Elden Ring Boss Guide – All Bosses

Elden Ring contains lots of boss fights. This Elden Ring Boss Guide will walk you through the best tactics to defeat all bosses in the game. They are listed in chronological order below. Please note that some bosses can be encountered in a different order depending on what area you visit first, this list is how it’s intended by the game based on area difficulty.

The recommended starting class is Astrologer. This is the classic mage spellcaster. A magic build is easiest for beginners, it allows you to attack enemies from a safe distance. Stand far enough away where the boss can’t hit you but close enough where your magic can hit them. Always run (hold ) or dodge backward to stay out of the enemy’s attack range. For enemies with shields, lure them into attacking you by running around in front of them. After they miss their attack you have a moment to counter-attack, rinse and repeat. Focus on primarily leveling up damage, in case of Astrologer that’s the Intelligence attribute. Also put some points into Vigor for more health. A good ratio is out of every 3 attribute points put 2 in whatever your weapon damage scales to and 1 in Vigor. A melee character is quite difficult to play in this game, as it requires learning enemy movesets perfectly and dodging at the right time, with an Astrologer you can largely get around this by staying far away from the enemy. At sites of grace you can change how many of your flasks are assigned to health and how many to mana. Remember you can also summon Ashen Remains (spirits) to fight alongside you in battle. These distract the bosses so that you can attack from behind for bonus damage. Some main bosses also let you summon an NPC helper before the boss fight, indicated by an orange mark on the ground.

Because the game is open world you can already go to many late-game areas to find flask upgrades from the beginning. Do this first before fighting the difficult bosses. Golden Seeds increase the number of flasks, Sacred Tears increase the amount of health/mana restored. See Golden Seed Locations & Sacred Tear Locations.

If you feel too underleveled, spend some time grinding runes to level up. For an easy method to get 300,000+ runes per hour from the start of the game, see Elden Ring Infinite Runes Farming Exploit. It is better to spend an hour farming runes to get 20 level-ups than to be stuck at a boss for an hour. If you want to make things significantly easier you can grind to Level 100+ right from the start.

For Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Bosses refer to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Boss Guide.

Boss #1 – Grafted Scion

Location: Chapel of Anticipation (no in-game map available)

Difficulty: 9/10 during tutorial, 3/10 if returning later (Level 60+)

Strategy: Welcome to Elden Ring – the game likes to punish you right away with a near-impossible fight. This boss is meant to kill you. This is the prologue tutorial boss and you don’t have any health flasks at this point. 2 hits and you are dead. You only have one try at this boss, if you die you’d need to start a New Game to fight it again here, or you can return later in the game through a portal to replay the boss. You are massively underleveled and there’s not much reason to try this fight when you are just starting out. It’s better to keep this boss for later, don’t worry about it for now. There are two strategies to go about this – to beat the boss during the tutorial it’d be easiest to start as Bandit or Samurai because they have a bow. You can shoot all your arrows at the boss from a safe distance to take down as much of its health as possible. Then finish it off with melee. Once you enter melee combat, run in front of the boss (hold to run) to lure it into attacking. Take it slow and watch all its moves until you recognize the moveset perfectly. Once you know all moves inside out, keep luring it into attacking by running in front of it, then after it misses its attack you have a moment to go in and land 1-2 hits, run away and repeat. You can still replay this boss later by going to Liurnia of the Lakes: The Four Belfries, open the chest at the top of the hill to get Imbued Key, use the key on the portal at the top tower and it will transport you back to this boss. He drops one of the best shields in the game. When you are Level 60+ and have a Level 10+ weapon it will be an easy fight because you will deal a lot of damage and will have plenty of health and flasks to survive the hits. Especially with magic spells it will be an easy fight because you can stay at safe distance.

Reward: Ornamental Straight Sword, Golden Beast Crest Shield

Boss #2 – Tree Sentinel

Location: Limgrave – The First Step

Difficulty: 6/10 (if backtracking after Level 35+)

Strategy: This is the large knight clad in golden armor on horseback patrolling the path between The First Step and Church of Elleh Sites of Grace. He is very powerful and has the ability to deflect magic. It’s strongly recommended to return to this boss later once you are Level 35+.
The key to beating this boss is using your horse and the raised rocky terrain in the environment, it can be abused to get in the way of his attacks. If you move far away from him he will charge at you and do a swing attack, use the environment to block him or dash out of the way, after most of his halberd swings you can rush in on horseback for 1-2 hits and easily move away before he attacks again. Be wary of his shield slam and the slam attack where he jumps in to the air, these have an area-of-effect, so back out of the way and move in again for 1-2 hits afterwards.
If you are a ranged character you can utilize much of the same strategy, however if you spam too much magic at once he will raise his shield and deflect it back at you in the form of powerful golden projectiles, so you need to pick out the best time to use, usually 1-2 shots as he’s recovering from attacks.

Reward: Golden Halberd, 3200 Runes

Boss #3 – Beastman of Farum Azula

Location: Limgrave – Groveside Cave

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: This boss likes to do 3-4 hit sword attacks. Run backwards (hold ) while it does its combo, let it miss. Then after it finishes its combo you have a moment to attack. Rinse and repeat.

Reward: Flamedrake Talisman, 700 Runes

Boss #4 – Erdtree Burial Watchdog

Location: Limgrave – Stormfoot Catacombs

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: When it uses its plunge attack from above, run backwards (hold to run), after it misses you can attack. Focus on punishing this one attack, stay clear of the boss when it’s on the ground. With a ranged/magic build you can simply run away and shoot it between its attacks.

