You all know by now the big talking point surrounding theShadow of the ErdtreeDLC forElden Ringits its difficulty, with many a playerfinding it far more challenging than they’d like. While this hardly means FromSoftware’s going to introduce an easy mode any time soon, it has put out a calibration update to try and make things more balanced.
This update, as detailed onBandai Namco’s website, primarily revises the scaling ofthe Shadow Realm Blessings, which isShadow of the Erdtree‘s unique leveling system for boosting the attack and defence of your character and spirit summons. This is done by collectingScadutree Fragmentsand Revered Spirit Ashes. With this calibration update, the effects of the Shadow Realm Blessings are more effective for the first few levels and then become more gradual, and the attack and damage negation you gain from the final level up (since there’s a limited number of Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes) has been slightly increased.
Glancing through fan reactions on theElden Ringsubreddit, it seemsplentyofplayershave welcomed this patch, since it should make the early portions ofShadow of the Erdtreeslightly more manageable, but keep the overall experience as challenging as a FromSoftware game should be. “Buffing the early game [Scadutree Fragments] is nice,”says one fan, “Should make it less brutal but still challenging for people without trivializing the late game.”Anotherbelieves the Blessings system is “golden for balance updates,” saying it’s like “A handful of convenient levers they can fiddle with to adjust things globally.”
Once you get past these comments, though, you’ll findsomeplayerswho vehemently oppose the update, seeing it as nerfing the difficulty.Theseplayersargue the DLC was perfectly manageable as it was and have expressed disappointment in FromSoftware for kowtowing to the complaints.Others haveargued back, saying you can makeShadow of the Erdtreemore challenging for yourself by simply not collecting the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes since you can’t strengthen your character without them.
The discourse surroundingShadow of the Erdtree‘s difficulty will likely never go away, especially since the recent patch notes mention more balance changes are on the way. There have also been criticisms lobbied against the DLC’s performance on PC, with even some of thepositiveuserreviewson Steam complaining about frame drops.
