Elden Ring DLC Release Date: Countdown, launch time and more for Shadow of the Erdtree

The wait for Elden Ring’s long-awaited Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been a long time coming – it was first announced over a year ago in February 2023 – but it’s finally here. Now, approximately one day (less if you’re on PC) 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 on. to start .

The hype for Shadow of the Erdtree has reached a fever pitch, especially after widespread reviews of perfect scores – for me it was the easiest 10/10 I’ve ever given – but when can you actually play it? Thanks to recent announcements from developer FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco, that’s an easy question to answer.

You’ll find all these details in the guide below, which covers everything you need to know. This includes the release date and launch time of the Elden Ring DLC, along with the countdown to its arrival, details on how to pre-load the expansion, and the storage requirements you’ll need to meet to install it.

What is the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC?

For the uninformed, Shadow of the Erdtree is a massive DLC for Elden Ring that developer FromSoftware is calling the “biggest expansion” it’s ever made for its action RPGs. With a scale said to be comparable to Elden Ring’s vast Limgrave or Liurnia of the Lakes regions, it follows up on the story of the base game and takes place on an entirely new map 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 information on what happened – but the DLC reveals that Miquella has ventured into the Land of Shadow to rid himself ‘of his flesh, his strength, his origins. everything that is gold.” In the Land of Shadow, players will likely learn why as they (and other interested NPC parties) search for the Empyrean.

As they explore, players will encounter a variety of enemies and bosses, both in open-field free zones and in dense, layered Legacy Dungeons that evoke the structure of a Dark Souls level. One enemy figure you’ll encounter is Messmer the Impaler, a deadly fire- and spear-wielding battlefield commander who is said to have once devastated the Land of Shadow with his flame during wartime.

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A tarnished warrior looks out over part of the Land of Shadow. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Fans can also look forward to a wide variety of treasures, including more than 100 new weapons and eight new weapon categories. One of those categories is the dueling shield, a shield with spikes on the edges that can be used for powerful attacks. Of course, there are also plenty of new spells and consumables to discover.

Notably, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki 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. But given how big it is (it took me almost a week to thoroughly explore and finish it) I expect fans will be playing (and replaying) it for months and years to come, likely making new discoveries each time do, just like they did with The Elden Ring base game.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is now available for pre-order and will be coming to every platform the original game launched on. That means you can play it via Steam on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and Windows PC.

Elden Ring DLC: Release date and time

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The official worldwide release times map for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

As confirmed earlier this year by the DLC’s official gameplay reveal trailer, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled for release on June 21, 2024. Depending on which platform you use and where you live, you may get access starting June 20.

Elden Ring DLC Release Date on PC

June 20, 3pm PT
June 20, 6:00 PM ET
June 20, 11pm BST
June 21, 12:00 CEST

If you’re playing Shadow of the Erdtree on PC and live in a western region, you’ll actually be able to play the DLC on Thursday – much earlier than console players can – thanks the worldwide PC release time of June 20, 3:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM ET. However, if you are in an Eastern time zone, you will have to wait until the morning of June 21st.

Elden Ring DLC release date on console

On Xbox and PlayStation consoles, almost all players won’t be able to access Shadow of the Erdtree in their local time zone until midnight on June 21. This means that Eastern console users can get in before Westerners do, and also a little earlier than PC players.

However, console users in Pacific Time, Mountain Time, and Central Time regions can play before midnight on June 20 at 9:00 PM, 10:00 PM, and 11:00 PM respectively.. This was confirmed by the official release time chart recently shared by the developers.

To help everyone figure out when they can play, I’ve listed all the official DLC release times around the world in the table below:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Time zone	Start time (console)	Start time (PC)
Pacific Time (PDT)	June 20, 9 p.m	June 20, 3 p.m
Central Time (CDT)	June 20, 11 p.m	June 20, 5 p.m
Colombian Time (COT)	June 21, midnight local time	June 20, 5 p.m
Eastern Time (EDT)	June 21, midnight local time	June 20, 6 p.m
Brazilian Time (BRT)	June 21, midnight local time	June 20, 7:00 PM
British Summer Time (BST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 20, 11 p.m
Central European Summer Time (CEST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 12 noon
South African Standard Time (SAST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 12 noon
Eastern European Summer Time (EEST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 1am
Moscow Time (MSK)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 1am
Atlantic Standard Time (AST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 1am
Gulf Standard Time (GST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 2am
UTC+7	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 5am
UTC+8	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 6:00 am
Singapore Time (SGT)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 6:00 am
Japanese Standard Time (JST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 7:00 am
Korean Standard Time (KST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 7:00 am
Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 8:00 am
New Zealand Standard Time (NZST)	June 21, midnight local time	June 21, 10am

Please note that if your time zone is not listed above, you can use a time zone converter to find out when Shadow of the Erdtree is expected 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 DLC update from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM 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 that before then.

Elden Ring DLC: Countdown

Elden Ring DLC: Preload date and time

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

One of the NPCs you interact with in Shadow of the Erdtree. (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

As you’ll see in the section below, Shadow of the Erdtree – like Elden Ring itself – won’t be very large at all compared to the file sizes of other AAA releases. That said, it’s still a good idea to preload it so you can jump into the DLC as soon as it’s available.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree preloads have been confirmed to go live on PS5 and PS4 48 hours before launch on June 21. But unfortunately, Xbox and PC players cannot preloadwhich is bad news for fans who play the game on these platforms.

Elden Ring DLC: Save Requirements

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree spike shield

A tainted warrior wielding a dueling shield from the DLC. (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco did not reveal the download size of the DLC specificallyBut they announced updated System requirements for Elden Ring which indicate that you need 80 GB of free space on the PC to install it. Currently, the base game of Elden Ring requires 60 GB, so that — along with a rumored file size of 16,502 GB on PlayStation – suggests Shadow of the Erdtree will have a file size of around 15-20 GB on each platform. This also applies to PC; the Steam version of the DLC in the review build that I have access to takes up 15.06 GB.

Elden Ring is one of the best Xbox games And best pc games of all time, and I highly recommend you pick it up and start a playthrough now if you haven’t done one yet. That way you’ll have some time to experience what the 2022 Game of the Year has to offer before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC launches on June 21. The extension can be reserved now on Xbox Series