Elden Ring: There Are Some Unanswered Questions In Shadow Of The Erdtree

In Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, Tarnished can finally use martial arts to fight enemies, as two new Hand-to-Hand style weapons have been added - Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork. This is excellent news for players who like to use Monk, because with the blessing of these two weapons, Monk Class will be more lethal. But before getting these two powerful weapons, you need to go through some challenges and tasks first. These tasks and challenges are not too difficult, and you can explore them on your own, but if you follow this guide, I believe you will get Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork more easily. Additionally, this guide will show you the best builds for Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork. How To Get Dryleaf Arts? When you enter the DLC, you will find yourself in Scadu Altus region, which is very convenient. What you need to do now is to find and go to Highroad Cross Site of Grace in Scadu Altus region, where you will find a sign that says May the Best Win, and a note called Monk’s Missive. These two messages will lead you east to Moorth Ruins, and after arriving at Moorth Ruins Site of Grace, you will find a boss you need to fight - Dryleaf Dane. You can use May the Best Win sign you just picked up when fighting it, and it will use martial arts and Holy magic on you. At this time, be careful of its Palm Blast skill, because it will kill you immediately if you are not careful. After you defeat it with high calmness and flexible mobility, you will get Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Hat dropped from its body. Read More: How To Defeat Midra, Lord Of Frenzied Flame In Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC? - A Recommended Guide How To Get Dane’s Footwork? Unlike Dryleaf Arts, Dane’s Footwork is available only after you’ve completed most of Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, as it can only be found in the penultimate boss fight of the entire DLC. In this fight, you’ll face Miquella’s Followers, mainly Needle Knight Leda and Dryleaf Dane, who you’ve already fought before. Other bosses will appear after you’ve completed a quest or reached a certain level of progress. Besides picking up Dane’s Footwork in this fight against both bosses, you can also take their gear and numerous Elden Ring Runes directly after they’ve been defeated. The skills and damage types used by Dryleaf Dane in this fight are similar to the previous one, except that the previous Dryleaf Arts are replaced by Dane’s Footwork, which is not important. What needs to be noted here is Needle Knight Leda’s Needle Piercer skill, which is likely to cause unexpected damage to you when you’re not prepared. If you feel you’re having a hard time in this fight, you can use Pureblood Knight Ansbach’s summons to help you so you don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer number of NPCs you have to fight. Dryleaf Arts Build The biggest advantage of these Hand-to-Hand weapons is that you can put them in your off-hand, since you can switch them to two-handed moves in certain situations anyway, so they can be put in any build. For Dryleaf Arts, which build you want to put it in depends entirely on the build you are running. For example, if you are currently running a build centered on Flame, injecting Flame Arts into it will increase Fire damage and Faith scaling. Similarly, injecting it into a build centered on Magic will increase Magic damage and Intelligence scaling. In addition to this, you can also increase the base damage of Dryleaf Arts, since most of the damage of this weapon comes from Palm Blast. Here, you can use Shard of Alexander to increase the damage of Palm Blast by 15%, or use Godfrey Icon to increase the damage of Palm Blast by 15% when charging. When using this skill, Tarnished will gain an outstanding balance, allowing it to withstand attacks while charging. For Talismans, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman helps you take less physical damage while charging, while Two-Headed Turtle Talisman helps you regenerate faster, allowing you to unleash more Palm Blasts in combat. Dane’s Footwork Build While both Hand-to-Hand weapons are excellent in terms of stat stacking, Dane’s Footwork is a bit better given its Ash of War Dryleaf Whirlwind. It strikes four times in quick succession while also increasing kick damage. This weapon is a great addition to any combo build, especially those using Arcane. As mentioned above, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman increases your own physical damage cancellation, and equipped with Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, it increases all your attacks by 13% when you get max stacks. Alternatively, you can use the new Elden Ring Item in the DLC, the Shattered Stone Talisman, which increases the effectiveness of all kick attacks by an additional 10%. Combined with your newfound martial arts skills, enjoy punching and kicking in Shadow of the Erdtree. That’s all you need to know when using these two powerful Hand-to-Hand weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree. I hope you have fun playing this DLC. If you have better ideas for the build of these two weapons, you are welcome to express your opinions in iGMeet Discord. You may also get some runes as rewards.

