Elden Ring DLC will have a fight that’s just as hard as Malenia - and a poison swamp too

If you enjoyed the challenge of being sliced into ribbons by infamously difficult boss Malenia in Elden Ring, good news: upcoming expansion Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree will have an encounter that’s just as hard, according to Souls mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki.

With the Elden Ring DLC freshly revealed in a gameplay trailer earlier today, we saw our first glimpses of the new foes we’ll be pummelling/being pummelled by come its release in June. Immediately standing out is Mesmer the Impaler, a fearsome spear-wielder whose imposing design screams “one-shot-kill grapple”.

While we don’t know in what context we’ll be encountering the 10 bosses confirmed to be in the expansion just yet, you can rest assured that Shadow of the Erdtree won’t be going easy on you. Speaking to Eurogamer, Miyazaki said that those who enjoyed taking on the optional fight with Malenia in the Haligtree will find something just as tough in the DLC’s new area.

"Players who look for that sort of challenge in our games will find a challenge on equal footing in the DLC as well," the developer confirmed, adding that the DLC’s difficulty in general will be comparable to the end of the main game.

While it’s not yet clear whether that “challenge” will be a boss fight in itself or something else, the DLC will also stay true to Elden Ring’s generous flexibility in how you take it on, introducing a new progression element that lets players back away from more difficult fights to go level up even more easily than in the original campaign.

It won’t just be the inhabitants of the new area - said to be bigger than Limgrave in terms of pure surface area, with a mix of open areas and dungeons like the main map - that will pose a threat. Miyazaki confirmed that a Souls staple - the poison swamp - will make a return in the Elden Ring DLC. The designer’s hope is that you find it more reflective than infuriating, though.

“It was only after creating it that I realised I really like to create poisoned swamps,” he said, stating the obvious for anyone who’s played one of his games. “And this was a little place of introspection and reflection for me. So maybe, when players reach the poisoned swamp in the DLC, they will feel a little bit of this retrospection."

If you can define “retrospection” as swearing profusely while I fumble my way through menus to pop an antidote, I think Miyazaki can be assured that I’ll be on his wavelength come June 21st.