Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is peak FromSoftware, with everything players complained about in the base game dialed up to 11 in the funniest way possible

GamesRPGElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is peak FromSoftware, with everything players complained about in the base game dialed up to 11 in the funniest way possibleWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Elden Ring Varre looking pensive in front of the Scadutree

InElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, FromSoft has achieved new heights of trolling its players, subverting our expectations, just generally zagging when we expect them to zig⁠—and it had me letting out hearty belly laughs the entire way through. It’s hard to praise a game for its malicious little surprises without spoiling at least a few, so consider this yourSpoiler Warningfor an area and weapon in the first two open world zones⁠.

Swamp ass

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Character exploring another poison swamp in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

The first point where I knew I was really in for something special on this front came in the Belurat Tower Settlement legacy dungeon. I found a suspicious locked gate at the bottom of a well: Mystery! Enticement! What could be on the other side, I wondered. After finding theWell Depths Keyon a circuitous, hidden little side path, I returned about an hour later for my reward.

It was agoddamn poison swamp. I all but shook my fist at the heavens while yelling Hidetaka Miyazaki’s name. A surprise poison swamp squirreled away on a completely optional side path is a promise, a statement of intent: it has become a bit of a memetic legend thatFromSoft president Miyazakilovesthese oft-maligned areas, only putting more of them in each game as players complain about their frustrating movement challenges and stressful damage over time management, and here was my first of many in the DLC.

One would have been an interesting, if flawed encounter, but there were12scattered throughout Elden Ring’s base game⁠—nine Ulcerated, and three more Scarlet Rot-inflicting Putrid Tree Spirits. There gets to be a sense of “this fucking guy again” fighting them, and their erratic move set makes the repeated fights a chore. Everyone hated them⁠—I love these games and even I hated them.

And yet: 12 Ulcerated Tree Spirits in the base game may have been a design failure, but even more showing up in the DLC all these years later? That is a carefully-considered joke at all of our expense, a proverbial, “The Ulcerated Tree Spirits will continue until morale improves.”

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The familiar dance of dodging through its ridiculous, screen-filling attacks as my poison meter climbed ever higher felt magical in this new context of FromSoftware saying “screw you!” to my games media guy pretensions of knowing what good design is. As one final, cheeky jab, this DLC Ulcerated Tree Guy even drops a poison resistance Talisman after you get done fighting him in the green muck. That would have been helpful a minute or two ago, man.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Character exploring another poison swamp in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Taste my blade

These sorts of goofs aren’t always unpleasant, either, so long as you don’t mind joining in on the fun at someone else’s expense. TheRivers of Blood katanawas a long time pain point for Elden PvPers. On the one hand, it’s rad as hell, a cursed samurai sword with a spammable skill you can effectively use instead of basic attacks. Everyone else on the receiving end of these would-be demon swordsmen, however, took issue with being instantly caught in the blade’s high-damage, poise-breaking attacks. Though long since nerfed, the ghost of Rivers of Blood still haunts the scene.

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree gameplay showing off the stats and location of Rakshasa’s Great Katana, the best Great Katana in the DLC

Shadow of the Erdtree guides(Image credit: Bandai Namco)Erdtree map fragments: Uncover the Land of ShadowScadutree fragments: How to level up in ErdtreeErdtree bosses: A full hit list for the DLCLeda quest: Track the Erdtree main questAnsbach quest: Help the former servant of MohgHornsent quest: Complete the quest for vengeance

Shadow of the Erdtree guides

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)Erdtree map fragments: Uncover the Land of ShadowScadutree fragments: How to level up in ErdtreeErdtree bosses: A full hit list for the DLCLeda quest: Track the Erdtree main questAnsbach quest: Help the former servant of MohgHornsent quest: Complete the quest for vengeance

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree trailer screencap of a red haired character holding fire in their hand

Erdtree map fragments: Uncover the Land of ShadowScadutree fragments: How to level up in ErdtreeErdtree bosses: A full hit list for the DLCLeda quest: Track the Erdtree main questAnsbach quest: Help the former servant of MohgHornsent quest: Complete the quest for vengeance

Rakshasa’s Great Katana is an invitation to get in on the joke with FromSoft, bringing this celebration of a once-controversial weapon to bear against NPC and player alike with the only people not chuckling beingthose fuddy duddies who review-bombed the game for being too hard. Every OP PvP combo, juked and thwarted co-op gank squad, and fallacious hidden door or “You don’t have the right” message is the player base’s own way of participating in this jesterly atmosphere and matching FromSoftware’s prankster energy.

Because these are some of the funniest games ever made, and while FromSoftware doesn’t have a Discord or community managers to interface directly with its players, its developers always seem to be listening. And planning.

TOPICSFromSoftware

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PRODUCTSElden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeElden Ring

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Swamp ass#

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Taste my blade#

Swamp ass

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Taste my blade