After 423 hours and over 15,000 total deaths, Elden Ring player finally beats Shadow of the Erdtree without the upgrades FromSoftware urged everyone to use: "Never give up"

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree final boss Radahn stares into the camera, holding a sword in each hand.

For FromSoftware fans, the grind to make every game as excruciatingly difficult as possible never stops, and one dedicated Elden Ring player has proven that after spending 423 hours completing the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in the most painful way he could.

When Shadow of the Erdtree first launched last year, even the most hardened Elden Ring veterans quickly discovered that having a character with a high rune level meant rather little. The DLC introduced Scadutree Fragments, adding new DLC-exclusive upgrades to boost your attack and resistances. They're so crucial that FromSoftware directly advised players to seek them out, and even gave exact instructions on where to find one. Needless to say, playing the whole DLC without them would be a pretty bad idea… and I'm sure you see where this is going.