The Elden Ring DLC ​​Shadow of the Erdtree has been out for less than a week and we already have absolute sickos beating the new content level 1 bosses. Just because they can!
The content creator known as LastDarkHope has been quietly plugging away at his YouTube channel for the past few months, defeating Elden Ring boss after Elden Ring boss with absolutely no rune levels and no gear upgrades. That’s impressive enough on its own, but when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC dropped last week, this incredible player just started beating those bosses as well. Again, this is without using runes to level up and without using smithing stones to upgrade equipment.
Critically, LastDarkHope seems to use Scadutree Fragments. These fragments only affect the content of the DLC, but they cause damage negation and damage output increases that are far from negligible. As we mentioned elsewhere on the site, the Elden Ring community was really struggles with the difficulty of some Shadow of the Erdtree bosses. Scadutree Fragments are the DLC’s way of countering its hideous difficulty, and we highly encourage you to seek them out if you’re having trouble. However, it seems that even these buffs weren’t enough for many, prompting FromSoftware to drop a patch today that increases the benefits of earlier Scadutree Fragments, before compensating for their buffs later.
That said, what LastDarkHope does is still a very impressive feat. Most people who take on these bosses and stock up on Scadutree Fragments do so at levels well above 100, while LastDarkHope is still stuck at 1. No 60 Vigor, no wildly high Intellect or Strength, and no ability to control certain weapons with a specific stat criteria. What’s more, they don’t seem to be going all that hard on the Scadutree Fragments, despite collecting a few. Watching their latest stream, it looks like LastDarkHope was racing around Castle Ensis with only three levels of Scadutree. That’s definitely less than I’d personally be comfortable with, and I’m running around with a level 168 mage trying to sneak attacks from the guys with the Azur comet.
At the time this piece was written, LastDarkHope had just posted a video of him defeating Chief Bloodfiend, and it seems he’s dealt with at least some of the Jagged Peak – though no video of the highly cursed Bayle yet. What’s extra interesting is that LastDarkHope doesn’t seem to have finished all of the regular Elden Ring bosses yet – for example, the ultra-tough Malenia isn’t listed, as are the final bosses of the base game. We’ll be following their run to see how it develops… as well as a certain parade of ridiculously hard runs that other content creators will start drumming up in the coming weeks and months. We’ve reached out to LastDarkHope for comment on this story, but have yet to hear back.
If that somehow isn’t impressive enough for you, as we were on the verge of submitting this story, another wild kill from another content creator popped up and threw us for a loop. GinoMachino posted his own level 1 video, no weapon upgrades, no Scadutree fragment, no intervention kill on the senior dungeon boss Rellana. GinoMachino has been on a roll showing off all sorts of Elden Ring challenges, but this is one of their first cracks at the new DLC, and more are almost certainly to come. Absolutely incredible.
That boss is just beautiful. Already one of my favorite Fromsoft bosses.
Here is a RL1 weapon, +0, blessing level 0, no status, no kills on it 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Tc2v9WDJcE
— GinoMachino (@GinoMachino) June 26, 2024
We love talking to people who beat Elden Ring bosses in great ways. In the past, we’ve interviewed community hero LetMeSoloHer, as well as MissMikkaa, who inexplicably defeated Malenio using a dance mat. But if you want to complete the DLC just for yourself before reading what others are doing, we highly recommend downloading Scadutree Fragments, even if you’re level 500. Here’s a guide to get you started.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.