A new glitch discovered by an Elden Ring player turns the typically bright-looking Erdtree into something much more grim and nightmarish. Elden Ring is already a game full of disturbing monsters and strange environments, and this just adds to that.
Elden Ring is a game with beautiful scenery that houses some truly horrifying stuff, and the Erdtree stands at the center of The Lands Between as a constant shimmering beacon of light that players can stand in awe of as they explore everything around it. One player recently shared a version of the Erdtree found in their game that looks far more sinister than what other players experienced in their playthroughs.
The new Erdtree glitch was shared by HyperXuserXD on the Elden Ring subreddit. It shows off the centerpiece of The Lands Between as something that looks more like a swirling cloud of fire and black smoke. The second image of the post shows a close-up of the branches which are pitch black and highlighted by stripes of bright red or orange. Some commenters on the post are quick to point out that this version of the Erdtree looks more like something out of FromSoftware's classic Bloodborne rather than Elden Ring.
This Erdtree is almost certainly the result of a glitch, but it actually may look a little familiar for players who know about the Frenzied Flame ending of the game. Many consider it one of the most challenging endings in Elden Ring among the game's various complicated endings that have strange and oftentimes extremely cryptic requirements to unlock. If a player manages to find the Cathedral of the Forsaken, the Three Fingers, and claim the Flame of Frenzy, then they will gain the option to burn the Erdtree at the end of the game, effectively plunging the entire world into flame.
It's unknown how the Erdtree will look in Elden Ring's upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Very little is known about the new addition to the game at this time aside from the name and one teaser image shared by FromSoftware. If it takes place after the events of the main story, then the game will need to factor in whichever ending the player got, which could be tough if the player picked the aforementioned ending where The Lands Between are set on fire. Interestingly, the Erdtree looks particularly shadowy in this new glitch, which is perhaps an omen of what's to come in the DLC.
