Highlights

  • Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC features diverse environments and creative enemy designs, including challenging mini-bosses in the Nameless Mausoleums.
  • The Nameless Mausoleum mini-bosses serve as a tutorial for the new weapon types, showcasing their strengths and weaknesses, and dropping new weapons upon defeat.
  • The new weapon types have significantly impacted the game's meta, with players adapting their builds to incorporate these fresh playstyles.

Despite having a controversial difficulty, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is arguably a breathtaking new chapter for what was already considered a phenomenal game. Between the diverse environments, creative enemy designs, and the new build crafting tools featured in the DLC, FromSoftware didn’t pull any punches for this new addition to Elden Ring.

Prior to the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, one of the main elements that players were hyped about was the new weapon types coming to Elden Ring. Yet while these new weapons have been making a sizable impression on the meta builds for both PvE and PvP as anticipated, they also show how well-crafted some of the new enemy designs are. Such is the case for the mini-bosses featured in the Nameless Mausoleums in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

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Shadow of the Erdtree’s Nameless Mausoleum Bosses Are the Perfect Tutorial for Elden Ring’s New Weapon Types

While the major bosses in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC naturally showcase how far the overall enemy design in Elden Ring has come, even the mini-bosses and common enemies in the new DLC can be just as praiseworthy. This is especially true for the mini-bosses that players can encounter in the Nameless Mausoleums scattered throughout the Shadow Realm.

From where players first enter the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, one of the first locations they can encounter is the Western Nameless Mausoleum. However, even though this location can be reached very early, players should arguably consider skipping this fight and coming back later after gathering enough Scadutree Fragments to increase their Shadow Realm Blessing. This is mainly because the bosses found in these Nameless Mausoleums can be extremely difficult, for a number of reasons.

What primarily makes these fights so difficult is that the mini-bosses found in the four Nameless Mausoleums each use one of the new weapon types in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Another reason behind the difficulty of these fights is that these mini-bosses all behave like player characters, considering that they can use a Flask of Crimson Tears to heal, while also utilizing weapon-specific movesets.

Overall, the Nameless Mausoleum mini-bosses can feel more like a PvP battle than a traditional boss fight. Although, in hindsight, these mini-bosses are ultimately the perfect tutorial for some of the new weapon types that players can earn in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Not only do these fights show players how to use and counter these new weapons, but players can also earn some of these weapons by defeating these mini-bosses. So all around, these boss fights are a true testament to how well-crafted some of the encounters are in Elden Ring’s new DLC.

The Blackgaol Knight in the Western Nameless Mausoleum utilizes one of the new weapon types, but the weapon players earn from this fight is an existing weapon type from the base game of Elden Ring . The other three Nameless Mausoleum mini-bosses will drop one of the new weapon types.

The New Weapon Types in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC are Game-Changers

In the short time since the DLC’s release, the new weapon types in Elden Ring have already made a lasting impression on both PvE and PvP builds, shaping the new meta in Elden Ring. While these new weapon types generally offer drastically different playstyles from the existing weapon types from Elden Ring’s base game, the enemy NPCs that use these new weapons have proven to be an effective way to expose players to the strengths and weaknesses of these new weapons, through a trial by fire.