The wait for Elden Ring’s highly anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been a long one — it was first announced over a year ago in February 2023 — but at long last, it’s finally almost here. Now just days away from its worldwide release, the expansion will bring countless Tarnished champions back to the Game of the Year-winning fantasy ARPG and give them a grand new Elden Ring adventure to embark upon.
The hype for Shadow of the Erdtree is hitting a fever pitch right now, but when will you actually be able to play it? For quite a while, we knew nothing other than its release date; thanks to some recent announcements from developer FromSoftware, though, we have more specific details about when you can jump in.
You’ll find all of those details in the guide below that goes over everything you need to know. This includes the Elden Ring DLC’s release date and launch time, along with details on preloading the expansion and the storage requirements you’ll need to meet in order to install it.
What is the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC?
For the unaware, Shadow of the Erdtree is a huge DLC for Elden Ring that developer FromSoftware is calling the “largest expansion” it’s ever made for its action RPGs. With scale that’s reportedly similar to Elden Ring’s massive Limgrave or Liurnia of the Lakes regions, it follows up on the story of the base game and will take place on an entirely new map that’s separate from the Lands Between.
Specifically, Shadow of the Erdtree is set in the Land of Shadow — a region “obscured by the Erdtree” — and tasks players with following in the footsteps of Miquella, one of Queen Marika’s children. His fate was unknown in the base game — read this Miquella explainer I put together for more on what happened — but the DLC reveals that Miquella has ventured into the Land of Shadow to divest himself “of his flesh, his strength, his lineage. Of all things Golden.” In the Land of Shadow, players will likely learn why as they (and other interested NPC parties) search for the Empyrean.
While exploring, players will encounter a myriad of different enemies and bosses, both in open field free-roam zones and in dense, layered Legacy Dungeons that evoke the structure of a Dark Souls level. One antagonist figure that’s appeared many times in trailers is Messmer the Impaler, a deadly fire and spear-wielding battlefield commander said to have once razed the Land of Shadow with his flame in wartime.
Fans can also look forward to a wide variety of treasures, with publisher Bandai Namco confirming that Shadow of the Erdtree will add “around 100 new weapons, including eight new categories, each with several variations.” One such category is the dueling shield, a shield with spikes on its rims that can be used for thrusting attacks. Of course, there will undoubtedly be plenty of new spells and consumables to discover as well.
Notably, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed in an interview that Shadow of the Erdtree will be Elden Ring’s only DLC, which will disappoint players hoping for a series of expansions for the fantasy ARPG. Still, given how large we know it’s going to be, I expect fans will be playing (and replaying) it for months and years to come, likely finding new discoveries each time much like they have with Elden Ring’s base game.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available for preorder now, and is coming to every platform the original game launched on. That means you’ll be able to play it on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC via Steam.
Elden Ring DLC: Release date, start time for Shadow of the Erdtree
As confirmed earlier this year by the DLC’s official gameplay reveal trailer, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled to release on June 21, 2024. More specifically, the expansion is launching at midnight in every region on console, with the PC version coming out in the afternoon and evening of June 20 or in the morning of June 21 depending on where you live.
If you’re playing on Xbox or PlayStation, you can jump in as soon as it’s midnight. However, Shadow of the Erdtree’s release timing is more complicated — albeit considerably earlier, if you’re in a western region — if you’re a PC player. To help the latter folks figure out when they can play, I’ve listed all the DLC’s official release times across the world in the table below:
| Time zone | Launch time (Console) | Launch time (PC) |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific Time (PDT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 3:00 p.m. |
| Central Time (CDT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 5:00 p.m. |
| Colombia Time (COT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 5:00 p.m. |
| Eastern Time (EDT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 6:00 p.m. |
| Brazil Time (BRT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 7:00 p.m. |
| British Summer Time (BST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 20, 11:00 p.m. |
| Central European Summer Time (CEST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 12:00 a.m. |
| South African Standard Time (SAST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 12:00 a.m. |
| Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 1:00 a.m. |
| Moscow Time (MSK) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 1:00 a.m. |
| Atlantic Standard Time (AST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 1:00 a.m. |
| Gulf Standard Time (GST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 2:00 a.m. |
| UTC+7 | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 5:00 a.m. |
| UTC+8 | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 6:00 a.m. |
| Singapore Time (SGT) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 6:00 a.m. |
| Japan Standard Time (JST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 7:00 a.m. |
| Korea Standard Time (KST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 7:00 a.m. |
| Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 8:00 a.m. |
| New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) | June 21, midnight local time | June 21, 10:00 a.m. |
Note that if your time zone isn’t listed above, you can use a time zone converter to figure out when Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled to go live in your region.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Elden Ring will be taken offline for maintenance to apply the update for the DLC from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. UTC on June 20. If you have plans to prep and get your Elden Ring character ready for Shadow of the Erdtree, make sure you do so before then.
Elden Ring DLC: Preload date for Shadow of the Erdtree
As you’ll see in the section below, Shadow of the Erdtree — much like Elden Ring itself — won’t be very large at all compared to the file size of other AAA releases. With that said, preloading it is still a good idea so you can jump into the DLC as soon as it’s available.
It’s been confirmed that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree preloads will go live 48 hours before the June 21 launch on PS5 and PS4. Unfortunately, though, Xbox and PC players won’t be able to preload, which is bad news for fans that play the game on these platforms.
Elden Ring DLC: Storage requirements for Shadow of the Erdtree
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco haven’t revealed the DLC’s download size specifically, but they have announced updated Elden Ring system requirements that indicate you’ll need 80GB of free space on PC to install it. Currently, the base game of Elden Ring requires 60GB, so that — along with a rumored 16.502GB file size on PlayStation — suggests Shadow of the Erdtree will have a file size of about 15-20GB on every platform.
Elden Ring is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of all time, and I strongly recommend picking it up and beginning a playthrough now if you haven’t done one already. That way, you’ll have some time to experience what 2022’s Game of the Year has to offer before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC launches on June 21. Notably, the expansion is available to preorder on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC now, and there’s even a Collector’s Edition with several awesome collectibles included.
