No, it’s not just you. It turns out that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was indeed too hard. Now that the game has finally had its first update or patch, the developers’ main focus was buffing the power that players receive. This effectively makes Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree considerably easier. It’s a change that the struggling player community has welcomed with open arms.
Bandai Namco has recently confirmed and published its list of changes for the 1.12.2 update or patch for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. It’s a short changelog, but a rather impactful one since this is one of its major changes:
Attack and damage negation curve scaling of the Scadutree Blessing have been revised.
- The attack and damage negation has been increased for the first half of the maximum amount of Blessing enhancements, and the second half will now be more gradual.
- The attack and damage negation granted by the final level of Blessing enhancements has been slightly increased.
Apparently, the Scadutree Blessing from 1 to 10 is getting a buff, and 10 to 20 will now have a better curve. They also buffed Scadutree Blessing 20. So the whole time, players have been forging through the Realm of Shadow with a handicap.
As you can imagine, the players were either relieved or more motivated after the announcement of the buffs/rebalance.
Prior to the update, you’ll find no shortage of social media posts about the early bosses. Complaints were common for Blackgaol Knight, Divine Beast Dancing Lion, or Rellana as too difficult– even for a Souls game. The thing is, they will still likely be difficult if you don’t do your due diligence in-game by gathering up Scadutree Fragments to level up your Scadutree Blessing.
You can update your Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree version by logging online to Elden Ring. And if you’ve already finished the DLC before update 1.12.2 was applied, congratulations; you’ve essentially played it on a harder difficulty. You’ve earned a permanent spot in Valhalla or something.
Were the Review Bombers Right?
Despite the near-unanimous critical reception for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, a certain percentage of players pre-patch 1.12.2 complained loudly. They even review-bombed the game on Steam partly for being too difficult.
In hindsight, the complaints might have merit especially now that FromSoftware and Bandai Namco readjusted the difficulty and effectively made the game slightly easier.
The DLC is still sitting at Mixed (69% Positive) on Steam at the time of writing. But with the recent update, that might change soon.
It’s unclear whether the update is a reaction to the disgruntled and struggling players or just an oversight that needs fixing. Still, anyone who found the game too difficult or frustrating before might want to give it a shot again. Maybe now you have a better fighting chance.
