With Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree just a few weeks away, it’s time to make sure you’re ready. Spend some time outdoors since you won’t be doing that for a while. Buy an extra controller to replace the one you’re going to throw at the wall. Practice your fake cough so you can call in sick to work. But publisher Bandai Namco also had a prudent piece of advice to share recently — make sure you’re far enough along in Elden Ring to actually start the damn DLC.
We’ve known for a while now what we have to do to start Shadow of the Erdtree. Within the Mohgwyn Palace area is a nasty, fleshy cocoon constructed by Miquella, whose story we seem to be following in the DLC. Reaching the Land of Shadow where the story takes place means crawling up in that cocoon and being whisked away, but to do that, you first need to clear out the area’s boss, Mohg. And as it turns out, I’m far from the only person who still hasn’t quite gotten around to that yet.
Bandai Namco recently shared a tweet from streamer Cohh Carnage, noting that more than 60 percent of Elden Ring players on PC haven’t beaten Mohg yet, according to their Steam achievements. Bandai Namco took the opportunity to remind players that Shadow of the Erdtree is out in two weeks, and they may want to set aside a good portion of that to bang their heads against the wall trying to beat Mohg.
Mohg isn’t the hardest boss in Elden Ring, but he’s far from a pushover. That means that finishing up this requirement to access the DLC isn’t as simple as some players might be hoping. If you leave the task until Shadow of the Erdtree is already out, it could be quite a while before you’re able to journey to the Land of Shadow.
While defeating Mohg can be a grueling challenge, especially for anyone who hasn’t even reached his palace yet, this path to accessing DLC is typical for From Software. Unlike most developers, which simply place the DLC at the end of the game or offer another easy way to jump in partway through, From Software makes finding the expansion you just bought a challenge in itself. It’s a tradition that goes back all the way to the original Dark Souls.
To get into the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, players need to travel to an assuming part of the world, find and defeat a new enemy that’s been placed there, talk to the NPC that spawns afterward, warp to an entirely unrelated location, defeat another new enemy, collect a mysterious item, take it back to the original spot, and then they can open a portal to the DLC. By comparison, making your way into the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion feels pretty straightforward!
But while it may be less puzzling, the route to the Land of Shadow is far from easy. Back when the first gameplay trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree dropped in February, I realized that time was running short and I needed to get around to beating Mohg so I could actually play it. Foolishly, I reasoned that since I had months left to go and I wasn’t that far from accessing Mohgwyn’s Palace, I wouldn’t have any trouble getting the job done by the DLC’s release. However, there’s one little thing I overlooked when I determined that — Elden Ring is really hard.
When the game was first released, I could justify pushing everything else aside just to focus on beating it. I played night and day, eventually spending 170 hours in the Land Between. And I never beat it. To be honest, I never got close. The screen flashed the message that I was dead too many times, taunting me.
The outlook is even more grim now. Between Summer Game Fest and Steam Next Fest, I have a lot of new games to try, not to mention upcoming releases that will be vying for my attention by the time Shadow of the Erdtree comes out. It may be time to accept that I won’t be there in the Land of Shadow on release day, or for quite a while afterward.
But there’s still hope for you! Elden Ring is a tough game, but it’s not unbeatable. Two weeks is technically plenty of time to reach the entrance to Shadow of the Erdtree if you really put your mind to it. If you need motivation, just check out any of the trailers already released for the game or our hands-on preview to remind yourself of what you’ll be missing if you never beat Mohg. It may be too late for me, but I believe in you.
