If you’re a gamer/In the Know you probably heard that FromSoftware recently released a new DLC for Elden Ring. Other companies may have handled the DLC by giving you a few more weapons to play with and the option to put Ranni in a swimsuit. I might’ve been okay with that, but FromSoftware decided to basically give us a whole new game instead. Shadow of the Erdtree’s map isn’t quite as big as the base game, but it’s still quite massive. So much so that it took me three months to complete it. I wouldn’t call my playtime entirely representative, but the point remains that the DLC turned out bigger than most expected. I poured a lot of time into Shadow of the Erdtree. So now I’m going to use this blog post to share my thoughts on it. The short version is that I mostly liked it. The long version? Well…

Disclaimer: if you keep reading you’re going to run into some substantial spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree. Do what you will with that info.

For the uninitiated Elden Ring is a large scale action RPG with a dark fantasy setting. It’s created by FromSoftware, a Japanese game development company best known for the Dark Souls trilogy. I’m personally fond of this company as I’ve enjoyed pretty much every game I’ve played by them. In my case that means Bloodborne, the Dark Souls trilogy, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and now Elden Ring. Haven’t tried Armored Core yet but I think I will eventually. Every one of these games comes with combat that’s both challenging and engaging to varying degrees. I also like the imaginative worlds you navigate to get to the big boss that kicks your ass. All of these factors are very much at play with their most recent DLC.

Shadow of the Erdtree is meant to be accessed in Elden Ring’s late game. You can’t even reach it unless you defeat Mohg, one of the toughest bosses the base game has to offer. There are some lore reasons for this, but it also sets the bar effectively. If you can’t handle Mohg you’re definitely not going to have a good time with this DLC. Many of the bosses within are at his level or harder. Personally, I defeated him a while back and never started NG+ after I beat the game. As such, I had no trouble jumping right in. As for what happened when I got there, well…

Things look pretty grim from the second you step into the Realm of Shadow. The first thing you see inside is a fucking graveyard. Apparently the folks around here have been dead so long that their gravestones turned into ghosts. Honestly I kinda love that concept, and the whole atmosphere of this starting area in general. It’s pretty bleak, but I dig the darker color palette. I’m going to talk about this aspect more later, but I love Shadow of the Erdtree’s aesthetic. Naysayers may point to problems with the graphical fidelity or whatever, but if you ask me FromSoft more than makes up for it with style. 

Any ways, once I was done admiring the view I started exploring, and quickly found my way to the DLC’s first mini-boss. And uhhhh… well, I sure got humbled real quick. Blackgaol Knight for all intents and purposes is just some dude, an NPC fight like many before him. He’s just tougher than usual. To be honest I died to him an embarrassing amount of times. I couldn’t tell you exactly how many, but I’m pretty sure it was in the double digits. Which made me feel pathetic because this type of boss usually isn’t that hard to beat. Was I rusty after not touching the game for so long? Yes, absolutely. But that doesn’t fully explain what’s going on here. 

Blackgaol Knight does not fuck around, I know I’m not alone in having trouble with him. He’s difficult for a similar reason as most of the later bosses. He hits hard and has some downright deadly combos. You’ll probably want to heal after getting hit one or two times, but good luck pulling that off against his persistent ass. Also he can heal himself once just to crush your spirits. A true menace.

I’d say he makes a rather effective filter. People that struggle too much against this guy may ask themselves, “can I really handle this DLC if *this guy* keeps kicking my ass?” In some cases the answer is no, in which case they’ll save themselves a lot of trouble by dropping out early. As for me I felt a bit pathetic losing so many times to the dude, but it wasn’t enough to scare me off. I beat him eventually, and shook some rust off in the process. Thanks for the training session dude. 

The Bosses, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Use the Ash

Unfortunately, my time spent studying under Blackgaol Knight didn’t prevent me from getting my ass kicked. I danced with the lion a few times and decided to go somewhere else. I ended up finding Rellana, who isn’t any easier. Had to beat one of them to progress anywhere though–at least, that’s what I thought. Apparently there’s a sneaky path to avoid Rellana and still reach the next area, and you hardly need to fight Dancing Lion either. Still, I’m not one to back down from an optional boss fight, especially when I don’t realize it’s optional. So I decided which one I’d concentrate on beating first, and I chose Rellana. 

Rellana’s not an easier fight than Dancing Lion, but she’s more intuitive to fight and more fun. She’s basically Shadow of the Erdtree’s version of Lady Maria. A battle with an opponent your size that feels more like a dance than a brawl. I still like Maria more, but Rellana’s a much tougher fight. Things start out simple enough in her first phase. Not to say she didn’t kill me in her first phase a fair share of times, she did, but once you get the timing down it’s doable. However, once she infuses her swords with fire and magic like Pontiff Sulyvahn shit gets real. 

If I’m being honest Rellana’s second phase feels like a bit much for me. The endless string of wombo combos in quick succession is overwhelming. Are these just the bitter complaints of someone who sucks at the game? Maybe, but I’ve played a bunch of these games, and have taken down comparable foes. There’s nothing she does that I haven’t seen before in some form. But there’s just so damn much of it and she’s relentless about it. This is a common trait with many of this DLC’s bosses. A lot of the base game bosses are kinda like this too.

