Shadow Of The Erdtree is out in under 10 days, but some players must be in for a surprise if they expect to be able to jump in straight away. As it turns out, most players on Steam haven’t even progressed far enough in the original game to access the DLC – something publishers Bandai Namco have now issued a friendly FYI about.
If you’re familiar with developers FromSoftware’s other Soulsborne games, you probably weren’t expecting a straightforward “pick the DLC from the menu” kind of approach to booting up Shadow of the Erdtree. (Laughs in Artorias of the Abyss.) And rightly so: the upcoming expansion is hidden away behind two of the game’s harder bosses, including one right at the end of one of its more easily missable areas.
Those bosses are Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood. The former is fairly easy to find – if less easy to beat – as he’s the main threat in the vast region of Caelid and one of the five shardbearers you can choose to take down to advance in the main story. (You’ll have to kill at least two, but can fight as many as you like.)
Mohg, meanwhile, is less obvious. Spoilers abound ahead! He’s found in the Mohgwyn Palace, which can only be reached by using a teleporter in the secret Consecrated Snowfield region – accessible by collecting two halves of a secret medallion spread around the rest of the Lands Between and using it to travel on a mysterious lift to the frosty realm. From there, you’ll need to defeat a nearby NPC invader to activate the teleporter. That’s just to get to Mohgwyn Palace, mind – then it’s a case of actually fighting your way through the fairly lengthy level and defeating Mohg himself. Phew! (Luckily, the nearby area is a great place to level up – unless you’re a frog fan.)
Given all that, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that almost two-thirds of Elden Ring players on Steam haven’t defeated Mohg, going by Steam achievement stats as spotted by Twitch streamer Cohh Carnage. Around 38% of players have the achievement for besting the boss, while over 62% don’t have it. Bandai Namco shared the post as a “friendly PSA”, emphasising the need to have bested Mohg in time for the DLC.
As we already know, the entrance to Shadow of the Erdtree’s new area will be the withered arm hanging from the cocoon behind the arena where you fight Mohg – the physical body of DLC-centric character Miquella, brother of Malenia, who appeared in the original teaser for the expansion.
In other words, if you’re hoping to play Shadow of the Erdtree when it releases on June 21st, but are one of that 62%, you’ll need to get a wriggle on and take down Mohg asap. We do know that there won’t be another Elden Ring DLC, at least, so you’ve got all the time in the world to get through it. Good luck!