The wait for Elden Ring's highly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been a long one — it was first announced over a year ago in February 2023 — but at long last, it's finally upon us. The expansion is bringing countless Tarnished champions back to the Game of the Year-winning fantasy ARPG and give them a grand new Elden Ring adventure to embark upon.
The hype for Shadow of the Erdtree has hit a fever pitch, especially in the wake of widespread perfect score reviews — for me, it was the easiest 10/10 I've ever given — but when will you actually be able to play it? Depending on what platform you're on, you may be able to play now, though everyone will have access very, very soon.
You'll find everything you need to know about the release schedule of Shadow of the Erdtree below. This includes the Elden Ring DLC's release date and launch time, along with a countdown to its arrival, details on preloading the expansion, and the storage requirements you'll need to meet in order to install it.
What is the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC?
For the unaware, Shadow of the Erdtree is a huge DLC for Elden Ring that developer FromSoftware is calling the "largest expansion" it's ever made for its action RPGs. With scale that's reportedly similar to Elden Ring's massive Limgrave or Liurnia of the Lakes regions, it follows up on the story of the base game and will take place on an entirely new map that's separate from the Lands Between.
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Specifically, Shadow of the Erdtree is set in the Land of Shadow — a region "obscured by the Erdtree" — and tasks players with following in the footsteps of Miquella, one of Queen Marika's children. His fate was unknown in the base game — read this Miquella explainer I put together for more on what happened — but the DLC reveals that Miquella has ventured into the Land of Shadow to divest himself "of his flesh, his strength, his lineage. Of all things Golden." In the Land of Shadow, players will likely learn why as they (and other interested NPC parties) search for the Empyrean.
While exploring, players will encounter a myriad of different enemies and bosses, both in open field free-roam zones and in dense, layered Legacy Dungeons that evoke the structure of a Dark Souls level. One antagonist figure you'll encounter is Messmer the Impaler, a deadly fire and spear-wielding battlefield commander said to have once razed the Land of Shadow with his flame in wartime.
Fans can also look forward to a wide variety of treasures, including over 100 new weapons and eight new weapon categories. One such category is the dueling shield, a shield with spikes on its rims that can be used for thrusting attacks. Of course, there are plenty of new spells and consumables to discover as well.
Notably, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed in an interview that Shadow of the Erdtree will be Elden Ring's only DLC, which will disappoint players hoping for a series of expansions for the fantasy ARPG. Still, given how large it is — it took me nearly a week to thoroughly explore and finish it — I expect fans will be playing (and replaying) it for months and years to come, likely finding new discoveries each time much like they have with Elden Ring's base game.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available now, and has come to every platform the original game launched on. That means you can play it on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC via Steam.
Elden Ring DLC: Release date and time
As confirmed earlier this year by the DLC's official gameplay reveal trailer, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled to release on June 21, 2024. However, depending on what platform you're on and where you live, you may get access on June 20.
Elden Ring DLC release time on PC
- June 20, 3:00 p.m. PT
- June 20, 6:00 p.m. ET
- June 20, 11:00 p.m. BST
- June 21, 12:00 a.m. CEST
If you're playing Elden Ring on PC and live in a western region, I've got good news for you. Thanks to the global PC release time of June 20, 3:00 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. ET., you can jump into Shadow of the Erdtree right now. However, if you're in an eastern time zone, you'll have to wait until the morning of June 21.
Elden Ring DLC release time on console
On Xbox and PlayStation consoles, almost all players won't be able to access Shadow of the Erdtree until midnight on June 21 in their local time zone. This means eastern console users can jump in before western folks do, and also a little earlier than PC players can.
Console users in Pacific Time, Mountain Time, and Central Time regions, however, can play on June 20 before midnight at 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m., respectively. This was confirmed by the official release time map recently shared by the developers.
To help everyone figure out when they can play, I've listed all the DLC's official release times across the world in the table below:
Note that if your time zone isn't listed above, you can use a time zone converter to figure out when Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled to go live in your region.
Elden Ring DLC: Countdown
Elden Ring DLC: Preload date and time
As you'll see in the section below, Shadow of the Erdtree — much like Elden Ring itself — isn't very large at all compared to the file size of other AAA releases. With that said, preloading it is still a good idea so you can jump into the DLC as soon as it's available.
It's been confirmed that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree preloads went live 48 hours before the June 21 launch on PS5 and PS4. Unfortunately, though, Xbox and PC players aren't able to preload, which is bad news for fans that play the game on these platforms.
Elden Ring DLC: Storage requirements
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco haven't revealed the DLC's download size specifically, but they have announced updated Elden Ring system requirements that indicate you'll need 80GB of free space on PC to install it. Generally, Shadow of the Erdtree will have a file size of about 15-20GB on every platform. This holds true on PC; the Steam version of the DLC is 15.01GB, almost 15GB exactly.
The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is finally here, and it makes one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of all time even better. It's out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC for $39.99.
