Before the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, many players were initially confused by the promise of a new “scale” mechanic that would come with the DLC.
While details were initially scarce, now that we’ve been able to get our hands on the DLC itself, we can answer this question (sort of) definitively for you.
How does scaling work in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC?
Short answer is… it doesn’t. Your level does NOT affect the damage output of enemies, only how much damage you can both dish out, and take. Now we wouldn’t be ‘Pros’ if we didn’t go ahead and do some math for you, and me. to suck in mathematics, so you are very welcome.
So, I took the save I had backed up before going into the DLC (because I’m a smart cookie like that), which is at Level 131. Not a particularly impressive number for a non-new game plus save I know, but it was specifically done with the intent on getting to stupid ol’ Mohg as fast as possible without having to do what I knew was already going to be difficult DLC in my new game plus saving.
For the test bully of choice I went with the first DLC boss that I imagine many of us were humbled by, the Blackgaol Knight. He only does physical damage with his sword, which is ideal for what I tested here. For stats, I wanted a lot of health so I could tank the hits to be able to take in the numbers, so it was 70 Vitality, leaving me with a total of 1,959 health. Other statistics are not important, but the overall resistances are who at Level 131 were at 154 / 0.000. (That’s in Physical, VS Strike, VS Slash and VS Pierce.) Now of course, it also had to be done naked, for science. That means no armor, no talismans, and no buffs. And on top of this, there are still no Scadutree Blessings, which we will cover later.
Naked and shy, it was time to offer myself as a test lover. Getting him to get me with the exact same hit every time was a bit of a nightmare, but then many tests I came up with the three most common defect numbers coming in at 941, 1,243, and 1,489. There were outliers, but these three damage amounts were by far the most common, with 1,489 coming in most often. With the level 131 testing done, it was time to head out, level up a bit, grab some Scadutree fragments and come back to it later.
After traveling the DLC areas a bit collecting runes and killing some of the less scary mobs, grinding some of those poor, poor Albinaurics in Mohgwyn Palace, and generally trying to avoid dying a lot, I came back later at Level 150. A. pretty solid increase, so i went to Rennala home to reallocate my stats and dump my new extra levels in Mind so it didn’t mess up the testing too much. It should be noted that leveling any stat increases your overall resistances (with the biggest effect coming from stats under the soft cap), so while all my other stats (Mind bar) were the same, my physical attack resistances at this level increased to a whopping 158 / 0.000. All other variables were the same, so I was still naked. (Though I changed my hair and fixed my body proportions a bit.)
And this time I was pleased to find that I was getting damage numbers that I would expect, with 935, 1,236 and 1,482 coming in most often. So it is clear to see that the damage caused by the boss has no went up, despite me leveling a total of 19 times. The numbers dropped marginally, which is a reflection of that minor increase to my physical resistances.
How Scadutree Fragment Works in Shadow of the Erdtree?
With the level 150 testing done, it was time to run back to Place of Grace and cash in all those Scadutree Shards. All in all, I was able to redeem enough to get me up to five total levels of the Scadutree Blessing.
One more set of runs on my now least favorite world boss later, I could see a noticeable difference in the amount of damage I was taking. This time he decided to make my life a little more difficult by being strangely more consistent with the damage he dished out, so this time I just got two damage numbers despite running at him at least 15 times. However, luckily they lined up with the other damage numbers I got earlier, which was enough for me to do more napkin math. This time the damage numbers I got were 1,185 and 891, with 891 coming in the most by a considerable margin. This is of course consistent with the 1,236 and 935 numbers we got without the Scadutree blessings, which when converted to percentages showed a 4.2% decrease to 1,236, and a 4.8% decrease to 935.
This means that the Scadutree Fragment Blessings gives you only just shy of 1% damage reduction per level upgraded, which may not seem like much, but in this DLC, even something as small as a 5% increase to damage resistance could be the difference between life and death.
So, overall, no, the DLC does not scale to your level, however it IS designed specifically to be more difficult for higher level players, and nearly impossible for lower level players. All enemies do much higher damage, and have considerably inflated health bars, so while you may not be able to over level for the DLC, you can definitely under level for it.
If you found this guide as helpful as I did hard to write, and want some more Elden Ring DLC content from us here at Pro Game Guides, check out our Castle Ensis Walkthrough, or our guide on where to find All the Perfume Bottles. !
