Road to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Part 3– Last Minute Hopes
As I write this, the DLC is 11 days away but at the time the article comes out, the DLC should only be a day away (give or take). Here are my last minute hopes, just to get them out there:
Weapons and Armour
Frenzied Troll Cloak
Only seen in a couple places throughout the Lands Between - namely outside Volcano Manor and then the Yelough Anix Ruins in the Consecrated Snowfields, Trolls that are afflicted with the Flame of Frenzy don these really snazzy Cloaks which I think would look great on the player.
Cloaks just make everything look better, it's why the Banished Knight Helm is one of my favourites in the game.
Rykard’s Greatsword
Everyone knows the Blasphemous Blade, an outrageously strong weapon in PVE with a striking design - a sword with little fleshy hands wriggling to and fro. At some point in it's history, it was just a regular greatsword, presumbaly used by Rykard.
I don't know in what capacity we would get it, perhaps a replica was made, but just the design of the sword sans flesh is so simple yet equally as striking. I have a couple of builds I think it would really suit.
Baleful Greatsword
Near the end of Ranni’s questline, when the player takes Ranni to Ainsel River, they are invaded by a Baleful Shadow. This shadow is made to look like Blaidd, wielding the Royal Greatsword. However unlike the frost of the Royal Greatsword, it instead has a destined death effect on and a different moveset.
Ideally the shadow would have dropped it upon it's death, yet there's still a few ways that FromSoftware could get it in the DLC. I don't even need the destined Death effects, just the moveset.
Unique Weapons like previous DLC
I have no doubt we will get some, I just want them to be on the scale of previous cool DLC weapons – Puzzling Stone Sword, Curved Nil Greatsword, Kos Parasite, Amygdalan Arm, Demon Scar, Crucifix of the Mad King to name just a few. With the addition of 8 entire new weapon types, I’m sure we’ll get something cool.
Spells
Omen Flame Incantations
Given that we’ve seen the Omen Lion Dancer in both the reveal trailer and Story trailer as well as the reveal of the ‘Golden Omen’ on social media, it seems that the Omen will have a large role within Shadow of the Erdtree’s campaign. I’m hoping we can get some of the Omen fire that we see them use throughout the game – Weapon coating, the breath attack etc.
We may not do however, as the Omen Bairn items almost seem to imply this power comes from the torment they feel. In the Land of Shadows, they’re at home. True that Messmer has destroyed the place but the Omen Lion Dancer used lightning, perhaps meaning no fire for us.
Morgott’s Light Weapons
One of the coolest parts of Morgott’s moveset is his ability to create phantom weapons to attack the player with - he uses throwing knives, a big hammer, a spear and even sword rain. Imagine if the player could get a hold of some of these? I'm not saying we need the sword rain, but having a faith equivalent of the Gavel of Haima in the form of the Hammer would be pretty cool.
Really stupid powerful Spirit Summons
I want something ridiculous here. Let it cost 500 FP or something, but let us summon an Erdtree Avatar or a Troll or Giant Fingercreeper. Any big enemy or boss. I’m sure you can give lore relevant reasons for them. Probably wouldn’t use them seriously, but they’d be very funny.
A Gloam Eyed Queen, for real
Given his prominence, I sincerely doubt Messmer is the final boss of the DLC, instead taking the role of Knight Artorias or Lady Maria (Who preceded Manus and Orphan of Kos respectively). That means the final boss is up in the air.
Personally I’m hoping for a Gloam Eyed Queen fight. Not another Malenia or Friede though. There’s several lines of speculation going around, including that the blobby mass in the story trailer will is the GEQ. A reddit theory (by someone I didn’t make not of) has the GEQ as Messmer and Melina’s mother. There’s also speculation that the GEQ is a snake, hence their association with lasphemy and Messmer’s draconic features. It would also explain the Godskin’s having snake like tails.
My own theory is that the Statue at the end of the DKS3 Ashes of Ariandel DLC was meant to be a character in that DLC, but the idea has been repurposed for Elden Ring’s Gloam Eyed Queen (Much like the ‘Snake Soul’ was repurposed for the Ulcerated Tree Spirits). If this proves true I’ll be very happy with myself.
I still also hold out hope for something Godwyn related. Radahn needing to die before the DLC can be accessed does make me thing that the Eclipse will happen in some capacity. Mohg’s death makes sense but any Runebearer (Godrick/Renalla/Rykard) could be used to activate Varre’s questline. Only Radahn has significance with Space and the Stars, so there’s correlation there. It may not be Godwyn, instead it could be one of the Deathroot that take his visage perhaps taking the form of a Basilisk. Having a Basilisk boss would be pretty cool. UPDATE – This was all written before the preview event, where someone found a Godwyn Knight. Godwyn boss is back on the menu.
UPDATE AGAIN – A Reddit post by u/JackVanSike on r/EldenRingLoreTalk proposes a link between the Wormfaces and the lady in the painting with the Spine Man, since they have the same shawl. Comments suggest a Bloodborne like cosmic twist mid DLC, which would be cool – Bloodborne had it, the DLC also did with the transition from Clocktower to Fishing Hamlet, Ringed City gives way to a massive deser. Elden Ring could do too.
New Prediction based on that, Messmer is the Rom equivalent, holding back whatever is happening.
There’s “More than 10” major bosses in the DLC, meaning remembrance quality or more. If our conservative estimate is 11 (but could be as much as 14), then we know of three so far - Divine Beast Dancing Lion, Relanna the Twin Moon Knight and Messmer the Impaler. I would have put my predictions but there are some leaks going around and I don’t want to post actual spoilers.
This part 3 of 4 articles in the Road to the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Check in tomorrow for a new “Sidequesr” article, the final piece as we finally get our hands on the DLC.
