Previews for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree are dropping today, and with it, many tidbits about the upcoming expansion. We got to go hands-on with it at an event hosted by Bandai Namco, and one surprising detail we learned about was an additional way to level up your character and their Spirit Ashes, alongside the usual runes and levels.
As part of the gameplay in Shadow of the Erdtree, the player can come across two different resources: Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings. Each one corresponds to a different power scale that you can boost up at Sites of Grace within the Realm of Shadow.
Scadutree Fragments give you a boost, increasing the damage you can deal and decreasing damage taken. Even a few made a bit of a noticeable difference in our time with the Elden Ring DLC. Meanwhile, Revered Spirit Ash Blessings proffer benefits to your Spirit Ashes, the summoned allies who can fight by your side in major encounters. Both are found scattered around the open world, as special item pick-ups similar to significant items in the base game.
It’s important to note that these new power-scaling measures are exclusive to the expansion area and content. So piling up a bunch of Scadutree Fragments won’t make your fight against, say, Malenia any easier. Instead, this seemed like a method for assisting players through some of the tough encounters planned for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.
We didn’t get a chance to ask any FromSoft members about the mechanic and why it’s been implemented, but in my own playtime, it did feel like a pretty helpful tool for navigating bosses that would’ve been otherwise much more difficult. Considering there’s a fair level range at which a player could enter the DLC, this might be a way to offer fresh scaling and power increases, even if you’re rocking an endgame build.
As for whether it makes the traditionally tough bosses of FromSoftware DLC expansions any easier, we’ll have to wait to see. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launches on June 21, 2024.
