If you've gone Hollow waiting for Elden Ring's actual expansion, tide yourself over with with this expansion-sized mod ...

To borrow the parlance of Dark Souls, I have absolutely "gone Hollow" awaiting further word on Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. It'll come when it comes, but I can only replay Elden Ring and the rest of the Souls series so many times in anticipation. Enter The Convergence, an Elden Ring overhaul mod that might be just the thing to tide freaks like me over. Here's a quick overview of everything on offer from the mod page:

• Class Based Progression: Each class now has its own unique progression path through the Lands Between.
• New Classes: 27 new classes, each with their own unique identity and playstyle.
• Unique Starting Locations: Each class now has its own starting location in the world.
• Boss Resurrection: Relive the epic battles of your favorite Remembrance bosses.
• Remnant Crafting: Craft talismans and physick tears through the grace menu using new crafting materials found in the world.
• The Erdtree Network: Go almost anywhere in the world by defeating the local Erdtree bosses and teleporting to your desired location.
• Better Crafting: No need to go around and fetch cookbooks or containers, every recipe is unlocked right from the start. You can also craft during combat.
• Dungeon Overhauls: Many dungeons have been overhauled, tweaked or expanded with more planned for the future.
• New Equipment: Hone your arsenal with new weapons for each class and a huge amount of new spells to cast.
• New Bosses: Test your new found power against our new and improved foes.

The new classes and starting points are something that really intrigues me⁠—I'm reminded of the ubiquitous alternate start mods for the Elder Scrolls games. In this Convergence playthrough by YouTuber GinoMachino, he starts out as a rot-themed class focused on inflicting the damage over time status effect. Appropriately, this stinky guy class begins the game in hellish Caelid instead of the idyllic Limgrave.

The Convergence team also adopted FromSoftware's creative sensibility when it comes to new weapon designs: a Scarlet Rot-themed curved sword with a teleport slash ash of war seems a bit OP to my eye, but it's the exact sort of gleeful experimentation I hope to see out of Shadow of the Erdtree's additions to the arsenal.

Convergence also introduces some exciting new level design ideas: reshuffled warp gates join the modified starting points in breaking up the typical flow of an Elden Ring playthrough, and I particularly appreciate what the team did with the subterranean Lake of Rot. Building on the vertically-oriented ruins already present in the base game, Convergence adds a veritable city rising out of the zone's iconic pink muck.

Convergence is fairly easy and safe to use⁠—similar to the excellent Seamless Co-op mod, it runs off a separate .exe with its own save files, keeping your installation and vanilla saves protected from the long arm of Easy Anti-Cheat.

There's been a bit of a renaissance of these Souls series romhack-style mods, with fans creating total conversion unofficial sequels of their own. I'm still eagerly awaiting the Nightfall mod for Dark Souls Remastered, while Archthrones for Dark Souls 3 recently showed off a new level set in a mysterious desert temple.