Summary
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the ErdtreeDLC will hopefully bring meaningful and significant changes to the game. While verylittle is known about Shadow of the Erdtree, it’s safe to assume that it will follow FromSoftware’s tradition of meaty and high-quality post-launch content. That said, there is one key area that the DLC should focus on: an endgame sink for in-game resources.
More than any of FromSoftware’s other games,Elden Ringis about character progression. While it retains the leveling and gear systems that fans of theSoulsgames have come to expect, the breadth, longevity, and replay value ofElden Ringmake it even more centered around forming a specific build and leveling it to its fullest potential. Though this is crucial to the experience of playingElden Ring, it can cause some issues in the late-game, and Shadow of the Erdtreeshould be developed with these issues in mind.
Shadow of the Erdtree Needs to Give Players a Place to Invest Resources
Elden Ringhas been out for a while, and it’s likely that any player who purchases Shadow of the Erdtreewill have already invested dozens of hours in the base game. This serves as a testament to the wealth of content on offer inElden Ring, but it also poses an issue: the redundancy of runes and upgrade materials.
Elden Ring’s Soft Level Cap
ThoughElden Ringis designed to be played for upwards of 100 hours, not including subsequent NG+ runs, players will ultimately reach a point of diminishing returns when upgrading their character. This is because each stat category begins to return fewer material rewards when leveling up after crossing a certain threshold. Despite this, runes used for leveling up become more abundant over the course of a single playthrough and each NG+ run, meaning thatElden Ringplayers accumulate more runeswhile leveling up becomes less significant. This issue can be mostly overlooked by players replaying the base game, but it could be problematic in the DLC, which aims to be a fresh and satisfying experience.
How Shadow of the Erdtree Can Remedy Elden Ring’s Resource Problem
Perhaps the easiest solution to this issue would be for Shadow of the Erdtreeto raiseElden Ring’s soft level cap, making leveling more rewarding for high-level players. This would allow players, especially those visiting Shadow of the Erdtree during a NG+ run, to strive toward a new goal with their characters. This could go a long way, but there are even more things the DLC can do to makeElden Ring’s runes more important.
Shadow of the Erdtreecould change how upgrade resources work, allowing for more flexibility while fixing the issue of overabundant runes. In the base game, there is a finite number of high-level upgrade materials which can only be found by exploring theElden Ringopen-world. This incentivizes exploration and subsequent playthroughs, but discourages experimentation. If the DLC made all upgrade materials purchasable, players would have a new, rewarding way to spend runes.
A raised level cap and a shift in how upgrade materials work are just two examples of how Shadow of the Erdtreecould offer a late-game resource sink. Other potential methods include:
Shadow of the Erdtreecould institute massiveElden Ringchangesin the form of new weapons, spells, and gear, but this will all be more rewarding if players have strong incentives to spend runes and, by extension, explore the map and take risks to earn more of them. With the scope and scale ofElden Ring, the late-game redundancy of runes and other resources like upgrade materials is more relevant than ever, and Shadow of the Erdtree should seek to offer a compelling solution.
