The Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Mods Have Begun — and Yes, Most Make It Easier

Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is just a few days old but, predictably, mods for the expansion have already started coming in.

Most of the mods targeting Shadow of the Erdtree on Nexus Mods right now make the expansion easier. That’s no surprise, given the reaction so far. As IGN has reported, Steam user reviews currently have a ‘mixed’ rating after a flood of complaints about the rock hard bosses as well as PC performance issues.

Belger’s ‘Easy Shadow of the Erdtree’ mod, for example, decreases all enemy damage in the DLC by around 25%. “Many players complain about enemies in SOTE dealing too much damage,” Belger said in the mod description, “so if that’s your case, you can try this mod that lowers it significantly.”

Belger added that their mod can also be used by players to learn boss patterns without dying so often. They can then uninstall the mod and take on Shadow of the Erdtree’s rock hard bosses “the way FromSoftware intended.”

Elsewhere, existing mods for the base game were updated to work with Shadow of the Erdtree. For example, CheezeOfAstora’s mod lets players recover runes immediately upon death, so there’s no need to go to the exact spot of death to recover the runes. This is “not an easy mode,” CheezeOfAstora insisted. Syyyke’s ‘All in One Cheat Version’ very much is an easy mode, however.

Older Elden Ring mods that make the game easier are also seeing renewed interest now Shadow of the Erdtree is out in the wild, including GreyEnigma’s effort that reduces grinding by giving you various helpful items. And here’s a useful mod: byDelamain’s ‘DLC Ready Save File’ lets players skip Shadow of the Erdtree’s boss kill requirements.

Elden Ring modders, then, are stepping in to help with what many are saying is the hardest experience FromSoftware has ever created. Ahead of Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, director Hidetaka Miyazaki signaled the DLC would significantly test players’ abilities. “The new challenges for the player are going to be the boss encounters as well as the different kinds of threats that the world will impose on people,” Miyazaki told CNET. Some of these bosses are aimed at players who’ve completed most of the base Elden Ring, meaning FromSoftware has “kind of really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player,” he added.

If you don’t want to go down the mod route, we believe Shadow of the Erdtree’s Scadutree Blessings are the answer to the Elden Ring DLC’s difficulty (Scadutree Blessing bolsters the recipient’s abilities to deal and negate damage). You can check our guide to track down every last Scadutree Fragment.

Shadow of the Erdtree has certainly enjoyed critical acclaim, and has become the highest-rated video game expansion of all-time after overtaking Witcher 3 DLC Blood and Wine on Metacritic. IGN’s Shadow of the Erdtree review returned a 10/10. We said: “Like the base game did before it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree raises the bar for single-player DLC expansions. It takes everything that made the base game such a landmark RPG, condenses it into a relatively compact 20-25 hour campaign, and provides fantastic new challenges for heavily invested fans to chew on.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].