They couldn’t have called it the Golden Grace Edition? (New Side Quest! #13)
Game Played: Elden Ring (W/Tarnished Pack) (2026)
With the release of Elden Ring on Nintendo Switch 2, FromSoftware is doing something they’ve never done before – adding new content. For those not on Switch, it comes in the form of the Tarnished Pack which has a handful of new goodies to collect. I’m in the middle of games at the minute so I thought why not, let’s get them, have a play around with some fashion and builds.
The biggest feature of the Tarnished Pack is the addition of two new starting classes – the Idus Knight and Heavy Knight. Much like the base game classes, these aren’t locked to character selection and can be found at merchants out in the world. Strangely enough, the Steel Set for the Heavy Knight and the weapon ‘Hefty Scimitar’ are from two different merchants while the Idus Knight’s armour and shield is at a merchant while the sword is found in the wild.
With a little thought, it’s not strange because as a little bonus to the DLC, some of the DLC exclusive weapon classes have had new basic versions added to the base game – The aforementioned Idus greatsword for the Light Greatswords, Ritual Dueling Shield for the Dueling Shields and the Reed Great Katana for the Great Katanas. No love for the Perfumes, Smithscript, Dry Leaf Arts or Claws but I suppose some stuff has to be kept back.
The Tarnished Pack being a paid update didn’t sit well with everybody, perhaps due to the new skins for Torrent and the association with the Oblivion DLC back in the day. Personally I’m happier for their inclusion, it’s nice to see Torrent looking dapper and the descriptions of the items are very cute.
The final additions to our little hodgepodge update are two new NPC invaders, the first of which is a reference to one of the franchises most beloved NPC’s, Lucatiel of Mirrah. In the Wailing Dunes after the defeat of Starscourge Radahn awaits Leontiel, who wears the signature armour as well as wielding the Mirrah Greatsword (or Hollowslayer Greatsword if you’re a Dark Souls 3 player)
The other NPC, Noble Broken Mask is tied to the Goldmask questline, invading when you use Law of Regression on the Marika statue in Leyndell. None of the new additions add too much to the lore but this is the one thing that is directly linked to something of note (Part of the Goldmask version of the Elden Lord ending). It’s not quite adding Aldia to DKS2 but it’s something.
Rather annoyingly, across the three or four characters I had, none of them were in position to have a full collection – everything/all DLC stuff but that just means I may have to do another full collection run at some point. Just love Elden Ring like that.
