Highlights

  • Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's optional dungeons are more intricate and challenging than the base game's locations.
  • The DLC's focus on jumping transforms traversal into a platforming experience in many areas.
  • Exploration in the Shadow Realm requires strategic jumping, leading to hidden items and rewarding encounters.

One aspect of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree that arguably exceeds the base game is its myriad optional dungeons dotting the Shadow Realm. Like in Elden Ring, the map in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion offers players plenty of hidden nooks and crannies stuffed with optional dungeons to explore, each housing their own rewards and challenging encounters within. Aside from Shadow of the Erdtree's dungeons generally being more intricately designed and worthwhile than many of the base game's optional locations, they also incorporate a surprising amount of required jumping, transforming proceedings to action-platformer territory in some cases.

Having a dedicated jump button has always set Elden Ring apart from previous FromSoftware titles, where jumping was possible but was more cumbersome than other third-person action games. Shadow of the Erdtree takes the ability to readily jump on command to a whole new level through the implementation of a greater platforming focus in many of the game's optional dungeons, including several instances where players need to make a seemingly fatal leap of faith to continue delving into a dungeon's depths. It's an interesting addition to the Edlen Ring formula that results in some unique, if not slightly frustrating, traversal through the Shadow Realm.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Rellana Sword Set
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Shadow of the Erdtree Transforms Jumping From an Ability to a Necessity

Players have always been able to jump in Elden Ring, but the degree to which players needed to engage with the ability in the base game was somewhat limited. While the mechanic is somewhat necessary to navigate the broken pathways and twisting branches of the Haligtree, it was much less necessary in the standard interior and exterior spaces except where players could utilize Torrent's handy double-jump. Right from Shadow of the Erdtree's outset, it becomes readily apparent how much more important jumping is in the DLC compared to the base game, whether on-foot or mounted on Torrent.

The tile rooftops of the Belurat Tower Settlement are rife with opportunities to jump and scale from building to building to discover secret items, but perhaps no other location in the DLC's first major region illustrates how important jumping is than Belurat Gaol. This optional dungeon has not one but three separate jumping-centric platforming challenges and hidden pathways to worthwhile items that transform what would be a fairly standard optional dungeon into a platforming gauntlet. And it's a trend that continues well into many other optional dungeons, including Dragon's Pit's leap of faith to face the true boss enemy of the location.

Much of Shadow of the Erdtree is Seemingly Just Out of Reach

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The necessity of jumping carries over from Shadow of the Erdtree's interior spaces into its exterior ones as well, with the map of the Shadow Realm littered with cliffside gaps and chasms that entice players to find a way to cross them somehow. This gives way to plenty of hidden pathways connecting the regions of the Shadow Realm's map, so long as players can find a safe route to reach places that appear impossible to get to at first. Jumping, as it turns out, is just as important on horseback as it is on foot, and the visual cues of Shadow of the Erdtree's environmental design invite players to daringly try jumps that could very well lead to premature death.

But the rewards for throwing caution to the wind and engaging with Shadow of the Erdtree's new emphasis on jumping are many, including some of the DLC's best equipment and some truly engaging encounters that players might otherwise miss if they never stray from the beaten path. It's not uncommon to find community messages near these spots with players complaining about the need for jumping, but Shadow of the Erdtree's new and surprising focus on platforming helps to differentiate traversing the Shadow Realm from traipsing around The Lands Between.