Reward: Noble Sorcerer Ashes, 1200 Runes

Boss #5 – Demi-Human Chief

Location: Limgrave – Coastal Cave

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: You will have to face several Demi-Humans and 2 chiefs, they are larger demi-humans wielding large daggers and are quite aggressive, so it can be difficult to manage this fight at a low level.
At first only 1 of them will attack, with the 2nd one joining in after a short time, they will attack in combos consisting of a few, fairly wide arcing hits, roll or move backwards, then move in for 1-2 hits once they do the slam attack, it’s a good idea to take care of the minions first as they go down in a few hits. If you can keep up the offensive you can stun them and move in for a critical hit to deal a good amount of damage.
If you’re using magic the same applies, backup/roll out of the way of their attacks then try to squeeze in 1-2 shots of magic. It’s good to use the spell “Glintstone Arc” to hit multiple enemies in one attack, this will clear out the mobs very quickly, and has a higher hit chance on the 2 bigger enemies (harder for them to dodge it).
Just before the boss arena you may have the summon sign for Old Knight Istvan (not always there), if it’s available summon him for a significantly easier fight, take care of the minions while he engages the chiefs, then help him out with melee or magic, he is a good distraction and deals a decent amount of damage.

Reward: Tailoring Tools, Sewing Needle, 675 runes

Boss #6 – Mad Pumpkin Head

Location: Limgrave – Waypoint Ruins (go down the stairs from inside the ruins to get underground and through the yellow fog wall)

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Dodge backwards ( ) when the boss does his attacks. After it finishes, land some hits, repeat. If playing a ranged/mage build, you can roll back and spam some attacks while the boss is performing its combo. Luckily, this boss doesn’t do quite as much damage per hit and doesn’t reach very far.

Reward: 800 Runes, unlocks Spell Merchant at Waypoint Ruines (door behind boss)

Boss #7 – Stonedigger Troll

Location: Limgrave – Limgrave Tunnels, enter the tunnels, after going past the first cave section with enemies there’s an elevator, must jump off the side of the elevator while it’s moving to reach a secret cave section that leads to another elevator and the boss

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: This boss hits hard, has a wide range of attack, and you are in a small space with him which makes it hard to dodge. However, he does have relatively little health and his attacks are relatively slow. In the early game this can be difficult when you don’t have enough flask upgrades yet, because it’s hard to not get hit here and you will run out of health flasks quickly. It’s better to come back later. Once you have 7 flasks he is quite easy to brute force, since the game is open world you can spend some time collecting Golden Seeds first to upgrade your flask, before focusing on the bosses. Spawn the Lone Wolf Ashes (summons 3 wolves – see How to summon Ashes & Get Lone Wolf Ashes), this will distract the boss and he will focus on the wolves. Then you can attack him from behind (more damage) between his attacks. With a mage skilled on high intelligence (more damage) he will go down pretty quickly when summoning some ashes to distract him.

Reward: Roar Medallion, 1800 Runes

Boss #8 – Bloodhound Knight Darriwil

Location: Limgrave – Forlorn Hound Evergaol (on a hill south of Waypoint Ruins along the main road)

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Whenever this boss starts a combo, dodge back twice, then land 1-2 hits after it finishes its combo. Rinse and repeat.

Reward: Bloodhound’s Fang (Sword Weapon), 1400 Runes

Boss #9 – Crucible Knight

Location: Limgrave – Stormhill Shack, Stormhill Evergaol

Difficulty: 6/10

Strategy: This is a human knight with a shield, he likes to use the shield when he’s not attacking to block all of your attacks. You have to lure him into attacking by running around in front of him left and right (hold to run). When he starts attacking, run backwards so he can’t hit you, then as he finishes his combo you must land a hit. Rinse and repeat. If you are playing a mage or other ranged build the same applies, because his shield will block all projectiles. Just run/roll away from his attacks. It may take a few tries to learn all his combos, sometimes he does only 1 or 2 hits, other times he does a longer combo. He can also fly around but those flying attacks you can easily dodge sideways. This boss has quite a lot of health for the early game. It’s best to leave him and come back when you are Level 30+ and have 7-8 flasks to heal/regen mana. You just have to keep exploiting him into attacking you by running close to him. It takes a while to whittle down his health because of the limited timing you have between he finishes a combo and his shields going back up, just take it slow and safe. Luckily, if you die you respawn directly in front of the Evergaol (pick Stake of Marika for respawning).

Reward: Aspects of the Crucible: Tail, 1800 Runes

Boss #10 – Deathbird

Location: Limgrave – Warmaster’s Shack, to the south-east of Warmaster’s Shack on the stone ruins with a lot of glowing rock on them, where the giants/trolls walk – ONLY SPAWNS AT NIGHT (can advance time at site of grace)

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Deathbird only spawns at night time, so make sure you skip time at a site of grace. It only shows up when you go on top of the stone ruins about 50 meters south-east of “Warmaster’s Shack” site of grace (east of Stormhill Shack), where the big trolls/giants are roaming around the Stormhill. You won’t see it from afar because it only spawns when you approach its spot. It is a big bird with a cane. His moveset is pretty limited and only includes melee attacks with his long cane. He can either attack you from the ground or from the air. The fight is extremely easy if you are using spells while riding your mount, since the bird takes its time to actually approach you and prefers moving slowly. Another factor that makes the fight trivial is having a 100% physical resistance shield since it allows you to block all of its attacks without losing any health. Block its blows and punish it. Spell users simply ride at safe distance and spam spells.

Reward: Blue-Feathered Branchsword (Talisman)

Boss #11 – Patches

Location: Limgrave – Murkwater Cave

Difficulty: 2/10

Strategy: One of the easiest “bosses” in the game. Go through the yellow mist wall at the end of Murkwater Cave and loot the chest in the room. Then the boss, called Patches, will appear. He is a human enemy with a shield, but when he reaches half health he will give up immediately. With a mage you can simply spam Glinstone Pebble at him, even though he will block with his shield he still takes a bunch of damage, enough to get him to half health without even running the risk of getting hit by him. After he gives up you can talk to him again and choose to forgive him or not. It’s better to forgive and forget, he will apologize and says he will open a merchant shop later.

