Elden Ring DLC Made Easier with New PS5, PS4 Calibration Update

Does this mean I need PS+ or can I just login to MP get the calibration and go offline again?

A big problem with some players crying over difficulty is they speedrun through the game and completely missed most of the Scadutree Fragments making it harder for themselves.

Seems to work out as a 10% buff, so just enough to squeak out the last few hits if you've been struggling to put a boss to sleep... Eternally

I’m not going to pretend I’m anything other than happy that they have made it easier for me.

All the try hards can hate me. But this is good news. 😇

Took a screenshot before and after the calibration at Blessings 10/6 respectively to see the effect, and it seems like a 8%-10% increase in attack and defenses. This could certainly help some people struggling with the earlier bosses, if they bothered to collect the fragments in the first place.

That's pretty disappointing. I've honestly felt like the difficulty has been really well balanced so far. I just defeated one of the early bosses people were complaining about last night and it only took me 3 tries. It was tough but some were even comparing it to Malania online and I honestly can't even fathom such a thought.

I guess this is a result of Elden Ring hitting a lot more with the casual market for some reason. I only hope it doesn't make the dlc feel like a cake walk now.

Well no update for me until I beat it

@Korgon I think I that’s exactly it… the fact Elden Ring was so popular, they’ve had to cave. Which is a bit of a shame.

Let’s see these folks tackle the run to the blue Smelter Demon in the Dark Souls 2 DLC, then they really will have something to moan about 😄.

I’m loving my time in the Realm of the Shadow atm… taken out one (I think) main boss and cleared a few caves. Still haven’t been able to finish off that Blackgaol Knight yet… I will get him… one day…

qq : If I had already just begun a NG+ run in the core game and then make my way to the DLC, is the DLC then at an even more difficult level (because I entered from a NG+ run) or does it know that its my first time in the DLC and therefore remains at base difficulty for the DLC?
This is my actual sit, and I'd rather go in with my L175 character than start fresh and get a second blokey up to spec.

@NieR_Dark I found putting magic on my weapon helped with the Blackgaol Knight.

@lindos , I’m in the same situation. I think if you go straight to the dlc in NG+ as soon as you can it’s supposed to be hard. Hey, if anyone else knows better…. I’m thinking I’m going to play through the whole of NG+, the go to the dlc, so that’s me sorted for the next 6 months!

Boooooo!!! I'm so many hours into the dlc already, I don't want this.

Does it mean you've already collected and applied scadutree fragments will have the same increase? I'm on level 4 i guess, and each level gave me roughly 5% increase on damage output and defence. Does it mean i get these bonuses on the top of it?

Not gonna be too big a help on the last boss as the issue is they don’t have enough openings to even get a good hit in.

Elden Ring is the type of game I should absolutely love. But I also play video games in order to de-stress. Kinda sucks because I want to love it.

@JohnnyShoulder I will definitely be giving this a go… pesky so and so keeps obliterating me 😄

I already finished it but the game indeed needed some balance changes, I was blessing 15 and my damage with a +10 colossal weapon was shocking against the final boss.

But switch to a bleed and the boss melts

The weapon Balance in needs work for sure, and the visual noise on some bosses is a bit much.
I’m all for hard fun fights but I’d like to actually see clearly what I’m dodging 😂😂😂
(Especially when the game has a delay/buffer input to its controls)

For me definitely not a 10 “greatest dlc ever” it’s more like an 8

@DonkeyFantasy
I reckon stop levelling your blessing after like 10 or 12 and you will probably have the same experience

@lindos you can go with that. I started with my level 215 character. It's going to be manageable, but still tough. The key is to collect those scadudtee fragments which makes you much stronger. Normal leveling doesn't work her, so basically there is no big difference if you have a lv 175 or 215 character. You can collect at least 10 fragments in the early few hours, before fighting any bosses. That means you'd have level 5 blessing which means around 30 percent increase in damage and defence. Or even more after the update. That's a big difference.

From someone who grew up with games where you got 3 lives and no saves, I find this bonkers.

@themightyant as someone who fought it yes, it’s balanced poor in terms of standard weapons that don’t take advantage of status builds like bleed.
It shouldn’t be nerfed but rebalanced in terms of damage, they should increase resistances for bleed and others.
But lower physical defense a bit.
That way one play style isn’t far and away the more superior.

