Even the best Soulslike players are getting destroyed by Elden Ring DLC

Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has hooked players, but even veterans of the Soulslike genre are facing issues with its difficulty level.

The much-awaited DLC went live on June 21, and players are still struggling. Many have reported they are getting two-shotted by bosses and are taking hours to progress.

Multiple threads on Reddit have been made created since the DLC’s release. “I’mm lvl 181 on ng+ and I’m not gonna lie, I’m getting smacked around like a rag doll and my damage output is struggling right now,” one player wrote. Another one joined the discussion by answering, “yes, everyone is struggling right now, even on the base game without NG+.”

A few players have reported directly about specific bosses. For example, DianShfta posted on June 21 asking “why this mf is so strong,” pointing to a screenshot of Blackgaol Knight. He’s one of the first bosses you encounter in Shadow of the Erdtree, and many players mentioned how he took a few hours to beat.

While many players have been amazed by the difficulty of the initial bosses in the DLC, many of them stayed realistic and warned others. “Oh just you wait it gets worse lmao,” one player wrote. Some players, however, have started review-bombing the DLC due to how challenging it is.

In the end, though, we expected nothing less from the developer. In our review of Shadow of the Erdtree, we wrote it’s possibly the best entry in the Soulslike genre and gave it a nine out of 10. And yes, we’re ashamed to admit how much we have struggled with a few bosses.