Info about ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree:

Official game description:
  
**Shadow of the Erdtree** is an expansion to **ELDEN RING**, the **2022 Game of the Year**.  
Dark and intense, **Shadow of the Erdtree** has players continue their quest with the freedom to explore and experience the adventure at their own pace.
• New immersive areas rich with secrets
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The Realm of Shadow has been kept apart from the Lands Between since its creation. Now, in pursuit of Miquella, the Tarnished are among the first souls to set foot here in unknown ages. Traverse new open field areas to reach dense new legacy dungeons full of hazards and undiscovered mysteries.
• Powerful and challenging enemies
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Dangers both great and small will provide a formidable challenge for any player in the Realm of Shadow. New enemies roam the open areas and horrifying new monsters lurk in caverns and hollows, waiting to ambush the unaware. Anyone capable of surviving these intense battles will know the rush of true victory.
• New weapons, spells, and armor to enhance your unique character
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Many new powers can be found in this scorched realm: weapons and armor, sorceries and incantations, and spirits and skills. You may find something unexpected to surprise an enemy, such as Thrusting Shields that combine offense and defense. Or, you may find something to complement your combat style, like hand-to-hand combat that combine palm strikes and kicks without a weapon.
• Learn the untold story of an unseen war as you follow in Miquella’s footsteps
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You aren’t the only one tracking Miquella through the Realm of Shadow, and as you press deeper and deeper into the mystery, you’ll find a complex interplay of personalities and motivations to navigate, giving you new insight into Miquella’s history and Marika’s hidden past.  
_\*Shadow of the Erdtree content requires the base game product.  
\*Other base game editions containing this content are also available. Be careful of duplicate purchases._

Release date: Jun 20, 2024

Categories: Soulslike Combat, Action RPG, Exploration, Open-World Exploration, Character Progression, Boss Fights, High Difficulty, Dark Fantasy

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 15; verdict: Mixed Reception with Concerns on Pricing; summary: The analysis of user reviews reveals a mixed reception of the DLC. The most frequent complaints revolve around the high price and perceived lack of value for money. Many users feel that the DLC is overpriced and does not offer enough new or rewarding content. However, there are also positive reviews that appreciate the additional challenges and content provided by the DLC. The overall sentiment suggests that while the DLC has its merits, the high cost and perceived lack of substantial new content are significant drawbacks.
- Wiki: score 50; verdict: High Dependency on External Data; summary: The user feedback indicates a significant reliance on external guides and wikis to navigate the game, complete quests, and find items. The primary issues revolve around the complexity of the map, the cryptic nature of quests, and the hidden placement of important items. This dependency on external data sources suggests that the game's design may be overly complex or lacking in sufficient in-game guidance.
- Proton/Linux: score 30; verdict: Minor Tweaks; summary: The game and its DLC have notable performance issues on Steam Deck and Linux setups. Users report struggles to maintain stable frame rates and experience stuttering, particularly in the DLC. These issues suggest that while the game may be playable, it requires tweaks and suffers from optimization problems on Proton/Linux.
- Steam Deck: score 75; verdict: Tinkering Required; summary: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant issues with the Steam Deck experience, particularly concerning performance and optimization. Users frequently report frame rate drops, crashes, and hardware stress, which severely impact gameplay. Additionally, there are criticisms regarding game design and boss mechanics. These issues collectively contribute to a frustrating user experience.

