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Although long dungeons inElden Ringare not a new concept, the Shadow Keep in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is something else entirely. This massive dungeon has two separate entrances and access to four different named areas on the map. With so much to find, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in this maze.
After hours of exploration and testing, we’ve devised the best way to help you navigate this dungeon in its near entirety and with efficiency. If you’re willing to come along for the ride, we’ll take you from the Scadu Altus to the Scadutree itself and everything in between. We just hope you packed your snacks; we’ll be here a while.
Everything You Need To Know About Entering The Shadow Keep
Located in the Scadu Altus, this keep features several high-profile items:theMessmer, the Impaler, and two other named bosses.
It is filled with winding vertical pathways, optional detours, multiple entrances and exits, and ambush after ambush for a dungeon that willtake you (at minimum) two hours to find everything.
There aretwo entrances to the Shadow Keep:
South Entrance
Main south entrance in the heart of Scadu Altus. This is the first part of our guide and the path we also recommend you take first. Covers both the Ruins of Unte and the beginning of Queelign’s personal quest.
East Entrance
Side east entrance in the area with the Cathedral of Manus Metyr. This is the second part of our guide and will show you how to both find this entrance and how to reach the keep’s third and strongest boss. This also covers the end of Queelign’s personal quest. This is the part we recommend you do last, and it is entirely optional side content not related to the main story of the DLC.
We won’t be covering every non-priority item (i.e., minor smithing stones, broken runes, butterflies, common crafting items you’re able to purchase, etc.) for the sake of time and reason in our walkthrough.
Any named items, weapons, high-profiling smithing stones, and rare crafting items will still be included.
How To Reach The Specimen Storeroom Site Of Grace
Yourfirst obstacle is the Golden Hippopotamus. We’ve already covered it extensively inour official guide, so we won’t spend too long on the topic here.
Themost important things to noteabout this fight are:
With the hippo hunted, our journey officiallybegins through the open door to the westof the boss room.
Outside, there are some enemies on the left, but they won’t notice you if you sneak.
While you’re pushing them over the edge, we have towarn you of two enemies nearby:
Take a rightthrough the door where the sneaky enemy had been hiding. There are another two guards to wrap up here:
You want both of these gone before you attempt the black knight guard and his cheerleader.
The reason we bother with all this trouble istheMain-gaucheweapon you can loot from the corpsein this room.
Return to the stairsoutside and climb them to a wide open area.
Two sets of guardsto your left and right patrol here, but we recommendtaking out the ones on the right first.
Further up the stairs is a room that will take a little finesse.
There aretwo black guard knights:
As you approach the room, the bow will begin automatically firing toward the door.
The goal here is tobackstab the shield black knight before baiting him out of the roomand down the stairs, where you can fight him in a wider area without interference.
Once the shield black knight is out of the way, you canfight the bow knightmore effectively.
Pick up theShadow Realm Rune [6]near where the bow black knight was standing, but don’t leave the room yet.
Look for the hole in the wallon the west side for theGolden Vow (Consumable)consumable tool.
In the next area,take a brief detour leftfor theHolyproof Pickled Liver(yum!). Then, facing the opposite direction, take a deep breath.
You’re almost to a shortcut, but you’ll have to fight some vulgar militiamen on the way.They’re hiding behind the flaming boatsand will leap over them as you near.
Proceed with caution, grab theMessmerfire Greaseon the stairs ahead, and thentake a right down the hillwhere you’re able to see vulgar militiamen patrolling.
At the bottom, there isa set of doors you’re able to opento the Site of Grace (you did it!).
The vulgar militiamen will respawn when you sit at the Site of Grace and can be more bothersome to deal with coming back due to their awkward positioning and refusal to walk through the doors.
At this point, you can take a detour, but we’ll hold off on the detour for now just to open the next site of grace first.
So,climb the hill and the stairsahead where your first Fire Knight.
If you’re allergic to being burnt alive, we recommend youkeep the following tips in mind:
When dealing with them, we had thegreatest success when using Frostbiteand a weapon heavy enough to reliably stagger them.
After the Fire Knight is defeated, the Specimen Storehouse Site of Grace isat the top of the elevatorahead.
At this time, we’llstep aside for two possible detours:
Detour: How To Reach The Ruins Of Unte
From theFire Knight Site of Grace(where you fought the Golden Not-A-Hippopotamus),exit the doors to the eastwhere the vulgar militiamen are.
