Ahead of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's release on June 21, developer FromSoftware has announced the DLC will be adding new difficulty modes for players to check out. The catch here, however, is that difficulty cannot be changed once it's selected from the main menu. Anyone wanting to face Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Messmer on a new difficulty will be forced to start a new game and get to the point that they can start the DLC.

Of course, this news no doubt comes as a surprise to anyone who has kept up with FromSoftware's catalog of games and Elden Ring's difficulty discourse. There are many fans of the genre who believe difficulty options like an easy mode should have been available from day one, but there are also many fans who may not like this decision. Those fans could simply not restart their game and maintain the standard difficulty of the game, which lines up with "Normal Mode" now. It's worth noting that the rationale behind this new feature has nothing to do with this discourse, however, according to our source within FromSoftware.

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FromSoftware Souls games are so difficult for many reasons, not least of which is Hidetaka Miyazaki's known masochistic tendencies. He enjoys dying this way in video games, which is ultimately designed to be a rewarding experience. Our source indicates Miyazaki has taken to watching others play these games to see how they die in fights on Twitch, but even when watching FromSoftware players, he seems disastified with the number of players who struggle. He reportedly doesn't enjoy it when someone "gits good" and loathes players who have completed challenges such as the no-hit "Soulsbornekiroring" run. He really wants players to suffer. As such, there are a few options that scale back difficulty, but even more that crank it up.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC's Difficulty Modes Explained

While the approach here is somewhat complex, our FromSoftware source provided us with a list with some brief descriptors of the difficulty modes and their various changes. Beginning with Normal Mode, all difficulty modifiers stack. Extreme, for example, has all the difficulty modifiers of Helldiver and Nightmare, while Unforgiving has everything that came before it, and so forth.

  • Super Easy - Enemies are 100% weaker and players are 100% stronger
  • Very Easy - Enemies are 50% weaker and players are 50% stronger
    • Everyone who chooses the above difficulties is granted a unique in-game item: A membership card for Super Weenie Hut Jr.

  • Easy - Enemies are 10% weaker and players are 10% stronger
  • Normal - This is the standard Elden Ring experience.
  • Hard - This is the Elden Ring experience akin to NG+7 Normal, but at Level 1
    • Every difficulty after Hard features Permadeath

  • Helldive - FromSoftware has hired Helldiver 2's Joel to mess with players in-game.
  • Nightmare - This is the Elden Ring experience akin to Hard with an additional NG+7 Stacked on top. This pattern continues with additional modifiers in each difficulty.
  • Tactician - Enemies have better stats, AI, and equipment, alongside legendary actions akin to Baldur's Gate 3.
  • Extreme - Every Elden Ring boss is joined by a Bloodborne Boss. Example: You may end up fighting the Orphan of Kos at the same time as The Elden Beast
  • Masochistic - NPCs at Roundtable Hold can develop a sickness called Dragonsplague like in Dragon's Dogma 2. The same name and same effect in-game is ultimately a coincidence.
  • Unforgiving - Every difficulty, beginning with Unforgiving, allows Elden Ring's boss enemies to summon Let Me Solo Her to their side.
  • Impossible - Every enemy in Caelid is equipped with an AK-47, drastically increasing NPC-on-NPC death. "No Way to Prevent This," says Caelid, the only nation in The Lands Between where this regularly happens.
  • Impossible Nightmare Alpha Super Ultra Hyper Remix Plus Alpha Squared EX
  • Impossible Nightmare Omega Overdrive Mode 358/2 Days
    • The final two difficulties were not described. We attempted to follow up, but the only response was a maniacal Joker-like laugh.

Elden Ring's New Game Plus Mode will continue to scale, within the same parameters, in each difficulty. An NG+7 on Normal Difficulty would be comparable to Hard, NG+7 would be comparable to Nightmare, and so forth.

Elden Ring DLC Still Has More Reveals to Come

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It'll be interesting to see how the Elden Ring community reacts to these new difficulties and who among them accepts their challenges. We're quite ready to see someone no-hit run Impossible Nightmare Omega Overdrive Mode 358/2 days, especially if it happened to be a goldfish. Of course, difficulty is not the only thing coming in this DLC. Players will have access to new enemies, new dungeons, and a new location called the Land of Shadow, which our source also confirmed takes the player to Westeros. Apparently, Radagon and Marika are something of an inspiration for Jaime and Cersei Lannister.

There will also be new equipment and weapons in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, none of which make the expansion any easier. The trailer showed bombs, boomerangs, jousting swords, repeating crossbows, dueling shields, thrown weaponry, unarmed attacks, and Reverse-Grip Swords. We have it on good authority that these weapons are also being added.