Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC introduced an entirely new scaling mechanic but if you’re not into it, a new mod lets you ignore it completely.
It feels like a given talking about any FromSoftware expansion but Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is tough. So tough that players have dropped its Steam rating to ‘mixed’, citing the punishing nature of the newly added bosses.
A big part of this has to do with the DLC largely ignoring your levels and build crafting in favor of a new scaling system. Players can collect Scadutree Fragments in order to up their damage and resistances to bring them more in line with enemies in the Land of Shadow.
Raising your Scadutree blessing level does a lot to make Shadow of the Erdtree an easier experience but the grind to hunt down all the Fragments can be time-consuming. If that doesn’t float your boat, the Normalized DLC Damage mod does away with this new system altogether.
For those wondering how all this works, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC acts as a sort of equalizer regardless of your character’s stats. Coming into the Land of Shadow, late-game characters will experience relatively similar levels of damage output and intake as one another.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
To mitigate this, players can find Scadutree Fragments and spend them on increasing their damage and defense within the DLC area. This necessitates a bit of a hunt for all 50 fragments to get the maximum level of buffs.
The Normalized DLC Damage mod does three things to bring the DLC more in line with the base Elden Ring experience:
- Makes incoming and outgoing DLC damage similar to the base game.
- Makes Spirit Summon damage and resistance the same as the base game.
- Removes Scadutree Fragments from the DLC entirely and replaces them with Rune Arcs.
For players who don’t want their character’s effectiveness to be hampered by a collectible hunt, this is a massive plus. Although, the creator of the mod did list a small caveat. “The mod was only tested on a fresh character with zero Scadutree fragments collected,” they cautioned. “No idea how it affects saves that already collected some.”
It should also be noted that the mod is only available for players on PC. Console players will have to resign themselves to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree’s Scadutree Fragment grind.