Arise, tarnished. Your time has come again.
After a long wait, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree launches tomorrow on PS5 and PS4. With a vast new world to explore, weapons to find, skills to master, and of course bosses to face, FromSoftware’s latest expansion looks like a daunting undertaking. But don’t worry, Tarnished, because our tips – spoiler-free and covering the first few hours – will keep you on track. To begin, an important step: what is needed to enter the Dark Kingdom.
Enter the kingdom of darkness
If you’ve ever played a FromSoftware expansion, you’ll know that gaining access is never a simple process. Shadow of the Erdtree continues this tradition. To enter the Dark Kingdom, you need to complete some quests in the base game.
On your journey through the Lands Between, you will first need to defeat Starscourge Radahn, a notoriously challenging boss. To face him, go through Redmane Castle in Caelid during the Radahn Festival and take the elevator down to fight him on the beach.
You will also have to defeat Mohg, the Blood Lord. He can be found at Mohgwyn Palace, reached by following Varré’s quest or using the Hidden Passage Gate in the Consecrated Snow Fields. The Mohg is known to be an especially difficult fight, but other Tarnished have set up summoning points next to the battle to help shepherd warriors through and unlock DLC.
At the back of the Mohg boss arena, you’ll discover Miquella’s cocoon. If both enemies have been conquered (and the expansion has been downloaded), a new interaction option will appear when you stand next to the cocoon. Accept and you will enter the Shadow Realm and begin your journey into the Shadows of Erdtree.
Navigate the world
If you spend dozens of hours with Elden Ring’s base game, it’s easy to forget that you initially have to collect map pieces to build a picture of the world around you. In Shadow of the Erdtree, this feature returns, meaning that when you enter the Shadow Realm for the first time, your map will be blacked out, with one exception; a single point of light somewhere in the darkness.
One of your first goals is to navigate to this point, where you’ll find a map piece underneath a tall obelisk. Collecting this will reveal a map of the area, but be careful — Shadow of the Erdtree’s world design uses verticality on a scale unlike most anything seen in Lands Between, meaning there’s still a lot to explore – both above and below – what the map can show you.
This world is full of secrets, so be sure to explore every corner. You will certainly be rewarded with weapons, spells, and items for your efforts.
Make friends and enemies
The starting area of the Dark Kingdom is full of friendly (and not so friendly) characters who can help you get involved in the story, point you in the direction of hidden areas, send you Go on a mission or challenge your friend to a duel.
You’ll meet warriors, tribesmen, worshipers, and cultists among others within the first hour or so of gameplay. Talking to them, bringing them the items they requested, or taking the correct action in front of them can help move their story along within the overall narrative. And of course, they can reward you with items, join you as companions in battle, and more.
Use the blessing of the Dark Kingdom
While you can still level up your character like before, in the Dark Realm character progression comes in the form of special blessings. Two new consumables, Scadutree Shards and Revered Soul Ashes, can be found throughout the world and used at the Site of Grace to power up your character and its skills. them, so finding them during your first few hours is a worthwhile effort.
Scadutree pieces: These increase both your character’s damage resistance and attack power, meaning you take less damage from enemy attacks and deal more damage to yourself.
Soul ashes are revered: These have a similar purpose but apply to your Spirit Ashes, giving your summons more survivability and power, so you can buff your Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche before facing them. Face the next boss. (Other types of soul ash are available…)
Note that both of these special blessings only apply to the Dark Realm and therefore will have no effect in the base game.
Managing new discoveries
Like all FromSoftware games, Elden Ring features a wide variety of items and consumables, some useful, others mysterious. Along with Shadow of the Erdtree, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team introduced a new quality-of-life feature that allows you to easily discover recent items you’ve discovered on your adventures.
This new feature, disabled as standard, will highlight new pickup locations with a “!” in your inventory, making it easier to survey your collection. It also offers an optional Recent Items Tab, where everything you’ve found recently is collated into one easy-to-understand menu. Both of these features make it simpler to discover how to use the many new items in Shadow of the Erdtree, but the choice of whether to use them or the original system is entirely up to you.
If you want to enable these features, you can find them in the Display section of the Settings menu. Here you can enable Highlight New Items or Show Recent Items Tab, or use both together.
These tips will help you enter the Dark Kingdom and make smooth progress in the first few hours. But there’s still a lot to discover when Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree launches tomorrow, June 21.
