Elden Ring | Shadow of the Erdtree Trailer

[Dragon Lord]

Yes, level-up elements limited to the DLC have been added. They work similarly to the "Attack Power" system in "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice", where you have to defeat a boss to increase your attack power. This will help to keep the DLC challenging for players regardless of their already established character level, as well as prevent anyone from becoming over leveled for the main game if they complete the DLC first.

This is extremely idiotic. It worked for Sekiro because the entire game was centered around it, but adding it into Elden Ring just for the DLC is so god damn stupid. Elden Ring (aka Dark Souls 4) is like it's predecessors in that you, the player, get to decide how strong or weak you are by what level you are, what stats you invest in, and what weapon/build you use. Trying to now turn around and limit that power for the DLC just doesn't make any sense at all.

It just feels so out of place and with how far in the game you'd have to be to even access the DLC (at least most players aren't going to be able to get to Mohg early and beat him). I don't understand what the goal is here. Are they just mad that people have continued to find "broken" builds in the game and make harder bosses a breeze, so they want to try to counter that because they're butthurt over it? They need to just let the players decide how easy or hard they want the game to be, and stop trying to force it to be difficult for everyone. The really fun thing about Souls games is that you can go through the game and make it how you want it to be.

If they want the DLC to be that challenging, just force players to start new characters and have the game start in the DLC and you can't access the main game until you beat it, and you can't level up in the DLC or upgrade weapons at all. Might as well if they want to cry about players countering the difficulty so much.

[Moonface]

I think the DLC needs some form of limiter on it because the range of levels players are at is so vast. Although, Miyazaki seems to have added that players can still choose how hard or easy to make things even with this system in place, so I get the feeling it isn't going to be as black and white as the interview made it out to be. The regular character level still has to mean something though because there has to be a minimum level requirement/recommendation for the DLC or like you said, may as well make the DLC a separate thing entirely where existing levels don't matter in any way.

I'd hope they give a better explanation and breakdown of the system before the DLC launches but I'm not going to hold my breath on it.

[Dragon Lord]

The thing that gets me about it is that they never felt the need to do it in any other Souls game. Especially Dark Souls II where you were stupidly broken at max level because it allowed you to wear the heaviest armor in the game and use combinations of broken weapons and still have a fast roll. But for some reason now they decide they need to try and do something to limit player power in Elden Ring's DLC. It just doesn't make any sense.

If the system was a part of the game from the very beginning, that would be one thing, but just randomly throwing it in now and only specifically for the DLC is just a very weird and I don't think very smart move. It worked in Sekiro because it was a main piece of that game from start to finish, just just haphazardly thrown into the game at some random point.

If they want players to have a harder time in the DLC, there's plenty of other ways to make it happen. Doing it this way just makes it feel like they're adding a layer of artificial difficulty to the DLC not seen in a Souls game since the Cursed Chalice Dungeons of Bloodborne.

If players want to roll into the DLC with already pimped out characters and make it easy for themselves, let them. The people who want a challenge will seek it themselves. There's absolutely no reason to try and force it on all players.

[Moonface]

Fair point on them not worrying about levels for DLC's in prior games they've made. I also wonder how this system will work for those in NG+ runs because presumably enemies would be harder in the DLC on NG+, but going into it for the first time on a NG+ run would be the same as a fresh run if this new level system has as much of an effect as it's implied to.

I went to the Elden Ring subreddit to see if anyone there had speculated anything about it that might paint it in a better light. Since you've played DS2 to understand this, one person said it sounds like the King Vendrick system but across the entire DLC instead of restricted to one boss. I can't really have any feelings on this take though having not played DS2 at all.

[Dragon Lord]

King Vendrick was an optional boss in Dark Souls 2 who had a mechanic revolving around the amount of Giant Souls you had (there was 5 to collect), and his defense would be massively buffed depending on the amount of them that you had. If you had zero Giant Souls, he'd have an extreme amount of defense that would make it so you'd pretty much just tickle him regardless of how powerful your build was. If you had all five of the Giant Souls, then he'd have significantly less defense and would require much less time to kill.