An important thing to remember is that Spirit Ashes are a central mechanic to this game, and bosses are designed with their presence in mind. If the bosses weren’t so relentless they’d be damn near trivial with your ghost buddy’s help. Without their help you’re staring down a tougher than usual fight. Personally I tried to limit my usage of Spirit Ashes in the base game. I used them occasionally, but often tried to get past major boss fights without them. I had my gamer pride or whatever y’know. I got past all those Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Dark Souls bosses by myself for the most part. Why can’t I do the same here? Welp, let’s just say that pride didn’t get me too far.

I’m not some master gamer that can defeat Orphan of Kos with a torch or pull off a no hit run. I can usually beat a difficult boss, but it takes a long hard fought battle with many failures to get there. I believe I could probably win against these guys by myself if I tried enough times… eventually. But after a certain point I had to ask whether I valued my gamer pride or my time more. 

At first I tried a compromise of sorts. I decided to use Spirit Ashes against Rellana, but I chose a weak one on purpose. Namely the Soldjar of Fortune ashes. With this ash you can summon some cute little walking jars that move slowly, don’t do much damage, can’t take many hits, and explode when they die. They can still distract Rellana a bit so I can get some crucial hits in. My main weapon is Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear, so that little diversion can go a long way. Bloodboon Ritual, the weapon’s special skill, is pretty much impossible to use safely against her one on one. But if she’s occupied by the jars I can land it and deal a pretty substantial chunk of her health. I thought this was the perfect compromise. Soldjars don’t feel overpowered to use in the slightest, but they give me a chance to make use of my full move set. As it happens, Rellana’s still a tough ass fight even with jar buddies around. 

I reached a point where I could get Rellana to her second phase pretty consistently, but it was all downhill from there. I got her real close, but that final push seemed out of grasp. Eventually on my 50^th try or whatever it happened. Rellana caught both me and my Soldjars in her string. Then they exploded. And so I died. Something broke within me that day. 

I switched to Mimic Tear, and two tries later she was done. I thought I’d have an honorable duel to the end and come out on top. Instead I hit her with the shadow clone jutsu and it got a lot more manageable. In doing so I robbed myself of the overwhelming rush that probably would’ve come with beating her the harder way. I lost the chance to say I won purely using my own efforts… and the advice of random people on Reddit and/or YouTube. I felt as if I lost to her in some sense. But I accepted that. I accepted that my ass is not getting through this DLC without spirit ashes unless I wanted to spend a ridiculous amount of time taking down basically everyone. Considering how long this took me even with Spirit Ashes, that was probably the right decision.

Here’s the thing about Spirit Ashes. Do they make the game easier? Yes. I’m hard pressed to think of any boss fight that would be harder with a Spirit Ash than without it. Ignoring that time I got killed by my own Soldjars any way. But they don’t make the game *easy* in the slightest. It is true that it only took me two tries to beat Rellana with a mimic tear, but that didn’t happen in a vacuum. I was already well trained with all my previous failed attempts against her. I was well acquainted with her move set and could dodge it all semi-consistently. No helper could save me if I couldn’t survive her attacks. The mimic tear just gave me the boost I needed to get over the edge. If these bosses are balanced with spirit ashes in mind, I might as well follow along with that intention. Such is the way I justified my decision. I don’t regret that choice.

Even after I played through the rest of the DLC I’ll still have a soft spot for Rellana. As ridiculous as she can be it’s still an exhilarating duel. I had a fun time failing. She’s far from the most unique boss in this game, but she ranks high in the sheer enjoyment factor. For instance the Dancing Lion is very cool conceptually. You get to fight against a big ass Chinese New Year lion with elemental powers. But it’s a janky fight with all the camera issues that tend to come with oversized opponents. This time the camera’s even worse because Dancing Lion’s faster than your usual big guy boss. It just doesn’t feel good to fight it. This is a damn shame, because the potential for a great boss was there if the execution was tighter.

I’m not going to talk about every single boss I fought individually. Especially not the minor ones. There’s not much to say about the shit load of dragons you fight in this DLC. They’re mostly like the ones in the base game. They’re decently well designed but overused to death. That’s probably why a lot of the DLC dragons are skeletons. The only really noteworthy dragon is Bayle, but hey, that’s noteworthy enough. 

FromSoftware put on a master class in building up for a boss fight with Bayle. First we meet Igon, an injured dude that’s really pissed at Bayle for some reason. Like, really pissed. Shout out to Richard Lintern, seriously. He put on the most memorable performance in the whole ass DLC. And once you step over his body you can find your way to the Jagged Peak, a massive mountain full of dragons dead or alive. It’s a cool looking area, and the climb just adds to the suspense. And at the end of the climb you get a damn good dragon fight. 

I’ve seen claims that Bayle is the best FromSoftware dragon fight to date, and I’m inclined to agree. The strongest competitor to my eye is Darkeater Midir, I like Midir more aesthetically, but Bayle wins out in most other categories. Bayle’s not your usual dragon. He’s old, injured, and very cranky. The Bayle you take on is far from his glory days, but he can still do some serious damage. I’m not sure if I even want to know what fighting Bayle at his peak would be like. It’s rough enough as is.

