If you’ve been delving into Elden Ring‘s new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, you may have noticed it’s had quite the difficulty spike from the base game. This has led many to rail against the expansion, including mega-popular Twitch and Kick streamer xQc.
After a series of very public ragequits, xQc crossed the finish line of Shadow of the Erdtree today, and his thoughts on the experience after a staggering 614 deaths were anything but positive. If you’ve yet to finish the expansion, be careful: xQc played to the very end of the DLC, so spoilers for Erdtree‘s final hours are below.
It’s not hard to see how Shadow of the Erdtree‘s final boss, the tough-as-nails Promised Consort Radahn, could drive someone to quitting. Out of all the hurdles the game presents you with, this one is by far the highest—befitting its placement as the last obstacle players are tasked with defeating. Over a hundred of xQc’s 614 deaths were at the hands of Radahn alone, which actually prompted him to quit Erdtree entirely out of frustration.
Eventually, however, he got back on the saddle, managing to beat Radahn and roll credits on the DLC on June 23. In his final review, xQc said popular opinion of the DLC was skewed. He suggested players “have to abide by the [positive] public opinion” and declared “nobody talks about the things they don’t like” out of fear of stepping away from that norm. Although he declined to give it a numerical rating, he declared it was “not a 10 out of 10.”
xQc isn’t alone in decrying the DLC; fellow streamer Asmongold also spoke out against its difficulty (and briefly ragequit.) The community as a whole is also fed up with the tough movesets of bosses like Twin Moon Knight Rellana, and not for no reason—it took me 40-odd tries just to get past this punishing skill check of a boss.
However, there are certain measures introduced in the DLC, like Scadutree Fragments, that are designed to make these brutal bosses easier and encourage exploration at the same time. Don’t let yourself ragequit like Asmongold and xQc—go exploring, level up your Blessings, and then come back to the tricky bosses.
