Shadow of the Erdtree tips and tricks to get ahead

✓ at a glance

• Remember to collect and use Scadutree Blessings.
• Don’t summon NPCs for early boss fights.
• Invest in the Mimic Tear.
• Respec if you’re stuck.
• Status weapons work well.
• The Crimson Amber Medallion talisman is your best friend.

You may have heard that Elden Ring’s DLC is pretty tough. FromSoft might even agree at this point, especially since the company deployed a patch to basically nerf enemy damage. If you’re struggling through Shadow of the Erdtree, these tips and tricks might help you find your way a bit better through the Land of Shadows. You’ll want to utilise everything the game gives you, so try out these tips.

Shadow of the Erdtree tips

Use your Scadutree Blessings

These new items are unique to the DLC and only work in the Land of Shadow. They essentially greatly increase your stats, much more than levelling will do for you at around level 180 – 240. These items are dotted around the entire map and you would do well to track them all down. There are 50 in total, which makes for a maximum blessing of 20. Each time you upgrade your blessing, your damage and damage negation go up by a huge amount. When you have enough, go to a Site of Grace and choose Shadow Realm Blessing. If you’ve hit a wall, explore around and track down some blessings. Use our guide to get them all.

Don’t summon NPCs into early boss battles

This is super important early on in the game, especially if you’re stuck fighting the Dancing Lion or Rellana. As with all Souls games, summoning an NPC to help out in a boss battle will increase the HP of the boss for each summon. It used to be the case in Dark Souls that you could enter the boss room before your summon appeared to stop the boss from getting this buff. This doesn’t work in Elden Ring. Bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree have tons of HP and dish out huge damage at the drop of a hat, which means having an NPC along is only going to hinder you. Bayle might be the exception to this tip, simply because Igon can help out a ton in that fight.

Invest in the Mimic Tear

This should be a given for anyone going through Elden Ring anyway, but in case you haven’t seen the light of our lord and saviour the Mimic Tear, then you need to rectify that as soon as possible. People say using the Mimic Tear or Spirit Ashes, in general, is cheating, but the game is designed around you using them to help out. The Mimic Tear is especially powerful because it creates a copy of you with your current gear. This ally can give the enemies of Elden Ring at least a fraction of the complete nonsense they throw at you, which is one of the only ways to level the playing field.

Respec if you’re stuck

Sadly, Elden Ring is a game where not all builds are viable. This is doubly true when in the DLC, and you might find that your trusty Moonviel might not cut it any more when you reach some of the late-game bosses. While you could stubbornly try and make it work, you’ll probably find success elsewhere by respeccing to try out something new. We will caveat this point for reference, but we used the Rivers of Blood at +10 to get through the DLC boss fights and we didn’t need to change builds or weapons.

Use weapons that build status

Status effects are extremely powerful in Elden Ring. Most enemies and bosses you fight will be weak to one or more of them, which means you can exploit it. Bayle, the super boss, can be poisoned, bleed, and hit with Scarlet Rot. Most bosses in the DLC will take a chunk of damage from bleed triggering. You get the idea. If you aren’t already, try and use something with status to help you whittle down bosses more easily.

Use the Crimson Amber Medallion

If you don’t have this Talisman permanently attached to your character, you should do this as soon as possible. At 60 Vigor, you can use one flask to basically heal from a quarter of your HP to full. To put it simply, this talisman dramatically improves your healing flask economy, and this is something you’ll need if you find you’re running out of healing during boss battles or out in the wild. There is a +1 version of this Talisman in the DLC, which you should also prioritise getting.

Get the Gravesite Plain map fragment

While this might be painfully obvious, you should make sure the first thing you do when you start the DLC is making a beeline to the stele where the map fragment is found. This will help you get your bearings and decide the best way to tackle the area and make sure you’re exploring every nook and cranny for Scadutree Blessings.

Turn on the ‘Show Latest Item’ setting in the menu

This was added with the DLC, giving a new setting in the options menu to better show new items you’ve just picked up. With this setting turned on, you’ll see that anything that you’ve picked up that’s new will now be accompanied by a small yellow exclamation mark. This setting is super useful for keeping track of new things in your inventory.

Activate sealed Spiritsprings

As you travel the Lands of Shadow, you might come across locked Spiritsprings, which means you can’t use them to jump to new heights. The gimmick with these is that the the spring is locked by a cairn, placed relatively close to the spiritspring. Explore around, look high and low, and you’ll come across a small gathering of rocks. Hit it a few times to break it and you’ll get a message saying the Spiritspring is now free, letting you use it to jump up and away while on Torrent.

Iris of Occultation vs Iris of Grace

In our playthrough, we encountered two NPCs and we were asked to use one of two Iris items on them. Fire Knight Queelign and Swordhand of Night Jolan. You will get a different reward based on what you give them when you’re given the prompt. If you give the NPC an Iris of Grace, you will get that NPC as a Spirit Ash. If you give them the Iris of Occultation, you will get their weapon instead. Choose wisely, because Jolan has an awesome weapon you might want.