Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree has not even been out for a week, and we already have absolute sickos beating the bosses of the new level 1 content. Just because they can!
A content creator known as LastDarkHope has been quietly plugging his YouTube channel in recent months and defeating Elden Ring boss after Elden Ring boss with absolutely no rune levels gained and no equipment upgraded. That’s impressive enough on its own, but when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC came out last week, this incredible player just started beating those bosses. Again, this is without using runes to level up, and without using forging stones to upgrade equipment.
Crucially, LastDarkHope appears to be using Scadutree Fragments. These fragments only affect the DLC content, but they do grant damage negation and an increase in damage output that is far from negligible. As we’ve noted elsewhere on the site, the Elden Ring community has also been Real struggling with the difficulty of some of Shadow of the Erdtree’s bosses. Scadutree fragments are the DLC’s way of coping with the gruesome difficulty, and you’re strongly encouraged to seek them out if you’re having trouble. But it seems even these improvements weren’t enough for many, prompting FromSoftware to release a patch today that increases the benefits of previous Scadutree fragments before leveling out their improvements later.
That said, what LastDarkHope does is still a hugely impressive feat. Most people who battle these bosses and stock up on Scadutree fragments do so at levels well above 100, while LastDarkHope is still stuck at 1. No 60 strength, no super high intellect or strength, and no ability to use certain weapons with specific statistical criteria. Plus, they don’t even seem to be going that fast with Scadutree Fragments, despite collecting a few. If you watch their most recent stream, it looks like LastDarkHope was running through Castle Ensis with only three Scadutree levels. That’s certainly lower than I’d personally be comfortable with, and I’m running around with a level 168 mage trying to sneak attack guys with Comet Azur.
At the time of writing this piece, LastDarkHope had just published a video of Chief Bloodfiend being defeated and appears to have tackled at least some of Jagged Peak – although there’s no video yet of the very cursed Bayle. What’s extra interesting is that LastDarkHope doesn’t seem to have completed all the regular Elden Ring bosses yet – the ultra-tough Malenia isn’t listed, for example, nor are the base game bosses. We’ll be keeping an eye on their run to see how it progresses… as well as the parade of ridiculously hard runs that other content creators will come up with in the coming weeks and months. We reached out to LastDarkHope for comment on this story but have not heard back.
If this isn’t impressive enough for you somehow, when we were about to submit this story, another wild murder came from another content creator, who fooled us. GinoMachino posted their own video of a level 1, no weapon buff, no Scadutree snippet, wrong kill the old dungeon boss Rellana. GinoMachino is on a roll performing all kinds of challenging Elden Ring feats, but this is one of their first cracks in the new DLC, and there will almost certainly be more to come. Absolutely incredible.
This boss is just beautiful. Already one of my favorite Fromsoft bosses.
Here’s an RL1, +0 weapon, boon level 0, no status, no hit kill on her 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Tc2v9WDJcE
— GinoMachino (@GinoMachino) June 26, 2024
We love talking to people who are beating Elden Ring bosses in cool ways. In the past we’ve interviewed community hero LetMeSoloHer, as well as MissMikkaa, who inexplicably defeated Malenia with a dance pad. But if you just want to finish the DLC yourself before reading what others are doing, we highly recommend loading up Scadutree Fragments even if you’re level 500. Here’s a guide to get you started.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Do you have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.