FromSoftware all but gets on its knees and begs Shadow of the Erdtree players to take their Scadutree supplements, posts a map to one on Steam

Messmer from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree looks at his hand, pained, garbed in a flowing red robe. — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

You've likely been made aware of Shadow of the Erdtree's step up in difficulty, by now: A saga of thrown controllers, a "Mixed" Steam rating (which, at the time of writing, has just barely nudged into "Mostly Positive") and a hard enough final boss that one marathon streamer had to take a live therapy session on Twitch.

FromSoftware's focus right now, however, is aimed at the early-game experience, which may give you the impression that the DLC is crushingly difficult if—and this is very important—you ignore the expansion's core power scaling mechanic, Scadutree Fragments.

A news post by FromSoftware on Steam that reads: "In the expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, players can be strengthened by collecting and using &ldquo;Scadutree Fragments&rdquo; and &ldquo;Revered Spirit Ash.&rdquo;If you get stuck in the game, explore various areas and look for the items &ldquo;Scadutree Fragments&rdquo; and &ldquo;Revered Spirit Ashes&rdquo;, which are necessary to strengthen your character in the Realm of Shadow.Note: This enhancement is only available in Expansion areas." — (Image credit: FromSoftware / Steam)

"If you get stuck in the game, explore various areas and look for the items 'Scadutree Fragments' and 'Revered Spirit Ashes', which are necessary to strengthen your character in the Realm of Shadow."

Then, in a move I'm not sure I've seen from FromSoftware before, the studio directly shares a map to an early-game fragment location, as well as a Revered Spirit Ashes spot—complete with nicely-lit screenshots in case you forgot what a church is.

A map posted by FromSoftware to Steam that details the locations of Scadutree Fragments and a set of Revered Spirit Ashes. — (Image credit: FromSoftware via Steam news post)

In fairness, the news post does proceed to clarify something I didn't realise until embarrassingly late—those shadow dudes with pots that glisten? Yeah, they're carrying fragments in them. I didn't realise this until I was at around Shadow Realm Blessing 15 and looking to get an additional edge on the final boss, and I think the noise I made could be sampled for a horror game.

It's a very funny escalation of the current "issue" with the game, and I can't help but feel for FromSoftware—Shadow of the Erdtree is a fantastic expansion, good enough to make me feel conflicted about the base game, and I don't really think it deserved its initially-tanked review score. If you've been struggling, I highly recommend going on a scavenger hunt and seeing if it makes a difference.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.