Fortunately for pleb gamers like myself there are some pretty reliable ways to make Bayle slaying a smoother experience. You can summon Igon to join the fight, which certainly helps. In most cases I ignore character summons, but Igon was simply meant to join in. Even if you want to beat Bayle by yourself I’d recommend summoning Igon at least once. Just for the voice acting alone honestly. It’s a hammy performance but in a funny way so I love it. There’s also a certain weapon called Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana you can use. It’s designed to be strong against Bayle after all. I respecc’d my build to use it against Bayle, won, and then changed it back. I mean shit, it worked. My usual weapon wasn’t doing enough damage. To be fair my Scadutree blessing probably wasn’t high enough at the time.

By the way, I’d like to briefly comment on the Scadutree fragments. They’re collectables that allow you to boost your attack and defense in the DLC area. With each level you get a certain percentage boost to your stats, up to 20 times. It allows you to scale up to take on the DLC bosses without making your character game breakingly OP against the base game. It’s completely optional but you’re just making it harder on yourself if you don’t make use of it. I think this mechanic’s well designed. It rewards exploration and gives players more autonomy over the difficulty. It’s Cosmia approved.

Now I’m going to skip to the last stage of my journey because I don’t feel the need to say much about the bosses in between. Here’s a hot take for you: Messmer was a fun fight. Midra was too. Ignoring some duds among the minor bosses it’s a fairly strong assortment. I’d say it’s the most consistent cast of main bosses of any FromSoftware DLC. There’s more of them than ever yet the quality remains similar throughout. Even the worst of them have something cool and/or fun going on. 

That being said, I don’t think I’d call any of these guys all time favorites either. I can name multiple bosses from the base game I liked more than any of these guys. Perhaps I robbed myself of fond memories by employing the mimic tear too liberally, but I don’t think that fully explains it. I’d probably have to replay this DLC again to really get to the bottom of it. For now I’ll say this: Soulslike games are known for their difficult bosses, and for many fans that’s a big part of the appeal. I tend to appreciate the difficulty and the rush that comes with overcoming a big challenge. However, that does not mean making a boss more difficult automatically makes them better. 

To illustrate that point, let’s talk about Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss. Many people are saying this is FromSoftware’s most difficult boss to date, and there’s a strong case to be made there. If more difficulty automatically translated to quality that would mean this is also the best FromSoftware boss to date. I’m sure there are some people who genuinely believe they’re the best. I am not one of them. I don’t hate them either for the record. To explain what I mean it’s best to start from the top.

It seems like the Elden Ring community collectively decided to avoid referring to the final boss by name in most contexts. Even if they talk freely about literally everyone else they’re often tightlipped about the final fight. Nobody wants to spoil it, and I suppose that’s admirable. It certainly added to my anticipation. I assumed I’d be fighting Miquella at the end, given how this whole DLC seems to revolve around him. You literally start the DLC by entering his egg thing. The map’s covered with crosses marking stuff he left behind on his quest for godhood. It’s safe to assume he’s got something to do with the final fight. Still I got the sense that there’s something more to it. Would people really be so cute about spoiling the final boss if you were just fighting Miquella? Probably not. 

To get to the final boss you must first power through Enir-Ilim. It’s a nice city aesthetically. It reminds me of some middle eastern holy city without being directly reminiscent of any specific place. The most similar city is probably Anor Londo from Dark Souls. Except this time it’s painted gold and filled with religious zealots. I’m not a fan of religion so I got some fucked up satisfaction from killing a bunch of guys mid-prayer.

Since this is the final area many of its inhabitants won’t go down so easily. They make you go through a whole ass gauntlet to reach the final staircase. Anyone’s who played through this stage knows exactly what I mean. I honestly didn’t mind, the challenge felt appropriate for this stage of the game. Even so, those mage guys spamming spiral attacks are kinda bullshit. But hey, what can you do? Miquella’s got shooters. 

Eventually I made it past everything Enir-Ilim had to throw at me. Leda wasn’t too bad for me, I hardly engaged enough with the NPCs to have a real problem. So that brings me to the final fight. The one everybody’s been purposefully vague about as they hyped it up. The one I’ve been purposefully vague about up until now too. As it turns out it’s… 

It’s…

Radahn. Except this time he’s giving his poor horse a break! We already fought him once before in the base game. He was a big scary motherfucker with gravity magic then, and he’s a big scary motherfucker with gravity magic now. His move set has changed a considerable amount, but he’s just as intimidating as ever. And for good reason too. He hits hard and pretty fast too. He throws one wombo combo after another, and then hits you with some big ass gravity attack if you’re too far away. No breaks, just murder.

As I’ve said before I’m one of Those Guys that got through much of the DLC with a mimic tear by my side. But I didn’t bust it out immediately. For many of the bosses, this one included, I started out fighting by myself. Doing this has two main advantages. First of all it makes it easier to learn the bosses’ move set. You can’t really learn to dodge their moves if they’re too busy using it on your summoned buddy. If you use summons from the jump it makes it much harder to learn. Two, it gives me a chance to prove myself. Maybe there’s a chance I’m an omega god gamer after all. Maybe I can take down Promised Consort Radahn within the first few tries alone and prove my worth. 

Maybe.

