You know what's wild? It's 2026, and the chatter about a potential Elden Ring DLC is still going strong, like a meme that refuses to die. Everyone and their mother, their second cousin twice removed, and even that one dude who only ever parries has a theory about where we're headed next. It's like we're all flipping through a cosmic travel brochure for The Lands Between. "Ooh, how about a relaxing vacation in that Cthulhu-infested ocean we glimpsed from Caelid?" or "Let's book a nostalgia trip to see Dragonlord Placidusax in his prime, before he got all... crumbly." Don't even get me started on the folks who just want to see the pre-Shattering glory days. Look, I get it. Those ideas sound cool on paper, they're terrifying, and honestly, some are pretty damn good. But me? I'm sitting here hoping, praying even, that none of them are right. Seriously, none of 'em.
Why? Because Elden Ring has always been the king of the curveball. When the gaming world was drowning in a sea of open-world checklists, this game stuck its hand through the pile and pulled itself out, joining the ranks of legends by completely redefining what the genre could be . It wasn't just another Soulsborne game in a big field; it was a revelation. So, for any DLC to live up to that legacy, it can't just be "more of the same, but wetter" or "more of the same, but shinier in the past." FromSoftware has built its reputation on experimenting, on throwing us into the deep end of concepts we never saw coming. Rehashing old ideas, like yet another trip to a pre-ruined civilization? Been there, done that, got the tarnished t-shirt.
Let's talk about the popular guess: the ocean. Sure, exploring aquatic cities and fighting some Leviathan-class boss in an open world would be new territory for FromSoft. No Soulsborne game has really gone full thalassophobia mode before. But here's the thing—it also feels... predictable. We've already seen the hints. We've fought the octopi flopping on the beaches, we've seen the shipwrecks. The community has been piecing this theory together from map gaps and environmental clues for years. And that, to me, is the problem. The magic of the base game wasn't in confirming our theories; it was in utterly demolishing them. The DLC shouldn't be something we can Sherlock Holmes our way into by staring at the edge of the map. It needs to be a complete left hook from the cosmos.
I could sit here and make a list of "plausible" DLC locations, but man, that would totally defeat the whole point. Remember the sheer, unadulterated awe of your first playthrough? Let me paint a picture:
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You finally beat Starscourge Radahn in that epic, festival-style brawl. You think the biggest surprise is over. Then BOOM. A freaking meteorite smashes into the earth, carving out a hole so vast it leads you to...
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Nokron, Eternal City. An entire, breathtaking underground civilization, just as deep and sprawling as the world above. You had zero clue it was there. None.
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Or how about the final gauntlet? You defeat Radagon, and instead of credits, you're yeeted into a fight with the Elden Beast in a shimmering, cosmic limbo you couldn't possibly have accessed before.
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And let's not forget the journey to get there: being flung into the Crumbling Farum Azula, a city suspended in a stormy pocket of time, hovering offshore like some ancient, magical derelict spacecraft.
These moments weren't just cool; they were paradigm-shifting. They were leagues above anything we anticipated when we first stumbled out of that crypt in Limgrave. Compared to that sheer inventive madness, ideas like "go to the ocean," "go back in time," or "fill in that blank spot on the map" feel kinda... tame. Dull, even. It feels like a waste of Elden Ring's limitless potential.
What do I want? I want the DLC to be completely, utterly bizarre. I want it to take a hard left turn away from everything we think we know. FromSoftware has a knack for cooking up stuff in the kitchen that we didn't even know we were hungry for. Getting self-indulgent with existing lore—just expanding on factions or characters we've already met—is the furthest thing from that ambitious promise. Don't give me Miquella's dream if it's just another legacy dungeon. Give me something that makes Miquella's dream look like a nap.
Here's my wishlist, not for a location, but for a feeling:
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A Boss We've Never Heard Of: I want to read the name on the health bar and go, "Who the hell is that?" Not in a "oh, that's a demigod from the lore tablets" way, but in a "what fresh new nightmare is this?" way.
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Total Demolition: I want to get absolutely wrecked by a boss whose very concept we could never have dreamed up. A fight that isn't just hard, but is mechanically and aesthetically mind-blowing.
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The Indescribable Place: I want to be thrown into a sublime, unimaginable realm—somewhere that defies easy description until I'm boots on the ground, looking up with a mix of terror and wonder, probably letting out a sour, crestfallen chuckle as I realize I have to find a Site of Grace in this madness.
That's the Elden Ring DLC experience I'm waiting for. Then, and only then, can we, the community, get to work. We can spend months piecing together its cryptic lore, arguing over item descriptions, and pretending like any of us truly understands even one of its beautiful, terrifying secrets. That's the magic. That's the FromSoftware special. So, let's stop guessing and just get ready to be surprised all over again. My controller is charged, my flasks are full, and I am so ready to have my mind blown.