Up the hill, turn righttoward an area of flaming boats you haven’t yet explored. Like the left, the boats are guarded by vulgar militiamen behind them, so tread with caution.
There are a few items in the area, but only theSmithing Stone [8]at the back wall is of note.
What we’re looking for isa ladder toward the back wall and on the north side(left, when you’re entering the boat section).
Descend the ladder,but as you come to stop, beware:
You’re standing on a thin ledge.
Walk carefully to your rightfrom the ladder where the shadows are darkest to a waterfall.
Behind the waterfallis a path into a lower area, and you’ll find the"Domain of Dragons" Painting, but that’s not the only prize here.
Roll against the wall to the north.
Great, that’s still a wall.
Nowroll against the wall to the southand find the real secret path.
You canfollow the secret pathto its finale: a waterfall with a coffin.
You know what to do.Jump into Elden Ring’s coziest bed and enjoy the ride.
Your coffin will take you to the Ruins of Unte, where you can find several items, but most importantly,twoFurnace Golems.
Detour: How To Find The Ancient Ruins Of Rauh And The Iris Of Grace
From the Specimen Storeroom Site of Grace,enter the west roomfilled with shades and pick up the free Rune Arc in here.
With the arc in hand, we can venture through this westward area until you cantake an elevator down.
Directly ahead, there’s a room with a lar jar guarding a Golden-Pickled Fowl’s Foot, but our real destination is throughthe first door on the right.
There’s ajar innard that will jump out at you from the door on the left. It guards the very importantAsh of War: Wall of Sparkson a corpse on the railing.
Continue down the main path, and you’ll find a set of stairs with a jar innard patrolling it.
But before you go down the hill,notice the back wall left of the stairs.Roll into itto discover theBattlefield Priest’s Cookbook [4].
Down the stairs, your favorite jar innards now come in a duo.
We recommend baiting one of these up the stairs to avoid trying to fight both simultaneously.
The following room of rotting beds and corpses is patrolled by jar innards and tiny living jars.
However, the only enemy of note is the giant jar innard that can summon a sort of wave of flesh on the ground that can drastically slow you.We recommend ranged combatafter defeating all surrounding enemies.
Behind this giant jar innard is theIris of Grace, a necessary item for Queelign’s personal questline as well as Count Ymir’s.
Going through the door opposite the Iris of Grace,beware the jar innard to your right,and then head down. You’ll find a large room, but there’s nothing notable here.
Continue on until you reach a Site of Grace.
The set of double doors ahead cannot be opened, so kick them on the way around tothe tiny door to the right.
Ahead is a large bridge of bats, but the real danger is what lies behind them.A Fire Knight that can castRain of Fireis ahead.
you’re able to’t entirely avoid its attacks, but you can find respite between sprints at a few overpasses along the way.Defeat the knight,and you’ll gain access to another site of grace just outside a new map area: The Ancient Ruins of Rauh.
Wave, andreturn to Shadow Keep’s Specimen Storehouse.
Back On Track: How To Reach The Specimen Storehouse Fourth Floor Site Of Grace
Okay, now we’re cooking with gasoline. With our new items in hand and a little exploration out of the way, we can focus on the storehouse again.
From the main site of grace, we’re going to look at the main path and shake our heads at it. Main paths are for chumps.
Instead, we want to:
This will lead to a public study area.
In this room, we’ll discover the extremely valuableBoltdrake Talisman +3on a corpseat the end of the large divider.
To exit,pull the lever to the left of the bookshelfagainst the west wall.
Climb the stairshere, defeating any fire mage shades and vulgar militiamen you encounter on the way, andtake a left to round up another set of stairs.
There are a few items on this floor, like theFire Coil, but the most important thing of note here is theset of stairs down into a new roomwith a fossil on display.
Ansbach, an ally of our mutual and dear friend luminary Mohg,can be found in the far right corner.
Make sure tospeak with him and exhaust all his dialoguebeforemaking your way to the third-floor stairs,which are located in thenortheast.
Don’t worry if you get a little turned around here. The second floor isn’t very big, but every corner has its own little item to make getting lost not so bad. But beware of the patrolling ____ on this floor.
Before we explore the third floor too much,look right over the banisteras you reach the top of the stairs and take a few steps forward.
