Highlights

  • Shadow of the Erdtree introduces new map, weapons, and separate progression system for Elden Ring fans.
  • DLC offers Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings for linear stat boosts, akin to Sekiro's system.
  • Linear progression complements Elden Ring's open-world structure, providing a satisfying gameplay loop without losing freedom.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is finally here, and it's just as massive as fans were hoping. The expansion introduces players to an all-new map, The Land of Shadow, complete with its own distinct regions, lore, and bosses to challenge. With this new setting comes a bevy of new weapons, gear, and, perhaps most interestingly, a new progression system that is separate from Elden Ring's base game.

In the leadup to its release, much was said about Shadow of the Erdtree's exclusive progression model, which FromSoftware noted would only apply to the DLC areas and not The Lands Between. The reasoning behind this feature was simple: FromSoftware wanted players to feel the same sense of power creep that they enjoyed in the base game. To this end, the DLC includes two Shadow Realm Blessings—Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings—which can be discovered in The Land of Shadow and consumed at Sites of Grace for permanent stat increases; Scadutree Fragments increase defense and damage output, while Revered Spirit Ash Blessings increase the defense and damage output of summons and Torrent. This is markedly different from the progression system of the base game, but is oddly familiar to that of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Takes a Soulslike Staple to Greater Heights

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC takes one of the Soulslike genre's most defining characteristics very literally, and it's better for it.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Shadow Realm Blessings Are Like Sekiro's Prayer Beads and Memories

Shadow of the Erdtree's Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings Offer Linear Progression

Shadow of the Erdtree is hard, much harder than Elden Ring's base game, in some cases. Rather than allowing late-game characters to steamroll the DLC's challenge, FromSoftware opted to implement the aforementioned Shadow Realm Blessings, providing significant power increases that supplement the more tailored, personalized skill point allocation that defines traditional Souls leveling. This grants players stat improvement across a linear vector, rather than the more lateral sense of progression that comes from tweaking various stats or speccing into weapon and spell requirements.

This is rather like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's leveling system. In that game, players can collect prayer beads to upgrade health, and memories to increase attack power and posture. This approach to progression has a few interesting benefits:

  • It discourages repetitive grinding.
  • It allows for a more controlled power creep, keeping players from being overleveled or underleveled.
  • It can be more immediately rewarding than the incremental increases that come with traditional Souls skill point allocation.

These benefits all apply to Shadow of the Erdtree's linear progression system, making for a refreshing and satisfying leveling experience. Of course, Sekiro's style of progression is not merely copy-and-pasted to Elden Ring, as FromSoftware had to adapt this broad-strokes approach to make it work with the latter's framework.

How Sekiro's Leveling Has Been Tailored for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring's open-world design rests at the center of its construction. Indeed, it can reasonably be argued that this element is what distinguishes it from the rest of FromSoftware's portfolio. A major part of the base game, for many players, is the cycle of running into a wall of difficulty, such as a tough boss, returning to the open-world to explore and grow stronger, and then returning to that wall of difficulty later on and conquering it.

The linear progression model, facilitated by Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings, is weaved into this central design conceit. Yes, players can become stronger through acquiring runes and new weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree, but the straightforward stat boosts afforded by the Shadow Realm Blessings help the expansion recapture the sense of empowerment that comes by way of exploration, leading to a gameplay loop that has the linear satisfaction of Sekiro's progression, without losing the freedom of Elden Ring's open-world structure.