The boss also has some readability issues, Melania was hard but her moves were readable.

The final boss has so many effects going on and so quick it’s hard to actually see what you are should be dodging and which exact move is which, especially considering Elden increases boss aggressiveness and speed 100% anyway compared to older souls games so it compounds the issue.
And I’m personally not a fan of that it feels cheap.

The could some of its moves more readable with a touch bigger damage window but increases its damage to compensate

Again not nerfing just rebalancing some attributes to make it fair.

@GeeForce the games were also way shorter, it couldn’t be patched and the internet didn’t exist.
If it did you’d have the same complaints trust me 😂

@NieR_Dark The problem with Blackgaol Knight is, there are no summons. So in actual fact Elden Ring would've been a crazy hard game if there wasn't summons. You'd think BB is hard but you can beat most main bosses without summons, ER on the other hand , is almost impossible without summons.

@Korgon

All this I found is build dependant what build are you running?
This game has a weapon balance issue for sure.

Depending on your set up you can have a very easy or crazy hard time

Some breeds of Souls fans will ignore every mechanic and tool they perceive as "too helpful" and then whine about not being able to adapt their ten year-old playstyle to the latest game's design..

@Korgon while I do agree that the dlc definitely feels fair for 99% of it (Gaius just sucks), I'll argue that elden ring as a whole is entirely over designed in some areas.

I've beaten all of the bosses in the base game and most of the dlc ones (still playing through that) but some absolutely do feel like they're playing by different rules from the tarnished and that just sucks. It doesn't matter if you can overcome that gap or not. It's bad game design to have almost every single boss "cheat the system" in some way.

@Dom_31

I found gaius hard but readable, some bosses I struggled with due to the visual noise and cameras flipping out trying to keep up.

I have found Elden as a whole have good boss design foundations that are always overdeveloped just a touch like they add just one or 2 unfair BS moves.

@NieR_Dark trust me blackgoal knight is nothing compared to later 😂😂 good luck fair tarnished!

@themightyant

Yeah that my biggest issues with some key battles in this dlc (along with standard weapon balancing)

@roe
I don’t mind it as no game is perfect and well balanced especially straight away when it’s this big and open.
And I imagine their testers are crazy good and may not reflect the skill level of your average soul player so it’s not unimaginable to think minor adjustments are made.

I knew they'd cave to the cybabies. I finished the last boss yesterday an hour before I had to leave for the airport. It wasn't as hard as everyone made me believe before hand.

@starbuck2212 I cant even get past new radahn at my current upgrade/skill level, but kinda bummed Im getting robbed of my chance to get better and get my revenge on the same iteration down the road

if they should nerf ANYTHING, it should be adding a delay on how quickly bosses get sweaty, so we can, ya know, actually take advantage of our upgraded spirit summons without being deleted for it.

little things like that reduce playstyle flexibility imo. Feels almost like DeS “puzzle bosses”, what build and weapon combo trumps this one’s nonsense?

@fancy_bandage_PSN I knew they would sooner or later. I was rushing to finish before leaving the country because i knew it would be nerfed by the time i returned. Yeah I agree with that, they should have just delayed the time to nuke. Some of those bosses destroy you before your feet have touched the floor of the arena. I had to keep trying until I got lucky to survive the initial onslaught.

@fancy_bandage_PSN in the end I respeced into high faith and strength and used the blasphemous blade. I used the tears that heal over time and the one that gives you a shield for the first hit. If you can survive the initial onslaught and get ya mimic out then you'll have a chance. I wish I could have done it without the mimic but I was against the clock.

@themightyant
I've heard the final boss is really difficult too but like I said I also heard people saying the boss I just defeated was really difficult as well and that just wasn't the case.

It's disappointing to me personally because now I know I'm going to get a nerfed version of the rest of the game before I even had the chance to try it. Especially since at least for what I've played so far it's been pretty balanced. Tough but fair. Like all of Fromsoft's games.

Plus the DLC only came out Friday! Are people just not exploring at all? There's a lot of content to get through. I just wish I would have gotten the chance to experience it in it's original form is all.

