How to open the sealed and obscured by shadow door in Elden Ring SotE

Braving the Shadowlands in the new Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is no easy task. Worse, the monstrous enemies aren’t the only walls you’ll be running into. Let’s face fearsome foes and figure out how to open the sealed and obscured by shadow door in Elden Ring SotE.

When to open the sealed and obscured by shadow door in Elden Ring SotE

If there’s anything I learned by playing the base game, it’s that the game rewards exploration. The same can be said for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, and it doesn’t take long to notice this trend.

We’re going to be getting into light spoiler territory for the opening bosses of the DLC, so use this as your **Spoiler Warning**.

For starters, the door in question is found in the area right after defeating the first main boss of the game, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, in the Belurat, Tower Settlement. Upon reaching this area, you’ll be told that the door is sealed and obscured by shadow. This is FromSoftware’s way of telling you to come back when you’ve got some more blood on your hands.

More specifically, the only thing that will rid the door of this obstruction is Messmer Flames. To get Messmer Flames, you’ll have to travel east to the Shadowkeep dungeon and complete the dungeon by defeating Messmer the Impaler.

You’ll need to make sure you are sufficiently leveled for the DLC area, and even then Messmer will rain some pain onto you. After successfully defeating the box art boss, head back to Belurat where the door is, and use the Flames of Messmer to unblock the way forward.

But before continuing all the way forward, make sure you’ve stopped by Hornsent Grandam in Belurat to grab some sweet rewards.