Welp, in reality I got my ass clapped. I could not get past this dude’s first phase by myself. I got hit by that AOE gravity attack where he sucks you in almost every time. Spoiler alert: even after I beat him I still got hit by that move almost every time. As it turns out, this fight is actually pretty damn difficult. 

Eventually I gave in and brought the mimic tear out. I may be getting clapped now, but maybe my clone buddy could help turn it around. That’s how it works right? You use a mimic tear and everything becomes baby mode? Totally. There were just a couple problems. First of all, my first few fights with Radahn were before he got nerfed. Pre-nerf he pretty much always starts the match by flying at you immediately. If you tried to summon a spirit ash at the start of the fight you’d get hit no question. And it’s not like getting it off mid-fight is easy either. But hey, I managed to safely summon my tear eventually. And with the help of my friendly neighborhood not-Ditto I finally got Radahn down to his second phase. And then… 

Well. 

Miquella shows up. They enter the scene with a feet shot and then drape their arms around Radahn’s shoulders. If you didn’t think “Promised Consort” had some intimate implications before, you’d have to be willfully ignorant to not pick up on it after that. Miquella is a gay femboy Jesus who turned their resurrected half-brother into a full-husband. We could say something about that. We could start the Elden Ring is problematic discourse. Maybe it already exists and I just haven’t tapped into it yet. Alternatively, we could just like, not do that. That sounds a lot better to me. It’s an interesting choice. I’m sure if you took a deep dive into the lore and interpretations there’s something substantial to say about their relationship. I am neither invested enough nor equipped to do that. So I’ll just leave it there.

When Miquella joins the fight shit gets dicey real fast. Not only is Radahn still on your ass, but now you’ve got all the holy shit Miquella’s throws at you. Radahn’s old wombo combos get new mystical aftershocks and he’s got some new, even deadlier wombo combos on top of that. I watched as my clone buddy got murdered and I got dispatched soon afterwards. So that finally brings me to my second problem with using the mimic tear here. There was no way in hell it could last the whole fight without some major changes. Just surviving the first phase in one piece was no small feat. Is it even possible to win like that?

So I had to make a decision. I could keep bashing my head against this boss and maybe one day I’d win. Alternatively I could just give up and leave it be. Miquella says they’re going to create a new world order full of compassion or whatever, isn’t that a good thing? Maybe I could just let them cook. But nah, I can’t let Ranni down. She’ll never let me see her in a swimsuit if I falter here! So that leaves the secret third option: retreat and do some prep work. 

When I first fought Radahn I had Scadutree Blessing level 14. That’s not a bad level to be at. It’ll get you through most of the DLC without too much issue. But I was clearly having an issue now. I didn’t realize the max level was 20, so I had a lot more room to grow than I thought. So I set out to collect some of the fragments I missed. 

In some respects I’m glad the final boss is so difficult. It’s the final boss of a FromSoftware DLC, they’re supposed to be tough. Beyond that trying to defeat them got me to explore much of the map I completely missed originally. The fragments I missed ranged from “ugh how the hell did I miss that?” to “wait really that was here the whole time?” For the former category I’m not going to post my Ls, but for the latter category…

Shadow of the Erdtree has an area known as the Cerulean Coast. It is one of the most gorgeous parts of the game. I visited it earlier in my travels. I killed a dragon and didn’t find much else of note. After failing to find anything else important I assumed I’d be better off looking elsewhere. Apparently I just wasn’t looking hard enough. I missed multiple fragments there. 

In the southernmost section of the area there’s a peninsula you can travel down. There’s a big ass entrance to a cave towards the end of it. I never knew it existed until after Radahn kicked my ass. Which is a shame because it’s a fun place to spelunk. You get to dodge worm lasers and shit, doesn’t that sound great?

Beyond the cave being cool it hides some surprisingly important stuff pertaining to Miquella. The guy placed a bunch of crosses around various spots in the Land of Shadow. He left some aspect of himself behind at every cross. You also get a free Scadutree fragment for your troubles of finding it. The cross in this cave looks like any other, but I find it particularly interesting. Nearby there’s a talking spirit commenting on what Miquella left behind:

Miquella left their love behind on their quest for godhood. Guess that means poor Radahn’s only a marriage of convenience. Regrettable. But hey, you can still shag without love if you want to. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s doable. But seriously these lines have some important implications. The most obvious one is underscoring the importance of love and the futility of saving others without saving yourself. Elden Ring is far from the first to make these sorts of points, but they’re made succinctly here. 

The way people talk about Miquella throughout the DLC you’d wonder if we should be stopping them at all. If they’re so kind and amazing maybe they should lead right? But good intent does not necessarily equate to good outcomes. These lines show us an inkling of the potential problems with their plan. You may be wondering, what exactly is Miquella’s “other self” any way? This spirit dude’s talking on repeat, he won’t answer that question. So we’ve got to go deeper into the cave to find out ourselves. 

This leads me to the Putrescent Knight, a boss I would have completely missed if I didn’t get clapped by Radahn. That would’ve been a damn shame because this guy’s one of the better bosses in the DLC. With many of the bosses here I have a sense that I’ve seen something similar before. Can’t say that about Putrescent Knight. Love him or hate him there’s nothing else quite like him. He kinda stole Orphan of Kos’ weapon, but he uses it a lot differently. The part of his wombo combo where the horse charges at you separately sticks out to me. It’s a bit frustrating to play against, but it’s kinda funny so I let it slide.

