The mid-June 2024 release ofElden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is approaching, and many players can’t wait to see what it has in store.Elden Ringwas already an enormous fantasy adventure that crammed dense amounts of narrative and combat into its open world, so getting more of it at all is a welcome surprise.
Interviews with director Hidetaka Miyazakisuggest that no expense has been spared for Shadow of the Erdtree, just like FromSoftware’s past DLC efforts, with plenty of new surprises in store.
What those surprises are should only become known after Shadow of the Erdtree has launched, but Miyazaki teased some of its additions. The new Demigod, Messmer the Impaler, will be the main focus, withElden Ring’s mysterious child Empyrean Miquellaalso playing a major role. Miyazaki estimates that the “surface area” of the DLC is larger than Limgrave, and on top of having plenty of new weapons, equipment, and skills to find, there will be eight entirely new weapon categories. Over ten new bosses will also grace Shadow of the Erdtree, a vague figure that nonetheless helps paint a much more vivid picture of this expansion.
Calculating Elden Ring’s Boss Distribution
BaseElden Ringhas an impressive 165 boss fights, although that comes with some caveats. This number counts everything with a boss health bar, including Invader-type human enemies like Patches and enemies elevated to bosses likeElden Ring’s tutorial boss Soldier of Godrick. Several duplicate bosses sharing names are also in that figure, and cutting those out still doesn’t account for all the bosses that share models and movesets with other bosses or normal enemies. This may seem like a tangent, but there’s good reason to rememberElden Ring’s limits when addressing its DLC.
Shadow of the Erdtree’s Suggested Boss Count is Deceptive
A region slightly larger than Limgrave with over ten new bosses may sound small, but that’s because it’s not the whole story. Limgrave has twenty-one bosses, and the Weeping Peninsula adds ten more, which sets the bar for the rest ofElden Ring’s major regions. Even the combined snowy regions have around twenty, though that’s stretching the definition of “a region.” Chances are good that Shadow of the Erdtree will recycle bosses just like prior areas, which makes a single region introducing over ten entirely unique bosses much more impressive. Even if the Weeping Peninsula wasn’t included in Miyazaki’s Limgrave estimate, players could easily be looking at an expansion with over twenty boss fights.
Comparing Soulsborne DLC Bosses to Shadow of the Erdtree’s
Fighting every boss in each ofElden Ring’s regions takes players different amounts of time, butboss counts from past FromSoftware DLCcan give a more precise idea of Shadow of the Erdtree’s length.Dark Souls 1’s Artorias of the Abyss DLC came with four new bosses. The Lost Crowns trilogy fromDS2had three new bosses per episode, reaching ten total withScholar of the First Sin’s Aldia. Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City gaveDark Souls 3another six bosses, andBloodborne’s The Old Hunters completes the set with five new fights, thoughSekiro: Shadows Die Twicedeserves mention for adding three remixed bosses in a free update.
Elden Ring’s DLC Will Probably Be Quite Large
Whether Shadow of the Erdtree mixes old foes with its newcomers or not, just having more than ten new boss fights outdoes every prior FromSoftware DLC, even withElden Ring’s open-world format ironically making its bosses more dense than other Soulslikes. As each priorDark SoulsDLC episode typically takes playersthree-to-ten hours to beat, Shadow of the Erdtree should last ten at a minimum and could take completionists twenty or more hours to find everything. How Shadow of the Erdtree spaces out its bosses, and whether there will be any repeat opponents, will only be known for sure onceElden Ring’s expansion is out.
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ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
