LastDarkHope, a pretty obscure YouTuber with only 1.31k subscribers as of writing, is casually taking on and defeating several Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree bosses – all while staying at rune level 1 and also not upgrading any equipment at all. I am dumbfounded.
This YouTuber has been casually streaming his Elden Ring DLC escapades for the past week, with somehow no video exceeding 100 views. I am probably blowing up this person's spot, but to be honest, they deserve it. The above video shows them soloing Shadow of the Erdtree's golden Hippopotamus boss, one of the expansion's countless punishing bosses, and beating it at Rune Level 1 with no smithing stones used to upgrade any weapons. That makes this achievement a world-first. Not bad.
LastDarkHope does appear to be using Shadow of the Erdtree's infamous Scadutree Fragments, which concern only the DLC content but do provide damage negation and damage output increases that are significant enough to mention. But all signs — including most everyone struggling even on level 120+ with decked out builds and FromSoftware recently buffing fragments — point to them being essential for completion (even for players like this), so it's quite understandable.
What's most remarkable to me, however, is how LastDarkHope takes on these bosses and enemy mobs with such calm and poise, and in such a surprisingly short amount of time. It took them under five minutes to beat Golden Hippopotamus, while the Furnace Golem in Shadow Keep seen above took them a mere seven minutes. There's nothing like doing things with style and grace to leave me feeling impressed. Hats off to you, LastDarkHope. Keep up the good fight.
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Ivan Krasnov has been a writer for over 7 years. His areas of interest include shooters like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and The Finals, but also RPGs like Cyberpunk: 2077 and the Dishonored franchise and single-player experiences like God of War and The Last of Us. Ivan has a double major in History and Russian from Oberlin College and when he isn't gaming – he is playing music and touring Europe with his band.