Elden Ring DLC Difficulty Officially Lowered After Recent Outrage

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Bawal Zehri

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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FromSoftware games are known for their crushing difficulty, and Elden Ring is no different. Following the team’s latest DLC release, Shadow of the Erdtree has been praised for beating exemplary DLCs like The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine.

However, Shadow of the Erdtree has also been criticized for being overly difficult. Following the outrage, FromSoftware has released a small calibration update, with the changes directly impacting the DLC’s difficulty.

Why it matters: Many hardcore players were against FromSoftware making such changes, as they hoped to preserve the core challenge of the DLC.

According to Bandai Namco’s patch notes, the Shadow Realm Blessings have been revised. The attack and damage negation curve scaling has been increased for Blessing enhancements. However, this change only impacts the first half of the curve.

What this means is that users relying on Shadow Realm Blessings will have greater defensive and offensive buffs earlier on, making the initial parts of the DLC quite a bit easier than before.

Bosses and enemies will still hit hard, but players will now find themselves with more room for error. Meanwhile, the patch notes confirm that the second half of this curve will increase gradually, but the final Blessing enhancement level has also received a buff.

What’s interesting is that the team confirms more balance adjustments are on the way. This could lead to nerfs for many of the bosses featured in Shadow of the Erdtree since FromSoftware previously nerfed the likes of Radahn in a similar manner.

For performance, FromSoftware recommends turning off ray tracing. This setting is incredibly demanding across all types of hardware, so the team suggests disabling it to stabilize performance.

As for the update, it does not need to be installed through a separate patch. Simply going online in Elden Ring will apply the calibration update.

For those after an even easier experience, Elden Ring has recently received a mod that tones down the DLC’s difficulty further. This should be enough to compensate for the challenging bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree.

Bawal Zehri

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