessing on the Alter Plateau as it is quicker. Let me explain the details.

In order to reach the Alter Plateau, players must choose between using the "Dectus Chart" and not using it. In the case of using the Dictus Talisman, the first step is to collect the right and left side of the talisman. The left Dectus Talisman can be found in a treasure chest at Fort Hight, southeast of Rimgrave, and the right Dectus Talisman can be found in a treasure chest at Fort Pharos, east of the center of Keilidh.

Locations of Fort Height (above) and Fort Pharos (below)

After obtaining the ticket, follow the road extending northeast from the Magic Academy Realcaria, and raise the ticket at the large elevator at the end of the road. Then you can get on the elevator and reach the Alter Plateau. Nearby you will find the blessed "East Gate of Realcaria". This route does not have a boss, but it is somewhat time consuming because it requires exploring Rimgrave and Cairid.

To get to the path leading to the Great Elevator, just go through the south gate of the Magic Academy Realcaria and examine the seal on the right. To pass through the gate, you must have the "Bright Stone Key of the Academy" that falls just behind the "Bright Stone Dragon Smarag" on the west side of the academy.

Location of the Key of the Academy

If you do not use a seal, first go north to the Academy of Magic Realcaria, north of Stormville Castle, then go further north past the Mage Tower of Tess, and continue to the bottom of the valley to the northeast. Proceed through the cliff dungeon at the far end of it, defeat the boss "Lava Earthen Dragon, Makar" and follow the path to get to the Alter Plateau. Nearby, you will find a blessing, "The Abandoned Coffin. This route requires fighting the boss, but it saves time because you don't have to search around for the allotment.

The choice is up to the player, whether to collect the tickets or to attack the dungeon with the boss instead. The choice is up to the player, but if you are confident in your skills, I recommend the route of defeating the boss, and if it seems too tough, I recommend the route of collecting the discount tickets. After releasing the Blessing of the Alter Plateau, head to the Red Lion Castle southeast of Keilidh to advance the Ladern Festival and fight Ladern.

The path to fighting Morg

The boss, Morg, is located at the far end of the "Morgwyn Dynasty. There are two ways to reach him. The first is to proceed to the event with the white-faced Vallee character on the map, and the second is to collect the "Secret of the Sacred Tree" and go to the "Plain of the Sacred" northwest of the "Ridge of the Giants" and use the transfer gate. Since the latter can only be reached at the end of the story, the first two are by far the quickest to reach. This paper describes the route to complete the event with the "White-faced Valley.

The "White-faced Valley" (hereinafter referred to as "Valley") is located after the first building you visit, near the "Blessing of the Beginning of Guidance". First, talk with him. Then, after defeating the big boss "Godric the Grafted" at Stormville Castle, go to the "Round Table" and examine two fingers. Then, go to the "Round Table" and examine the two fingers. The Rose Church is located southwest of the Magic Academy Realcaria. You can get there quickly by heading northwest from the blessing "Shrimp Boiling Rags".

If Vallee is not near the beginning of the guidance, go directly to the Rose Church.

Location of Rose Church

Talk to Vallee at the Rose Church and tell him that you felt something strange, and he will give you the item "Burnt Blood Finger". Using the bloody finger, you can enter other worlds and fight other players who are the masters of those other worlds, but you have to repeat this process three times. However, there is an alternative method of entering the worlds of the characters in the game, so if you are not comfortable with fighting against others, you can use that method.

If you want to avoid the battle, go to the "Blood Stirring Ruins" on the Alter Plateau, check the red sign there, enter the world of "Magnus the Beast's Claw," and defeat him. To get to the Ruins of Blood, first head to the southern part of the Alter Plateau, where there is a large elevator.

Then follow the road and go north at the fork. Cross the bridge as far as you can and check the "transfer gate" at the far end. You will then be able to warp to the northern edge of the Alter Plateau, and from there you can follow the road to the "blood-streaked ruins" to the southwest.