Reward: Golden Rune [1], Grovel for Mercy, 400 Runes

Boss #12 – Grave Warden Duelist

Location: Limgrave – Murkwater Catacombs

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Grave Warden is a big humanoid enemy, swinging two hammers on chains. Start the fight by summoning some Ashes to help you, for example the Lone Wolf Ashes (see How to summon Ashes & Get Lone Wolf Ashes). Most of his attacks are short-ranged, sometimes he will throw his hammers in a circle like a whip, but it’s easy to dodge. He can attack in combos of 4-5 hits but being short range attacks you can simply move or roll backwards to evade them with ease and punish him afterwards for a couple of hits. He will sometimes do a jumping slam attack that is easily dodged and punished for a couple of hits as well.
If you’re using a magic character you can simply keep walking backwards while he is attacking and fire several shots of magic at him for good damage, just remember to keep moving or he may close the gap.
Near the end of the fight he will roar and have a red aura and his attacks will do more damage, just keep up with the same strategy and he will fall.

Reward: 1600 Runes, Banished Knight Engvall Ashen Remains

Boss #13 – Flying Dragon Agheel

Location: Limgrave – in the water-filled area east of “Church of Elleh” site of grace (north of Dragon-Burnt Ruins)

Difficulty: 6/10 (if backtracking at Level 50+)

Strategy: This boss is better tackled later when you are Level 50+ and have 8+ Flasks. At the start of the game he would be too difficult. The dragon will fly in once you reach the burning pyre in the middle of the flooded area. It’s highly recommended to fight this boss while riding a mount. If you are using a melee character you will need to wait until it lands and then attack its legs and for a few hits at a time, it’s unwise to go for the head as it will attack with a few bites. If it starts to wind up to breathe fire get out of the way immediately as the fire can kill you in one hit.
This is an easy fight if you’re using magic, aim for the head whenever there is an opening with a few spells, especially when it lands as you can still out of melee range and attack from a distance, if you inflict enough damage to its head quickly it will enter a stunned state, you can then strike a critical hit on its eye for good damage.
You mainly need to be wary of its fire-breathing attacks, they cover a wide arc and you can see clearly when the dragon is winding up to one, dash away on your horse immediately to avoid it. When it lands it tends to breathe fire in a wide arc in front of it, you can back up or move far enough to the left or right to avoid it and fire some magic, if it flies up above move as far our of the way as you can as it breathes fire in a long straight line. It will also sometimes hover above then strike the ground with its claws, this can also deal heavy damage so keep moving at all times to avoid it.

Reward: Dragon Heart, 5000 Runes

Boss #14 – Tibia Mariner

Location: Limgrave – Summonwater Village

Difficulty: 2/10

Strategy: Tibia Mariner is a ferryman that cruises in the waters of this area. He will summon skeletons for his aid and teleport around the area after receiving some beating.
Your tactic is simple: follow him around and beat him up. You can sort of ignore the skeletons (who will revive themselves all the time anyway) and the reason for that is the Tibia Mariner himself. He can damage his own skeletons with his attacks. One of his attacks is a hit with his paddle, another one is raising his boat and trying to crush you with it. His more powerful attack will have him raise a column of water with him at the top for an AoE explosion which will also temporarily kill his minions. His final attack has him place an orb that will explode after some time. Try running a bigger circle for the skeletons to follow up which will leave the Mariner unprotected for some free hits.

Reward: Deathroot, Skeletal Militiaman Ashes, 2400 Runes

Boss #15 – Guardian Golem

Location: Limgrave – Highroad Cave

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: This boss is a giant stone golem wielding a massive halberd. This is a very easy fight if you know what to do. It is weak to any weapon that does strike damage, such as a Flail, equip a weapon like this and keep attacking both of its legs, it will eventually fall down and you can critical strike its chest for huge damage, doing this twice will be enough, at close range it will pretty much only use stomping attacks, which are easily dodged. Also spawn the Lone Wolf Ashes, they are great at distracting the boss so you can attack from behind. With a mage you can just keep spamming spells at its feet, they are the weak spots.

Reward: Blue Dancer Charm (Talisman), 1600 Runes

Boss #16 – Black Knife Assassin (1)

Location: Limgrave – Deathtouched Catacombs

Difficulty: 2/10

Strategy: There are multiple Black Knife Assassin bosses, this is the one in Limgrave. He’s an assassin with a dagger and likes to dodge a lot. Summon Lone Wolf Ashes, they will bite at him from all sites. Then spam him with spells, he will try to dodge most of them, but if you put all your flasks into mana you can just keep spamming him with Glintstone Pebble until he’s dead. Alternatively, run near him to lure him into attacking, then melee him or shoot a spell as he finishes his last strike so he can’t dodge away. He doesn’t have much health either, so he should go down pretty quick.

Reward: Assassin’s Crimson Dagger (Talisman), 1600 Runes

Boss #17 – Bell Bearing Hunter

Location: Limgrave – Warmaster’s Shack, must rest at site of grace and pass time until night, then talk to Knight Bernahl in the shack (merchant), fast travel away, fast travel back here and the boss will spawn where Bernahl was

Difficulty: 7/10 if trying it early game (very aggressive boss dealing high damage), but 3/10 with a mage if returning later at level 50+ (can spam spells from horse)

Strategy: This is a powerful red phantom boss, he wields a large sword that he throws around telepathically. At short range he will attack you with sword combos aggressively and is much harder to fight, at medium range he will throw his sword around telepathically for heavy damage. Unless you are very high level (Level 60+) it’s strongly recommended fighting him at long range with magic or ranged weapons on horseback, this way you will be able to fire a couple of shots while he approaches and you will be quickly able to dash away from his telepathic sword attacks using your horse, keep moving around out of his range while firing off ranged attacks/spells and he will soon fall. It’s better to ignore this boss for now and come back later at higher level, due to having to talk to Bernahl and fast travel back and forth for each try it’s quite annoying having to retry this boss many times.

