With Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree increasing difficulty, that means the leveling system behaves somewhat differently. Before jumping into the madness of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, it’s best to know how the leveling system works.

Do Runes matter in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree? Leveling, explained

Once you get started Shadow of the Erdtree, things go south fast. The only way to mitigate that is by leveling up even further. The basic way to level up is through Runes. However, for the DLC, things go further.

An additional and equally important way to level up in Shadow of the Erdtree is by using Scadutree Blessings. When you earn the blessing, your attack and defensive attributes get enhanced. So, if you don’t have enough Runes to progress in your leveling, these Scadutree Blessings are a great way to get stronger in Shadow of the Erdtree. 

To see which of your stats are enhanced, simply open up your Status menu. By navigating to the right of this screen, you can see the enhanced stats written out in gold. They should be on the far right of this page.

The interesting tidbit is that this system is only in the DLC section of Elden Ring. If you were to go back to The Lands Between, your stats would exclude these blessings. This means you may not be as strong as you were in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC when going back to The Lands Between.

How to get Scadutree Blessings

To level up you need to find Scadutree Fragments first. These can be acquired through many of the tougher enemies, the bosses such as the ones in the Nameless Mausoleuems, and just by exploring the new region.

Pot-carrying Shadow Undead enemies always drop one Scadutree Fragment after their first time dying, so watch out for those for free level ups. It also seems that Hornsent Statues also have these fragments. When you have these fragments in tow, head to a Grace and level up. 

Knowing how many bosses are in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree can be a lifesaver.