Everything We Know About Elden Ring’s Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC

FromSoftware showed us what’s been cooking in the Elden Ring oven, and the results have undoubtedly made Soulslike fans salivate. The studio unveiled the first trailer for its hotly anticipated DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, and now that we know it arrives on June 21, it’s a good time to round up everything we’ve learned about the upcoming expansion to one of 2022’s best games.

Shadow of the Erdtree Leaks and News

• March 7, 2024: Elden Ring Has Been Teasing Shadow Of The Erdtree All Along
  • Elden Ring players have stumbled on an early game item that appears to tease Shadow of the Erdtree, and has been there the whole time.
• February 22, 2024: Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Takes Us To A Shadowland This June
  • Fans have until June to prepare for Miquella in the new Elden Ring DLC.
• February 22, 2024: That Huge Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Collector’s Edition Is Coming To Australia
  • The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Collector’s Edition is officially available for pre-order in Australia, but it won’t last long.
• February 21, 2024: Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Drops First Gameplay Trailer Tomorrow
  • The first big gameplay trailer for the long-awaited Elden Ring DLC will drop tomorrow. Here’s where to see it.
• January 17, 2024: Elden Ring Sleuths Think Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Is Coming Soon
  • Elden Ring fans are convinced that a DLC release date announcement is imminent. Here’s the evidence they’ve collected.
• December 18, 2023: Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Release Window May Have Just Leaked
  • The Elden Ring DLC’s release window may have just leaked online in a product listing.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Release Date

The Elden Ring DLC release date is June 21, meaning we’ll only have to wait another two months to get our hands on it. For us Southern Hemisphere folks, you can tuck yourself in over the chilly winter months into the shadowy adventure once it drops.

Shadow of the Erdtree: Platforms

The Elden Ring DLC will be available just about anywhere the base game currently exists: PC via Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Shadow of the Erdtree: Trailer

The Elden Ring DLC’s first trailer dropped on February 21, not too long after Nintendo’s Direct Partner Showcase. You can check out the reveal below:

Shadow of the Erdtree Pre-Orders

Elden Ring DLC pre-orders are already live in Australia, with the Shadow of the Erdtree Collector’s Edition and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition are available via EB Games and JB Hi-Fi (at the time of writing). The Collector’s Edition already sold out on the Bandai Namco website, so it’s highly likely Aussie stock won’t be far behind. If you’re wondering how much it’ll set you back on local shores, that depends on the edition you want and whether you already own Elden Ring. The Collector’s Edition comes without the base game and a redeemable code for the DLC, as well as a Messmer the Impaler statue and a few other goodies and will set you back an eye-watering $549 AUD. If you’ve not yet got the base game, the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree edition is available for pre-order for between $99-$119 AUD and comes with the full game itself and the DLC. Based on the PlayStation store listing, the Elden Ring DLC on its own will cost around $54.95 AUD with no extras.

Shadow of the Erdtree: Story

The Elden Ring DLC is about Malenia’s twin brother, Miquella, and his journey to the Land of Shadow. In a February 21 IGN interview, director Hidetaka Miyazaki said this setting is “a brand new map separate from the Lands Between,” requiring some sort of warp to get there. Undisclosed story events disconnected this place from the rest of the world, and it’s up to you to figure out what happened and why Miquella has traveled there. You’ll enter this land via a cocoon which Elden Ring players may remember seeing in a chamber where an optional boss can be fought.

Is Shadow of the Erdtree a large expansion?

That’s difficult to answer since we don’t have the DLC in our hands yet. However, Miyazaki told IGN that the Land of Shadow is “probably comparable, if not larger, than the area of Limgrave,” which makes up most of the base game’s main map. So, Shadow of the Erdtree should be relatively expansive, all things considered.

Will the Elden Ring DLC bring new enemies and weapons?

Of course! This wouldn’t be a FromSoftware expansion without some new enemies to get killed by and weapons to pick up around the world. Miyazaki didn’t explicitly detail everything seen in the trailer, but he talked to IGN about a “friendly fellow” who uses the remains of burning bodies as ammo, as well as the mysterious Messmer the Impaler, a rival of the demigods and “a key figure of this DLC,” as he put it.

Is George R. R. Martin involved with Shadow of the Erdtree?

We’ll just let Miyazaki answer this question:

The way George Martin’s story has been incorporated is the same as it was with the base game with Elden Ring. And to avoid misunderstanding there, we just want to point out that he hasn’t written anything exclusively and new for the sake of this DLC. But it would still be fair to say that he and his mythos that he created for us are involved in the creation of Shadow of the Erdtree in the same way.

Will Shadow of the Erdtree be just as hard as Elden Ring?

Signs point to yes. While Miyazaki said that, like Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree will let you approach bosses in whatever way you see fit, he noted that the DLC is still a “challenging experience” that’ll put you through a blender. Remember Malenia, the scarlet rot goddess with such a high body count that a lone player became a legend for facing her on his own, again and again and again? Well, you won’t literally fight her again, but expect more like her; Shadow of the Erdtree will have optional bosses that’ve been tuned to be similar to the Blade of Miquella, and Miyazaki hopes these encounters will be “as memorable as Malenia was.”

And there you have it, all the info we’ve gleaned so far about Shadow of the Erdtree. You should really read that IGN interview with Miyazaki. He talks at length about the Elden Ring DLC, so it’s a good source on what to expect when it drops in June.

Image: FromSoftware