Reward: Bone Peddler’s Bell Bearing, 2700 Runes

Boss #18 – Margit, The Fell Omen [TROPHY]

Location: Limgrave – Castleward Tunnel

Difficulty: 7/10

Strategy: Margit has a wide array of moves. He can throw daggers when you are far from him (he likes to do that when you use a flask), his melee attacks have a very far reach, and his yellow hammer attack deals massive AOE damage and can one-hit you. Before heading into this fight, if you play solo/offline, summon the sorcerer in front of the boss door. Margit will focus mostly on this NPC character, who will help you out. Let him focus on the NPC helper while you attack from behind (you do much more damage from behind). The helper NPC will likely die when Margit is at about 50% health. Up until then things are relatively manageable. When Margit starts focusing on you, run backwards and away from him (hold ). Let him miss his attacks, just run to the other end of the area. After he misses you can get some hits in. You will have an easier time with Astrologer starting class because you can keep shooting Glintstone Pebble spells at him from afar and avoid the up-close combat (it helps to allocate 4 flasks to mana and just 2 to health so you don’t run out of mana, and put some skill points in FP & Intelligence for more mana and more damage). As usual with Souls games, the first big boss is usually among the hardest because you are underleveled. Make sure you upgrade your weapon at the smithing table in Church of Elleh (fast travel point) and grind to level 25+ if you’re having trouble. The more level-ups you grind, the easier it will get. If you are playing a melee build and are having too much trouble, try out other starting classes and rushing to this boss again to see what class/playstyle works best for you, whatever lets you take down most of his health, then spend some time leveling up until you can brute force this fight.

Reward: Talisman Pouch, 6000 Runes
Trophy:  Margit, the Fell Omen

Boss #19 – Godrick the Grafted [TROPHY]

Location: Stormveil Castle – Secluded Cell

Difficulty: 8/10

Strategy: Godrick has a ton of health and hits hard. He also has 2 phases. In his first phase he uses mostly melee attacks and some ranged whirlwinds. After half his health is depleted he will get a fire-breathing dragon-arm and uses a lot more fire/AOE/ranged attacks.
Before you begin, summon the NPC helper in front of the boss gate (yellow glow on the floor to the right of the mist gate). He will draw the boss to him. A good Ash for this fight is the Noble Sorcerer Ashes but this is optional.
This fight is far easier playing with a magic build (Astrologer). My build was Level 24 / 29 Intelligence / 18 Mind. Use the Astrologer’s starting spell “Glintstone Pebble”. You should also have 7 flasks by this point, allocate 5 flasks to Mana and 2 flasks to health. First flask upgrade you got from picking the Golden Seed as starting gift, then two more Flasks by collecting other early-game Golden Seeds and using them at a site of grace in the Flask menu. If you don’t have enough flasks you’ll have to use some melee attacks or else you’ll run out of Mana.
When the fight starts, run past the boss and summon Noble Sorcerer Ashes on the side, the sorcerer will attack the boss and also draw his attention. Let the summoned NPC helper draw the attention of the boss, then attack the boss from behind (you do much more damage from behind!). When the boss gets stunned, do a melee attack from behind to deal a high-damage blow to him. For any of his attacks throughout the fight always run/dodge backwards and you should avoid all attacks. The arena is quite large so it’s easy to get away from the boss. Especially with a magic build you can just keep spamming Glintstone Pebble from safe distance and wait for the boss to refocus on your NPC friend. After the boss reaches half health he will use fire attacks. When he uses his flamethrower attack, run away and dodge sideways through the fire, this way you will avoid taking damage. When he throws fire whirlwinds at you dodge sideways. When he rains burning rocks from above run/dodge backwards. When he uses any melee attacks dodge backwards. With 2 health potions / 5 mana potions and enough intelligence skill points you can brute force him, you just need to get lucky that your NPC helper stays alive long into the 2nd phase. If you have too much trouble it’s better to go back to Limgrave and explore other areas of the map and grind some level ups, put as many points as possible into Intelligence to deal more damage with each hit of Glintstone Pebble, which also conserves mana as you need fewer hits for the same amount of damage. Leveling up Mind to Level 25 should also help a lot to have more FP/mana points. Getting Sacred Tears and spending them at sites of grace in the flask menu is also helpful to make each flask restore more health/mana.

Reward: Godrick’s Great Rune, Remembrance of the Grafted, 11250 Runes
Trophy:  Shardbearer Godrick

Boss #20 – Erdtree Avatar

Location: Weeping Peninsula, Minor Erdtree (south of Church of Pilgrimage)

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: This boss doesn’t have very much health and is easy to defeat using a mage / ranged build. As a mage, simply spam Glintstone Pebble at him. His attacks have a very far reach so you’ll want to keep your distance. As a melee character, try to dodge behind him or to his side to land some quick hits after he misses. You can also summon the Lone Wolf Ashes or some other Ashes to spawn some ghosts that help you fight the boss and take his attention away, thus opening him up for attacks from behind (bonus damage) when he’s distracted.

