With just a few days since the release of Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, many players are already discovering that their character, who evolved into the Elden Lord of the Lands Between, is not a match for the first chakram blade-wielding freak they come across. These early, brutal battles are only setting the stage for the DLC bosses’ ferocious assaults, which may reduce you to a bloody smear on the ground in a matter of strikes. Worse yet, no one is spared by this difficulty ramp-up – irrespective of your level, the weapons you use, or the armor you wear.
A brand-new Shadow Realm Blessing system holds the key to redemption in the Realm of Shadow, but if you’re not paying attention, you can miss out on how it operates.
You should be able to locate at least one Scadutree Fragment with a brief tooltip if you explore about a little.
“Scadutree Fragments can be found across the realm of shadow. Consume these at sites of grace to bolster your Scadutree Blessing. The Scadutree Blessing bolsters the recipient’s abilities to deal and negate damage, but has no influence outside the realm of shadow.”
In the heat of combat or when you’re preoccupied with far-off sights, it’s simple to forget this advice, but it’s likely that Shadow of the Erdtree is understating the significance of your Scadutree Blessing. To put it simply, it’s hardly comparable to Elden Ring’s standard leveling system and can soon become the difference between victory and defeat in nearly every encounter.
This is because Shadow of the Erdtree must accommodate a wide range of players seeking a challenge in this DLC area: battles must be challenging enough for a player at level 500 on New Game+ 7 to win, but they must also be manageable for someone who recently defeated Mohg for the first time. The fix is to give everything a very high health pool and a very severe hit, but add a new gear that will quickly increase your own damage dealing and damage-reduction capabilities.
There are plenty additional fragments to collect in the first region alone. Using just one Scadutree Fragment to elevate your Shadow Realm Blessing to Level 1 will improve your weapons damage AND your damage negation to all sources by different amounts per level.
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As an example, let’s take on The Blackgaol Knight of the Nameless Western Mausoleum, an early foe who will probably give many gamers a nasty awakening. It appears as though his Greatsword of Solitude has a greater hitting power than the actual Radagon, leaving players to question if leveling up will reverse the situation.
My Blasphemous Blade had 795 attack power for my level 162 character with 50 Vigor and 50 Strength, and I had 157 Defense Power with a multiplier of 44.355% from physical damage negation from my armor and other stats.
My standard one-handed swing was only delivering 398 damage to the Blackgaol Knight’s 525, and I was only able to match that with a jumping attack that dealt 550 damage.
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However, my attack power and physical damage negation increased to 834 and 47.004%, respectively, with only one Scadutree Blessing level. I dealt 416 damage while only suffering 496 in response to this increase, or about a 4.9% increase in damage dealt and an almost 6% decrease in damage absorbed.
Though it may seem insignificant, I proceeded to collect every Scadutree Fragment found in the Gravesite Plain, therefore elevating my Scadutree Blessing to Level 4. I was now dealing 20% more damage and hitting harder than the Blackgaol Knight, whose damage was decreased by about 20.9%, as my attack power shot up to 954 and damage negation to 53.629%!
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As of Patch 1.12.2, the values have shifted greatly to assist new players in the opening areas. The increases in attack power and damage negation from Levels 1 and 2 have doubled to +10% increases, with additional levels increasing attack power by around 5-7% and damage negation by roughly 3-4% until a small surge at level 11 and 12, followed by a drastic reduction in the amount of increase per level.
With a maximum of 20 Scadutree Blessings that you can acquire throughout the game, you’ll be dealing a lot more damage by the conclusion than when you first entered the Realm of Shadow. As you can see from the chart above, each blessing can significantly improve your powers. With a Blessing Level of 20, you will be able to deal almost 105% more damage and absorb nearly 65% less damage overall as of patch 1.12.2!
However, what about routine leveling? In addition, my table shows the amount of Runes needed to use four Strength points against four Scadutree Blessings. I was losing about the same amount of HP every hit because of the flat Defense Power gain rather than damage negation from all sources, and the returns at 50+ Strength hardly increased damage by any significant percentage. This is a crucial point to remember since it implies that bosses cannot be defeated with runes alone because all players will be in an endgame setting. Even so, it’s still worthwhile to add a few points here and there, particularly to meet requirements to equip new weapons, boost your HP pool with Vigor, or add extra stamina with Endurance.
So where are the other Scadutree Fragments available? In order to locate every single Scadutree Fragment, you can use our guide, but if you would rather go it alone, bear the following in mind:
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- Scadutree Fragments are typically discovered in front of Marika statues, like as those that are found in military bases or churches.
- Additionally, you may be sure that the demigod has left one at each Cross of Miquella, signifying their passage to significant sites inside the Shadow Realm.
- A Shadow Undead with a shimmering pot can occasionally be found in certain locations, such as ruins or abandoned villages. If you can take them out quickly enough, you may find treasure that occasionally contains a Scadutree Fragment.
- In Shadow of the Erdtree, bosses hardly ever permanently block progress. If you start to run out of strength, consider exploring other areas via different routes in order to locate additional Scadutree Fragments.
- Revered Spirit Ash is also available from Shadow Undead pot holders and in front of sizable altars with headless corpses, similar to these fragments. In the same way that the Scadutree Fragments strengthen your own Spirit Ash Summons, the Revered Spirit Ash Blessing will do the same.