FromSoftware is well known for adding seemingly unnecessary items or locations to their games to keep fans speculating about the lore, and the Elden Ring DLC ​​Shadow of the Erdtree is no different.
But there’s one place in particular that has fans stumped: the Scadutree Chalice.
This is a named location found after defeating a particular boss, but it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. What could it be? Spoilers follow.
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The Scadutree Chalice is located in the area behind the Shadow Keep. Players will first have to defeat Commander Gaius – he’s a boss riding an armored boar that reminds me a bit of that orc from Twilight Princess.
Players can then wander into a new area that leads to an archway and escarpment overlooking the Scadutree that dominates the skyline. Here, players will find a huge unlit stone chalice with five shards scattered around it.
Now, at base level, these fragments are incredibly useful as they are used to level a player’s Shadow Blessing. But finding five in one place? This is definitely unusual.
So what is it for? My first thought was that this would be a place to use Messmer’s Kindling, but I soon found a use elsewhere.
My own loose theory is that the chalice is related to the Scadutree fragments. This is obvious from the name and the fact that it overlooks a tree. But are shards created here, or is their power distilled? Or were the shards used in some ritual here, so there were so many scattered nearby?
The item description for the fragments reads: “A shard of Scadutree that contains a golden sheen… It is said that when the Scadutree breaks from its core, it scatters throughout the Shadow Realm. The people of Erdtree collect the shards and use them in prayer.” Is the prayer only at Sites of Grace, or also this chalice?
Eurogamer’s Katharine Castle was also investigating, testing several poses or wearing Gaius’ armor, given that nearby Albinauric dropped his crackers. But so far all to no avail.
Players on reddit also speculated after XSidsgothemX’s post. They hint that it might involve albinaurs, ie the shack nearby, perhaps hinting at how they are made or that their blood is needed?
“It’s by no means useless. I hope there is a secret quest we haven’t discovered that allows you to interact with Scadutree,” reads one of the replies.
Others tried to light the chalice with various vessels, but without effect.
Another user, Rockerode, suggests that the chalice could also refer to the Suppression Tower – it’s in the first area, but serves no purpose other than storing a chest. “Between the Scadutree Chalice, the Suppression Tower, and the trailer that shows a scene none of us have unlocked, I think there’s something going on here,” they suggest, possibly in conjunction with some sort of quest to perform a ritual and cleanse Scadutree. Is there a secret ending somewhere that hasn’t been found yet?
Or maybe, just maybe, the chalice has no purpose beyond the five shards. And that is certainly reward enough.
Do you have any theories about what the Scadutree Chalice is for or represents?
Scadutree Fragments are an integral part of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC as the primary method of character progression. Earlier today, a new patch was released for the game that rebalances the scaling of their blessings.