FromSoftware just made the Elden Ring DLC a little bit easier: “It’s still challenging but it makes sense”

Shadow Realm Blessings have been tweaked to make the early going a bit smoother

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

FromSoftware has released a surprise mini-patch — or “calibration update,” as it’s calling it — for Elden Ring that should ease the steep difficulty challenge posed by its new expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree.

The patch adjusts the way Shadow Realm Blessings, a crucial character advancement system in the DLC, will scale. The blessings increase the attack and defense of player characters and their spirit summons through the collection of Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes.

FromSoftware says it has increased the value of the blessings for the first half of players’ progress, and then made progression for the second half more gradual. The final level of enhancements has also been upped slightly.

In short, this adjusted power curve should mean players feel more powerful in the early parts of Shadow of the Erdtree, where the first few bosses have been giving the community serious trouble. The final boss should be a bit easier now, too.

Note that you need to log in to Elden Ring’s multiplayer server for the changes to apply. The version number displayed on the title menu screen should be 1.12.2.

That’s it for changes in this small emergency patch. However, FromSoftware also noted that it has confirmed a bug in the PC version of the game that causes raytracing to be enabled when loading save data from previous versions of the game. If you’re suffering from poor performance, the developer recommends checking your graphics settings to ensure raytracing hasn’t been unintentionally turned on.

Further balance changes and bug fixes will be coming in a future patch, FromSoftware said.