Reward: Opaline Bubbletear, Crimsonburst Crystal Tear, 2400 Runes

Boss #21 – Night’s Cavalry

Location: Weeping Peninsula – Castle Morne Rampart, ONLY SPAWNS AT NIGHT (can advance time at site of grace)

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: Night’s Cavalary is a knight on a horse and only spawns at night. This boss spawns at multiple locations throughout the game with the same name but different weapons. The easiest one is along the main path south of Bridge of Sacrifice. This one uses a flail with little reach and has less health than late-game versions of this boss. If playing a melee build you can dodge his attacks, or block with a 100% physical damage reduction shield, then counter-attack. With a spellcaster / ranged build, dodge and then use 1-2 spells, the Glintstone Arc works well because it covers a bigger area, making it easier to hit the boss. You can also try to fight him while riding on your mount, this can also work decently using a ranged build.

Reward: Ash of War: Barricade Shield, Nightrider Flail

Boss #22 – Leonine Misbegotten [TROPHY]

Location: Weeping Peninsula – Castle Morne – Beside the Rampart Gaol

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: This boss is a humanoid lion hybrid that wields a greatsword. You can find it at the very south of the Weeping Peninsula, behind Castle Morne. You must go through Castle Morne and drop down its southern walls to reach the beach by the ocean. Leonine’s attacks are easy to dodge and a simple combination of spells + summoning the Lone Wolf Ashes makes this fight extremely easy. While the boss is busy with your summoned wolves you can keep spamming spells from a safe distance. At Level 35-40 you shouldn’t have too much trouble here.

Reward: Grafted Blade Greatsword, 3800 Runes
Trophy:  Leonine Misbegotten

Boss #23 – Runebear

Location: Weeping Peninsula – Earthbore Cave, at the end of the cave

Difficulty: 6/10 (easier with mage)

Strategy: Runebar is a big and very aggressive bear. With a mage he isn’t so bad, as his attacks don’t reach very far. Just run until he misses a few hits, then hit him with a spell and repeat. You can also summon some Ashen Remains to help distract the boss, then you have a moment to shoot spells at him from behind. If you inflict enough damage in quick succession you can perform a critical strike on its head. With a melee character you will have a bad time here. The bear attacks very quickly and hits hard. He doesn’t take long breaks between attacks either, requiring a lot of perfect dodging. Blocking with a shield would drain your stamina too quickly because he always does a lot of attacks in quick succession, so you’ll have to rely on dodging instead.

Reward: Spelldrake Talisman

Boss #24 – Ancient Hero of Zamor

Location: Weeping Peninsula – Weeping Evergaol (requires 1 Stonesword Key)

Difficulty: 3.5/10 with mage, 4.5/10 with melee

Strategy: This is a tall, slim boss wielding a large curved sword and uses frost elemental attacks. The fight starts off quite easy, it moves rather slowly and mostly uses spinning sword attacks in 1-2 hit combos, sometimes it will use an icy breath attack, make sure to move sideways to evade this as it creates a long stretch of frost on the ground. During its 2nd phase it will develop an icy aura and become much more aggressive, using mostly the same attacks but much faster and more relentlessly. It gains a couple of new moves, including a 3 hit combo, and dashing lunge attack which leaves a row of ice behind it. The boss is very weak to magic, glintstone pebble for example is very effective. It likes to dodge if you spam too much, so it’s best to hit it after evading attacks, or baiting it into attacking, dodging and then firing magic at it. Melee is also effective, but you need to be wary of its 360-degree sword swings and the build up of frost if you take too many hits.

Reward: Radagon’s Scarseal (Talisman), 5400 Runes

Boss #25 – Adan, Thief of Fire

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Liurnia Lake Shore, Malefactor’s Evergaol (easiest way up there is from the “Liurnia Lake Shore” site of grace, by using your mount and sprint/jump into the air stream along the mountain wall).

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: This boss uses fire magic and a morning star melee weapon. He has little defense, little health, and his attacks have short range and are easy to dodge. Lure him into doing melee attacks by running (hold ) in front of him. After he misses you can get 1-2 hits in. The other opportunity to attack is whenever he casts some fire magic, but be quick so you can get away from the homing fireballs he casts. If playing a mage or ranged build, he will dodge most attacks, but use the timings described to attack with ranged attacks and you’ll hit him (after he attacks, or when he casts magic). You can easily run away from his homing fire balls, just wait for them to explode before you engage the boss again.

Reward: Flame of the Fell God, 3800 Runes

Boss #26 – Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella [TROPHY]

Location: Ainsel River Well, after you come to a part of the River where a big spider shoots projectiles at you, drop down the cliffs on the left side of the spider and follow the hidden path to reach the boss

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: A very simple boss – it uses single-hit attacks and no real combos, all its attacks are very slow and very easy to dodge, leaving a lot of time between its attacks so you can deal a lot of damage. After it’s below 50% health it will get some electric abilities and wings – it will start a flying sweep attack which you can easily dodge sideways before it lands. It also will spawn some electric fields on the ground, which you can get out of by dodging/running sideways before it explodes. Other than that it will keep using its one-strike melee attacks. You shouldn’t have much trouble with this boss, especially at higher levels.

Reward: Frozen Lightning Spear (Spell), 12,000 Runes
Trophy:  Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella

Boss #27 – Bols, Carian Knight

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Cuckoo’s Evergaol (south of Foot of the Four Belfries site of grace)

Difficulty: 5/10 (at Level 50+)

Strategy: Bols is a giant wielding a long sword. He deals a lot of damage but his attacks are slow and easy to dodge. His sword reaches very far and he will drag it on the floor and come running at you for a charge attack. Regardless of whether you play a melee or ranged build, the strategy here is to dodge forward (not back) when he uses his “dragging sword” attack, then run away while he does his 2 follow-up strikes. After his combo he won’t attack for a moment, giving you an opportunity to get some damage in, so you can punish that one combo of his. When he summons 3 blue glowing swords around himself, get away immediately and run sideaways. When the swords come shooting at you, dodge to the side. The further away you are, the more time you have before the swords reach you, making it easier to time your dodge. The boss has a lot of health and also deals a lot of damage, if you have trouble come back once you are level 50-60 and have at least 25 points in Vigor (about 800 health) so that he doesn’t kill you in 1 hit.