Recently, a lot of Elden Ring fans were invited to Paris for a preview of Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. How can you preview an expansion for what is already one of the largest and most flexible games ever? When what players like and dislike is largely dependent on specific choices in terms of builds, an expansion as massive as Shadow of the Erdtree, coming two years after Elden Ring, only makes things more complicated and impossible to describe with any degree of generality. Here, we’ll analyze some reports of players’ preview experiences and discuss some of the weapon arts, environments, bosses and difficulty that will be added to the expansion! Before Entering First, I have to say that it feels almost impossible to effectively preview Shadow of the Erdtree. I’d wager that a large portion of even its most devoted fanbase has yet to personally experience everything that Lands Between has to offer. For example, the parts of the game that people have experienced, which areas they enjoyed, and what problems they may have had in the base game all depend on countless personal choices made in terms of highly specific builds. Now, with Shadow of the Erdtree coming on June 21, 2024, we’ve suddenly expanded that initial dilemma: more zones, tougher bosses, more gear to experiment with, and more variables by which your own experience will subtly change. As a result, you might feel that your personal experience is harder to convey to an audience with any real generalizability. New Content Available For Preview Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s available in Shadow of the Erdtree preview event. We have three classes to choose from: Warrior, Knight, and Sorcerer, and each class is set to level 150. The team says this is just an arbitrary number they settled on for the preview, and that you can access the class after defeating Radahn and Mohg, with different stats prioritized differently for different classes. We have access to two large, separate areas of the huge new world that Erdtree offers: Castle Ensis and Belurat Castle Settlement, and have three hours to do and see what we can. However, this simplified campaign structure does nothing to prepare players for what’s coming. Add to that the inherent weirdness of any preview, you’re in a strange place, aware that you’re being watched. The biggest difficulty is how to begin to convey what actually happened in that narrow preview window. So this preview won’t be a completely comprehensive analysis of everything in the expansion, just an accurate recollection of what players experienced and were impressed by. Still, there’s so much to dig into here! DLC Is Difficult I think one of the first things you notice when jumping into a DLC is that it’s going to be hard for most players. Almost every player in Early Access booted up Elden Ring in the first few days, either to get to DLC access points or just to brush up on the control mechanics. If you haven’t already, I recommend doing so to regain muscle memory of Elden Ring’s unique and sometimes unforgiving pace. It’s also worth stocking up on some Elden Ring Runes and consumables in advance. As we wandered across this vast new plane, it was hard not to be struck by the scenery before us. Ephemeral Graves dotted the landscape, stretching as far as you could see, and the light from the cracks in Erdtree illuminated it. A far cry from the alluring golden glow of the original game, a dreamlike, beautiful, and intimidating picture. But be careful, because just when you’re enjoying all this, an enemy suddenly appears from nowhere and knocks us down with a single fierce attack. Players need to bravely fight this new opponent, but there are dangers all around, and some people were killed before they even reached the two custom areas we were allowed to explore. In short, from the beginning, Shadow of the Erdtree is an experience that requires constant vigilance. The already occasionally unbearable brutality of its base game is increased tenfold, and this brutality has not really weakened in the three-hour preview. Ordinary enemies will increase their own strength and attack you in groups, and the most insignificant enemies will usually punish you quickly because you underestimated them. Seriously, although you can enter DLC after defeating the two must-kill bosses, if you haven’t raised the vigor level to a reasonable level, you’re dying here. Even though Warrior class I’ve been using for most of this has been upgraded to level 55, the highest of all the available builds, it’s still tough. And since we’re heading into the full version of New Game+, things will inevitably get more challenging. New Weapon And Skill Selection Tougher than any of the enemies, however, is the choice paralysis I felt for a while during the preview. While most spells are obviously limited to Sorcerer, there are a number of new weapons for any build to try, including a variety of Axes, Spears and Swords, as well as a host of weapons that are becoming popular favorites in the form of new Martial Art skills. If used correctly, they can quickly wear down an enemy’s stance. Beyond that, the new combat options, such as the wealth of new weapon arts, make me feel like any of them could become a new favorite if we had more time to practice. But unfortunately, we had to look at the class requirements of the available content as much as possible before I could thoroughly master all of this stuff. Given the challenges of the above content, this strategy requires honing in on the builds that work for the time being. For me, that would come in the form of Backhand Blade, as this weapon seems to be the most satisfying choice between damage output, range, and reach, and its associated weapon art, Blind Spot, further enhances this ability. Plenty Of Areas To Explore If you only have three hours to see what’s on offer in DLC, efficiency is important, as the two areas we were allowed into look at least as densely populated as some of the larger castle areas in the base game. Castle Ensis, for example, seems to be the more difficult of the two castles, and it reminded me of Raya Lucaria Academy, with its emphasis on Sorcerers and Magic. The more densely populated Belurat Castle reminded me of the decay and decay of Leyndell. You’ll be carefully examining every visible nook and cranny before moving on, as you can guarantee there’s something waiting to pounce on you compared to the base game. Why The New Expansion Is Worth The Wait? If there’s anything exciting about this preview, it’s not necessarily any single design element, enemy, or gear, but the fact that in a few weeks we’ll suddenly have all new Elden Ring to decipher, a whole new world full of secrets waiting to be uncovered. FromSoftware really seems to have used the two years since the base game’s release to make this happen. While players have three hours to explore two enormous areas of this world, they definitely haven’t seen everything these two areas have to offer. By the end of the preview, you’ll realize that these two areas are just a tiny dot on the much larger map of this expansion. There’s so much more that you can’t even imagine, which is incredibly exciting. What do you think of this new expansion? Are there any other things you’ve discovered that were surprising? Anyway, let’s look forward to Shadow of the Erdtree in a few weeks!

