Summary
One dedicatedElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreeplayer has pulled off a remarkable achievement after 15,522 total deaths by completing the entire DLC without using Scadutree Fragments or boosting his HP bar. The player shared his achievement on social media, gathering a lot of positive comments from theElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreecommunity.
FromSoftware gameshave a reputation for being pretty tough. Any gamer tackling a Souls-type game for the first time will quickly notice it’s not exactly as “friendly” as other titles out there. In these games, players are usually left alone more, with fewer hints or guidance. At the same time, even small mistakes don’t come cheap—dying a lot in the game is pretty much the norm. Even though many initially saidElden Ringwas one of the most accessible Souls games (due to its reliance on an open world where one can simply walk away from danger),Shadow of the Erdtreemade things much harder, so much so that FromSoftware had to release an update post-launch to balance it.
Despite any changes to thedifficulty made toShadow of the Erdtree, streamer Dan Gheesling straight-up brushed off the new changes and played the game with no help. He decided to take on this challenge without boosting his HP and refusing to use Scadutree Fragments. Such a setup resulted in a painful playthrough where the player spent 423 hours to complete the game, doing very little damage to enemies. Additionally, almost any enemy would take him out with a single hit, which ended up costing him a crazy 15,522 deaths.
Player Beats Shadow of the Erdtree Without Scadutree Fragments or HP Boosts
Spoilers for the Shadow of the Erdtree final boss ahead
To make things slightly harder, Gheesling also refused to use any resin available inShadow of the Erdtreeto upgrade his weapons. 3,469 of those 15,522 deaths happened during his fight against the final boss Radahn, where the player battled the formidable enemy for 15 minutes in his last attempt. After finally pulling off this feat, the streamer vented and reflected on his 423-hour journey, encouraging the audience to “never give up.”
Thedebate about the difficulty of games resurged afterShadow of the Erdtreewas released, with many players complaining that the DLC was unfairly hard compared to theElden Ringbase game, leading the title to have a “mixed” rating on Steam reviews. While complaints were voiced by a large number of players, there are also those who prefer the game to be that challenging and would use any available option in the game to intensify the experience, as is the case with Gheesling and many other streamers achieving impressive feats inElden Ring.
