After months of waiting, we finally know when Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC will be released. As announced in the game’s February 2024 trailer, the expansion will officially launch on June 21st.ó
So now is a good time to get ready for DLC. In this guide, we’ll share some preparation tips to help you reach any level you want, with the most versatile amulets, most powerful character buffs, and fully upgraded new weapons to repurpose your future builds.
We’ll also cover some tips for quickly defeating bosses like Radahn and Mohg, both of which are must-kills when entering DLC. So, let’s get started!
Recommended Entry Level
If your main character is in New Game Plus, then you should know that the traditional DLC enemies you fight also deal more damage and have more health. So you have to make a decision here, whether you want to take your NG+ characters into DLC and take them to higher levels.
The level at which most people complete Elden Ring seems to be between level 100-150. This range is also PVP range for most people. So I recommend upgrading to this range to get a wonderful experience with DLC.
Honestly, the best way to level up is to complete the game, if you haven’t already. It gives you enough stat points for good weapon scaling and spell access. Perhaps most importantly, you still have enough points to maintain 60 Vigor, which is the recommended amount going into the endgame.
However, don’t forget to buy Elden Ring Runes to get some decent gear before starting the main quest, which will make your leveling journey go much smoother!
How To Farm Runes?
Next, let’s talk about Elden Ring runes farming. But if you want to accumulate runes quickly, the best place to farm is still at Mohgwyn Palace. Here, you can lure the bird off a cliff, or kill the helpless Albinauric to get some runes as a reward.
There are two ways to get to this rune farming area. Later in the game, you can get here through this portal in Consecrated Snowfield. But if you’re still early in the game, you can actually get here faster by completing Varre’s Questline.
Once you reach Mohgwyn Palace, you can ride back south while heading to the east side of the map until you reach Sites of Grace with a group of Albinauric. These Albinauric provide a lot of Elden Ring Runes, especially if you have a good AOE option as part of your build.
But since you’re probably early in the game, there’s another way to farm runes. You just need to go to the cliff near Sites of Grace and snipe Monstrous Crow to make it angry and run off the cliff.
This method allows you to obtain many runes without risk, and all you need is a bow and arrow. You can easily obtain them from merchants on the beach of Limgrave.
In fact, besides this merchant, you can also pick up Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot here, which is a consumable item that temporarily increases your rune acquisition by 30% for a short period.
Besides this consumable, you can also pick up Gold Scarab Talisman to help you farm runes faster. This Talisman increases rune acquisition by 20%, which you can obtain from abandoned caves in Caelid.
Of course, if you don’t have enough time to farm, buying more Elden Ring Runes directly is also a wise choice. Having enough runes will go a long way in your open world journey.
Talismans
So next let’s talk about these Talismans. Players can use Talismans in Elden Ring to enhance various stats. As far as defensive talismans go, there are none better than these 4:
- Great-Jar’s Arsenal: Increases your maximum Equipment Load by 19%.
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman: It reduces the physical damage you take by 20%.
- Crimson Amber Medallion: This will increase your maximum health by 6%-8%
- Erdtree’s Favor: Increases the user’s maximum HP, Stamina, and Equip Load.
These are great defensive talismans for any building. But another method you can try is to build a compound damage bonus with your offensive talismans. For example, combining Ritual Sword Talisman, Exaltation Talismans, Claw and Spear Talismans, and other similar Elden Ring items will exponentially increase the damage you deal.
Temporary Buffs
Aside from Talisman, one of the quickest ways to make your character more powerful is to make sure you have a set of Temporary Buffs that you know how to stack properly.
There are different Temporary Buffs in Elden Ring that increase your HP and Stamina, namely Weapon, Shield, Body, Aura, and Regen buffs.
In my opinion, the two most important of these are body buffs and aura buffs. This is because they are powerful and easy to access.
For example, when talking about body buffs, we have to mention Boiled Crab, which can bring you 20% physical damage negation. Alternatively, you can use Flame Grant me Strength, which increases your physical and fire damage by 20%.
For aura buffs, Golden Vow is the best choice. If you put it on a light dagger and simply use it to power yourself up, you can use it at any time. However, if you have 25 Faith, Golden Vow spell version is even more powerful and will give you 15% extra damage and 10% damage negation for 80 seconds.
With these, whenever you start any major battle, you will defeat your opponent easily. Both are a tremendous boost to any build.
Find Smithing Stones
In Elden Ring, upgrading your character to increase your attributes and stats can only get you so far. Next, you’ll definitely want to try out the new weapons in DLC. Therefore, finding more Smithing Stones is crucial.
Smithing Stones are extremely important materials in Elden Ring, allowing players to upgrade weapons and shields. Level 1 Stones can upgrade your weapon to +3 effect, while higher levels allow you to further strengthen your weapon.
Many times, if you feel you’re not having any impact on a powerful enemy or boss, you may want to look for these stones to increase your damage output and overcome these challenges.
Consumables
Next we will talk about the consumables you should prepare in Shadow of the Erdtree.
The most powerful consumable in Elden Ring is Rune Arc, which can be used to activate the power of any Great Runes you have equipped.
One way to quickly stock up on Rune Arc now is to visit some Nomadic Merchants. Besides this, you can also participate in multiplayer games to farm some Rune Arcs. You can invade and defeat other players in PVP or help other players in PVE co-op mode.
As for other consumables, I might suggest you prepare some Stimulating Boluses that you can consume to eliminate sleep buildup. Because we did see Sleep Swamp in DLC trailer. But this is just speculation.
As for offensive consumables, Freezing Pot is a super underrated item. It inflicts frostbite on most bosses almost instantly, dealing a lot of damage. It temporarily stuns the boss and inflicts a debuff that temporarily increases damage taken by enemies by 20%. People have recently used this against Malenia with outstanding success.
How To Defeat Two Mandatory Bosses?
The two mandatory bosses entering DLC are Radahn and Mohg. Here, let me give you some quick tips.
Radahn
For Radahn, of course, you know that running past common signs will summon help. But did you know that once these assistants die, you can summon them again?
So if you want to be sure of winning this fight, slow down, ride around the arena, and re-summon your companions when they die.
One thing I like to do with low-level characters is use Stonesword Key at Roundtable Hold and pick up Crepus’s Black-Key Crossbow and 20 Black-Key Bolts. These Bolts can inflict rot on Radahn, which synergizes really well with the passive summoning play style we talked about.
Mohg
As for Mohg, you need to first obtain two items that will help you defeat Mohg more easily.
The first is Mohg’s Shackle, which forces him to fall down twice in Phase 1, making it easier for you to enter phase 2. And the second item you’ll need for this fight is Purifying Crystal Tear, which you can drink into your Flask of Wondrous Physick and completely negate Mohg’s Nihil attack when the countdown ends.
As for Mohg’s fight itself, you just have to remember that bleed weapons are quite effective against Mohg.
What NPCs Might Appear In Land Of Shadow?
Finally, I have one more question for you. Do you think NPCs from the base game will appear in Land of Shadow? If so, who?
For me personally, first and foremost is Melina, whose true purpose is hinted at but never revealed. Most players will burn her in Forge of the Giants. So for DLC, I’m wondering if it would be better to keep Erdtree from being burned and keep Melina alive. Of course, this means you won’t be able to reach Farum Azula, so it may not be the best option.
Next up is Millicent, whose rebirth is mentioned at the end of her questline. If you side with Gowry and Millicent’s sister and kill her, you’ll get an even worse reward. So this is not optimal either. But since DLC takes place in the present, I do wonder if we’ll see a continuation of her questline.
Anyway, I hope this guide is helpful to you. Good luck preparing your character, and see you in the game!