What’s more important for our purposes is the thing the Putrescent Knight was guarding. This leads us to the deepest part of the cave, a dark room where flowers inexplicably grow. They don’t exactly look healthy, but given the lack of sunlight it’s a minor miracle they’re alive at all. This is the place where Miquella’s other half lives. It’s a flower lady creature thing called St. Trina. If you want to you can drink her nectar and then fucking die.

This whole thing seems kinda pointless at first. All this struggle just to reach a flower lady that won’t talk to you but will kill you for free? What a catch! Doing so is little more than suicidal the first few times, but after a certain point you start hearing messages while you die. 

Make Miquella stop… Don’t turn the poor thing into a god…

Godhood would be Miquella’s prison. A caged divinity… is beyond saving.

You must kill Miquella… Grant him forgiveness.

Kill yourself with flowers enough times and you’ll hear all those lines. In spite of the fact that Miquella left her behind buried in a cave she still cares about him deeply. He’s still her other half after all. She believes he will suffer greatly under godhood, and the only way to stop him is to kill him. So she asks me, the random guy that showed up and murdered everything to get here. I may not give a shit about Miquella, but I was probably going to try killing him any way. Bet. 

Before we move forward I’d like to consider the implications of this situation. Earlier on I jokingly compared Miquella to Jesus, but I think there’s something significant in that comparison. Homie leaves crosses everywhere he goes, is frequently called gentle or kind, and makes great sacrifices to achieve godhood. Seems pretty obvious to me there’s some inspiration there. I’m not well versed in theology so I don’t have too much to say on this topic, but it did get me thinking a bit. Both Miquella and Jesus are pretty tragic figures aren’t they? 

Jesus is probably the most singularly influential human that ever lived. I doubt he regretted the path he led. Yet from my perspective the whole thing seems sad. He was a charming guy, right? He could’ve lived a long happy life just staying in his lane with a beautiful wife and family or whatever. But no, he chose to throw that all away for something I consider to be the world’s most powerful delusion. Death by crucifixion seems like a really shitty way to go. The specific details of Miquella’s path differ, but it’s tragic in a similar way. He threw away so much of himself in his quest for godhood. Was it really worth it? I believe the stance Elden Ring takes and my own are the same: probably not. 

Another thing I’d like to point out pertains to St. Trina. She is referred to as Miquella’s other half. She is also, notably, a woman. There’s a lot of ambiguity in Miquella’s gender presentation, but most characters, St. Trina included, refer to him with he/him pronouns. What’s going on there? Was it really appropriate to call Miquella gay femboy Jesus? Perhaps they were pansexual trans NB Jesus all along! You could probably get a whole video essay out of a trans reading of Miquella. I’m honestly surprised it doesn’t exist already. Personally I just wanted to point it out. I’m not going to deep into that rabbit hole myself. After all, cis or trans we’re still going to kill them.

How I Got Over

My path to defeating Miquella was fraught with trial and error. This boss made me change around my gear more than any other boss I can remember. They got me backtracking for special items like no one else. In this section I’ll share the build I used to fell the wannabe god and my final thoughts on the fight. Perhaps you can use this section to lose any respect you may have had for me. Perhaps you can use this for tips and tricks if you’re struggling with Miquella and Radahn yourself. Either way, let’s get into it.

This build is not entirely representative of how I played through most of the DLC, but it is what I used to beat Promised Consort Radahn. Some people defeat these guys by maxing out defense as much as possible and shield poking them to death. That seemed like a lame way to win for me, doesn’t suit how I play. My first soulslike was Bloodborne, I barely ever use shields. I wasn’t about to completely overhaul my play style now. So I went with a method that resonates with me more.

When I play Pokemon semi-competitively I tend to use balanced teams. I like wearing down my opponents with heavy blows, status ailments, and more. I approached Promised Consort Radahn with a similar ethos. Most of the combat on my end consists of dodging then fighting back with Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. Meanwhile my mimic tear makes liberal use of my equipped items to help wear the fuckers down. I use poison, scarlet rot, and bleed all in the same build. It’s a strategy that heavily relies on the mimic tear summon to work. This build certainly makes the fight a lot easier than the one I started out with, but it was a struggle regardless. It only cost me my pride. I can live with that. If the director plays like this I think it’s fine if I do the same.

But in preparation for Shadow of the Erdtree, I played through the main story of Elden Ring. I want to preface this by saying I absolutely suck at video games, so my approach or play style was to use everything I have at my disposal, all the assistance, every scrap of aid that the game offers, and also all the knowledge that I have as the architect of the game … the freedom and open-world nature of Elden Ring perhaps lowered the barrier to entry, and I might be the one who’s benefiting the most from that, as a player, more than anyone else.

Hidetaka Miyazaki, director of Elden Ring, from this interview

In spite of what the omega god gamers may say, there’s no single proper way to win. You can kneecap yourself and play as honestly as possible against all the bs if you’d like. You may even feel better about yourself if you succeed. However, that was never intended to be the sole legitimate method.

