Most Elden Ring players on Steam won’t even be able to play its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC next week

rockpapershotgun.com:

Shadow Of The Erdtree is out in under 10 days, but some players must be in for a surprise if they expect to be able to jump in straight away. As it turns out, most players on Steam haven’t even progressed far enough in the original game to access the DLC - something publishers Bandai Namco have now issued a friendly FYI about.

If you’re familiar with developers FromSoftware’s other Soulsborne games, you probably weren’t expecting a straightforward “pick the DLC from the menu” kind of approach to booting up Shadow of the Erdtree. (Laughs in Artorias of the Abyss.) And rightly so: the upcoming expansion is hidden away behind two of the game’s harder bosses, including one right at the end of one of its more easily missable areas.

Those bosses are Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood. The former is fairly easy to find - if less easy to beat - as he’s the main threat in the vast region of Caelid and one of the five shardbearers you can choose to take down to advance in the main story. (You’ll have to kill at least two, but can fight as many as you like.)

Mohg, meanwhile, is less obvious. Spoilers abound ahead! He’s found in the Mohgwyn Palace, which can only be reached by using a teleporter in the secret Consecrated Snowfield region - accessible by collecting two halves of a secret medallion spread around the rest of the Lands Between and using it to travel on a mysterious lift to the frosty realm. From there, you’ll need to defeat a nearby NPC invader to activate the teleporter. That’s just to get to Mohgwyn Palace, mind - then it’s a case of actually fighting your way through the fairly lengthy level and defeating Mohg himself. Phew! (Luckily, the nearby area is a great place to level up - unless you're a frog fan.)

Friendly PSA for all those looking forward to #ELDENRING Shadow of the Erdtree.

You have less than 2 weeks to prepare! https://t.co/J18CrUkDQm

Given all that, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that almost two-thirds of Elden Ring players on Steam