- Hardware Profile:
  - Summary: Performance issues are prevalent across lower VRAM systems, with notable frame drops and optimization complaints, while higher VRAM configurations report a smoother experience.
  - Sample size: 36 (1% coverage)
  - Audience skew: Review sample is mostly Windows-based.
  - Windows <8GB VRAM (negative, 15 reports): Players report significant frame drops and poor optimization.
  - Windows 8-11GB VRAM (positive, 8 reports): Players report a smoother and more optimized experience.
  - Caveats: 36 of 4030 reviews expose hardware metadata.; Review sample is mostly Windows-based.
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $20.00 - $30.00
  - Reasoning: The evidence shows that many users feel the DLC is worth purchasing, but primarily at a discounted price. The most common price points mentioned for a fair price are between $20 and $30. This suggests that the community considers the fair base-game price range to be lower than the current price, aligning more with a discounted rate.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 71.0h
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides multiple direct references to the playtime required for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The first quote mentions 'quase 100 horas a mais de game,' which translates to nearly 100 hours more of gameplay. The second quote implies a significant time investment by stating the need to look up every location and secret to play half the game. The third quote directly states '62 horas aprox,' which is approximately 62 hours. The fourth quote mentions a duration of '60-70 horas,' which translates to 60-70 hours. These quotes collectively suggest that the DLC offers a substantial amount of content, with playtimes ranging from 60 to 100 hours for completion, depending on the player's thoroughness and engagement with the game's challenges and exploration.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game offers a visually appealing and enjoyable co-op experience with challenging boss fights, but fun starts after adapting to the game's mechanics and can drop due to repetitive and tedious elements.
  - Stance: Fun then drops
  - Anchor: Adapting to the game's mechanics and finding suitable co-op partners
  - Time to anchor: 2h 0m
  - Friction: Poorly designed boss phases; Boring exploration; Disjointed progression systems
  - Unlock drivers: Adapting to the game's mechanics; Finding suitable co-op partners
  - Conditions: Co-op mode; Tactical use of scadutree shards
- Player Archetypes:
  - Hardcore Challenge Seeker (buy)
    - Motivation: Overcoming extreme challenges and mastering difficult content.
    - Playstyle: Seeks out and enjoys the most challenging aspects of the game, including the toughest bosses and high difficulty levels.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: Souls veteran; Hardcore gamer
    - Reference games: Elden Ring; Dark Souls series; Bloodborne; Sekiro
  - Casual Explorer (deep sale)
    - Motivation: Enjoying the game world and lore without the frustration of extreme difficulty.
    - Playstyle: Prefers a balanced and fair gameplay experience, avoiding excessive grinding and challenging content.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: deep sale
    - Labels: Casual player; Lore enthusiast
    - Reference games: Elden Ring; Dark Souls series
  - Lore-Focused Veteran (sale)
    - Motivation: Exploring the game world and uncovering its lore and secrets.
    - Playstyle: Enjoys exploring and discovering the game world, appreciating the lore and depth of the game.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: Souls veteran; Lore enthusiast
    - Reference games: Elden Ring; Dark Souls series; Bloodborne; Sekiro


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Enjoyable boss fights (weight 0.39): Boss fights are a major highlight, described as challenging, rewarding, and enjoyable. Players appreciate the design and variety of bosses, finding them fun and fair.
- Excellent map design (weight 0.29): The game features highly praised map design with impressive locations, depth, and structure. Players appreciate the complexity and visual design of the areas, making exploration enjoyable and rewarding.
- Visually stunning landscapes (weight 0.26): The game is noted for its beautiful and breathtaking visual aesthetics. Players highlight the stunning scenery, gorgeous environments, and intricate ruins that contribute to an immersive experience.
- Abundant new content (weight 0.2): The DLC adds a significant amount of new content, including areas, bosses, weapon types, and magic types. Players enjoy the variety of new items, enemies, and the overall expansion of gameplay.
- Positive DLC experience (weight 0.16): Players express satisfaction with the DLC, finding it fun and worth the purchase. They enjoy the gameplay, level design, lore, and bosses, appreciating the overall quality and content.
- High-quality soundtrack (weight 0.1): The game's soundtrack is praised as incredible, epic, and amazing. Players find the music to be a standout feature, enhancing the overall experience.
- Fascinating exploration (weight 0.09): Exploration is highlighted as a key enjoyable aspect of the game. Players find it rewarding and fun, adding to the overall satisfaction of the gameplay experience.
- Rich story content (weight 0.07): The game features a well-written and enjoyable story. Players appreciate the rich story content, which adds depth to the overall experience.

Common complaints:
- Map feels overly large and empty (weight 0.23): Many players have noted that the game's map is excessively large but filled with empty areas, making exploration feel unrewarding and tedious.
- Final boss is frustrating (weight 0.16): The final boss is frequently mentioned as being overly difficult, unfair, and not satisfying, leading to a disappointing endgame experience.
- Poor rewards system (weight 0.13): The reward system is often described as poor, with scarce and underwhelming rewards for exploration and gameplay.
- Camera and hitbox issues (weight 0.12): Some bosses have camera and hitbox issues, making fights frustrating and difficult due to poor mechanics.
- Enemies are overly aggressive (weight 0.11): Enemies are often criticized for being too aggressive, spamming attacks, and having little openings, making combat feel unbalanced.
- Performance issues (weight 0.09): Players report frequent frame drops, FPS issues, and stuttering, affecting the overall gameplay experience.
- Artificial difficulty (weight 0.05): The game is criticized for having artificial difficulty, making it feel unfair and frustrating for players.

