Discover everything you need to know about Great Hollow in Elden Ring Nightreign DLC, including how to complete the new Shifting Earth.
The Great Hollow in Elden Ring Nightreign DLC is a major new roguelike-style exploration zone introduced in the Forsaken Hollows DLC expansion. Completing this event in Elden Ring Nightreign is much challenging due to its unique mechanics, deadly enemies, and a curse mechanism. The objective is to remove the curse by breaking the giant crystal in the center of the map. Completing the Great Hollow rewards you with Favor of the Great Hollow, False Vision of a Great Rune, and Weapon Duplication.
At the start of a Great Hollow expedition, entering big POIs like Castles, Towers, and strongholds triggers a crystal curse. This mitigates your HP to 50%, making those zones very dangerous. Castles and Towers are effectively locked behind the crystal-curse mechanic until you do the crystal-break step. Make sure to kill the Kaiden Mercenaries at the start of the match. Get at Least 2 to 3 Churches before Night 1.
For more information on Elden Ring Nightreign The Forsaken Hollows DLC, check out its official Steam page here.
Table of contents
What is the Great Hollow Shifting Earth Event?
The Great Hollow differs significantly from the existing Shifting Earth events in Nightreign in terms of mechanics, enemies, and objectives. This is confined to the map of Limveld, but is bigger in scale. The Great Hollows offers a completely new map with many layers. This is somehow similar to the Shadow of the Erdtree map, but the area is filled with Crystal Curse.
This curse mitigates your max HP by 50%, so removing it is your main objective in Great Hollow. Break the Great Crystal found in the centre of The Great Hollow map. Before you break the giant crystal, you need to shatter four other crystals scattered throughout the world. If you’re playing solo, then these other crystals are only three in total.
Once you destroy the crystals, you unlock the ability to teleport around the map via the Great Crystal. Doing so allows you to obtain Favor of the Great Hollow. This status effect can remove the crystal curse’s 50% HP debuff and enhance the Ultimate Art gauge when all of your Sacred Flasks are exhausted.
Unlock the Great Hollow Shifting Earth Event
Unlocking the Great Hollow Shifting Earth Event requires you to do a bit of work. The first major thing to do is to unlock the two new Nightfarers (Undertaker & Scholar) in The Forsaken Hollows DLC. Finish at least two Nightlord expeditions, including the Tricephalos expedition that you need to finish to unlock Scholar and Undertaker. After completing all the objectives, you unlock the chapel behind the Small Jar Merchant in the Roundtable Hold.
Break the Curse
There are two interesting points, which actually curse you with the Crystal Curse, which halves your HP. Just being in the vicinity of these castles or the structures will apply. So, you can decide to go in with that curse and try to take down all of the enemies inside. When you are cursed, you will have crystals around your character’s chest. If you actually venture around the map and find four of the mini crystals, which are blue, and after beating the day one boss will appear on your map in day 2.
Then you will break the giant crystal in the middle of the map, which has the bonus passive effect of nullifying that crystal curse. Meaning you can go into those bigger structures with all of the major loot inside without being cursed at all. It just adds a little bit of extra information that the crystal in the middle becomes a Spirit Spring. Make sure you use that on the way out to quickly get to wherever you want to go.
Key Points of Interest
There are a bunch of things to find on the Great Hollow map. The mines are on the very outskirts of the map, near where those cursed castles are. Inside the mines, you can either find a stone troll or a crystallion. Upon defeating one of these enemies, you will get the choice of either picking up another weapon or the Smithing Stone, too.
There’s also a weapon duplication area in this map, which actually leads down to the catacombs. Just look out for the stairways leading down into said catacomb. After beating the boss there, you can then freely use the DLC remembrance duplicating altar. This will obviously duplicate your weapons.
The middle of the map is a good spot for bosses. There are a lot of enemies in those castle areas, and there are a lot of tiers to this map. This sort of thing in the middle also synergizes quite well with a lot of churches. In your beginning runs or your first attempt, I recommend staying in the middle area.
Day 1 Objectives in Great Hollow
Search for and break dark blue crystals on day 1 in Great Hollow. These are scattered around The Great Hollow. Interacting with them will crack the central Great Crystal. Once you break four of them total, you’ll unlock the central crystal and get a special buff.
Make sure to avoid big cursed areas until you have the buff. Until you break those crystals, entering major POIs like the ruined castles or temples will impose a crystal curse. Clear the small camps and low-level field bosses to build up levels, loot, and weapons. This helps you start strong and prepare for tougher fights later.
Acquire the utility items like Sacred Flasks or Stonesword Keys if near them, depending on map spawn. These give you survival benefits for later challenges in Great Hollow.
So, your day 1 objectives are to break four crystals (Three in solo) to unlock the central buff, survive early fights, and gather resources.
Day 2 Objectives in Great Hollow
Make your way to the central crystal and gain the buff that removes the crystal curse and unlocks access to cursed zones if you didn’t break crystals on day 1. Focus on exploring big Points of Interest like castles, forts, temples/divine towers. These contain stronger enemies, bosses, high-tier loot, and major rewards like runes and rare weapons. Eliminate the deadly enemies because they grant you big rune payouts, loot, and Dormant Power.
Collect any remaining utilities like Sacred Flasks from churches, power-ups, and gear upgrades. It’s worth mentioning that staying stocked improves survival chances in tougher POIs. Finally, reach and defeat the Day 2 Night boss.
So, your goal in Day 2 is to use the crystal buff to safely conquer the heavy-hitting zones in the Great Hollow, gear up, acquire strong loot, and complete the expedition by defeating the Day 2 boss.
The Great Hollow Rewards
Completing the Great Hollow event in Elden Ring Nightreign DLC allows you to gain rewards like Favor of the Great Hollow, False Vision of a Great Rune, and Weapon Duplication. Destroying the 4 main crystals in the Great Hollow will allow you to obtain the Favor of the Great Hollow. This ability allows you to remove the max health reduction present in the two urban areas of the map. Use this power to explore the map with ease.
False Vision of a Great Rune allows your Ultimate Art to auto-charge quickly and gain bonus murk after a session. Make your way to the northwest or southwest to get to the Divine Towers. Each of these areas has different Towers. You can acquire the great rune from the top, but you need to eliminate 3 bosses in the structure, 1 on each floor. Complete and obtain the rune of 1 of the towers to obtain this power.
Weapon Duplication, on the other hand, is obtained from the duplication altar. You can locate this at the lower part of the map, to the slight southwest of the giant purple crystal. Make sure to find the staircase entrance leading to an underground tomb with an Elder Inquisitor. Eliminate this boss to gain access to the duplication altar.
Castles in Great Hollow
Castle in Great Hollow is basically a fortified stronghold filled with enemies, multiple levels, and high-tier loot. You can find multiple mid-level bosses, as well as regular enemies, spread across walls, courtyards, and inner rooms.
Castles in Nightreign often provide strong rewards like chests with talismans, dormant-power rewards from bosses, and gear. This is one of the big POIs you aim to clear on Day 2 after you’ve broken enough crystals to remove the curse debuff. The castles have high-tier loot, talismans, powerful weapons/armor, many bosses & dormant powers.
Towers in Great Hollow
Towers are generically tall structures that work like arena- or gauntlet-style zones. Each Divine Tower acts as a boss rush, meaning it contains a sequence of multiple high-level bosses rather than a sprawling dungeon layout.
Completing a Divine Tower offers special power (False Vision of a Great Rune). Defeat all the bosses in a tower or at least one to gain this reward. Divine Towers are high-risk, high-reward mini-dungeons with a boss-rush structure. The Towers have multiple bosses and provide a special ability.
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