Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a gift for the faithful

polygon.com:

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a humbling experience, one that will remind you of your early days — and early defeats — in Elden Ring.

FromSoftware’s expansion to its 2022 open-world RPG will hit you harder and faster than anything in the base game did, regardless of how strong you’ve become over the course of Elden Ring. But for players with patience and perseverance, Shadow of the Erdtree features some of the most rewarding game content in all of Elden Ring. The roughly 40-hour expansion is a true test of skill, but with dozens of new weapons, spells, and magical items at your disposal, players have a wider, more interesting breadth of battle techniques to draw upon.

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Even accessing Shadow of the Erdtree is a challenge. Players can’t dive into it by selecting a menu item, the way they would for most DLC expansions. Instead, they’ll need to have already beaten two relatively challenging bosses from the main game: Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood. This is FromSoft tradition; the developer had similar roadblocks in place in expansions for Dark Souls and Bloodborne. But with only a fraction of Elden Ring players having already met the requirements for Shadow of the Erdtree, the DLC is clearly aimed at its most dedicated and persistent players.

Like the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree starts by setting players’ expectations with powerful new enemies. Take the Furnace Golem. This giant walking brazier is one of the first awe-inspiring sights you’ll see when venturing into the new region, the Land of Shadow. Facing it early likely means