Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Mod Lets Players Instigate Dramatic Boss vs Boss Showdowns

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC bosses.

An Elden Ring modder has found a novel way to make the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC easier, by allowing players to unleash a cast of major bosses to fight by their side, setting up the potential for some dramatic boss-on-boss showdowns.

There’s no denying that the Shadow of the Erdtree poses a significant challenge even to experienced Souls veterans, with FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki himself noting that the DLC “pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player.”

Thankfully, the new DLC Summon Bosses Mod from NexusMod’s user FlippantTunic22 makes this challenge a whole lot easier, by replacing a number of spirit ash summons with — as the title would suggest — boss summons! As spotted by Eurogamer, a grand total of 11 named antagonists from the DLC are included in the mod, which directly replace select spirit ashes, though the art relating to those summons remains the same as in the vanilla version of the game. 

For example, triggering the Kindred of Rot spirit ash will now summon the Divine Beast Dancing Lion to fight at your side, while the Nomad ash will call upon Messmer the Impaler to aid you in battle. YouTube user KanesGrace also posted a video of the mod at work, showcasing a number of climactic fights, including one in which Meytr, Mother of Fingers took down the DLC's final boss, Promised Consort Radahn.

A full list of the summons and their counterparts can be found below, as per the NexusMods page, but obviously beware of spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree's cast of bosses.

• Black Knife Tiche = Romina, Saint Of The Bud
• Banished Knight Oleg = Twin Moon Rellana Summon
• Banished Knight Engvall = Putrescent Knight
• Latenna the Albinauric = Golden Hippopotamus (Can be Buggy, make sure to summon it on a clear area as it might fall through the map)
• Nomad = Messmer The Impaler
• Crystalian = Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame (1st stage only)
• Ancestral Follower = Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame (2nd stage)
• Cleanrot Knight Finlay = Commander Gaius
• Fire Monk = Furnace Golem
• Kaiden Sellsword = Promised Consort Radahn
• Blackflame Monk Amon = Meytr, Mother of Fingers (Might be a little weird with it spawn and push you back)
• Kindred of Rot = Divine Beast Dancing Lion (Might be a little weird with it spawn and push you back)

The mod’s creator is planning to add more DLC characters to the mod in the future, and has ambitions to upload a separate addon at a later date that will allow players to summon bosses featured in Elden Ring’s base game. For more cool Elden Ring stories, check out how a dataminer discovered cut dialogue from the final Shadow of the Erdtree boss fight. And if you're playing, be sure to check out IGN's Shadow of the Erdtree interactive map.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer