Elden Ring DLC: How to Prepare for Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Erdtree will transport you to a completely new environment, complete with new weapons, enemies, and much more. While the trailer suggests that all you need to do to get access to the new DLC is beat Mohg, Lord of Blood, there's a lot more you can do to prepare.

What Difficulty Should You Play On?
What Level Should You Be?
Reach and Defeat Mohg to Gain Access
How to Farm Runes Quickly
Materials to Prepare and How to Get Them

What Difficulty Should You Play On?

When preparing for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in Elden Ring, you must first determine whether you want to play as a new character or one who has completed the game and started New Game+ one or more times.

In the end, it is up to you to decide what you want and how much extra effort you want to put into developing your character, but here are a few points to keep in mind:

A new character has the advantage of being able to store a significant number of limited quantity items, such as remembrances, dragon smithing stones, and glovewort, which may have been utilized previously in a New Game+ session.
A New Game+ character is typically better equipped to jump right into the DLC because they will likely have practically every item they require on hand and can simply go around the world to claim anything they are lacking. However, as you progress through New Game+, enemies grow increasingly difficult, which can have an impact on how strong the DLC foes are the first time around.
Starting a new 'New Game' character for the DLC allows you to establish a fun new playstyle that you may grow into while completing the necessary game elements to prepare for the DLC.
New Game+ characters are more likely to be of sufficient level to use a Larval Tear to respec into virtually any build you can imagine.

What Level Should You Be?

Given that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC can be accessed after defeating a boss near the very end of Elden Ring, your character will likely want to be strong enough to take on end-game challenges.

It is recommended that characters be at least Level 100 to 150 to be sufficiently ready for the DLC's challenges. Most players that reach the final boss of Elden Ring are around Level 100 or higher, depending on what they face along the way, so having that many points allocated in various stats is likely to give you a strong fighting chance.

Important note: Beyond your regular level, the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has a special method of leveling up that exists outside of the base game.

Reach and Defeat Mohg to Gain Access

While you don't have to beat Elden Ring to take on Shadow of the Erdtree, you will need to make some progress before you can start. According to FromSoftware, the future DLC will take place on a whole new map apart from the current game. Given the information thus far, you will enter the location through Mohg's palace after beating him.

We know Mohg kidnapped Miquella, one of the DLC's primary protagonists. Miquella appears in the base game as an egg with whom you can interact after defeating Mohg. Currently, the mummy-like remnants do nothing, but the only teaser for Shadow of the Erdtree depicts Miquella's egg suddenly coming to life.

How to Farm Runes Quickly

There are numerous reasons to visit Mohg's palace before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC release in Elden Ring. For starters, the cliffside area before the blood-soaked map contains Albinaurics, who drop an astonishing amount of XP. If you stock up on things that boost your Runes, such as the Gold Pickled Fowl Foot and the Gold Scarab talisman, you can benefit from these enemies to quickly level up.

Farming this enemy repeatedly can let you obtain dozens of levels in minutes. Fortunately, once you've killed the Albinaurics, you can fast-travel to the beginning of the level, forcing the game to resurrect all of them. Make sure to snipe the bird roaming the blood lake visible from the cliff, as it will just fall and provide a good amount of XP.

Materials to Prepare and How to Get Them

Smithing Stones

Rather than wasting time in Elden Ring hunting down 12 of each smithing stone to reach weapon +24 or 1 of each somber smithing stone to get +9, you can find all of the Miner's Bell Bearings.

These rare Bell Bearings can be offered to the Twin Maiden Husks in the Roundtable Hold, allowing you to purchase an endless number of the smithing stones. There are five ordinary Smithing Bearings and four Somber Bearings to gather.

Smithing Stones	How to Get Bell Bearings
Smithing Stones 1 and 2	Can be purchased after defeating the Crystalian boss at the bottom of the Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel, which is found along the cliffs northeast of Raya Lucaria in Liurnia.
Smithing Stones 3 and 4	Inside the Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell 2, which can be located in the Altus Plateau's Capital Outskirts, near the southern edge of the moat.
Smithing Stones 5 and 6	Come from the Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell 3, which can be found to the east, near the entrance to the Mountaintops of the Giants. Once you get to the Zamor Ruins, right past the Lift of Rold, look for an underground area containing the chest.
Smithing Stones 7 and 8	Obtained from the last Smithing-Stone Miner's Bell 4, which you will encounter when you go through the Main Story and reach Crumbling Farum Azula, where you will face the Godskin Duo monsters who drop it upon death.
Somber Smithing Stones 1 and 2	Can be obtained by opening the trap chest in Limgrave's Dragonburnt Ruins and entering Caelid's Sellia Crystal Tunnel at the edge of the Swamp of Aeonia. Earn it by defeating the Fallingstar Beast boss at the top of the tunnel.
Somber Smithing Stones 3 and 4	Unlocked by defeating the Crystalian Duo monsters in the Altus Tunnel, directly below the Minor Erdtree on the Altus Plateau.
Somber Smithing Stones 7 and 8	Unlocked via the Somberstone Miner's Bell 4, which you can find by the Tempest-Facing Balcony in Crumbling Farum Azula.
Somber Smithing Stone 9	Unlocked from the final Somberstone Miner's Bell 5, also located in Farum Azula, which is found down a lift right before you reach the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace.

Glovewort

Tracking down more Glovewort to stockpile for any new DLC Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring, like the Smithing Stones, can be difficult, but discovering special Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearings allows you to acquire infinite amounts once they are given to the Twin Maiden Husks.

Bell Bearing	How to Get Them
Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 1	Discovered in the Wyndham Catacombs, on the southern border of the Altus Plateau and Mt Gelmir, as a reward for defeating the Burial Watchdog boss there.
Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 2	Found in the Giants' Mountaintop Catacombs, far up on a plateau past the Zamor Ruins as you enter the Western Mountaintops of the Giants. It drops after killing the Ulcerated Tree Spirit therein.
Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 3	In Crumbling Farum Azula, requires you to head south from the Crumbling Beast Grave Depths to a large shallow pond guarded by a Wormface.
Ghost Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 1	Found underground in Nokron, Eternal City (after defeating Radahn). After dropping into the newly opened abyss in Limgrave, proceed north to a huge open area with a gazebo containing the item.
Ghost Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 2	Also underground, this time in Nokstella (which can be reached via Ranni's Questline). To reach the underground city, follow the upper river and then turn left at the top of the steps to enter a building with a chest.
Ghost Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing 3	Found far to the north past the secret region of the Consecrated Snowfield, in Miquella's Haligtree. Enter the dungeon, continue to the Drainage Channel, and make your way across the branches to find a building to exit right to find a graveyard with the item.

Larval Tears

Larval Tears can be difficult to locate, as many of them are situated in the Eternal Cities of Nokron and Nokstella in Elden Ring. There are a few merchants who sell them, including Wandering Merchants near the Siofra River and Pidia in Caria Manor.

Mimics, disguised as ordinary enemies, may be encountered in each major zone of The Lands Between. When beaten, they transform into considerably more powerful foes and drop Larval Tears.

A Wandering Noble in West Limgrave east of Agheel Lake (transforms into a Runebear).
A Giant Crayfish in Liurnia near the Rose Church (transforms into a Grafted Scion).
A Wandering Noble in Caelid among a group of coffins overlooking Redmane Castle (transforms into a Troll).
A Wandering Noble in the Altus Plateau in some ruins located south and east of the Windmill Village (transforms into a Blade Lion).
A Flaming Corpse in Mt Gelmir can be found to the east of the Road of Iniquity by a ruined camp (transforms into a Wormface).
A Wandering Noble that's half buried in the Consecrated Snowfield, found southeast of the Inner Consecrated Snowfield Site of Grace among two other nobles (transforms into a Runebear).