Elden Ring Update Simplifies DLC Challenge

FromSoftware has released a balance patch for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, addressing player concerns regarding its difficulty. The update, version 1.12.2, significantly buffs the effectiveness of Shadow Realm Blessings, particularly Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, in the early and late stages of the DLC.

Initially, many players found the DLC excessively challenging, leading to negative reviews. The update directly tackles this by increasing attack output and damage negation provided by Blessing enhancements. The first half of the enhancement levels now grants a more substantial boost, while the scaling for the latter half becomes more gradual. The final enhancement level also receives a minor increase.

This adjustment aims to alleviate difficulty spikes, particularly in encounters like the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss fight and the final battle. However, players are reminded to actively utilize Scadutree Fragments, a collectible item enhancing damage and defense, as many were previously underutilizing this crucial mechanic. Bandai Namco even issued a reminder to this effect.

The patch also addresses a PC-specific bug where ray tracing automatically activates when loading older save data, causing framerate issues for some players. Users experiencing instability are advised to manually disable ray tracing in the graphics settings.

Further balance tweaks and bug fixes are promised in future updates. The full patch notes detail the changes to the Shadow Realm Blessing scaling and the ray tracing bug fix, emphasizing the need to manually update to version 1.12.2 via the multiplayer server login.