The new Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree patch buffs are way smaller than you'd think, but they let me instantly defeat a boss I'd been stuck on for hours
Jun. 26, 2024Did I get good or did FromSoftware carry me?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreejustgot a little easier thanks to a new patch that makes Scadutree buffs stronger, and my own before-and-after experience with one of the expansion’s more notorious bosses made it seem like a night-and-day change. But players have now done the math on the new buffs, and the numbers are so small I don’t know what to believe anymore.
For me, the difference seemed pretty extreme. I spent about two hours trying to figure outhow to beat Rellana in Shadow of the Erdtreelast night, and never managed to get her below 25% health. This morning, after the update dropped, I took another shot and beat her in about 10 minutes, and on the winning effort I’d even forgotten to hit the helpful NPC summon on the way in.
I thought it was all thanks to the new buff, but I was at blessing level four and apparently that means I got an additional 8.3% buff to damage and a 7.6% buff to defense. That doesn’t seem like quite enough to make up for the deficit I faced against Rellana. Does that mean these buffs are better than they look? Am I bad at judging the value of stat increases? Or was the real help the good night’s sleep and cup of coffee I got in the meantime? These questions are sure to haunt me as I get deeper into the Realm of Shadow.
Good news, Tarnished: Your Scadutree Fragments carry over in the Elden Ring DLC, so you won’t start back at square one as New Game Plus gets harder.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Cyberpunk 2077 dev offers temporary beta branch so that Update 2.2 doesn’t make your mods explode
Path of Exile 2 is dropping loot more generously, but Early Access players are still being bankrupt by the action RPG’s high respec costs: “Why am I being punished for trying out things?”
One of the least known Marvel Rivals heroes is back in comics as Luna Snow and her team return in their own title - but this time they’re working for Doctor Doom
