One Elden Ring DLC Location Is Ready To Put Players Through FromSoft’s Cruelest Tradition

's DLC,, promises to follow in FromSoft's footsteps in the worst possible way. The upcoming DLC finally has a release date, following a cryptic gameplay trailer released on February 21. The trailer also revealed some of the areas and settings players will explore in, including one sure to raise the hackles of any veteran fan.

's developer, FromSoftware, is known for making games with punishing difficulty. But it's also known for efficiently reusing concepts, mechanics, and even assets, both within the same game and between separate releases. As a result, players have come to expect certain tropes in every Soulsborne game: summonable allies, multiphase bosses, and delicate platforming sections, to name a few. This is part of what gives these games character. The more one plays, the more features they recognize, and the easier they are to deal with. One of these recurring features, though, never gets easier.

In a move that surprises no one, 's DLC will include yet another poison swamp section. It appears briefly in the gameplay trailer, right around the 1:00 mark. The swamp sections in FromSoft games are notoriously challenging: their murky waters inflict status effects on anyone who stands in them too long, which means no lingering. Players need to plan their routes and their stamina expenditures carefully so as not to succumb to their poison. Worse still, rumor has it this will be a Death Blight swamp, causing a status effect that kills instantly.

Want to scare a FromSoft fan? Ask them about swamps. It's a long-running tradition, hearkening back to the series' predecessor, for every game to include a poison swamp. had the Valley of Defilement, had Blighttown, had Harvest Valley, and had Farron Keep. Even spinoffs aren't immune: has the Ashina Depths, and Bloodborne has the Nightmare Frontier.

And to ensure players know they're in for a bad time in , its initial release includes multiple swamps and many, many smaller pools of poison water. By now, it's become an