Shadow of the Erdtree has given me the beating of my life after two years of abusing all the bosses

I knew that returning to Elden Ring was going to be a big blow, especially since it had been a while since I played a Soulslike game. The +200 hours accumulated, the level 200 of my character, all the knowledge gathered in guides and all the times I have defeated bosses in summons by other players have been of no use.

It wasn’t even enough to install the game days before and knock the rust off while helping other players defeat Mohg, Lord of Bloodwho has become the custodian of the entrance to the DLC. Nothing has helped and neither would it have with more days of training, because Miyazaki has fulfilled his purpose: to give us the beating of our lives… again.

Shadow of the Erdtree: another descent into hell

I’ve spent two years and over 200 hours running the Lands Between and abusing all the bosses in the base game alongside other players. Malenia, Radahn, and even Radagon have become jokes after so much repetition and a very brutal build centered around Ghiza’s Wheel and Bleeding. I don’t know how many times I’ve run over Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon.

I advanced towards the DLC, brave and confident, not knowing that I was about to discover a new floor in Miyazaki’s own hell. Leda, a new NPC, invites me to enter the Kingdom of Shadows to follow Miquella. I have never particularly liked her, although I admit that she would have given anything to not have to kill her sister, Malenia.

FromSoftware may have many aspects worthy of debate: difficulty and not chasing like maniacs the best graphic section of the video game industry, but I think there are few studios that can overshadow it when it comes to stage design and artistic section. I say this because that is how we all received the Shadow Realm of Shadow of the Erdtree.

Elden Ring It does not need markings on the HUD or a mini-map to show us the path, but rather uses the mapping design to clearly show us the shortest path to the end. You don’t have to have many studies to be very clear about what (at first glance) our main objective is: the piece of castle in the background.

I would bet money that we all did the same when taking our first steps in the Kingdom of Shadows: Grace, then monolith with the map of the area and finally Scorched Ruins, our first location in the DLC. In my case it was not as fast as I would have liked, because literally the first enemy I encountered managed to send me to Grace with astonishing ease. In fact, he forced me to switch to dual katanas to match his speed.

After exploring the Burnt Ruins, I headed east in search of a building I had seen on the map. The shape was very similar to the chapels dedicated to Márika. The road seemed calm. The vegetation moved in the wind, the animals ran between the ghost tombs and the music conveyed absolute tranquility.

Suddenly, I saw something move among the vegetation. He was a naked man running at full speed towards me. I thought he was a mere bandit, so I went down the torrent and prepared to confront him. Imagine my terrified face when I saw that he was an NPC with the name: Logar, The Claw of the Beast. Another very fast enemy and he sent me to the first Grace in record time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there when I returned.

It was undeniable that it was still very rusty. And in case it wasn’t clear to me, the soldiers from the chapel that was my objective (Church of Consolation) were in charge of making it clear to me that the cockiness was over. I was killed several times before I could collect all the important items in the area. I admit I felt a little humiliated, but hey… it’s FromSoftware. I knew what I was getting into by purchasing the DLC.

I went back to the initial Grace and explored the northwest of the initial area or the west of the Scorched Ruins. I found the Nameless Western Mausoleum, which had the classic golden fog that hides a boss in Elden Ring. I prepared my equipment knowing that it was going to go very badly. If three minds in the world had killed me with ease, whatever was inside was going to break me in two. So it was!

The Knight of Solitude was killing me over and over again for an hour. I wasn’t willing to take any more abuse, so I looked for the nearest summoning altar, which was next to the mausoleum door, to call other players. However, I hadn’t seen any messages on the ground for a while, and I couldn’t summon anyone. It turns out that either my internet or the servers would fail and I was playing in offline mode.

I wasn’t doing anything properly. I logged back in and summoned a player. He had a bleed build, like me, so it was clear that the Knight of Solitude had his minutes numbered. He was beaten so badly that he barely lasted a minute. I’m sure many of you will look at me with shame for taking the cooperative path, but stay for a couple more paragraphs.

It is true that I use summons (NPCs and players) to overcome most bosses. Elden Ringbut know that I have a self-imposed penance: help other players beat the boss until I at least learn all of the boss’s moves and achieve several consecutive victories. Fails due to the host’s death do not count.

I didn’t progress beyond this point during my first day in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. The next five hours were spent fighting the Knight of Solitude over and over again alongside other players, such as Doctor Strange with Dormammu. For so many people in the community who boast about not using summons, I didn’t have to wait a second after putting my summon mark on the ground.

I switched back to the Ghiza Wheel and found that each hit of the heavy weapon stunned the knight, so my role during fights was to attract the enemy’s attention (partly thanks to an amulet) and give him as many hits in a row as I could to stop him. keep him stunned. This way, the rest could pepper him with blows. So I got the beating of my life, but I gave it back in spades.

At VidaExtra | Elden Ring’s design is more masterful than I imagined: they have opened my eyes with a great detail and I can’t stop thinking about it

In VidaExtra | Elden Ring’s exploration is unrivaled: it’s on par with (or even above) Subnautica and The Legend of Zelda

At VidaExtra | Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was released a few days ago, but its interactive map is already complete so you don’t miss anything