LastDarkHope, a fairly obscure YouTuber with only 1.31k subscribers at the time of writing, casually takes on and defeats several Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree bosses – all while remaining at rune level 1 and not upgrading any gear at all. I'm baffled.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree – Walkthrough Part 1: Gravesite Plains
This YouTuber has been casually streaming his Elden Ring DLC adventures for the past week, but somehow none of the videos have reached over 100 views. I'm probably blowing this person's spot up, but honestly, they deserve it. The video above sees them soloing Shadow of the Erdtree's golden Hippopotamus boss, one of the expansion's many tough bosses, and beating him at Rune Level 1 without using any forgestones to upgrade weapons. That makes this a world-first feat. Not bad.
LastDarkHope appears to be using Shadow of the Erdtree's infamous Scadutree Fragments, which only pertain to the DLC content but do offer damage negation and damage output increases significant enough to mention. But all signs – including most people struggling with decked-out builds even at level 120+ and FromSoftware recently buffing fragments – point to them being essential for completion (even for players like this), so it's pretty understandable.
What I find most remarkable is how LastDarkHope tackles these bosses and hostile mobs with such composure and poise, and in such a surprisingly short amount of time. It took them less than five minutes to defeat Golden Hippopotamus, while the Furnace Golem in Shadow Keep seen above took just seven minutes. There’s nothing quite like doing things with style and grace to leave me impressed. Kudos, LastDarkHope. Keep up the good fight.
