A Old Ring speedrunner has offered a $10,000 reward for completing an absurdly difficult challenge for the game Shadow of the Erdtree DLC expansion.
As reported by GamesRadarstreamer Distortion2 starts a new speedrunning category that focuses on Shadow of the Earth Tree. It’s called ‘Rune Level 1 DLC%’, but it goes much further than just a level restriction.
While runners must remain at level 1 throughout their playthrough, they’re also limited to weapons found in the DLC’s Land of Shadow map. That means you won’t be able to carry over that +10 Moonveil katana you’ve been wielding throughout the base game.
Additionally, players must defeat every Remembrance boss – which includes some truly nightmarish battles, such as the Scadutree Avatar and Commander Gaius – as well as Bayle, despicable Bayle. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, while you’re supposed to be free to collect power-enhancing Scadutree Fragments in the DLC area, you’re limited to leveling up your blessing once per defeated boss.
Distortion2 explains his reasoning behind these limitations in the challenge announcement video. “Just rune level 1 wasn’t really hard enough in my mind,” he explains, “because we all know how strong some of the base game weapons can be.”
He adds that the Scadu blessing restriction was a way to prevent runners from scouring the map for Scadutree Fragments, which seems to be the preferred method in standard speedrunning categories.
Best of all, the Rune Level 1 DLC% challenge is open to everyone. So if you want a piece of that $10,000 bounty (it’s $4,000 for the top spot), you can head over to the category’s Discord server to download a custom PC save to get you started. If you think you’re a gamer enough to take on this monumental challenge, you have until August 11th to set your best time.