Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has solely been out for a couple of days, and plenty of gamers are already discovering that their character — who turned the Elden Lord of the Lands Between — is barely a match for the primary chakram blade-wielding weirdo you possibly can run into. These early punishing fights are merely a prelude for the uncooked aggression of the DLC bosses, who’re in a position to flip you right into a bloody smear on the bottom with just some assaults. Even worse, this problem ramp-up spares nobody — no matter your degree, the weapons you wield, or the armor you equip.
The important thing to salvation within the Realm of Shadow lies inside a model new Shadow Realm Blessing system, however should you aren’t paying consideration chances are you’ll simply miss out on the way it works.
With a little bit of exploring, you are more likely to discover not less than one Scadutree Fragment, which provides a brief tooltip:
It may be simple to miss this tip within the thick of battle or when distracted by distant factors of curiosity, but it surely’s secure to say Shadow of the Erdtree could also be underselling simply how vital your Scadutree Blessing actually is. Merely put, it will possibly shortly turn into the distinction between victory and defeat in virtually each encounter, and it is barely even akin to Elden Ring’s regular leveling system.
The rationale for it is because Shadow of the Erdtree has to account for all kinds of gamers searching for a problem on this DLC realm: Fights need to be troublesome sufficient for a degree 500 participant on New Sport+ 7, but additionally winnable for somebody who simply beat Mohg for the primary time the opposite day. The answer: Make the whole lot hit extraordinarily laborious, with extremely excessive well being swimming pools, however introduce a brand new merchandise to quickly increase your individual skills to deal and negate harm.
Utilizing only one Scadutree Fragment to extend your Shadow Realm Blessing to Stage 1 will increase your armaments harm AND your harm negation to all sources by round 5%, and there are lots of extra fragments to seek out simply within the first area alone.
As a check case, let’s use an early enemy many gamers are more likely to get a impolite awakening from: The Blackgaol Knight of the Anonymous Western Mausoleum. His Greatsword of Solitude appears to hit tougher than the Radagon himself, and depart gamers questioning if any quantity of leveling up may even the chances.
For my degree 162 character with 50 Vigor and 50 Power, my Blasphemous Blade had 795 assault energy; and my armor and different stats have been giving me 157 Protection Energy with 44.355% bodily harm negation as a multiplier.
Dealing with down the Blackgaol Knight, my fundamental one-handed swing was solely dealing 398 harm to his 525, which I used to be solely in a position to meet with a leaping assault that did 550. His did… much more.
Nonetheless, with only one Scadutree Blessing degree, my assault energy was boosted to 834, and my bodily harm negation to 47.004%. This improve had me dealing 416 whereas solely taking 496 in return, which was roughly a 4.9% improve in harm given and 5.5% harm taken.
Even when that sounds small — I then grabbed each Scadutree Fragment within the Gravesite Plain, elevating my Scadutree Blessing to Stage 4. Now my assault energy shot as much as 954 and harm negation to 53.629%, which meant my hits have been now doing 20% extra harm that have been hitting tougher than the Blackgaol Knight’s, which was lowered by round 17.3%!
As you possibly can see from the desk above, every blessing can improve your powers by a considerable quantity, and with a most of 20 Scadutree Blessings that you could get hold of over the course of the sport, you may be dealing a LOT extra harm by the top than if you first entered the Realm of Shadow.
However what about common leveling? My desk additionally contains spending sufficient Runes to place 4 factors in Power vs 4 Scadutree Blessings. At 50+ Power, the returns barely resulted in a measly % of harm elevated, and the flat Protection Energy improve as a substitute of harm negation from all sources meant I used to be dropping roughly the identical quantity of HP per hit. This is a vital facet to notice, as a result of it means since all gamers shall be in and endgame setting, you possibly can’t overcome bosses simply by spending runes. Nonetheless, it is nonetheless value including a couple of factors right here and there anyway, particularly to extend your HP pool with Vigor, add extra stamina with Endurance, or hit a requirement to equip a brand new weapon.
So the place can you discover extra Scadutree Fragments? You’ll be able to verify our information to monitor down each final Scadutree Fragment, however should you want to discover by yourself, listed below are some ideas to remember:
- Scadutree Fragments most frequently seem in entrance of statues of Marika, like these present in church buildings or soldier camps.
- You are additionally assured to seek out one at each Cross of Miquella that the demigod has left behind marking their journey to vital places within the Shadow Realm.
- Sure areas like ruins or destroyed cities can generally embrace a Shadow Undead holding a glowing pot. Rush them down earlier than they run away and you may acquire treasure that generally features a Scadutree Fragment.
- Development in Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t completely gated by a boss. If you end up missing energy, attempt searching for alternate paths to new areas the place you’ll find extra Scadutree Fragments.
- Much like these fragments, it’s also possible to discover Revered Spirit Ash in entrance of huge headless corpse altars or from Shadow Undead pot holders. The Revered Spirit Ash Blessing will improve the facility of your Spirit Ash Summons much like how the Scadutree Fragments enhance your individual.
As soon as you’re feeling robust sufficient to tackle the hardest challenges, there’s lots extra to do, and we now have all of it catalogued in our full Shadow of the Erdtree Information.
Brendan Graeber is a senior guides author for IGN, and continues to be laborious at work discovering each final secret in Elden Ring. Yow will discover him on Twitter/X @Ragga_Fragga