Any ways, the first part of my build I’d like to highlight is my main weapon of choice, Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. I’ve been maining this baby since I obtained it. It’s been a steady ally throughout the base game’s late stages and most of the DLC. The only DLC bosses I didn’t use it for were Bayle and Messmer. For Bayle I opted for the specialized dragon slaying katana, and for Messmer I brought back my trusty scythe. Messmer’s got strong fire damage resistance and very low slash resistance, so the scythe was the stronger option in that scenario. But the vast majority of the time you can’t go wrong with Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. There may be situations where it’s sub-optimal, but it’s workable against pretty much anything. It’s probably not great for PvP, but for PvE I love it.

Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear has quite a few advantages. For starters, it’s got that cool factor down pat. I tend to like using weapons on the weird side. Why use a plain old sword when you can use a scythe or a trident? I’m sure there are plenty of practical reasons why the sword is better, but I don’t care. I have a lot more fun with the weird shit as long as it’s at least semi-viable. This one’s both kinda weird and legitimately cool. It’s a bloodflame weapon, you light shit on fire when you poke them with it. Want to feel powerful? Try using the weapon art, Bloodboon Ritual on a crowd of enemies. Under the right circumstances you can wipe some fuckers out all at once. All you have to do is raise your trident into the air. 

Is Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear the strongest possible option against the final boss? Eh, probably not, but it’s a strong choice. It does good damage, has good range, and isn’t too shabby at proccing bleed. The biggest downside I can think of is its speed. It’s not terrible on this front, you can certainly do worse. However, if you want something that can safely land more than one blow consistently this ain’t it. Bloodboon Ritual in particular is pretty laggy. It’s hard to use it safely, but the mimic tear’s diversions helped me a lot in that regard. 

Another advantage of using Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear against Radahn and Miquella is bringing poetic justice. This was originally Mohg’s weapon, and his relationship with Miquella was kinda fucked. Apparently Miquella deliberately charmed Mohg. The poor guy wanted to be Miquella’s consort, but Miquella only wanted his body, literally. When we killed Mohg they took his body to use as a vessel for Radahn. Mohg’s no angel, obviously, but Miquella did him dirty. It’s only fitting that we use his spear to end Miquella and Radahn’s careers. I wonder if FromSoft made this weapon strong with that purpose in mind. I wouldn’t put it past them.

You might have noticed that I brought a second weapon to this battle, the Poisoned Hand. I happened to stumble upon it during my search for more Scadutree fragments and I decided to give it a shot. It primarily scales with arcane, which I got plenty of, and it’s good at inflicting poison. Sure, why not? It hits super fast but its damage is pretty weak. Fortunately the poison makes up for that. I don’t regret bringing it to the fight. That being said, I don’t think I used it a single time during the round I actually won. I guess it helped with emotional support. Read the flavor text and I’m sure you’ll agree that it fits the situation.

As you can see, it’s a weapon built for revenge. I used it accordingly.

The next piece of gear I’d like to point out is my Mushroom Crown. I played through most of the DLC with an octopus on my head. There’s no particular gameplay reason for this, I just like wearing it for some reason. Certainly more stylish than the Mushroom Crown. Even so, the shroom has a special perk. If you’re wearing it while someone in your vicinity (including you) is afflicted with poison or scarlet rot you get an attack boost. It stacks with the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation talisman, which does the same thing but stronger. So you get to do damage from the poison and/or scarlet rot and boost your weapon on top of that? Bet.

The other talismans I used were the Viridian Amber Medallion +3, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, and Haligdrake Talisman +2. If you know their effects they’re kinda self-explanatory. Viridian Amber Medallion boosts stamina considerably. With all the wombo combos you have to dodge it’s a good thing to have around. The Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman is the strongest talisman for boosting your physical defense. Most of Radahn’s attacks are physical so it’s useful to make them hit less hard. The Haligdrake Talisman raises your holy damage resistance. This is good because pretty much every attack from Miquella does holy damage. Possibly the single best talisman for this fight. 

Now for the part where things get really wonky. I equipped quite a few items, a lot more than I usually do. Let’s start from the top. First we’ve got the Flask of Wondrous Physick, which I pretty much always keep equipped. This thing lets you pick and choose two buffs/effects you want to give yourself. For this particular fight I used the Opaline Bubbletear and Glovewort Crystal Tear. The Bubbletear’s good because it basically lets me take one hit for free without needing to heal it off. Great for people who know they’re going to fuck up a bit. The Glovewort Crystal Tear boosts the power of spirits for three minutes, making my mimic tear even more of a menace. I made sure to drink it right before I entered the arena.

Next up is the Mimic Tear Ashes I’ve been mentioning so much. This is probably the most commonly used summon in the game. It’s not hard to see why–it’s busted. It’s a blob that turns into a copy of your character. It will use all the same weapons, armor, talismans, and items you have equipped. That last part is crucial. Some of my items have limited uses. I’d have to spend time gathering more of them if I used them on a failed attempt. However, if the mimic tear uses them my supply stays intact. As such, many of the items I equipped were there specifically so my not-Ditto could use them. I didn’t fully realize the potential of this mechanic until this fight, but you can do some real stupid shit with it. 

Next up we got poisonbone darts, honestly not much to say there. You throw them and it builds up poison. Except I’m generally not the one throwing them, my double is. Then there’s my trusty Flask of Crimson Tears, the standard healing item of the game. Not much to say there, but it’s an important thing to have. I could probably delete any other item from my equipment and still win eventually. I don’t think it’s possible for me to beat them without healing. 

