Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree has been out for less than a week, and we already have absolute sickos beating the new content's bosses at level 1. Just because they can!
A content creator known as LastDarkHope has been quietly plugging away on their YouTube channel for the last few months, defeating Elden Ring boss after Elden Ring boss with absolutely no rune levels gained, and no equipment leveled up. That's impressive enough on its own, but when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC dropped last week, this incredible player simply started beating those bosses too. Again, this is without using runes to level up at all, and without using any smithing stones to upgrade equipment.
Critically, LastDarkHope does seem to be using Scadutree Fragments. These fragments only impact the DLC content, but they do give damage negation and damage output increases that are far from negligible. As we've mentioned elsewhere on site, the Elden Ring community has been really struggling with the difficulty of some of Shadow of the Erdtree's bosses. Scadutree Fragments are the DLC's way of countering its heinous difficulty, and you're very much encouraged to seek them out if you're having trouble. But it seems that even these buffs weren't enough for many, pushing FromSoftware to drop a patch today that increases the benefits from earlier Scadutree Fragments before leveling out their buffs later on.
That said, what LastDarkHope is doing is still a wildly impressive feat. Most people who are struggling with these bosses and stocking up on Scadutree Fragments are doing so at levels well beyond 100, while LastDarkHope is still stuck at 1. No 60 Vigor, no wildly high Intellect or Strength, and no ability to wield certain weapons with specific stat criteria. What's more, they don't even seem to be going that hard on Scadutree Fragments despite collecting a few. Checking out their most recent stream, it looks like LastDarkHope was barreling around Castle Ensis with just three Scadutree levels. That's certainly lower than I'd personally be comfortable with, and I'm running around with a level 168 mage trying to sneak attack dudes with Comet Azur.
At the time this piece was written, LastDarkHope had just published a video defeating Chief Bloodfiend and seems to have tackled at least some of Jagged Peak - though no video of the very curse-able Bayle just yet. What's extra interesting is that LastDarkHope doesn't seem to have finished all of the regular Elden Ring bosses yet - ultra-hard Malenia, for instance, isn't listed, nor are the final bosses of the base game. We'll be keeping an eye on their run to see how it progresses...as well as on the certain parade of ridiculously hard runs that other content creators start to drum up in the coming weeks and months. We reached out to LastDarkHope for comment for this story but haven't yet heard back.
If this somehow isn't impressive enough for you, as we were on the cusp of submitting this story, another wild kill emerged from a different content creator and threw us for a loop. GinoMachino posted their own video of a Level 1, no weapon enhancement, no Scadutree Fragment, no hit kill on legacy dungeon boss Rellana. GinoMachino has been on a roll performing all sorts of challenging Elden Ring feats, but this is one of their first cracks at the new DLC, with more almost certainly to come. Absolutely incredible.
This boss is just beautiful. Already one of my favourite Fromsoft bosses.
— GinoMachino (@GinoMachino) June 26, 2024
Here is an RL1, +0 weapon, Blessing level 0, No status, No Hit kill on her ? pic.twitter.com/Tc2v9WDJcE
We love talking to people beating Elden Ring bosses in cool ways. In the past we've interviewed community hero LetMeSoloHer, as well as MissMikkaa, who inexplicably beat Malenia using a dance pad. But if you just want to finish the DLC for yourself before reading about what others are doing, we highly recommend loading up on Scadutree Fragments even if you're level 500. Here's a guide to get you started.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
