The Forsaken Hollows does not place every new option on the expedition table as soon as the download finishes. Its playable characters, Great Hollow map state, and two Day Three targets open in sequence. The fastest reliable route is to verify the DLC, clear Tricephalos, recruit Scholar and Undertaker, meet the second-boss requirement, learn the Great Hollow’s crystal check, defeat the Balancers, and only then prepare for the Dreglord.
This guide follows that chain on the July 26, 2026 PC/console ruleset. The latest official version located during verification was App Ver. 1.03.2 with Regulation Ver. 1.03.5. Remembrance chapters, skin unlocks, Deep of Night ranking, and exhaustive crystal spawn maps are separate tasks; they are not required to open the main DLC route.
First prove that the DLC is active
The Forsaken Hollows is DLC for the standalone ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, not an expansion for the original ELDEN RING. On Steam it has its own App ID, 3531720, while the base game and its Community Guides use App ID 2622380. That distinction matters when a store page says the add-on is owned but the Roundtable Hold never changes.
Apply the current game update and check the lower-right corner of the title screen. A working installation shows The Forsaken Hollows above the game-version line. If the label is absent, stop looking for an NPC trigger: confirm that the add-on is installed and enabled for the same platform account that owns the base game, then restart the client.
- Steam: open the base game’s Properties and confirm the DLC is checked in the DLC section.
- PlayStation: owners of some deluxe or upgrade bundles may still need to download the PS4/PS5 add-on manually.
- Xbox: use Manage game and add-ons, select The Forsaken Hollows, and save the installation change.
The launch requirement was Update 1.03, but that is now only the minimum DLC gate. For online play, compare both the App and Regulation numbers on the title screen with the latest official notice rather than assuming an installed add-on is fully current.
Clear Tricephalos, then follow the Roundtable handoff
Scholar and Undertaker remain locked until the account has defeated Tricephalos, the expedition whose Day Three boss is Gladius. A clear earned before installing the DLC still counts. If the Iron Menial has no new dialogue, confirm that the Tricephalos expedition shows as completed and that the DLC label is present on the title screen.
After that clear, return to the Roundtable Hold and use this order:
- Speak with the Iron Menial and receive the message from the Small Jar Merchant.
- Go to the Small Jar Bazaar and speak with the merchant.
- Interact with the nearby closed door to enter a brief Dreglord encounter.
- Let the encounter resolve. Winning is not required for this story trigger.
- Return to the opened chapel and speak to both Scholar and Undertaker individually.
The proof state is not merely seeing the two characters in the room. Open character selection and verify that both are playable. If only the chapel scene has fired, go back and exhaust each character’s conversation before attempting to unlock the next target.
The Balancers gate checks two different conditions
Recruiting Scholar and Undertaker satisfies only half of the next gate. The account must also have defeated two different base-game Nightlords, with Tricephalos as one of them. Clear any other main-game target if the account has only the mandatory Gladius victory.
When both requirements are true, return to the chapel behind the Small Jar Merchant. The new scene there opens the Balancers expedition and the Great Hollow Shifting Earth. Check the expedition table after the scene. If the target is missing, diagnose the two gates separately:
| What is missing | What to verify | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| One or both DLC Nightfarers | Scholar and Undertaker both appear in character selection | Return to the chapel and speak to each character |
| The second base target | Two different Nightlords show completed, including Tricephalos | Clear one other base-game expedition |
| The chapel trigger | The new scene has played after both conditions were met | Re-enter the chapel, then recheck the expedition table |
In Deep of Night, the DLC’s targets, landmarks, raids, and Shifting Earth can also appear during base-game expeditions after the relevant update. Official guidance adds a matchmaking restriction: all three players in that matched group must own the DLC. A missing Great Hollow in that mode is not automatically a broken account unlock.
Read the Great Hollow as two stacked maps
The Great Hollow punishes flat-map habits. Important routes sit on upper and lower layers, and a marker can appear close while a cliff or underground wall makes it unreachable from the current elevation. Toggle the map layer before committing to a long detour. If a cathedral, church, tunnel, or route marker seems to vanish, check the other layer before searching the edge of the island.
Do not turn the opening minutes into a blind crystal sprint. Take the closest manageable camp or field enemy first, secure an early level and weapon, and collect a nearby church if it fits the line. Break a blue crystal whenever the route passes one, but do not cross half the map at level one because a remembered spawn was occupied in a previous run. Crystal positions vary between layouts.
Large strongholds and towers apply the crystal curse before the Great Hollow favor is claimed. The visible crystal growth on the character and the sudden reduction to half maximum HP are the failure signals. Unless the group is deliberately taking that risk, leave the cursed zone and resume the crystal route. The best loot inside does not compensate for entering underleveled with half a health bar.
Break the crystal curse without sacrificing Night One
Interact with a glowing blue crystal and choose Resonate. A successful interaction produces a message that the Great Crystal is cracking. Current mode-specific references report three Resonances in solo and four in duos or trios. Some general guides state four without separating modes, so the live proof is more useful than a memorized count: keep going until the central crystal visibly shatters and its objective marker appears.