@Korgon that's one of the things I love about souls games. Someone's hardest boss can be the next man's easiest. Ishin Sword Saint for example, some say he's the hardest Souls boss of them all but for me Owl Father was so much harder.

@Korgon "Plus the DLC only came out Friday! Are people just not exploring at all?"

Always so. They don't explore to get stronger when that's the point of FS games, they just go straight from boss to boss expecting everything to be easy.

thanks for doing this after I finally beat Messmer lol. but nah I don't think they should have done it. they designed it the way it was for a reason. that being said I am not complaining about a little more help when I hear the final boss is brutal

In the end sales matter the most and Elden Ring is their best selling game and it attracted a lot of new folks. Making it a bit easier is fine, if you want it to be hard just don't turn in those buffs. Players of both calibers can enjoy the game this way and I see no issue with it. Games are meant to be fun anyhow. The Git Gud squad will never be satisfied so there's no point in catering to them anymore. Oh, and I've beaten every Souls game multiple times but I'd never advocate for harder games, a good challenge is fun, but brutal difficulty will never drive your sales.

@Nalodart
I'm a dexterity build with the back-hand blades primarily. I also use the spirit ash Nightmaiden & Swordstress from time to time. I think that might be another reason people are struggling so much too. The spirit ashes are in the game for a reason yet people don't use them. Heck one of the main collectables in the DLC is specifically for powering up spirit ashes. If someone doesn't want to use them then fair enough but I also think that person shouldn't be complaining about difficulty then. It's a resource. Use it I say!

You are correct that some builds are easier to use than others but that's literally the case with just about every RPG there ever was. It's not exclusively a Fromsoft thing.

I bet you that a lot of the players crying about the DLC being too difficult and review bombing the games are also the same ones telling others to git but and that the extreme difficulty is the creators vision. Elden Ring is not an easy game nor is it overly hard, the devs give you plenty of tools to succeed and the only problems is the players who chose not to use them and purposefully make the game harder for themselves.

They can tune the game indefinitely, it doesn't change the fact that most people suck. I'm trying very hard to help other players in multiplayer to beat bosses, but Host of Fingers are always panic rolling anywhere to get one shoted. This is really annoying. Please learn how to face a boss, stop spamming spells that are useless, stop the nonsensical rolling, stop trying to attack when it's not your open window. If you are so bad at understanding how this game work, at least stay hidden and let other people beat the boss for you. And stop complaining it is too hard. At some point it remembers me people yelling that SMTV is a bad game and too hard because after lining up 4 demons weak to fire against a boss with a strong fire attack, they don't pass the first turn of the battle...

Perhaps they could have left the game as is, but added some options in the menu to modify difficulty for those who wanted or needed it. Oh what am I saying, that's impossible. Game-breaking even!

@Korgon
Have you infused those blades out of interest or are they just standard?

There is a massive difference in this game though as the game has a reputation for being tough but fair.
And the imbalance in this game is more noticeable because of the difficulty of the major (not optional) bosses.

The weapon inbalance is more extreme than the base game imo
As I never felt most weapons were underpowered just others were better.

@GilSnapper they kind of did that just don’t get the fragments lol

@NieR_Dark These knights are weak to death magic. I'm literally cheesing them with Prince of Death staff and the Rangcor something spell, the one that throw skulls in the air.

So far I find the DLC not especially hard, so I am afraid that they broke it with this update to please the mass.

The worst part about this minor balance adjustments like this is it can bring out the elitist, wee wee swinging gamers hahaha

The game is still going to be challenging jheez

@lindos good question. I'm NG0 and my son NG+3 and so far the difficulty looks similar for both of us in the DLC .

@B0udoir have you actually seen the increases?
It’s not broken it just increases percentages and makes it more forgiving around 10-17 blessing.

The game was already broken with the busted builds you can make so to say this breaks the game is a touch extreme.

Like the difference between pre patch and post patch if you get all 20 blessing levels is 5%

FIVE PERCENT!! But no THIS is what breaks the game… it’s broken now 😂😂😂

@Nalodart
Nope just standard blades. I have lvled them up to the max though. I also explored a lot too and got the Shadow Realm blessings up to 5 so I'm sure that helped. I also occasionally switch to the giant katana if I think I would rather want to attack from more of a distance.

