While they’ve recently had to satisfy their Elden Ring cravings by watching the game’s anniversary Twitch Rivals tournament or experimenting with interesting mods, the players that populate The Lands Between have long had one thing on their minds: when will the game’s first major expansion arrive?
Sure, the massively popular Colosseum DLC released late last year provided a fresh challenge for those who love a bit of PvP action, but the kind of hardcore Tarnished who regularly attempt voice-controlled and guitar-based playthroughs want something a little bigger.
Now, it seems these brilliant boss battlers are finally going to get the DLC they’ve been desperate for news on, with FromSoftware’s sudden announcement of Shadow of the Erdtree expansion having caught everyone off guard and already prompted lots of speculation.
Are you pumped to play Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion when it finally arrives?
The announcement, which came in the form of an official tweet confirming that Shadow of the Erdtree: “is currently in development”, has formed the subject of a huge thread on the Elden Ring subreddit, which was kicked off by a post from user N3DSdude.
Naturally, the thread’s comments are full of Tarnished losing their minds as they express both their jubilation at the news and disbelief regarding the fact it dropped via an unexpected tweet.
However, some of these users have already recovered from their hysteria and begun to dissect and speculate about the contents of the image included in the tweet, which is the only clue provided in the announcement as to what the expansion will entail.
“Is that Miquella on Torrent?” wondered user Craftycrafter12 regarding the mounted character depicted in the image, while einsushii suggested: “From the looks of it, Miquella is Torrent's old master. Really curious where this is going, maybe some time travel shenanigans.”
Meanwhile, some concentrated on the tree shown in the picture, with user CommandJ21 speculating: “What if in the picture the Haligtree isn't rotting, but shedding its old wood to turn gold like the Erdtree? I wonder if this DLC will involve the Haligtree (achieving) its full potential and superseding the Erdtree. Haligtree Ending maybe?”
On the other hand, user Emotional-Ad-2812 argued: “My guess is that, prior to the Greater Will’s corruption, the Erdtree might have been filled with something similar to the gold, which then would be turned to unalloyed gold by Miquella. After the corruption, the Erdtree we see is hollow, empty and dead on the inside, despite glowing.”
Regardless of whether you’re now planning to spend your day bingeing Elden Ring lore videos in order to try and predict what Shadow of the Erdtree’s plot will involve, make sure to follow us for plenty of guides to the expansion as soon as it arrives and coverage of some interesting Elden Ring streamers.