Richter Belmont is one of the most iconic Castlevania characters ever to appear in Elden Ring. If you want to get a better start playing as him in Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which releases on June 21, then this guide is for you. Here we’ll go over Richter Belmont’s play style, gear to use, and the best Talismans to complete this build, as well as tips for using the game and more. Let’s get straight into it! Basics Of The Build Richter Belmont is a descendant of the powerful Belmont Clan, and he wields the legendary Vampire Killer, one of the deadliest weapons in the cleansing of Dracula’s legion. For this build, Richter relies heavily on hard-hitting incantations to deal as much damage as possible, while also having the ability to be agile in combat. If the enemy is resistant to Holy damage, Richter will use whips to make the enemy bleed, making him a well-rounded fighter. Richter Belmont has high Faith and Dexterity. You will be using spell combinations to deal a lot of damage to your enemies, especially when fighting humanoid-type enemies. Weapons Now that the basic play style is covered, let’s move on to Richter Belmont’s equipment. But before we dive in, I will not include all of his possible original movesets, such as his Throwing Axe, Holy Water, so that the build still flows well. Having so many spells and weapons on a build would make it unwieldy to use, so I limited it while trying to maintain the identity of the build. Hoslow’s Petal Whip With that said, let’s start with Richter’s major weapon, which is without a doubt Hoslow’s Petal Whip. We are trying to mimic his Vampire Killer Whip, so Hoslow’s Petal Whip, Giant’s Red Braid, and Regular Whip are the best Whips for the job. If you want to use it effectively, you need 10 Strength, 20 Dexterity, and it scales mostly based on the above stats. Bloodhound’s Step Besides that, it’s a natural Bloodloss Build, which is a huge plus for this build. Hoslow’s Whip is incorporated into Bloodhound’s Step to mimic his quick dash from Castlevania Symphony of Night, allowing him to gracefully dodge enemy attacks and counterattack with his whip with ease. I recommend setting it to Keen Hoslow Whip, though, as we’ll be buffing it later. Erdtree Seal Moving on to his secondary weapon. Since we’ll be using spells, I decided to go with Erdtree Seal. It scales well overall, and it looks like Richter is carrying a cross that fits the theme. This Seal requires 40 Faith to use effectively, which isn’t a problem for Richter. Of course, you can also choose some better Seals, but that’s also more demanding on your Elden Ring Runes budget. Incantations Next, let’s look at Incantations required for this build. Golden Vow The first Incantation in the list is Golden Vow, which increases your damage by 15% and adds 10% damage negation across the board. Since Whip usually needs a damage boost and also increases the damage of spells, Golden Vow is highly recommended for this build. And the cross-like graphic provided by Golden Vow matches Richter’s identity very well. Bloodflame Blade Next is Bloodflame Blade spell. Vampire Killer emits light, and most of the time it applies burning and explosion to enemies, so Bloodflame Blade is the best choice for this job. Not only will it grant whip fire damage and make the whip glow, but it will also help Richter trigger Hemorrhage faster. Discus Of Light One of Belmont’s signature sub-weapons is the cross, which they throw like Boomerangs, and it returns to the user’s hand after throwing. With this idea in mind, I decided to use Discus of Light because it is the closest spell when it comes to emulating Cross Sub-weapon. Discus of Light may seem weak at first glance, but just like Cross Sub-weapon, when Discus returns, it will deal damage to the target twice. If the user is experienced enough, consecutive casts of Discus of Light will deal considerable damage. Aspects Of The Crucible: Horns Moving on to the next spell, which is Aspects of the Crucible: Horns. Richter will perform a charge attack using a whip or kicking enemies. Since Martial Arts are not yet available in the game, I decided to slot in Aspects of the Crucible: Horns. This spell will mimic the mentioned charge attack, and can deal stance damage to the target or even send the target flying, especially against humanoid type ones. I tend to use this spell when closing the distance to the target, and it can be a deadly spell when paired with Wrath of Gold, as stun locks can be inflicted. Wrath Of Gold The next spell is Wrath of Gold, which is Richter’s strongest damage spell. Note that both Aspects of the Crucible: Horns and Wrath of Gold can be charged to deal more damage. Compared to the previous spell, Wrath of Gold is easier to use because