Gameplay feedback:
- Unique and challenging boss fights (weight 0.27): The game features a variety of boss fights with unique mechanics, specific patterns, and multiple phases. These encounters are noted for their difficulty and the need for precise timing and strategy.
- Complex and varied map design (weight 0.18): The map design is complex and includes impressive locations, but also some empty areas. The world design features verticality and interconnected structures, encouraging exploration.
- Exploration-focused gameplay (weight 0.16): Exploration is a key gameplay element, tied to progression and discovery. Players are encouraged to explore the open world, uncovering lore, upgrades, and quest lines.
- Variety of new weapons and playstyles (weight 0.14): The game introduces new weapon types with unique mechanics and fun movesets. This variety adds depth to combat and allows for different playstyles.
- New enemies and equipment (weight 0.12): The game introduces new enemies, bosses, and loot, including various types of dungeons and equipment. This adds variety and depth to the gameplay.
- High difficulty and challenge (weight 0.12): The game is noted for its high difficulty level, which is challenging but satisfying. This includes difficult boss fights and complex gameplay mechanics.
- Engaging lore and story (weight 0.11): The game features deep lore and storytelling, with engaging questlines and well-designed NPCs. This adds emotional depth and replayability to the game.
- Fragment collection system (weight 0.07): The game features a fragment collection system, where players collect fragments for strength and other benefits. This system is tied to exploration and progression.

Performance notes:
- FPS and performance issues (weight 0.17): Multiple players reported frequent FPS drops, frame stuttering, and performance dips, particularly in open areas and during boss fights. These issues are widespread and significantly impact the gameplay experience.
- Poor optimization (weight 0.14): Many reviews highlight poor optimization, especially on older systems and compared to the base game. Players experience high GPU and CPU usage, and even low graphics settings do not resolve the lag issues.
- High hardware requirements (weight 0.05): The game demands high-end hardware to run smoothly. Players with mid-range or older hardware, such as a GTX 970 or a 5060 graphics card, report struggling to maintain playable FPS.
- Mixed performance on different hardware (weight 0.04): Performance varies significantly across different hardware setups. Some players experience smooth gameplay on high settings, while others face issues even on the lowest settings.
- Hardware usage and temperature issues (weight 0.04): Some players have noted high GPU usage and temperature issues, which can lead to performance problems and potential hardware strain.
- Visibility issues (weight 0.02): There are reports of visibility issues on certain platforms, which can affect the overall gaming experience.
- Specific hardware experiences (weight 0.02): Individual experiences with specific hardware setups, such as a Ryzen 5 5600X and a 2060 Super, highlight noticeable FPS dips in certain areas.
- Outdated technology (weight 0.02): The game is criticized for using outdated technology, which may contribute to performance and optimization issues.
- Minor bugs (weight 0.01): A few players have reported encountering minor bugs, though these are less frequent compared to performance-related issues.

Recommendations:
- DLC highly recommended (weight 0.19): Many reviewers highly recommend the DLC for its content, value, and overall experience despite some challenges and frustrations.
- Recommended for base game fans (weight 0.13): The DLC is particularly recommended for those who enjoyed the base game, suggesting it adds significant value for existing fans.
- Wait for a sale (weight 0.08): Some reviewers suggest waiting for a discount before purchasing the DLC, indicating that while it is enjoyable, it might not be worth the full price for everyone.
- Gameplay tips (weight 0.08): Various tips are provided, such as collecting specific items, exploring thoroughly, and not rushing through the game, to enhance the playing experience.
- High difficulty level (weight 0.03): The DLC is noted for its high difficulty, with some reviewers suggesting that only hardcore or veteran players should attempt it.
- Open mind and readjustment (weight 0.03): Reviewers advise approaching the DLC with an open mind and taking time to readjust to the new world, indicating a shift from the base game.
- Manage expectations (weight 0.02): Several reviews mention the importance of managing expectations, indicating that the DLC might not meet everyone's anticipations.
- Technical adjustments needed (weight 0.02): Some reviewers recommend adjusting graphics settings, particularly for Radeon users, to optimize the gaming experience.
- Art and music appreciation (weight 0.02): The DLC is recommended for those who appreciate art and music, indicating strong aesthetic and auditory elements.
- Not recommended due to design (weight 0.01): A few reviewers do not recommend the DLC due to poor map design and lack of content, suggesting it may not be worth the investment for some players.
- Alternative game suggestions (weight 0.01): Some reviewers suggest playing other games like Dark Souls 3 for better boss design and story, indicating a comparison with other titles in the genre.
- Linear approach suggestion (weight 0.01): A suggestion to consider a linear approach instead of an open world, indicating a preference for a more structured gameplay experience.

