Black Knight
FromSoft games are notoriously difficult. The first Elden Ring had plenty of very difficult zones and fights. But it seems that Shadow of the Erdtree has thrown a significant number of players, even long-time veterans, into a tailspin.
I was actually quite surprised to see this, as most gamers have given FromSoft some leeway, but recent reviews of Shadow of the Ertree on Steam rate the game as “mixed,” which is a far cry from Elden Ring’s “very positive,” on the grounds that it’s… too hard.
Almost every negative review mentions the difficulty level. Players complain that their stats or level don’t protect them from getting hit 2-3 times by the first enemies. Some say it’s not fun, others say it’s so bad that they quit altogether. Here is a small selection from many of these reviews:
- “The gameplay makes the game hard to recommend – spastic bosses with jerky roll-catch movements and a plethora of physically nonsensical moves make the bosses in this DLC hard to take… As someone who has played through all of Fromsoft’s games with crippled level 1 characters for fun (including the base game), I’m going to give up on this one.”
- “While the world design and colors are really nice, as is the design of many enemies, there is a big problem with the balance. Right now, even at 60 Vigor, almost every enemy that isn’t pure cannon fodder will hit you with a bishot.”
- “I really want to like this DLC, but these enemies and boss fights are the worst part of the whole game. I’m really surprised that whoever tested this approved the golden hippo boss fight.”
- “I was able to do it, but the bosses were so over the top and aggressive that it didn’t get any easier even when I almost maxed out the Scadutree fragments.”
On the latter, I absolutely don’t think anyone is “maxed out” with Scadutree Fragments 24 hours after release, but the general sentiment is extremely similar in almost all of these negative reviews (though some do complain about performance).
Shadow of the Earth Tree
I just can’t agree with that. I am not a hardcore Souls player and I too got knocked down 2-3 times when I started Erdtree, as did people at level 700. That’s just how it starts and after over 45 hours I’ve beaten every boss I previously thought was impossible. There are many, many things that go into winning these tough fights and I just think people don’t take the time to do it because barely a day has passed since the official launch. My recommendations:
- I absolutely don’t think people have found all the Scadutree Fragments and Spirit Ashes in the available zones in such a short amount of time. It’s day two. That will make all the difference, even though you’ll still take significant damage.
- Adapting the talismans to the damage type is incredibly important here and can be the only thing that makes a fight more bearable, even more so than before.
- You may need to change your build. Just because you relied on certain go-to moves or strategies in the base game doesn’t mean you can now just brute force your way through. The same goes for Spirit Ashes, as some may now be more valuable than others and you’ll need to charge them significantly to be useful. Also, take advantage of the sometimes hard-to-spot summons of NPC allies during boss fights.
- Some bosses you don’t want to fight now. Not at all. There’s no reason to kill the infamous Blackgaol Knight now, no matter how short his start time is. There’s no reason to mess with the giant fire-type, as he will 100% kill 99.99% of players for a long time. Come. Later. Back.
If you give up on Shadow of the Erdtree now, that’s your right, but I just don’t think most of these people are patient enough. I too wondered if I could even progress during the testing phase because it was so hard, but slowly, over time, I figured it out, I got stronger, I changed my tactics, I did it. And if I can do it, you can too, I believe in you.
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Get my science fiction novels the Herokiller series And The Earthborn Trilogy.