of its close-range AOE. We usually use it when dealing with a large group of enemies, or use it as a counterspell in boss fights. Talismans With weapons and spells out of the way, it’s time to look at Richter’s Talismans. The first Talisman on the list is Sacred Scorpion Charm. Since Richter relies on Wrath of Gold for damage, the extra 12% Holy damage provided by this Talisman will be beneficial to this build. In exchange, physical damage taken is increased by 10%. Next up is Godfrey Icon, which increases the charged attack of spells and abilities by 15%. The extra charge attack damage provided by this Talisman applies to your Aspects of the Crucible: Horns and Wrath of Gold, making them very effective in combat. Next up is Flock’s Canvas Talisman. This Talisman further increases the damage of our offensive spells by 8%, and it stacks with your other buffs, so I highly recommend slotting this one. The last one is Green Turtle Talisman, which increases stamina recovery. This is one of the main Talismans we use, because my gameplay and strategy always revolves around ultra-aggressive strategies, so most of the time, my stamina is completely depleted. Therefore, the faster my stamina recovers, the more damage we can do to the enemy. For Richter, he will benefit greatly from this, because you will find yourself always needing stamina, and continuously launching his most deadly combos will usually consume 70% to 80% of his stamina. Stats Moving on to Richter Belmont’s stats. Note that I will standardize all of my builds at around level 200. It is up to you if you want to upgrade your build above 200. Starting with Vigor, 40 points have been allocated to it, feel free to increase it to 45 to 50 if you feel you need more HP to survive. Since we’ll be using Godrick’s Great Rune later anyway, I rarely invest a lot of points into Vigor. Next up is Mind, which has 35 points assigned to it. Since this is FP-hungry build, setting up buffs while constantly using spells will definitely deplete your FP in a short period of time. Talking about Endurance next, we’ve assigned 33 points to it since a lot of stamina is needed when dealing with continuous spells or a lot of whip attacks. 33 points of Endurance can sometimes feel insufficient, so feel free to adjust it to 40 if you feel it’s necessary. At least 10 points in Strength so that you can use Hoslow’s Petal Whip. The next stats on the list are Dexterity and Faith, which are the main stats in this build. I recommend setting Dexterity to at least 61 and Faith to 75 to help you deal a decent amount of damage in whip attacks and spells. If you’re really good at the game, you can sacrifice your Vigor points and allocate them to Endurance and more Faith to get a more ideal result. Finally, make sure you have at least 10 Arcane to use Bloodflame Blade and 13 Intelligence to meet Discus of Light requirement. Gameplay Now that stats are out of the way, let’s move on to Richter Belmont’s gameplay and optimization tips. Optimize Your Opener Burst The first tip on the list is to optimize your Opener Burst. When the fight starts, I usually start by casting Flask of Wondrous Physick, which can deal more holy and physical damage if you have Thorny Cracked Tear slotted in. Next is to cast Golden Vow to deal more damage, then cast Bloodflame Blade. Depending on the boss, I’ll either prepare a spell combo or keep whipping attacks until I bleed. During this time, do your best to counter as many attacks as possible to take advantage of the stacking holy damage buff. Incantation Combo The next tip is to take advantage of Richter’s incantation combo, especially when against humanoid types of enemies. To start the above combo, you can use Discus of Light multiple times to disrupt and lure the enemy, even dealing damage in the process, and follow up with a fully charged Aspects of the Crucible: Horns. If the enemy is hit, it will fly into the air and hit the ground, giving you enough time to perform your next killer move, which is a fully charged Wrath of Gold. It will knock the target back further, and then you can finish it off with a whip jump attack and follow up with a normal whip combo. If this move is used correctly, not only will the enemy take a lot of damage, but it will also allow you to build up blood loss in the process. Mastering Whip Line For some people, using the whip can be a challenging task. Two attacks are usually safe in most cases, while three attacks will get you into trouble most of the time. Therefore, I strongly recommend intentionally using whip attacks to master Whip line. Are you a fan of Richter like me? Do you like this character build? Regardless, with this guide, you will eventually master the power of Belmont family and have fun in the upcoming DLC.

