Summary
TheDark Soulsseries is chock full of illusory walls, i.e. walls that aren’t actually real - they’re just magical projections. You roll into or hit them to make them disappear, often finding hidden treasure troves oreven entirely new areas.
Elden Ringbrought them back, but almost exclusively in caves and catacombs.Shadow of the Erdtreeis more traditional, peppering them throughout the world itself. Yep, get ready to blindly trust every single message and hit every single wall that looks slightly off. Odds are, one of them is.
I won’t spoil where they are (you’ll have to find them yourself or uncover a few handy messages left behind by reviewers), but I nearly missed out on some incredible areas from not realising that Shadow of the Erdtree was more liberal in its placement of illusory walls. That meant a lot of backtracking, a lot of aimless hitting, and a lot of messages written in despair. I’m saving you that headache.
There Are Other Ways To Reveal Illusory Walls
You don’t have to swing your sword (or cast a spell) at every single wall that looks dodgy (odds are, if you’re in a cave and find a flat square space, it’s a secret passage), you can use a few items instead.
Margit and Mohg’s shackles don’t just trap their namesake bosses, they also reveal illusory walls (thanks,Fextralife). Chances are if you’re entering the DLC – whichrequires you to have beaten Radahn and Mohg– you’ll have these items already, so instead of mindlessly attacking everything, you can just hotbar a shackle and use it when suspicions arise.
I wish I had known this tacticbeforeplaying Shadow of the Erdtree, but we move. A character called Bonk the Bonkest going ham on a few brick wall with his big wooden stick feels in character, anyway.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
WHERE TO PLAY
Shadow of the Erdtree is the first and only DLC expansion for FromSoftware’s groundbreaking Elden Ring. It takes players to a whole new region, the Land of Shadow, where a new story awaits the Tarnished.
