Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree NPC quest guide list

The main story of Elden Ring deals with demi-gods, legends, kings and queens, but the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC puts the devoted followers of these powerful nobles in the spotlight.

Across the Shadow Realm, you meet an assorted array of interesting individuals, each with their own motivations, conflicts and goals to achieve.

In true Elden Ring tradition, it’s also extremely easy to accidentally bypass quest steps, lose the location of characters, or just generally not know where to go next.

To combat this, we’ve put together this list of NPC quests in Shadow of the Erdtree so you can keep track of the cast of characters throughout the Shadow Realm.

We have a full walkthrough for each NPC quest linked to their name in the list below.

Shadow of the Erdtree NPC quests

1. Needle Knight Leda
2. Thiollier
3. Hornsent
4. Redmane Freyja
5. Sir Ansbach
6. Moore
7. Dryleaf Dane
8. Igon
9. Count Ymir
10. Fire Knight Queelign
11. Swordhand of Night, Jolan
12. Hornsent Grandam
13. Miquella's Followers

Many of the NPC quests in Shadow of the Erdtree are connected to each other. For example, you can’t complete Freyja’s quest without help from Ansbach, while Needle Knight Leda has a big effect on both the Hornsent and Ansbach.

Thiollier and Moore have a small interaction, but are otherwise relatively siloed from the rest of Miquella’s followers in how you complete their individual quests, but come back to have a bearing on Leda’s.

Dane speaks to you only is messages, but can be considered a driving force in the main story given the progression clues contained in them.

Count Ymir and Fire Knight Queelign aren’t linked from a story perspective, however both require either the Iris of Grace or Iris of Occultation to complete fully.

Then Igon is kind of off on his own with the Dragon Communion Arc that culminates with Bayle the Dread.

But finally, as you might expect the Hornsent Grandam has some interaction with the Hornsent, albeit small.

Because of how Shadow of the Erdtree is structured, it is possible to bring everyone’s individual quests to a satisfactory conclusion within a single playthrough. However, there are lots of machinations that are easy to miss. So if you’re particularly interested in a specific character, make sure to check back with them regularly, or look up the route of their quest.

For instance, in my first playthrough, I missed a key interaction between the Hornsent and Leda, which had ramifications for both of their quests and meant the Hornsent failed to appear later in the story.