This guide will cover the Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion release times broken down by region and system. We’ll also go into a bit more detail about PC System requirements for those of you who are less fluent in technobabble.
The official Elden Ring X account shared details about Shadow of the Erdtree global release times, as well as minimum and recommended PC system requirements. We’ll cover everything you need to know to find out if and when you can play Shadow of the Erdtree.
There’s also a bit of speculation at the end about the overall amount of content in the expansion based on its file size.
Shadow of the Erdtree Global Release Times
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree will be released differently for console and PC players. The expansion will be released on consoles in a staggered manner, while PC players will all get access to the game at the same time, from the afternoon/evening of June 20th to the morning of June 21st, 2024, local time.
Pre-downloading Shadow of the Erdtree will only be available on PlayStation 5. PC and XBOX Series players will not be able to pre-download Shadow of the Erdtree.
Shadow of the Erdtree Console Release Time
For those of you playing on PlayStation 5 or XBOX Series, you will be able to play Shadow of the Erdtree at midnight, 12:00 AM local time on Friday, June 21st, 2024. The only exception to this is players in the USA, in Pacfic (9 PM), Mountain (10 PM), or Central (11 PM) time zones, because the game is getting released on consoles across the US at Midnight Eastern time.
In other words, with the except of non-Eastern US players, the moment the day changes from Thursday, June 20th, 2024, to Friday, June 21st, 2024, wherever your Xbox or PS5 is, that’s when you’ll get to play.
Shadow of the Erdtree PC Release Time
For those of you playing on PC, Shadow of the Erdtree will be released at the same time everywhere, meaning that the time of day that you can access Shadow of the Erdtree will depend on where your PC is.
North America (June 20th)
In North America, you will be able to start playing Shadow of the Erdtree on PC on the Thursday afternoon or evening of June 20th from 3:00 PM-6:00 PM.
- PDT (Pacific): 3:00 PM
- MDT (Mountain): 4:00 PM
- CDT (Central): 5:00 PM
- EDT (Eastern): 6:00 PM
South America (June 20th)
In South America, you will be able to start playing Shadow of the Erdtree on PC on Thursday evening, June 20th, from 5:00 PM-7:00 PM.
- COT: 5:00 PM
- BRT: 7:00 PM
Europe (June 20th-21st)
In Europe, you will be able to start playing Shadow of the Erdtree on PC as the day transitions from June 20th to June 21st from 11:00 PM-1:00 AM.
- BST: 11:00 PM
- CEST: 12:00 AM
- MSK: 1:00 AM
Middle East and South Africa (June 21st)
In South Africa and the Middle East, you will be able to start playing Shadow of the Erdtree on PC around or shortly after midnight on Friday, June 21st, between 12:00 and 2:00 AM.
- SAST: 12:00 AM
- EEST: 1:00 AM
- AST: 1:00 AM
- GST: 2:00 AM
Asia-Pacific (June 21st)
In the APAC region, you will be able to start Shadow of the Erdtree in the morning on Friday, June 21st, ranging from 5:00-10:00 AM.
- UTC +7: 5:OO AM
- UTC +8: 6:00 AM
- SGT: 6:00 AM
- KST: 7:00 AM
- JST: 7:00 AM
- AEST: 8:00 AM
- NZST: 10:00 AM
Shadow of the Erdtree PC System Requirements
Shadow of the Erdtree has the same PC performance requirements as the base game, so if you can run the base game on your computer, you’ll be able to run the DLC as well.
You’ll need at least a budget or mid-range computer with a dedicated GPU using parts released around 2017 or later on the latest versions of Windows with at least 12GB of RAM.
Elden Ring and its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion suggest the following for minimum | recommended performance for CPU and GPU:
| Component | Intel | AMD | NVIDIA |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 8th gen i5 | i7 (Coffee Lake, 2017+) | 3rd gen R3 | R5 (Matisse, Zen 2, 2019+) | n/a |
| GPU | Arc A380 | Arc A750 (Alchemist, 2022+) | RX 580 4GB | RX Vega 56 8GB (Polaris | Vega, 2017+) | GTX 1060 | GTX 1070 (Pascal, 2016+) |
If your computer has both a CPU and a GPU that fit within these number ranges, along with meeting the rest of the system requirements, your computer should work to play Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree:
GPUs
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060-4090
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060-1660Ti
- AMD Radeon RX 580
- AMD Radeon RX 5700-7900XTX
- Intel Arc A380-A770
CPUs
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300X-8300G
- AMD Ryzen 5 3500X-9600X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X-9700X
- AMD Ryzen 9 (any)
- Intel i5 8400-14600
- Intel i7 8700k-14700k
- Intel i9 (any, though i9-7900 series might not cut it)
- Intel Core Ultra 5-9 (any)
Note: These lists are not exhaustive, just more expansive than the information in the table above.
Shadow of the Erdtree File Size and Content Amount
The file size of Shadow of the Erdtree appears to be 20 GB since the base game has a file size of 60 GB. You will need 80 GB of storage space total to play Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
This suggests that the expansion will be about 33% the length of the base game, probably a bit more. This is roughly equivalent to 2-3 continents (counting as 7-8 in the base game), legacy dungeons, and proper new bosses.
Much of the footage we’ve seen from the gameplay trailer and story trailer suggests that there are 2 continents divided by the Scadutree (the big “Erdtree” in the new region).
We know you step out into the field after touching Miquella’s hand at the Cocoon of the Empyrean. In this way, the Scadutree acts as a fork in the road as you step out of the portal.
We’ve prepared two guides to help you get ready for the DLC. The first one (Prep Guide) will show you how to reach the new area while properly preparing for the new challenges there. The second one gives you the most simplest and direct steps order for the path to follow to unlock the Land of Shadow as soon as possible. This one is more suitable for players, who have completed at least their first playthrough of Elden Ring.
It’s also possible that another continent is “behind” the portal. Instead of a fork, the map could look more like a triangle, with the Scadutree connective region in the middle. We’ve seen enough diverse environments to support that unless there is a disproportionately larger number of legacy dungeons, like the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Given that this is FromSoftware’s first foray into the open-world genre, I’m most curious to see how it will compare in terms of exploration, quests, and endings. The story in past Dark Souls DLCs tended to be more independent, as is the case with many open-world games’ DLCs, more isolated.
Quests and NPCs were far more limited, and they didn’t contribute to the less numerous endings. There seem to be a lot of new NPCs in Shadow of the Erdtree, and Miquella is a significant part of the base game’s story, so I suspect that Elden Ring will buck this trend.
We’ll find out soon enough on June 20th-21st. Make sure you’re prepared, and consider checking out one of our detailed build guides while you wait!
