Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC takes place in an area totally separate from the main game, initially inaccessible except at its designated starting point. It’s set in the Land of Shadow, putting Elden Ring‘s DLC on a new map entirely distinct from the Lands Between. Although the lore makes it clear that people can travel between the two areas (and many do), it’s not immediately clear whether players can actually return to the base game until they’ve beaten the DLC.

From Software’s Soulsborne games have all taken different approaches to their maps. All of them have hub areas that lead, in one way or another, to all their interconnected areas: Firelink Shrine, Majula, the Hunter’s Dream, and Elden Ring‘s Roundtable Hold. All of them have some kind of fast travel mechanic, but it’s usually severely limited to only a select few areas, and even then, may not be unlocked until very late in the game. Elden Ring has a more robust fast travel mechanic than most, but how does it extend to the DLC?

Players Can Travel Freely Between Shadow Of The Erdtree & Elden Ring’s Base Game

Getting From The Land Of Shadow To The Lands Between Is Easy

Players can easily travel between the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC map and Elden Ring‘s base game, just as they can between Sites of Grace. It’s only a little more complicated: players can open the map by pressing the touchpad on PS4/PS5, the Change View button on Xbox (the one that looks like two squares overlapping), or the G button on a keyboard. Along the bottom, there should be an option to switch to the Lands Between map – press L1 on PlayStation, LB on Xbox, or Z on a keyboard to swap between the two.

From there, they can select a Site of Grace in either area and teleport to it instantly, as long as they’re in a location that allows fast travel. Going in the opposite direction, from the base game to the DLC map, follows the exact same process once the player has discovered a fast travel point in the Land of Shadow. Just note that although fast travel is instantaneous once the DLC begins, unlocking the Land of Shadow requires players to beat Radahn and Mohg, then travel to Mohgwyn Palace before starting Elden Ring‘s DLC.

The only change to be mindful of is that special DLC-exclusive buffs, like Scadutree Fragment and Revered Spirit Ash Blessings, only apply in new areas added by Shadow of the Erdtree. Once the player teleports back to a base game area, they’ll lose all these extra bonuses. However, the moment they return to the Land of Shadow, Blessings will all return automatically.

Elden Ring’s DLC Requires Players To Return To Roundtable Hold

Shadow Of The Erdtree Grants New Remembrances

But Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t just allow players to return to the base game – at times, it effectively requires it. Elden Ring includes seven Shardbearers in the base game – semi-mandatory, story-relevant bosses, of whom the player must defeat at least two in order to progress to the late game and challenge the final boss. Each of these rewards the player with a Remembrance, an item which they can either turn into Finger Reader Enia at Roundtable Hold for a powerful piece of equipment, or use to gain an abundance of Runes.

Shadow of the Erdtree works much the same, with each of its non-optional bosses rewarding the player with a Remembrance that can’t be exchanged anywhere in the Land of Shadow. If the player wants to convert a Remembrance into an item, they’ll have to return to Roundtable Hold in order to do so. And the DLC has fewer paths to progress through its main story, so players inevitably come across more Remembrances than they’re required to claim in the base game.

But more so than that, many resources found easily in the base game of Elden Ring are hard to come by in the DLC. Players have to do a fair bit of exploring before they come across a reliable merchant in the Land of Shadow, so if they want to buy or sell anything in the early phases of the DLC, returning to Roundtable might be their best bet. And, while there are some new crafting materials in Shadow of the Erdtree, it can be difficult to find things like Rowa Fruit and Herba, necessary for crafting a variety of healing items, in the starting areas of the DLC. Some may find themselves returning to the base game to farm for Boluses before attempting to cross one of the DLC’s new poison swamps.

So, yes, it is possible to travel freely between the DLC areas and the base game at will. In that way at least, players can consider the Land of Shadow an extension of the main map. Just like the base game’s surface and underground maps, fast traveling between the Lands Between and the Land of Shadow is not only possible, but at times necessary to the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree experience.