@Korgon

I’m running a dual light greatsword and giant katana build myself on my second run (I won’t name them of course)
So yeah your blessing 5 is like a blessing 7 old patch, but if you’re exploring and find all the fragments which I’m sure you will the difference between the 2 patches is 5% so not exactly earth shattering 😂

People take their video games so seriously. Like, does anyone really care if you managed to beat the super hard version of something? I mean unless you're a streamer doing a challenge run (which you can totally still do no matter how much they nerf the game) then who really cares?

@themightyant
But you see, that's just it. Exploration is how you make the fights easier and 10-15 hours is nowhere near enough to really make a dent in how much side content there is. I have about 10 hours in and I've only faced 2 main bosses because I've been exploring so much.

You are right though about the needs of the many outweighs the few. If they saw the majority of the player base is struggling I don't blame From for stepping in. I don't like the choice but I get it.

@ATaco

I know right the base Elden made several adjustments over the years (Radhann alone was tweaked multiple times, nerfs and buffs just to find the best balance).
And is that game ruined? Nope people got over it.

The same way the they are pointing the finger at people airing frustrations about the game that they spend money on and have a right to do whether you agree or not(I really think steam needs a “maybe” recommend option), the purest complain about a minor adjustment… the irony 😂😂

@Nalodart
Ah well that puts my mind at ease a bit knowing it isn't too much of a difference possibly. I just don't want them to eliminate challenge altogether is all I'm concerned about. 😄

The weirdest thing happened to me while playing the base game. Someone summoned me and I was in the dlc helping the player, even though I did not buy the dlc yet. I did get kicked out after a few minutes and I haven't been summoned since. That's never happened to me before. Anyone else experience this?

@Korgon

Yeah I really doubt FS would nerf their baby into oblivion.
To be fair the headline on the article doesn’t help, and fans the flames for clicks (Which it’s worked to their credit)

You’ll still rage at the mega boss don’t worry 😉
and if you find all the bosses easy because you are that damn good you would have found it easy regardless pre or post patch 😂

This is sad but it feels From Soft got forced by Bamco to bend the knee to the crybabies :/

@themightyant
I don't disagree. I'm just saying some folks might simply need to explore and beef up their character more than others. Unfortunately though we will never really get an idea of how much is required for the average Joe because they already patched it. But what's done is done. It is what is.🤷‍♂️

I haven't been finding it notably difficult so far. Hopefully if I never turn off Offline mode I just won't get the calibration?

I'm not sure how that works actually.

But I sure was glad I beat Radahn back at release before they nerfed him. He wasn't that hard (he was hard, just not THAT hard) so I'm glad I got the intended fight.

Worst case scenario though... I dunno, each boss will take one or two less hits? No biggie. Though that kind of highlights the silliness of the update. It's just to placate the refunders. Waste of the devs valuable time imo.

I'm surprised to see the devs make this change. I feel they would've stood their ground.

Well the future of this franchise will now cater tomtje casual gamer in future

As others have already commented, the DLC was almost guaranteed to get balance patches post-launch. It will probably get more in the future. I don't really see this as being indicative of anything (e.g. "FS caved to the casuals", "casuals got what they wanted"). I suppose it could be...but it seems just as likely to be a coincidence. I just hope FS don't issue a statement or give this subject anymore oxygen than it already gets (I'm really tired of the "easy mode" conversation).

I'm finding the DLC to be pretty challenging, but when I encountered a roadblock I just wandered around. Eventually I found a path around the boss I was stuck on.

Honestly, I was finding the DLC quite easy, but with the new update it has become ridiculous. Just beat Dancing Lion first try, zero effort, zero challenge. The whole castle before was a cake walk. That's all? I really don't understand all the people complaining. From what I have read, I am worrying that the final boss is mega hard while the whole DLC is super easy. So far I really love the level design and art direction, but in terms of difficulty and challenge, it's not like when you start the base game.

Hell yeah, just started today as well

People should have cried for performance fixes. Not difficulty...

@DennisReynolds They still made a update. 🤣