Other player notes:
- Mods enhance gameplay experience (weight 0.03): Players have found that using mods can significantly improve their overall experience with the game. Specifically, the seamless co-op mod has been mentioned as a popular choice among players.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.35): Players are frustrated primarily due to the high difficulty and poor design of boss fights, which often feel unfair or overly challenging. Additional frustrations stem from performance issues, confusing map design, and the need to rely on external guides to progress, disrupting the game's flow and enjoyment.
- Disappointment (weight 0.18): Players feel disappointed due to the lack of innovation and the recycled content in the DLC, which does not meet the high standards set by the base game. The final boss and overall gameplay experience are also cited as lackluster and unrewarding.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.1): Players find satisfaction in the challenging boss fights, beautiful map design, and the variety of new weapons and armor. The sense of progression and the overall content of the DLC contribute to a rewarding experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Players are excited about the new content, including the stunning Shadow Realm, new weapon types, and engaging boss fights. The large scale of the DLC and the promise of a new world with engaging gameplay contribute to this excitement.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.08): Players enjoy the visually stunning landscapes, engaging combat mechanics, and the overall positive experience with the DLC's content. The fun and challenging boss fights, along with the beautiful map design, contribute to this enjoyment.
- Anger (weight 0.04): Players express anger due to the extremely difficult boss fights, poor optimization, and frustrating gameplay mechanics. The weakened strong weapons and unreasonable difficulty of the final boss also contribute to this anger.
- Joy (weight 0.04): Players experience joy from the fun exploration, epic boss fights, and beautiful locations. The variety of weapons and the overall positive experience with the DLC's content bring a sense of happiness.
- Positive (weight 0.02): Players have an overall positive impression of the DLC, enjoying the game more than the main game. The emotional atmosphere, story, and enjoyment of the game's content and design contribute to this positivity.
- Negative (weight 0.02): Players have a negative experience due to disappointing boss fights, frustration with the map design, and criticism of developer decisions. The lack of rewards and empty map design also contribute to this negativity.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Players admire the artistic design, level design, and challenging boss fights. The innovative sandbox and open-world design, along with the new content and side quests, contribute to this admiration.
- Disgust (weight 0.01): Players express disgust towards the storyline and character development, finding certain aspects of the plot distasteful and poorly executed.
- Mixed feelings (weight 0.01): Players have mixed feelings due to the appreciation of new content and challenging bosses, but are critical of the optimization and map design. The difficult access to areas and empty content also contribute to these mixed feelings.
- Awe (weight 0.01): Players are in awe of the visual design and complexity of the areas, appreciating the artistic care and new lands introduced in the DLC.
- Appreciation (weight 0): Players appreciate the map quality and visual aesthetics, finding the art direction and moments in the DLC particularly noteworthy.
- Relief (weight 0): Players feel relief that the difficulty is manageable and that they can finish the DLC despite its challenges.
- Pride (weight 0): Players feel pride in overcoming challenging bosses, particularly the difficult fight against Radahn without using summons.
- Interest (weight 0): Players are interested in the detailed narrative and analysis of lore and characters, finding the story elements engaging and thought-provoking.
- Confusion (weight 0): Players feel confused by certain aspects of the story, finding it difficult to follow or understand the narrative.
- Happiness (weight 0): Players feel happiness from the boss battles, OST, and atmosphere, enjoying the overall experience and emotional impact of the game.}