Reward: Greatblade Phalanx (Spell), 4600 Runes

Boss #28 – Cleanrot Knight

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Stillwater Cave

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: First, make sure you get out of the poisonous water and stand on the solid ground on the side of the area. If you get poisoned you lose health permanently. Try to get to the boss without being poisoned to have an easier time. The boss is extremely easy playing as a mage, just spam him with spells from a safe distance and he will try to block but still takes full damage, and he won’t really do anything. With a melee build, stay away and wait for him to use his ranged attack that creates golden spikes from the ground. This is slow and easy to dodge, after he uses this he is wide open for melee attacks, focus on punishing just this one attack over and over again.

Reward: Winged Sword Insignia, 3300 Runes

Boss #29 – Omen Killer

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Village of the Albinauries, at the end of the path past the bridge

Difficulty: 4/10 (using mage on horse) / 6/10 (using melee)

Strategy: Omen killer is a small boss using two big cleavers. Before fighting the boss, drop to the right of the small cliff to the right and get rid of the dogs first so they won’t bother you during the boss fight. His moveset is pretty limited but he hits hard, dealing about 400 damage depending on your armor. He has a jumping attack in which he hits you with both his cleavers for massive damage and he will do it up to 3 times in a row. Blocking will get you stunlocked and dead so better dodge them. When you get close he may also start spitting fire at you. The easiest option: summon Ashen Remains to help you, they will distract the boss, while you stay on your horse and cast spells at him from afar. With the horse it’s easy to get away from him quickly and he doesn’t have any long-range attacks. By casting spells from the horse you can stay at safe distance and finish this fight without him ever getting close to you.

Reward: Crucible Knot Talisman, 4800 Runes

Boss #30 – Glintstone Dragon Smarag

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Temple Quarter

Difficulty: 5.5/10 (at Level 60+)

Strategy: This is another huge flying dragon boss. This is the green dragon that shoots blue fire. It has significantly more health than the first dragon but its moveset is similar to the first. It has few moves and they are all slow and predictable. The key to winning this fight is by using your mount, and not letting it die. With the mount you can get around very quickly and easily evade all attacks by riding away. On foot you won’t have much of a chance. When you first come to Liurnia of the Lakes you may be too underleveled, the dragon bosses are meant for higher levels, this one is for Level 60+. A +10 or better weapon is also recommended to deal more damage. With a mage the fight is trivial, the boss is just tanky but easy – ride your mount and shoot spells at the dragon’s head. It is a bit resistant to magic so you will deal reduced damage, but with 50 Intelligence attribute, 9 mana flasks and a +10 weapon you will deal good damage and not run out of mana. Focus on shooting the head because repeated damage can make it fall to the ground and stuns the boss. Ride away whenever it starts flying in the air or when you see it moving its wings or feet, this indicates it’s about to attack. Don’t shoot spells from behind, the dragon will turn around and likes to hit with its tail, it’s better to shoot it from the front so you can see what it’s doing and it has more predictable melee moves (stomp with foot and forward slash with wing). When it shoots blue homing projectiles dodge sideways on horseback. With a melee character it’s more tricky, but you can hit the dragon with a melee weapon while riding, and it’s not resistant to melee so you’ll deal a bit more damage than with spells. Using a long weapon that deals good damage in a single hit makes it a bit easier to land your attacks.

Reward: Dragon Heart, 14,000 Runes

Boss #31 – Death Rite Bird

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Gate Town North, on the ruins directly south of this site of grace, only spawns at night

Difficulty: 6/10 (Level 60+ recommended)

Strategy: Death Rite Bird is a stronger version of the Deathbird found in Limgrave, using a variety of powerful magic AOE attacks and an explosion that can kill in 1 hit. This boss only spawns at night, you can advance time at a campfire. It won’t be visible from afar, and only spawns when you go to the ruins south of the Gate Town North fast travel point. The way to win this fight is to ride your mount the entire time. On foot you won’t have any chance here. It’s easiest to shoot it with spells and ride around it in circles, focusing on its body (which is easier to hit than the head). It will often use long-range magic attacks that leave a white burn on the floor, always dash sideways on your mount when it powers up an attack. The most dangerous attacks are when it casts homing missiles, when it casts glowing swords falling from the sky, and when it charges up its explosive blast that will leave the ground burning everywhere around it. Get far away when it charges up any attack, especially its big blast which can instant-kill you if you get hit. With a melee build you’ll have a harder time here, but the same strategy applies – ride in circles around it and try to get a few hits in when it’s not attacking. Sometimes the AI glitches out a bit and the bird just walks for 10-20 seconds without really doing anything. Do keep an eye on your mount’s health, you can restore your mount’s health by using health flasks but it may need 2 instead of 1. If your mount dies you won’t have a chance. Keeping your mount alive is essential here, so bring sufficient health flasks. When you first arrive at Liurnia you may be too underleveled, this is one of the harder bosses best tackled later at Level 60+ with a Level 10+ Weapon.