You should see the tops of several bookcases toward the big petrified specimen. We’re going touse these cases in a game of leapfrog all the way to the specimen.
Once you reach the specimen,climb to the topfor aRevered Spirit Ash.
You can either:
Beware of thefire mage shade on the far balcony. You can’t get revenge on him yet, but the day will come.
A Fire Knight is also here on the third floor, sodefeat itfor theBeast Hornit’s guiding.
Nowtake the stairs to the fourth floor.
There’s another Fire Knight up a few steps who will alert to you, even while sneaking.
Once they’re dispatched, you’re able to step back down the steps and take the west route through a doorway to fight another Fire (yay!). This time, your prize is… It’s another Beast Horn.
From here:
Optionally, you can elect to continue into the next area for aLump of Fleshand another Beast Horn. It’s guarded by another Fire Knight, so if you’re not keen on another elite enemy, we recommend skipping this side area.
From the bridge path,look over the railing to the west for a statuewith a pair of feet next to the rail.
From here,you’ll want to:
The Fourth Floor Site of Grace and Cross are both here.
Collect theScadutree Fragmenthere, and we highly suggestresting and preparingfor yet another long haul.
Ignore any texts telling you to jump. No matter how tempting it may be,there is no way to jump from the fourth floor to the side areawith the ladder and bookshelves. You can’t. You don’t have the right.
How To Reach The Seventh Floor Site Of Grace
Venturing outside the Fourth Floor Site of Grace room, you canclimb the stairsto find a Fire Knight who’s found a new trick.
It’s glowy, and flashy, yes, but a simple forward roll is all that will be needed to overcome it.
There are bats in the following area, including two above a single one feasting on a corpse, but we’llset our sights on a set of downward stairsafter taking care of them.
AHolyproof Pickled Liverand theSecret Rite Scrollcan be found in the room at the bottom.
There’s aShadow Realm Rune [5]on a ledge just on the side of the stairs.
Up the stairs and through a door on the left, you’ll want to ignore the left side of this room (there’s not much of value that way except x2Smithing Stone [6].
Travel rightuntil you reach a set of winding stairs. You’ll be tempted by a room ahead, but it isn’t worth the risk against two Fire Knights for a simpleSpirit Calculus.
Justcontinue climbing the stairsuntil you can see a room with a Site of Grace.
Redmane Freyja is here.Exhaust her dialogueand thenhead back down.
Beware the Fire Knight patrolling around the Site of Grace. If he gives you trouble, just sit down at the grace.
Going back downstairs, ignore the room ahead and insteadgo toward the furthest room south.
At the end isa lever that you can useto lower the central apparatus and the statues attached.
But before you go jumping:
Now, you canjump into the area below and then onto the central apparatus.
Climbing the apparatusof statues, you can venture back outside and up a flight of stairs guarded by two meager shades.
The far scarier opponent is thesword Fire Knightguarding the set of large doors at the top.
He’ssusceptible to backstabs, so we recommend making use of his twirling attacks and punishing them. Last we checked, only Malenia has a pass for dance moves in the middle of combat.
Your reward for defeating him will be theAsh of War: Flame Spearand aWinged Serpent Helm.
But the prizes don’t end there. AScadutree Fragmentlies behind the double doors ahead, andup the stairs is the creme-de-la-creme: Messmer.
Detour: How To Get The Pearldrake Talisman +3
With all our ducks in a row, there’s now an opportunity togo backfor a highly valuable item: thePearldrake Talisman +3.
This will require us tofast-travel to the Fourth Floor Site of Grace.
Here, the statue has now moved, making it possible tojump onto her feet again and run up to her headas you did to reach the grace the first time.
Jump down, and the Pearldrake Talisman will be sitting on the ground in front of the statue’s head.
How To Defeat Messmer The Impaler
Messmer is the fairest fight you’ll have in the DLC.
All of his moves are telegraphed, rhythmic, and generally satisfying to learn. His health, unlike many DLC bosses, is not egregiously oversized.
We’vesummarized the most important tipsfor icing the cover boss for this DLC:
As long as you match Messmer’s dance, never overplaying your hand, you’ll come out on top for theRemembrance of the Impalerand Messmer’s Kindling.
With these in hand, rest andprepare to take on the second, optional halfof the Shadow Keep in Part Two of our Walkthrough guide.
