How to start Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC

How do you start Elden Ring's Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC? Elden Ring is already a gigantic open-world masterpiece, but FromSoftware are looking to expand ever-further with their new DLC, Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree. Featuring a brand new map at least the size of Limgrave, the DLC is packed with new bosses, weapon types, and more. There's little wonder players are excited.

But how do you actually access the new map and begin the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC? As you might have expected, it will take a fair bit of playing through the base game before you can reach the Land Of Shadow. Follow this guide to learn exactly how to start the Elden Ring DLC.

ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree | Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer

How to start Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC

To start the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, you must first defeat Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord Of Blood. Once you've defeated these two bosses, go to the throne at Mohgwyn's Palace and interact with the withered arm in the cocoon to begin the DLC.

Touching the withered arm will transport you to the Land Of Shadow, the new map in which the Elden Ring DLC is set. You can move in and out of the Land Of Shadow at will afterwards, but in order to unlock the new DLC map you need to reach and interact with the arm in the cocoon.

To reiterate, here are the steps you must complete to start Shadow Of The Erdtree:

1. Defeat Starscourge Radahn

Starscourge Radahn is the major boss of Caelid, the Rot-infested region to the east of Limgrave. To defeat him, you must wait until the Radahn Festival is active, then travel to Redmane Castle in the southeast corner of Caelid and activate the portal on the beach.

There are three ways to start the Radahn Festival:

• Reach any Altus Plateau Site Of Grace, OR
• Progress Ranni's quest until you mention Radahn to Blaidd in Siofra River, OR
• Progress Ranni's quest until you mention Witch-Hunter Jerren to Iji.

Caelid is a tricky region and we'd recommend you complete Limgrave and Liurnia (and possibly the Altus Plateau) first. For full details, check out our Elden Ring area order guide.

2. Defeat Mohg, Lord Of Blood

The other boss you must defeat to activate the DLC is Mohg, Lord Of Blood. He can be found inside Mohgwyn Palace, an underground region which can only be accessed in two ways:

• Use the teleporter in the west of the Consecrated Snowfield, OR
• Use the Pureblood Knight's Medal given at the end of White Mask Varré's quest.

The second method allows you to get to Mohgwyn Palace far quicker. However, Mohgwyn Palace is a very tough endgame area, so if you use the Pureblood Knight's Medal to get there quickly, you may find yourself underlevelled and unprepared to take on Mohg himself.

3. Touch the withered arm in Mohgwyn Palace

Once you've defeated Mohg in his throne room, you simply need to interact with the withered arm poking out of the bloody cocoon on Mohg's throne. This arm belongs to the demigod Miquella, brother of the now-famous boss Malenia, Hand Of Miquella.

Miquella is a very mysterious figure who is absolutely central to the story and lore of the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, so it makes sense that he is your gateway into the Land Of Shadow.

How to prepare for the Elden Ring DLC

If you are capable of defeating Mohg, Lord Of Blood, then you likely are already at the right level of power for beginning your journey into the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC. FromSoft boss Hidetaka Miyazaki stated in an interview with our pals at Eurogamer that Shadow Of The Erdtree will be on "a similar footing to the endgame of Elden Ring", so we're expecting the area to have a similar level of difficulty to endgame areas like Miquella's Haligtree or Crumbling Farum Azula.

However, there is also a new power scaling system unique to the Elden Ring DLC. Miyazaki mentioned this in an interview with Famitsu:

"Think of the attack power system in Sekiro. Separate from the original level system there is an 'attack power' that is only enabled in the DLC areas. This was introduced in order to give freedom to meet the threats mentioned earlier, so you can do something like exploring other areas before going back to challenge bosses that were too strong the first time, allowing you to more easily experience this even in the high-level range."

So this attack power system has been added to ensure that even players who have completed the game and reached an extremely high character level will be challenged by the enemies and bosses in the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC.

That's all you need to know in order to get started with Elden Ring's gigantic Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC. To prepare yourself for the coming fights, why not check out our guides on the best Elden Ring builds, best Elden Ring weapons, and best Elden Ring armor sets on offer?