We are getting close to the release of Shadow of the Erdtree. So time is very quickly running out to get ready and make sure that your character is fully prepared to jump into the land of Shadow. What should we do before the DLC? In this guide, we are going to go over a lot of things that you're probably not thinking about that can make a pretty big difference in your playthrough to get the most out of your day 1 Journey.

Elden Ring DLC Preparation Guide: 5 Things to Do Before Elden Ring DLC Release

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is almost here and it's packed full of new content. Here we breakdown new DLC details from lore and story to the world setting. Check these 5 things to do to prepare for Elden Ring DLC.

1. New NPC Interactions

Now Miyazaki did say that we wouldn't find NPCs in the base game that would appear in the DLC as to not cause continuity issues by accidentally killing the NPCs before they can be found in the land of Shadow. Mainly due to two NPCs, Gideon and Malenia. If you want to get the most out of your first playthrough, these are characters you need to consider leaving alive. The stories of both of these characters are deeply intertwined with Miquella story, Gideon is completely obsessed with finding and learning more about Miquella, even to the point of slaughtering the Albinarics Village to find the half of the Haligtree Medallion. And Malenia's connection needs no explanation as she has dedicated her life to serving and sleeps beneath the Haligtree awaiting his return. Now given that the DLC is primarily about following in Miquella's footsteps and uncovering the mystery about him, WE cannot believe that there will be no at least new mention or new interaction with these characters given the context of having played the DLC, and interacted with Miquella firsthand. that would be even more of a continuity issue than just a character dying too early and even so it wouldn't be the first time a character just respawns. Look at the lore of blind and marika, thinking they could potentially go as far as an alternate cutscene. Now these aren't confirmed or even hinted at that we'll get new interactions with these character.

2. Join Groups

When you go into the DLC for the first time, you'll want to be in a group. As you play through your journey in Elden Ring, having a group password can get you a lot of benefits. One of the main things it does is prioritize multiplayer functions from players also using that group password which naturally makes those functions more helpful for you as naturally you won't get as many trolls since other people are also trying to gain from being in that group. But on a much more practical level, whenever someone also using that group password achieves a goal in a game such as beating a shard bear or becoming the Elden Lord, you get a reward, that reward being a passive buff to all runes dropped like the gold pickled foul foot. So when you get a big enough group, this buff is going to be going on the majority of the time you're playing. It's essentially a free passive buff and since you can be in up to five groups at a time, you can see how this can be active for a very long time.

While you're playing the DLC, another thing is to leave messages. And these are a fantastic way to save your life in a sticky situation, because when your message gets rated, your health gets healed all the way back up. And if your message is particularly popular, then that's going to save your life quite often. So these two little things that require almost no time can help you significantly while playing through the DLC. 

3. Ancient Dragon Stones

You already know to collect all the bell bearings specifically the ones for smithing stones. But what those bell bearings can't get you are the ancient dragon smithing stones and the ancient somber smithing stones, which are necessary to fully upgrade a weapon. Now given that new weapons are one of the highlights of the DLC and there are only a limited number of the top grade of smithing stone per playthrough, then we need to talk about how you can get the most so that you can fully upgrade all these new weapons that you want to try out. 

For each playthrough, you can get a total of 13 ancient dragon smithing stones and a total of 8 somber ancient dragon smithing stones and chances are in the playthrough that you're going to be starting the DLC you've already used some of these. So you need to know where to get these. For the regular ancient dragon smithing stones, one is obtained by completing the Nepheli Loux questline, one is gained from completing jerren's quest line, another after giving gang all 9 deathroot. One in the mountain tops of the giants on top of the skull near the church of repose, two in the consecrated snowfield, one of which is from the Dual Night Rider boss fight and the other in Yelough Anix Tunnel. Three in Farum Azula, the first of which is dropped by the first ancient dragon you fight, the second found throughout the level and the third dropped by another ancient dragon. The stationary one that reigns red lightning before the drop to the Placidusax boss fight. And then the final two are found in the Halitree. 

For the somber ancient dragon smithing stones, one is dropped by Anastasia the Tarnished-Eater after her invasion in the consecrated snowfield. And the second in this area is gained by completing Latina's quest, one can be found in Mohgwyn Palace in the chest outside Mohg’s boss room, there are 3 of them in alel, two of which are found through exploration and the third after completing Millicent quest and obtaining Miquella’s's Needle. One can be found in Leyndell, Ashen Capital after climbing up the dragon. And then the final one is found in Farum Azula and the Gazebo behind the stationary dragon outside Placidusax boss entrance.

4. Mausoleums

Here's a very simple thing you can do before the DLC drops to save you some time in the long run. Since the DLC is going to be introducing several new remembrance bosses, one thing you may want to do in preparation is activate all the walking Mausoleums. These Mausoleums can be used to duplicate remembrances, so that you can get both items that remembrance offers. One distinction that you can make between the mausoleums is that the mausoleums without bells underneath them cannot duplicate remembrances of the Shardbearers, all the ones with bells can. The important thing here is that these mausoleum can only be used to duplicate remembrances one time eachM and there are a total of 7 in the game. So what you need to do in preparation is figure out which mausoleums you have not used, so that you can use them for the remembrances in the DLC and to save the time go ahead and knock them down. And since we know from software like to go all out with their DLC weapons and spells, you're going to want to make sure you have at least a few mausoleums available.

5. Cookbooks

In addition to collecting all the bell bearings, all the talismans and things that should be obvious enough if you're trying to minmax your experience. The one thing that the majority of people are going to forget to collect are cookbooks. Elden Ring does have a crafting system, the items you can craft are actually super useful whether it be elemental pots or buffs for your weapons, the foul foots that can increase rune drops or item drops, arrows if you're one of the few that uses bows in this game or curatives, you can save yourself a lot of headache by remembering that these items are at your disposal. And one thing we often times forget is that bosses have weaknesses, ones that can seriously turn the tide of the fight. For example, people sleep pots against the God skins, some of the hardest fights in the game become a cakewalk when you exploit their weakness. So if you want to be fully prepared, go through the game and buy all the cookbooks or find them throughout the world, so that you can have every option at your disposal.