For a Samurai build who wants to level up quickly in the latest expansion, I prefer to prioritize finding one of the newest weapons that fits our play style, Great Katana. Many players are also looking forward to getting this weapon. If you want to get Great Katana as early as possible in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree without being spoiled, then don’t miss this guide. In this guide, I tell you the best way to get the earliest Great Katana in the game, as spoiler-free as possible so that you can get a fresh experience before venturing into the core of DLC. At the same time, here I also provide my first impressions of Great Katana. Without further ado, let’s get started! Great Katana Breakdown Great Katana is a new weapon in Shadow of the Erdtree. This Heavy weapon is a sound choice for those who like to use Katana but want to stance-break more effectively and deal more damage at the same time. Great Katana scales primarily with Strength and Dexterity, making it one of the best weapon choices for Dexterity and Arcane Builds. In addition, this weapon comes with Ash of War: Overhead Stance. When using Ash of War, you can enter a stance that holds Katana high above your head. Normal attacks will push you forward for a downward slash, while heavy attacks will do a series of overhead slashes. Location To get this super cool weapon, we still need to access DLC. You need to first defeat Starscourge Radahn, then go to Mohgwyn Palace and defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood. Once you’ve completed both of these steps, you can interact with Miquella’s Cocoon, which is located in Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, where you’ll fight Mohg, thus entering Land of Shadow and starting DLC. Although we need to enter DLC to get this weapon, luckily, we don’t have to fight any bosses in Land of Shadow. Once you enter DLC area, we just need to head straight to it. This is a real Godsend, as it’s not far from your first Site of Grace, Gravesite Plain. From Gravesite Plain Site of Grace in DLC, we need to head north. To speed things up, you can ignore all the enemies you may encounter along the way. Of course, if you’re not in a hurry, you can just hack and slash around to collect some Elden Ring Runes. Our goal is to reach a lake located just north of our current location. Now, if you look at the map, you’ll see that there are three large lakes around this area, but the one we need to go to is the middle one. Once you reach the location, you’ll notice a sleeping dragon. You don’t need to fight this mini-boss, as you can get around it by crouching down. Note that there is a corpse near the dragon, and that’s the corpse we need to loot. Slowly crouch down close to the corpse and loot it to get Great Katana. It’s totally simple and easy. Personal Impressions Great Katana looks and feels great when wielded. I knew this weapon would resonate with me the first time I saw it, and it didn’t disappoint. All of its current moves are really refreshing. Its normal attack reminds me of Monster Hunter’s Longswords, especially when performing an upward swing. Its basic skill Overhead Stance is definitely familiar and Sekiro players will notice it immediately because it is similar to Ichimonji Combat Arts. There is no doubt that this skill hits like a truck. However, because of its long preparation time, doing this stance may be intimidating to some people. But since I go for skill, I am happy with it. Of course, if you don’t like this skill, you can always change it. Not to mention that we will see a lot of new Ashes of War in DLC area, which makes this weapon have a longer range, so I think it will be a deadly tool when playing PVP. As for damage, Great Katana hits hard at the maximum upgrade, but its slow attack speed is very obvious. When dealing with fast-moving targets or bosses, such as Maliketh, the Black Blade and others, the safest attack we can perform per opening is two or three hits. Conclusion Overall, Great Katana feels really good so far and it hasn’t been disappointed. I can’t wait to build around it, and just thinking about the different Samurai theme setups we can get from it makes me excited. So, expect me to provide an early Samurai Build in case you want to use such a build for your first play with this weapon in DLC. My major goal is to get you to master this weapon, so stay tuned. Anyway, I hope you found this quick guide useful. Of course, this is not a be-all and end-all guide for Great Katana, as we’re sure to discover more potential for this legendary weapon as time goes on. Do you think this DLC is worth trying so far? If you already own this weapon, please share your experience with us!