My Take On The "DLC Too Difficult" Discussion: Ruin Farming Skewed The Experience For A Lot of First-Time Players

Regardless of the Fromsoft game, people are always going to farm for souls/ruins/whatever the specific game calls them. That being said, the ruin farming strategies in Elden Ring are by far the easiest to achieve, yield some of the quickest results, and they require little to no progression in the actual game. For example, the classic boulder ruin farm. Can literally start a new playthrough and be farming ruins within 10 minutes without fighting a single enemy.

I also think Elden Ring is unique because ruin farming tutorials were literally EVERYWHERE. I remember around launch seeing TikToks of ruin farming methods with millions and millions of views. I'd wager that the vast majority of Elden Ring players, especially first time fromsoft game players, have some type of knowledge or experience with these farming methods.

And this is why I think a lot of people are massively struggling with the DLC. I firmly believe when the base game came out a lot of the new players got stomped by Margit or the Tree Sentinel, got frustrated, farmed their way to lvl 100+ in a few minutes/hours, then proceeded to breeze through a huge portion of the game. Sure there's still bosses that, regardless of level, require some type of skill to beat, but that character you farmed to level 300 for your first ever playthrough is dramatically altering the experience/difficulty of the game.

Then comes the DLC. Sure your level matters to an extent, but all of a sudden your level 300 character with a +10 Moonveil isn't melting even the first few mini-bosses of the DLC. And this time, there's nothing you can really do to "farm" your character (besides finding Scadutrees and stuff) to make the game easier. For the first time since you first stepped foot in Limgrave your faced with an "authentic" souls-like challenge/experience.

I firmly believe this is where a lot of the complaints are coming from, but curious to hear other people's thoughts.

And FWIW, I have nothing against ruin farming. Go for it. I'm honestly glad it exists. I've done it myself. But you can't deny that it fundamentally changes the experience of the game and can create some pretty bad playstyle "habits".

TLDR: Lots of casual players ruin farmed their way through the base game, became a god, demolished most enemies, and then bought the DLC thinking it would be the same experience.