My Hefty Rot Pot put in some good work too. With this I can inflict scarlet rot and wear them down without lifting a finger myself. My mimic tear misses sometimes, but it does a lot when it works. The biggest problem with the rot/poisoning method is that Radahn heals all of his status effects when he hits the second stage. It’s harder to inflict status effects a second time. Even so, getting to their second phase faster helps.

After that there’s my one time use healing items, Raw Meat Dumplings and Blessing of Marika. The Raw Meat Dumplings heal you in exchange for poisoning you. Not ideal but I think it still balances out into a net positive heal? Eh whatever, my mimic tear’s the only one using either of these. First time I used mimic tear on this boss it died way too quickly. When I gave it these healing options it was able to last the whole fight. To be honest I usually die before my mimic tear does. Either the bosses are programmed to identify the bigger threat or I just suck. 

My last two equipped items are Miquella’s Great Rune and the regular sized Rot Pot. The Rot Pot’s just there in case my mimic tear buddy runs out of the hefty ones. Not much else to say there. As for Miquella’s Great Rune, it has exactly one use. This boss has a grab attack where Miquella whispers sweet nothings into your ear and your ass gets charmed. Get hit by that twice and you automatically lose. However, you can use the rune to remove the effect. It’s useful to have around, but it’s even better not to get grabbed in the first place. 

So that about sums up the build I won with. If you want to feel the taste of victory after a long battle completely through your own efforts don’t do this. If you want to win, it worked for me… eventually. Even with all my tricks this fight it ain’t easy. I didn’t use shields at all so I still needed to a lot of dodging/attempted dodging. With their constant barrage of deadly attacks that can get rough. Even so, I persevered. And at the end of it all I didn’t feel much when I won. It’s just like, “Welp, it’s over now.” My biggest reward was the fact that I could move on to another game. I liked Shadow of the Erdtree, but I was more than ready to move on at the end.

I’m not sure how big of a rush I’d feel even if I did take these guys on using more honest methods. I didn’t enjoy the fight that much. You could say that’s just me whining because it was hard, but I don’t think that’s quite right. I have a blast fighting Orphan of Kos, I still remember the moment I defeated him for the first time. One of the best feelings a video game ever gave me. There are plenty of other hard bosses I enjoyed as well. That’s a big part of why I keep coming back to these games. I don’t know if I ever want to fight these two again. 

So what exactly don’t I like about this power couple? It’s difficult for me to say for sure, but I can think of a few reasons. As I mentioned before these guys bring endless wombo combos to the fight. It’s cool for a boss to have some long combos, it can actually be pretty satisfying if you manage to dodge them all. However, it feels less special here because they’ve got so damn many of them. If you dodge all their attacks in a combo you’re rewarded with a small opening to attack or heal before they throw out their next big wombo combo. It’s overwhelming in a way I’m not fond of. 

It would be one thing if the relentless barrage felt unique to this boss. Orphan of Kos is a frantic relentless fight too, but that felt fitting. He was a step up in craziness from the rest of the DLC, felt like something special. The problem with Shadow of the Erdtree bosses is that pretty much all of them are like this to some extent. Hell, even fucking Blackgaol Knight’s like that to some extent. The wombo combos don’t make Promised Consort Radahn special, it just makes them a more ridiculous version of the fights we already had. 

There’s one previous fight in particular I’m reminded of. To find it we must harken back to the days of old, Dark Souls 3. If you’ve played this game before you may be able to guess who I’m about to talk about. Miquella and Radahn aren’t the first weirdly intimate sibling pair where one’s a zombie bruiser and the other’s a scrawny physical weakling with murderous magic. They’re building on what Lorian, Elder Prince and Lothric, Younger Prince started. 

In this fight you start by just fighting Lorian. He hits pretty hard and teleports around, but he’s manageable. You’d think the fight is over when you knock out his health bar, but Lothric brings him back to life. Suddenly you have to deal with the same stuff from Lorian along with a bunch of annoying projectiles. If you kill Lorian again Lothric will bring him right back after a delay. You have to take Lothric, the scrawny guy, out to truly win. 

Promised Consort Radahn is structurally similar. You start by just fighting Radahn, but then Miquella pulls up. Once Miquella’s wrapped around Radahn’s back you have a lot of extra shit to deal with. Fortunately for us Miquella can’t revive Radahn a second time. Unfortunately for us Radahn’s a way tougher guy to kill in the first place. Lothric and Lorian wouldn’t be too hard to deal with individually but together they make a tough opponent. Radahn’s already a tougher opponent than the twin princes by himself, and Miquella takes it to the next level. 

Would I call Promised Consort Radahn a unique fight? Kinda. You won’t see anyone else doing all the shit they do in one package. If you want to get technical there are very few FromSoft bosses that are completely unique from each other. Many of the most unique ones are among the most hated. *Cough* Bed of Chaos *cough*. But in this case Promised Consort Radahn reminds me of boss fights I enjoyed considerably more. Rellana has some ridiculous combos too but she doesn’t do that the whole fight. You could summon a whole squad to help take down Radahn the first time around and he had a cute zombie horse too. Lothric and Lorian were a tough but fun late game boss fight. They look absolutely tame in comparison to this Frankenstein monster of a DLC boss. 