Crystals can be found on Day One, but their markers become visible on Day Two. That creates a flexible checkpoint rather than a mandatory opening race:
- If the team finds the required crystals while clearing useful fights, shatter the center early and make the strongholds available for the rest of the run.
- If Night One is approaching and the group is underleveled, stop searching. Win the night boss, then use the Day Two markers to finish the missing Resonances.
- If a visible crystal does not produce the cracking message, do not count it. In multiplayer, regroup around the live objective state rather than arguing from separate counters.
After the Great Crystal breaks, travel to the new central marker. Two crystalline paths descend into the broken structure. Drop to the reward point and claim the Favor of the Great Hollow. Each player should interact with the reward personally. The Favor removes the stronghold curse for that Nightfarer and also improves Art-gauge recovery after all Sacred Flasks have been consumed.
A shattered crystal without the Favor is an unfinished state. Before heading to a tower, open the status screen or step near a formerly cursed boundary and verify that maximum HP remains intact.
Choose the Day Two payoff by the clock
The Favor makes the two major tower areas practical, but it does not create extra time. Make the Day Two decision from the run you actually have:
- Favor claimed, strong build, healthy clock: use the Spirit Spring behind the central crystal to reach a tower and work upward through its boss sequence.
- Favor claimed, weak weapons or few flasks: take nearby field bosses, chests, or a church before committing to a three-fight tower climb.
- Favor still missing: finish the marked crystals and central claim first. Do not enter a cursed tower simply because the storm is pushing that direction.
- Storm already closing over the tower: abandon the optional reward if the route to the Night Two arena is no longer safe.
Clearing a tower grants the False Vision of a Great Rune, which accelerates automatic Art charging and adds a post-expedition currency reward. It is valuable preparation, not a victory condition. The Great Hollow also contains a weapon-duplication altar below the central area, reached through a stairway into a catacomb and opened after its boss. Use that detour only when duplicating the current weapon materially improves the Day Three plan.
Prepare for the Balancers before the arena
The expedition table displays the Balancers’ closed-eye weakness marker: they are vulnerable to Sleep. Treat that marker as a routing preference, not permission to ruin an otherwise strong run. Search Sleep-affinity ruins, their containers, and cellar chests when they lie on the route; Soporific Grease, Sleep Pots, or a Sleep weapon can create a control window. If the run never offers them, keep the better weapon and build around survival and multi-target damage.
The first part of the fight contains several Balancers with separate health. Concentrate damage so one enemy leaves the field instead of distributing half-health bars across the group. Wide attacks and linked damage are useful because they create value without forcing the team to stand between multiple spears.
After the initial group falls, one returns as the more aggressive empowered Balancer while the others support it. Call out which player has its attention. That player should keep the empowered enemy moving through clear space; the other two can reduce the supporting group. Killing the empowered one creates a brief group-wide opening, but another can take its role, so spend Ultimates during a controlled stun rather than during a scattered chase.
Repeated knockdowns and failed revives usually mean the arena has become too wide. Stop pursuing separate targets, pull the fight back into shared camera range, and save one Art for rescue. Sleep helps most when the team agrees which enemy must remain disabled; immediate stray damage wastes the proc.
Beating the Balancers opens the Dreglord
A Balancers victory unlocks the Dreglord expedition. If the new target does not appear, return to the Roundtable Hold, allow the post-victory state to finish, and reopen the expedition table. The opening chapel encounter did not count as a Dreglord clear; it was only the character-unlock trigger.
The Dreglord’s expedition description does not list a conventional weakness. Do not throw away a strong build while searching for one required element. Instead, prepare for a long two-form fight:
- Reach a normal Day Three level and expand flask capacity whenever the route permits.
- Carry Preserving Boluses or another verified Rot answer, and favor useful Rot resistance if it appears.
- Keep at least one mobile damage dealer and one character capable of safe ranged pressure or rescue.
- Prefer short recovery animations until the team has learned the large area attacks.
Traitorous Straghess, the first form, mixes broad weapon swings, Rot explosions, and slow summoned enemies. The adds are pressure rather than the primary objective; clear one only when it blocks a revive or escape line. When the boss gathers Rot matter or begins a large charge, sprint out early. Waiting beside it for a last hit risks both the initial pull and the delayed blast.
Pure Impulse Straghess is faster and uses the arena’s Rot structures for sudden movement. Keep the boss in view even when repositioning. A missing lock-on after it jumps is a warning to stop attacking and locate the landing, not a chance to heal in place. Cure Rot only after reaching clear ground, and reserve an Art for a safe interrupt, rescue, or punish after the largest recovery window.
The route is complete when the actual Dreglord expedition is cleared. Scholar and Undertaker Remembrances can then reuse parts of this progression, but they contain their own chapter gates and expedition objectives. Treat them as follow-up routes rather than reasons to delay the DLC’s main unlock chain.
Sources and credits
Identity, release metadata, and official imagery: Steam and the official Forsaken Hollows page. Unlock conditions and version boundary: Bandai Namco’s DLC unlock guide and Hotfix 1.03.5 notes. Route and boss behavior were cross-checked against readable community guides and verified walkthrough references.