Highlights

  • Elden Ring's upcoming DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is generating a lot of excitement for its new region, story additions, and challenges.
  • The notorious Soldier of Godrick boss from Elden Ring's tutorial area has become a beloved meme, due to its extremely low difficulty.
  • Shadow of the Erdtree would be a great place for FromSoftware to pay homage to the Soldier of Godrick meme.

There isn't much time left before Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC arrives, and fans are gearing up to tackle it. Even two years after the initial launch of Elden Ring, the excitement surrounding FromSoftware’s latest fantasy epic has yet to subside. With the starting point and requirements for entering Shadow of the Erdtree’s mysterious Land of Shadow already known, many players are making sure they have save files prepped to jump into the DLC at its launch. As a leak has indicated that previews are coming soon, hype for Shadow of the Erdtree is about to reach its climax.

Given how much content this expansion is poised to offer Elden Ring, it's easy to see why. A whole new region estimated to be around Limgrave’s size and possibly even more dense, new additions to the story, and plenty of new challenges await players in Shadow of the Erdtree. There's even a new poison swamp courtesy of Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki, which was apparently made with their now-memetic reputation in mind. With luck, that won't be the only part of Elden Ring’s DLC that acknowledges its memes, and players can enjoy another bout with one of FromSoftware’s silliest bosses.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Blue Worm Guy
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Elden Ring Is In a Win-Win Situation With a Beloved Shadow of the Erdtree Character

Elden Ring fans have been fawning over one NPC from Shadow of the Erdtree's promo materials, and the DLC will likely do the character justice.

Elden Ring’s Tutorial Boss Was An Unusually Comedic Surprise

Like the Dark Souls trilogy and Demon’s Souls before it, Elden Ring features a dedicated tutorial area. Somewhat like Dark Souls 2’s tutorial, it's an optional cave off to the side of the starting area after the Grafted Scion prelude fight. It's effective enough at introducing the basic mechanics, even if it was easy to miss. Elden Ring players don't visit this cave on repeat playthroughs for any kind of refresher, however. Instead, they're most likely enjoying one of Elden Ring’s strangest and most memetic one-off bosses at its end.

The Soldier of Godrick Quickly Became An Early Elden Ring Meme

Crossing a fog wall at the end of the tutorial will present players with the Soldier of Godrick, a named boss complete with a boss's health bar. Only, it doesn't really have a boss's health, or any standout features at all. This foe is actually just a mundane Godrick Soldier enemy that players can encounter wandering Elden Ring’s Limgrave region, and its peers are just as easily felled. Being wedged in between the Grafted Scion and a Tree Sentinel, two bosses beyond most starting players’ reach, highlights the Soldier of Godrick’s low difficulty so much that fans couldn't help but fall in love with this awkward tutorial “boss.”

FromSoftware Should Revisit Elden Ring’s Most Prominent Meme Boss

Plenty of jokes, videos, and mods were made about the alleged high difficulty of the Soldier of Godrick, and Elden Ring's boss randomizers potentially placing them in ridiculous places only added to the humor. It's not hard to imagine that FromSoftware has noticed this community in-joke, and responding to it with a straight-faced acknowledgment would theoretically be very easy. Shadow of the Erdtree presumably has themed soldier enemies just like most of Elden Ring’s regions, so introducing a “Soldier of Messmer” fight should fit in. Its execution, however, is where the memes come in.

Shadow of the Erdtree Can Officially Give The Soldier A Real Fight

This new Soldier can't be a pushover like the original, even if an exact copy of the old fight wouldn't be a drain on Shadow of the Erdtree's resources. Instead, this Soldier should be ludicrously tough, both stats-wise and in its moveset. A return of the Runebear transformation gag from base Elden Ring could work, but it would be more exciting to let this Soldier embody its memes. High health and damage, infinite poise and parry resistance, and an abrupt switch from a standard sword to the DLC’s new martial arts weapon would make for a fitting callback to Elden Ring’s beginning inside its endgame content.