Shadow of the Erdtree has, as any good FromSoftware expansion should, a bunch of new weapons to do some murdering with—claws, censers, greatswords and, a personal favourite here at PC Gamer, fisticuffs that let you do cool kicks and flips. It's also recommended for higher level-characters, though, and we are but creatures of habit.
Which raises the question—will all your old weapons be outdated models compared to the new, shinier kids on the block? No, says FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki in a recent interview with CNET:
"The new weapon classes aren't necessarily clearly better than the existing weapon classes, so I don't think players are going to feel a drastic or insurmountable change in the difficulty curve [of the base game] just because they have access to these new weapons."
Having played a considerable amount (though not nearly as much as I'd thought), I can comfortably confirm this. I'm one of those dirty Strength/Faith gremlins that rocked the Blasphemous Blade (though I'm also partial to the Gargoyle's Blackblade, nowadays), and while I've found a new love affair in a pair of bestial claws, they haven't outpaced my main kit by any means.
Instead, I've found them to be useful side-grades—a trump card in my back pocket whenever a boss hits a little too hard and fast for my sluggish sword swings to handle, so Miyazaki's follow-up statement: "Might some weapons be better against certain bosses? Perhaps" tracks, here.
He also argues, perhaps less compellingly, that the new weapons shouldn't give you too much of an edge in PvP: "Naturally, the increase in variety may lend itself to new strategies that people who don't have the DLC may not be exposed to … Of course my desire is that everyone experience the DLC, but barring that, I think the experience won't be that jarring."
I'm certain the kit I've seen thus far will be lending itself to some utterly busted builds, especially when they get into the hands of aficionados far more scientific in their approach than my strategy of "hit it very hard with the biggest piece of metal you can find". Mind, this is Elden Ring—the base game already has enough wackadoodle nonsense, so I'm not exactly worried there'll be anything too far beyond the pale.
The proof will be in the pudding soon enough—Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree arrives later today, and I'm sure the ravenous theory crafters will have a field day with their new armoury of tricks.
