After a year since its announcement, Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion was finally given a proper reveal today in the form of a gameplay trailer. According to From Software chief and director of the game, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Shadow of the Erdtree is the largest DLC the studio has released to date.
Miyazaki confirmed a brand-new map, new weapons along with 8 new weapon categories, 10 new gnarly boss fights, and a smattering of equipment, skills, and enemy types. Speaking of which, today’s trailer revealed a new Fire Golem boss that looks like a proper menace.
Sizing Up The Boss
Even though we only saw two clips of it in the gameplay trailer, we can still fathom a fair bit about the towering inferno of doom that was the Fire Golem.
Visually, there’s a night and day difference between the Fire Golem and the Golems in the base game. Both are huge in stature, but the bog-standard Golems don heavy armor and carry weapons.
The Fire Golem, meanwhile, looks like an enormous wicker bucket full of fire that sprouted limbs, with a mask for a face that has looping motifs and Omen horns sticking out in every direction.
Though its appearance may sound comical, the Fire Golem looks a damn sight more intimidating than the regular Golems. You can see its former victims around its waist and tentacle-like hands. It’s akin to a cage that traps and chars those who faced it in the past; a grim reminder to anyone who’d dare step up and challenge it.
Strong Offense And Defense
The Golems of Elden Ring are quite tanky, but not the hardest to take down. They’d deal damage by way of a weapon such as a Halberd or bow and arrow, as well as a fire breath attack. Caelid variants of the Golem can even deal magic damage. However, the Fire Golem seems to be a far bigger nuisance than all of them.
For one, it doesn’t appear to have a weapon. It primarily wields fire, and from what we’ve seen in the gameplay trailer, the attacks are a big jump over the regular Golems. The trailer showed off an AoE move where the Fire Golem stomped and blazed up a large radius, that too rapidly.
As for long-range attacks, that’s where its tentacle fingers could come in, swiftly extending to ranged users. Fireballs are also a very real possibility.
Slaying This Beast In Shadow Of The Erdtree
The offense, then, is very strong, and fire resistance is also likely. So what could be done to take the Fire Golem down? Thanks to its tankiness, it doesn’t seem to move very quickly. Hopping onto Torrent, dodging ranged attacks, and periodically going in for strikes could be a viable strategy. The face of the Fire Golem could also be a weak point, which would give mages and ranged users an edge.
Rampant speculation aside, the Fire Golem is shaping up to be a formidable adversary, and it’s just one of the many fascinating bosses we’ll encounter in Shadow of the Erdtree, which launches 21 June 2024.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will be available on PS4/PS5, PC, and Xbox One/Series X/S for $39.99.
