The Shadow of Erdtree dealt me ​​the blow of my life after two years of bullying all the bosses.

I knew that returning to Elden Ring would be a big deal, especially since I haven’t played Soulslike in a while. The +200 hours accumulated, my character’s level 200, all the knowledge collected in guides or all the times I defeated bosses in other players’ challenges did not bring any benefit.

It’s not enough to even install the game a few days before and shake off the rust by helping other players win. Mohg, Lord of Blood, who became the guardian of the DLC’s intro. Nothing helped, and nothing would have helped even if we had trained for a few more days, because Miyazaki fulfilled his goal: to give us the joy of our lives… again.

Shadow of Airdtree: Another Descent into Hell

I spent two years and over 200 hours traveling around the Midlands and insulting every boss in the base game along with other players. Malenia, Radan, and even Radagon eventually became jokes after so much repetition and a very monstrous Wheel of Giza and Bleeding-centric build. I don’t know how many times I’ve driven past Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon.

I headed into the DLC, brave and confident, not knowing that I was about to discover a new floor in Miyazaki’s hell. Leda, a new NPC, invites me to enter the Shadowfell and follow Mikella. I never particularly liked him, although I admit that I would give anything not to have to kill his sister Malenia.

FromSoftware may have many aspects worth discussing: complexity and not a mad pursuit of the best graphics in the video game industry, but I think there are few studios that can outshine them when it comes to scene design and the art department. I say this because this is how the Shadow Kingdom of Shadows of Airdtree greeted us all.

Elden Ring It doesn’t need markers on the HUD or minimap to show us the way, but rather uses the map design to clearly show us the shortest path to the end. You don’t have to do much exploration to clearly understand what (at first glance) our main goal is: the piece of the castle in the background.

I bet we all did the same thing when we first set foot in the Shadow Kingdom: Grace, then the Monolith with the map of the area, and finally the Scorched Ruins, our first location in the DLC. In my case, it didn’t happen as quickly as I would have liked, because literally the first enemy I encountered managed to send me flying into Grace with astonishing ease. In fact, it forced me to switch to dual katanas to match his speed.

After exploring the Burnt Ruins, I headed east in search of the building I had seen on the map. The shape was very similar to the chapels dedicated to Marika. The road seemed calm. The vegetation moved in the wind, animals ran between the ghostly tombs, and the music conveyed absolute calm.

Suddenly I saw something moving among the vegetation. A naked man was running towards me at full speed. I thought he was just an ordinary bandit, so I went with the flow and prepared to confront him. Imagine my horrified face when I saw that it was an NPC named: Logar, Claw of the Beast. Another very fast enemy, sending me to the first Grace in record time. Unfortunately, when I returned, he was not there.

There was no denying that it was still very rusty. And in case it wasn’t clear to me, the soldiers at the chapel I was targeting (the Church of Solace) should have let me know that I was done being cocky. I got killed multiple times before I could collect all the important items in the area. I admit, I felt a little humiliated, but hey… this is FromSoftware. I knew what I was getting into when I bought the DLC.

I returned to the original Grace and explored the northwest of the starting area or the west of the Burnt Ruins. I found the Nameless Western Mausoleum, which had the classic golden mist hiding the boss. Elden Ring. I prepared my gear, knowing it would go very badly. If the three minds in the world could kill me so easily, then whatever was inside would tear me in two. So it was!

The Knight of Solitude killed me over and over for an hour. I didn’t want to take the insults anymore, so I looked for the nearest summoning altar, which was located next to the door of the mausoleum, to call other players. However, it had been a long time since I saw the messages on the ground and I couldn’t call anyone. It turns out that I had an internet or server outage and was playing offline.

I didn’t do anything right. I logged back in and challenged the player. He had a bleeding constitution like me, so it was clear that the Knight of Solitude’s minutes were numbered. He was beaten so badly that he barely lasted a minute. I’m sure many of you will look at me with shame for taking the path of cooperation, but leave me a few more paragraphs.

It’s true that I use summons (NPCs and players) to defeat most bosses. Elden Ring, but know that I am making a penance on myself: helping other players defeat the boss until I at least learn all the boss’s moves and achieve several victories in a row. The death of the host does not count.

I didn’t get past this point on my first day in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. The next five hours were spent fighting the Knight of Solitude over and over again along with other players such as Doctor Strange with Dormammu. That for so many people in the community who brag about not using the call, I didn’t have to wait a second after I placed the call sign on the ground.

I switched back to the Wheel of Giza and found that each blow from a heavy weapon stunned the knight, so my role during fights was to attract the enemy’s attention (thanks in part to the amulet) and hit him as many times as possible in a row to stop him. That way, the others could beat him down with blows. So I got all my life, but I paid for it in spades.

In VidaExtra | Elden Ring’s design is more masterful than I imagined: they opened my eyes to the smallest details and I can’t stop thinking about it.

In VidaExtra | Elden Ring’s exploration is unparalleled, being on par (or even higher) with Subnautica and The Legend of Zelda.

In VidaExtra | Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has been out for a few days, but the interactive map is already ready, so you won’t miss anything.