So if I had to sum up my problem with this fight it would be this: they don’t have enough of a distinct identity beyond being Way Too Much. The lore and the lead up to them are cool, so they bring some intrigue there. And if the goal was to give FromSoft players their biggest challenge yet they succeeded. But it wasn’t all that fun for me personally sooooooooooo

Exploring the Land of Shadow

While I’m a bit down on the final boss, there are plenty of other things I liked about the DLC. I enjoyed some of the other bosses, but more to the point, I enjoyed The Land of Shadow. It’s a big ass place, but I rarely tired of exploring it. So many unique areas with cool shadowy atmospheres, gorgeous scenery, or both simultaneously somehow. 

As I hope these screenshots show, dark tones don’t mean they can’t be colorful. You can pick out the whole rainbow from these images. A rather foreboding rainbow, but a rainbow nevertheless. Even when the map grows to ridiculous proportions there’s still a clear attention to detail. For me this was the biggest incentive to explore. Sure there’s some loot to find maybe, but it’s rarely something I’d actually use. There might be some fun fights within, but it’s just as likely that I’ll have to deal with something that’s mostly just annoying. But if I get to take a tour of this masterfully crafted 3D artwork I’m getting something good out of it. 

While many of these areas have nice aesthetically pleasing visual identities, the gameplay isn’t always up to par. Some of the prettiest spots like Cerulean Coast and Charo’s Hidden Grave don’t have any unique enemies at all. I kinda like gravebirds, but they’re spammed way too heavily. Not just in Charo’s spot (whoever the hell Charo is), but the whole map. And in Charo’s joint you have to deal with the gravebirds right alongside a Death Rite Bird, a mini-boss reused from the base game. It’s certainly not the first time FromSoft half-assed an area, but it’s a bit disappointing nevertheless.

Fortunately, most of the DLC areas aren’t so egregious with their reused enemies. There’s a decent number of new enemies added to this DLC. Some of them are just new variants on old enemies or variants of each other but still. Limited as they are, the new enemies are pretty well designed. The Curseblade in particular stands out. They’re big lanky guys dual wielding circular blades doing acrobatic shit. They’ve kicked my ass a fair share of times, but I still appreciate them. They don’t do a lot of damage per hit but they’re quick and relentless. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by them, but that makes the duel all the more invigorating. 

It’s a shame I can’t unequivocally praise the enemy usage in this DLC, because that’s usually one of FromSoft’s biggest strengths. They’ve accumulated so many unique and fun to fight enemies over the years, and Shadow of the Erdtree brings some more to the table. However, there’s a lot more new land than there are new enemies to occupy it, and it shows. Oftentimes they fill in the gaps with enemies from the base game, which is fine to an extent. But I think it’s fair to say that some of their older DLCs handled this balance better. 

Conclusion

Shadow of the Erdtree introduces a lot of cool new stuff. A new big ass map that’s mostly well designed, mostly good bosses, mostly good enemies, and solid music. I had a mostly good experience all around. I also appreciate the influx of weapons and such to use, but I didn’t really take to any of them. There’s nothing this DLC introduced that made me want to replace Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. Guess it’s hard for anything to top that. It’s one of the most fun weapons FromSoft has ever created in my book. Right up there with Beasthunter Saif and Church Pick. Maybe I should’ve experimented with the Putrescence Cleaver, but I was already at end game when I obtained it. So it goes. 

This DLC, much like the base game is a rather ambitious project. Its sheer volume goes beyond any of their previous work. Hell, I spent more time with Shadow of the Erdtree than I did some of their previous base games. Some of that has to do with how long the hard ass bosses took me to defeat, but it’s a big game all around. I wasn’t so sure about that price tag out the gate, but the amount of content justifies it. As expected that drastic increase in size and ambition comes with growing pains. Elden Ring may be FromSoftware’s most impressive game to date, but it’s also arguably their most flawed. The things I could nitpick are endless, but I won’t go too far into that.

One thing I’ve come to realize through this whole experience is that bigger is not necessarily better. It’s impressive how good they managed to make this DLC given how large it is, but that doesn’t make it their best. It felt like a slog to get through more often than I would’ve liked. Frankly, this isn’t their best work. Old Hunters remains undefeated in my eyes, and Ringed City is better too. Those DLCs may be a lot shorter, but they’re far more tightly designed in exchange. They’re well curated experiences in ways Shadow of the Erdtree can’t consistently match. I hope FromSoftware gives us something smaller next time. 

8.5/10

So that about wraps up my commentary. I’m relieved to be done with this. To anyone who read this whole ass blog post thank you kindly. I know it was a lot, but compared to the game itself it’s kinda manageable right? Hopefully. Also I know it’s been months since I’ve released a blog post, but I’m back now. How long will the wait be next time? Who knows. If I whip one of my blogs sleeping in the drafts into shape it could happen pretty quickly. If I try to write a whole ass New Thing again… well, we’ll see. 

In the meantime, I hope you have a nice life. Also if you read this to the end and enjoyed it maybe consider subscribing/following? I’m probably not going to write about Elden Ring again but I might have something else that catches your eye.