Alright, so I’ve been digging into this “Shadow of the Erdtree” DLC for Elden Ring, and one big question I had was about the Scadu Altus levels. Specifically, do these levels carry over into New Game Plus?
First off, I jumped straight into the DLC on my existing character. No messing around with new saves here. I figured, why not, right? I spent a good few hours exploring, battling, and just generally soaking in the new areas. Scadu Altus is pretty wild, by the way. The new enemies are no joke, and the whole vibe is just awesome. I mean the place is huge, I’ve started to clear some of the places and collect some items.
Then came the moment of truth. I wrapped up the main DLC story, killed the final boss after like a hundred tries(yeah, I know, git gud and whatever), and initiated New Game Plus. The process is all too familiar. Boom, back to the beginning, but with all my gear and, importantly, my levels. I made sure to keep an eye on my character stats.
Here’s what I found
- Stats: My character’s core stats? Unchanged. Strength, dexterity, all that jazz – exactly as they were before starting NG+. I expected this to be the case but I still kept an eye on it.
- Scadutree Blessing: The buffs you get from the Scadutree Fragments, those special items scattered around? They’re gone. Yeah, you heard that right. Starting NG+ resets the Scadutree Blessing. Back to square one in Scadu Altus. I had to go around all of the places to collect the fragments again. This is kind of a bummer, but hey, it makes sense. The blessing is pretty powerful.
- Revered Spirit Ash Blessing: Similar to the Scadutree Blessing, the Revered Spirit Ash Blessing is also reset. I checked my spirit ashes, and they were back to their base form, without the DLC-specific buffs. You gotta collect them all over again in Scadu Altus.
So, in short, your character levels stay, but the Scadu Altus-specific boosts? Nope, they don’t transfer. It’s like the game’s way of saying, “Hey, you got through the DLC once, now do it again, but with the added challenge of NG+.” I started collecting fragments and blessing again, and tried to do some runs. I’ve died a few times because I didn’t expect these changes to be honest.
It’s a bit of a grind to re-collect all those fragments and blessings, but honestly, it’s worth it. NG+ in Elden Ring is always a blast, and having to re-explore Scadu Altus just adds to the fun. Plus, you get to smack around those tough enemies with your souped-up character, which is always satisfying. This is pretty much what I’ve done for the past few days, and I’m still not bored at all. I think I’m going to continue to finish up the DLC in NG+.