After defeating Magnus, talk to Vallee at the Rose Church, and she will give you the "Blood Monarch's Oath". To dye it with the blood of the finger priestess, examine the body of the finger priestess in the "chapel waiting for the king" in Rimgrave or in the "church of appeasement" in Lienier.

To get to the Chapel of the King, go to the "Four Bell Towers" northwest of Lienier. To reach the chapel, go northwest from the Rose Church. There are several transfer gates in the four belfries, so choose the one with the message "The Cliff Awaiting the King" nearby, and use the "Key of the Magic Stone Sword" to open the gate. After checking the message, you will be able to warp to the cliff where the king awaits. The Key of the Magic Stone Sword can be obtained from a treasure chest near the top of the Four Bell Towers.

After moving on, go to the building where you were when you first started the main story. Examine the body of the finger priestess inside, and you will be able to dye the oath cloth of the Blood Monarch with blood.

If you want to go to the Church of the Pacification instead of the cliff waiting for the king, go clockwise around the eastern highland from the blessing "East Gate of Realcaria" and aim northeast from the small golden tree nearby. You can find the remains of the priestess inside the church, so you can examine this one.

After that, talk with Vallee in the Rose Church twice to obtain the "Pureblood Knight's Medal. With this item, you will be able to warp to the Morgwyn Dynasty. After that, proceed inside the dynasty and defeat the Mawg at the far end.

Once the conditions are met, return to the location where Mawg was. Examine the arm protruding from the cocoon-like object, and you will reach the Land of Shadows, the stage of "SotE".

The Cliff Road to Dynasty is a great place to level up.

There are several places in the "ELDEN RING" where you can collect runes, which are essential for leveling up, and the Morgwyn Dynasty is especially recommended. Just by defeating a large number of enemies just to the left of the "Cliff Road to the Dynasty" blessing, you can obtain approximately 20,000 to 30,000 runes. It takes only about one minute to complete the sequence of defeating the enemies, touching the blessing, and defeating the enemies again, making it suitable for circling the area.

If you have used the Pureblood Knight's Medal to warp, you can follow the above route from there to reach the cliff road leading to the dynasty.

However, if you want to earn money, you want to be as efficient as possible. To do so, you need a means to attack a wide area, and that is where the " Great Sword of Star Crusher " is recommended. Using the exclusive " star call " technique, the first stage of the attack draws in surrounding enemies, and the second stage delivers an explosive slash to the surrounding area. This only needs to be used once or twice among swarming enemies.

The Star-Shattering Sword can be obtained in exchange for the "Star-Shattering Remembrance," which can be obtained by defeating Ladern. By the time you are able to challenge SotE, you will have defeated Radahn, so you will probably have the Star-Shattering Remembrance as well. Make sure to strengthen the Star-Shattering Sword to increase its attack power so that you can always defeat an enemy with a single call to the stars.

Another weapon that is better suited for earning money than the star-shattering sword is the " divine relic sword, " a large sword. The "Golden Wave," an exclusive battle technique, is a super wide-range attack that shoots out in a fan shape, and using it once in front of a group of enemies is enough to take out almost all of them.

However, just as with the Star-Shattering Sword, this sword requires "Reminiscence" to obtain, which must be obtained from the last boss of the main story. It is up to the player to decide whether to use the Star-Shattered Sword, which can be obtained while freeing "SotE," or the Relic of God, which takes longer to obtain but is more suitable for collecting runes.

The author's level at the time of the "SotE" challenge was 150. Since there is a blessing mentioned below, the level of the player is not directly related to the level of the game, but it may serve as a guide when raising the level of the player.

Making Full Use of the "Shadow Tree Blessing" in the Land of Shadows

In the Land of Shadows, where "SotE" takes place, the "Shadow Tree Blessing " and the " Spirit Ash Blessing" are exclusive enhancements. The Shadow Tree Blessing targets the player, while the Spiritual Ash Blessing targets the spirit horse torrent and its summonable ally, the "ashes", by progressively increasing their attack power and the rate of damage reduction. Note that these effects function only in the Land of Shadows. When you go to the land of shadows, where the main story takes place, the increased attack power and reduction rate will return to normal.