Reward: Ancient Death Rancor (Spell), 7800 Runes

Boss #32 – Red Wolf of Radagon [TROPHY]

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Academy of Raya Lucaria – Schoolhouse Classroom (requires Academy Glintstone Key, found behind the dragon boss “Glintstone Dragon Smarag”, see above)

Difficulty: 4.5/10

Strategy: The mid-boss of Raya Lucaria Academy – a red wolf that uses magic. Red Wolf of Radagon is like Sif from Dark Souls. His move set is a combination of magical sword attacks and spells as well as dashing biting attacks. He is extremely mobile and jumps around all the time making it difficult to hit him, but luckily he is not very tanky. Using spells is a viable option but it is recommended to use spells which do not consume a lot of FP since he will dodge them a lot – Swift Glintstone Shard is recommended for spells. As a melee user you can attack after dodging his red sword attacks. He can also place blue spells in the air which will turn into homing swords after a short period of time so do not dodge them in advance, wait for the swords to actually start chasing you. Don’t forget to summon some Ashen Remains to help distract him, then you can land a few hits from behind for extra damage.

Reward: Memory Stone, 14,000 Runes
Trophy:  Red Wolf of Radagon

Boss #33 – Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon [TROPHY]

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Academy of Raya Lucaria – Debate Parlor. After boss “Red Wolf of Radagon”, jump over to the broken bridge on the right, walk along the right side where the rolling ball can’t hit you and then enter the elevator straight ahead.

Difficulty: 7/10

Strategy: The main boss of the Raya Lucaria Academy, a mage consisting of 2 phases (2 full health bars). First and most important info: spells are pretty much useless in this fight so use an upgraded melee weapon. Also equip the Astrologer’s “armor” set (robes) to block more magic damage – these can be bought from the Nomadic Merchant at Liurnia of the Lakes: Liurnia Lake Shore. It’s much better than heavy armor, because the boss doesn’t deal any physical damage and only uses magic damage. Put all your flasks towards health and none towards mana. Having 1200+ health is recommended to not die in 1 hit (Level 60-70 is good). When the fight starts you will enter a library with a bunch of crawling kids and the boss floating in the air surrounded by a yellow shield. You can’t damage Rennala in her shield but you can kill the crawling children. However, they will keep respawning infinitely. What you have to do is find the one child that has a yellow aura around them and hit it. The yellow glowing kid will also sing and throw books at you, making it easier to locate. You only need to hit it once, no need to kill. Then the yellow aura switches to another child. Do this 3 times and Rennala’s shield will break and she will drop to the floor giving you some time to attack her before getting her shield back. Repeat this cycle; run straight to the yellow aura children, hit and run to the next one and when Rennala is down hit her. When her health is low and you know your next damage phase will kill her, summon Lone Wolf Ashes (see How to summon Ashes & Get Lone Wolf Ashes) – more about it soon.
Take down her health bar and the second phase will begin. Summoning your Lone Wolf Ashes late in the 1st phase will carry them over into the 2nd phase. Rennala will now float around in an endless area and will use a variety of spells against you. When she does the laser, run to the side and for every other spell you can run towards her. She has very low poise and the combination of your melee attacks and your wolves will give you big damage openings. Each wolf bite will interrupt her attacks, allowing you to take down half her health very quickly. She can also summon a comet-looking blue bubble spell that will explode after some time for big AoE damage so run away from it.
As her health declines she will begin to put white circles on the ground which will summon spirits for her help: it can be wolves, a sword wielding fast enemy, an ogre or a dragon. Just run away from them, circle back to Rennala and hit her instead.

Reward: Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen, Great Rune of the Unborn, 40,000 Runes
Trophy:  Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

Boss #34 – Crystalian

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel

Difficulty: 5/10

Strategy: This boss has very high defense and is coated in a shell of crystals. Physical melee attacks will bounce off him and magic attacks deal vastly reduced damage. The key to win is to break his poise (stagger him), while he’s down on the ground stab him with a melee weapon from behind. After this he will be fully vulnerable to all damage. The good news is that he doesn’t do so much damage compared to other bosses in the area, for example after Rennala he will feel easy in comparison. His move set is quite limited, throwing a spinning blade that returns to him, leaving him wide open to attacks from the side in the meantime. The main difficulty is that you do hardly any damage. A decent workaround is using the Spell “Slicer“. It casts a magic sword that doesn’t bounce off his crystal shell, so you can just keep spamming quickly to attack with the magic sword, consuming 4FP per hit. Do this until he breaks and can be stabbed from behind, then it gets very easy.

Reward: 3000 Runes, Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [1] – can be given to the Husks merchant at Roundtable Hold to unlock Smithing Stones for purchase

Boss #35 – Royal Knight Loretta [TROPHY]

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Caria Manor – Manor Upper Level

Difficulty: 5/10

Strategy: A horse-riding spell user. Loretta is riding a horse and uses a long polearm as well as spells. She can either charge at you for a melee attack or use homing swords or a greatbow magic spell. At the start of the fight, summon Lone Wolf Ashes, they will attack her from all sides and keep her busy. As spell user spam her with magic from afar, and as a melee user roll through her melee attacks for an opening to hit her. Don’t let her flying swords fool you, they will not come at you immediately – react to the start of their movement and not the spell casting itself.

Reward: Loretta’s Greatbow, Ash of War: Loretta’s Slash, 10,000 Runes
Trophy:  Royal Knight Loretta

Boss #36 – Alabaster Lord

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Caria Manor – Behind Caria Manor, Royal Grave Evergaol

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: Alabaster Lord is a tall ghoul wielding a long sword and using purple magic spells. For this point in the game he is relatively easy and his magic attacks deal little damage. A really easy way to stunlock him the entire fight is to use the spell “Carian Greatsword“. Each hit will interrupt him, leaving him completely unable to attack before you land your next attack. If you don’t have this yet, you can simply shoot him with spells if you’re a mage, or engage him in melee. When playing at close range, he will use more melee attacks which deal more damage than his spells, but his melee moveset is quite limited. Powerful attacks can knock him back to create an opening for follow-up attacks or keeping him stunlocked.

