Ahead ofElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s release on June 21, developer FromSoftware has announced the DLC will be adding new difficulty modes for players to check out. The catch here, however, is that difficulty cannot be changed once it’s selected from the main menu. Anyone wanting to faceElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Messmer on a new difficulty will be forced to start a new game and get to the point that they can start the DLC.
Of course, this news no doubt comes as a surprise to anyone who has kept up with FromSoftware’s catalog of games andElden Ring’s difficulty discourse. There are many fans of the genre who believe difficulty options like an easy mode should have been available from day one, but there are also many fans who may not like this decision. Those fans could simply not restart their game and maintain the standard difficulty of the game, which lines up with “Normal Mode” now. It’s worth noting that the rationale behind this new feature has nothing to do with this discourse, however, according to oursourcewithin FromSoftware.
FromSoftware Souls games are so difficult for many reasons, not least of which isHidetaka Miyazaki’s known masochistic tendencies. He enjoys dying this way in video games, which is ultimately designed to be a rewarding experience. Our source indicates Miyazaki has taken to watching others play these games to see how they die in fights on Twitch, but even when watching FromSoftware players, he seems disastified with the number of players who struggle. He reportedly doesn’t enjoy it when someone “gits good” and loathes players who have completed challenges such as theno-hit “Soulsbornekiroring” run. He really wants players to suffer. As such, there are a few options that scale back difficulty, but even more that crank it up.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC’s Difficulty Modes Explained
While the approach here is somewhat complex, our FromSoftware source provided us with a list with some brief descriptors of the difficulty modes and their various changes. Beginning with Normal Mode, all difficulty modifiers stack. Extreme, for example, has all the difficulty modifiers of Helldiver and Nightmare, while Unforgiving has everything that came before it, and so forth.
Elden Ring’s New Game Plus Mode will continue to scale, within the same parameters, in each difficulty. An NG+7 on Normal Difficulty would be comparable to Hard, NG+7 would be comparable to Nightmare, and so forth.
Elden Ring DLC Still Has More Reveals to Come
It’ll be interesting to see how theElden Ringcommunity reacts to these new difficulties and who among them accepts their challenges. We’re quite ready to see someone no-hit run Impossible Nightmare Omega Overdrive Mode 358/2 days, especially if it happened to be a goldfish. Of course, difficulty is not the only thing coming in this DLC. Players will have access to new enemies, new dungeons, and a new location called the Land of Shadow, which our source also confirmed takes the player to Westeros. Apparently,Radagon and Marikaare something of an inspiration for Jaime and Cersei Lannister.
There will also benew equipment and weapons inElden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, none of which make the expansion any easier. The trailer showed bombs, boomerangs, jousting swords, repeating crossbows, dueling shields, thrown weaponry, unarmed attacks, and Reverse-Grip Swords. We have it on good authority thatthese weaponsare also being added.
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ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
