Highlights

  • Publisher Bandai Namco has confirmed that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will feature 10 bosses.
  • Like with the base game, some of the expansion's boss fights will be optional.
  • FromSoftware's track record suggests all 10 of the DLC bosses will be unique, but that has yet to be outright confirmed.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will feature ten new bosses, publisher Bandai Namco has said. This revelation indicates that the upcoming DLC will increase the total count of unique Elden Ring bosses by nearly 25%.

Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have been fairly tight-lipped about the hit soulslike's first and only expansion up until recently. But ever since Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's story trailer dropped in late May, the game's marketing campaign kicked into the highest gear, with new information about the DLC now arriving every few days.

An Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Huge Boss
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Shadow of the Erdtree To Feature 10 Bosses, Some of Which Will Be Optional

The latest such tidbit was shared by Bandai Namco in early June, when the publisher revealed that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will feature ten bosses in total. As is tradition with FromSoftware soulslikes, not all of these fights will be mandatory for completing the DLC's main quest. While Bandai Namco did not disclose how many of them will fall into this category, the fact that Elden Ring features many easily missable bosses suggests that its upcoming expansion may continue that tradition.

Specifically, out of the 238 bosses in the base game, the player only needs to down 13 of them to complete Elden Ring. Granted, the former figure denotes all boss encounters in the game, many of which recycle enemies. In reality, Elden Ring has a bit over 40 unique bosses, only eight of which are fought just once. Although Bandai Namco did not elaborate on its recently shared figure, precedent suggests that the ten bosses promised to arrive in Shadow of the Erdtree will all be unique.

As for their actual identities, Elden Ring's Messmer the Impaler seems all but certain to be part of the expansion's boss list. Not only have the existing marketing materials painted him as one of the central characters of the upcoming DLC, but the very first Shadow of the Erdtree trailer even offers a glimpse of the Tarnished fighting him.

An affair from which Gold arose....And so too was Shadow Born. What followed was a War unseen..One that could never be put to song.

Another potential boss that players might have to tackle in the upcoming expansion is the horrifying wicker man that has been teased in several Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree promos. However, its size doesn't necessarily guarantee that this terrifying creature will be a full-fledged boss, not least because the base game doesn't exactly shy away from using giant enemies as regular mobs. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree releases June 21, priced at $40. Alternatively, those who haven't yet experienced the base game can grab its complete edition for $79.99.