To obtain the blessing, an item is required: for the Shadow Tree blessing, a "Shard of Shadow Tree" is needed, and for the Spirit Ash blessing, a certain number of "Spirit Ashes" is needed. Both of these items are scattered throughout the shadow lands and can be found in specific locations or in the possession of enemies.

The yellow numbers indicate the areas that have been corrected by the blessing of the shadow tree.

In the Land of Shadows, the bosses are very strong; they have a lot of HP and high attack power. If the player's level is 150, he or she can clear the main story with a little time to spare, but if the player challenges the boss in the Land of Shadows without the blessing, he or she may be killed with just one or two attacks. Therefore, before fighting the boss, players should first explore the various areas and collect at least a few pieces of the shadow tree to accumulate the blessings of the shadow tree. Even if the level does not change, the strength of the blessing makes the fight much easier.

Weapons and battle techniques that can inflict heavy damage with a single blow are recommended.

Many of the bosses in "SotE" have fierce attacks with little chance of success. Even bosses that can be fought from the beginning of the game can be very difficult. If you want to be sure to inflict the most damage with the fewest chances, you should use large weapons, such as large swords, hammers, extra-large swords, and extra-large weapons.

These weapons are slower to wield, but have higher attack power and are more likely to frighten the opponent. Since these weapons are heavy blows, it is enough to hit the opponent with even a single attack, and there is no need to plan a detailed strategy.

Personally, I recommend the "Great Sword," an extra-large sword, and the "Great Stars," a large hammer, both of which can be obtained in the land between the worlds where the main story takes place. The Great Sword is in a treasure chest on a cart a little northwest of the blessed "Ruins of Kilem" in Keilidh. Great Stars can be obtained as a reward for defeating the beast's claws, Magnus. Therefore, Great Stars should be obtained naturally if you proceed with the event with Vallee.

Location of the Great Sword

In this work, the war techniques that can be given to weapons are called "war ashes," which not only add that war technique to the target they are attached to, but also attach specific attributes at the same time. Recommended war ashes are those that can deliver a powerful blow, such as "Giant Hunt" and "Lion Slash. Combined with an extra-large sword or a heavy stabbing sword, these weapons can inflict massive damage with a single attack. The "Giant Hunter" can be obtained from the "Night Riders" (who appear only at night) that appear just northeast of the east gate of Blessed Realcaria, and the "Lion Slayer" can be obtained from the lion that can be fought at Fort Gale in Keilidh.

The night cavalryman that appears near the east gate of Realcaria

Fort Gale in Keilidh.

The recommended attributes are "cold air" and "blood. This will be especially useful in battles against HP-heavy bosses.

SotE" is said by some to have the highest level of difficulty among action RPGs released by From Software. The difficulty of "SotE" requires players not only to raise their level, but also to use unique enhancements such as the blessing of the shadow tree, and to change their weapons and armor to find effective tactics. We hope that this article will be of help to players who are about to take on the challenge of "SotE".

Title Information

ELDEN RING SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE

Genre: Action RPG

Release date: June 21, 2024 (Friday)

Supported platforms: PlayStation5/PlayStation4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One (SMART DELIVERY supported) /Steam

Number of players: 1 to 4 players

*Up to 6 players can play in the "arena".

Rating: CERO D (for ages 17 and up)

Price: 4,400 yen (tax included)

(C)Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. / (C)2024 FromSoftware, Inc.

NATSUNAI UCHIYOSHI

Freelance writer with about 10 years of experience. After graduating from a technical college, he experienced writing articles for major game magazines and creating strategy books for editorial production companies. Recently, he started writing for Akiba Research Institute and other web-based magazines. Basically an omnivore, he plays everything from RPGs to action, simulations, and FPS.