Reward: Meteorite (Spell), 3600 Runes

Boss #37 – Black Knife Assassin (2)

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Black Knife Catacombs, stand on the blades that go up and down to be brought upstairs to this boss

Difficulty: 5/10

Strategy: This is the second Black Knife Assassin Boss. Do not confuse with the one from Limgrave, they have the same name but different locations (repeat boss). This Black Knife Assassin is significantly stronger, you are in a smaller room and he is one of the most aggressive attackers in the game, dealing lots of melee attacks in quick succession and hitting hard. Luckily, he doesn’t have much health. Playing a ranged/magic spells build won’t get you far. You will have to use melee and dodge his attacks pretty perfectly. With a mage you can use a melee spell such as Carian Slicer, which deals much more damage than ranged spells and hits quickly. You can basically brute-force him this way once you have enough health & intelligence to deal more damage. Between his attacks run to the other side of the room to refill health.

Reward: Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger, Black Knifeprint, 4200 Runes

Boss #38 – Magma Wyrm Makar – Liurnia [TROPHY]

Location: Liurnia of the Lakes – Ruin-Strewn Precipice Overlook, you get there through “Ravine-Veiled Village” in the north of Liurnia’s flooded area, by going through the tunnels there

Difficulty: 5.5/10 (at Level 50-60)

Strategy: Magma Wyrm is a dragon type enemy. It can’t fly like normal dragons and instead of breathing fire it spews out magma that stays on the floor and can burn you, so watch your step. It uses ranged magma attacks, all of which are very slow and easy to evade by running sideways (hold to run). When it does use melee attacks, it likes to strike its sword to the ground, then pull it backwards after a short delay. You must get out of the way before it pulls back the sword. It also likes to make its mouth glow and then rushes forward, which you can evade by running sideways. With a mage this fight is relatively easy, you just need to dodge its magma projectiles and stay away from it. Use the pillar in the middle of the boss area for cover, run in for single hits, repeat. The main problem is that the boss has quite a lot of health and hits hard but if you play it slow and safe you can circumvent most of its attacks by using the middle pillar for cover.

Reward: Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword, Dragon Heart, 24,000 Runes
Trophy:  Magma Wyrm Makar

Boss #39 – Magma Wyrm – Caelid

Location: Caelid – Gael Tunnel / Rear Gael Tunnel Entrance

Difficulty: 5.5/10 (at Level 50-60)

Strategy: Magma Wyrm is a dragon hidden inside the Gael Tunnel, past a big gate. It can’t fly like normal dragons and instead of breathing fire it spews out magma that stays on the floor and can burn you, so watch your step. It mainly uses ranged magma attacks, all of which are very slow and easy to evade by running sideways (hold to run). When it does use melee attacks, it likes to strike its sword to the ground, then pull it backwards after a short delay. You must get out of the way before it pulls back the sword. With a mage this fight is relatively easy, you just need to dodge its magma projectiles and stay away from it. The main problem is that the boss has quite a lot of health and you’ll burn through mana fast, in the early game this may not be doable. Come back once you are Level 50-60 and have 9+ flasks and leveled up your damage a bit, otherwise the fight will drag on for too long.

Reward: Dragon Heart, Moonveil (Weapon), 5500 Runes

Boss #40 – Decaying Ekzykes

Location: Caelid – Caelid Highway South

Difficulty: 5.5/10 (at Level 60+)

Strategy: Decaying Ekzykes is another dragon-type boss, making use of Scarlet Rot elemental attacks. If the Scarlet Rot effect builds up, you will die very quickly. As usual with Dragons, the way to win is by using your mount at all times and not letting it die. Its move set is very similiar to previous dragon bosses, except that it uses a different element. It also has a ton of health but isn’t as magic resistant as the green Glintstone Dragon, so as a magic user you will have an easier time and can shoot spells at it while riding on your horse at safe distance. Melee users will want to do melee attacks from the mount. Remember to heal your mount immediately when it takes a hit, if your mount dies you won’t have a chance. When the dragon spews rot on the ground (looks like whole area becoming foggy), ride out of the fog immediately! If you stay in the fog, the Scarlet Rot will kill you within seconds. It covers a very wide area, so you need to get very far away. All other moves are identical to the previous dragon bosses.

Reward: Dragon Heart, 38,000 Runes

Boss #41 – Starscourge Radahn [TROPHY]

Location: Caelid – Redmane Castle – from Impassible Greatbridge use the teleporter to get into the castle, talk to the huntsmaster in the north of the castle on the wall, go through the church and down the elevator and use the teleporter to reach boss area

Difficulty: 7.5/10

Strategy: The second Shardbearer in the game. A huge enemy rider who you fight in a vast desert. Use the teleporter at Impassible Greatbridge, then in Redmane Castle you will meet other fighters who came for the Festival of War to Caelid in order to fight Radahn to obtain the Great Rune. After the announcement in the courtyard, talk to the guy who was shouting on top of the archway and tell him you are ready. Afterward head through the church, down the elevator and use the teleporter to enter the arena. Once the fight starts you will see Radahn in the distance with a greatbow firing arrows at you. You have to try to approach him while dodging the arrows last moment. If you try to dodge them early they will simply track your movement. All around the arena you will see summon signs to call the other fighters to help you out in the fight so take advantage of it since you really don’t want his full attention all the time. Keep rolling forward a few times and now he will start using a barrage of arrows from the sky. Now you can call your mount to approach him. Once you are close enough he will switch from bow to his double swords and the real fight begins. Use your mount to circle around him from a safe distance while shooting spells at him and have your summoned minions distract and damage him as well. Don’t let him hit you off the mount with his sword attacks since he will follow up with 2 more hits while you are stunned on the ground and that means instant death. If your mount dies you can use a health flask to respawn it. His move set includes melee attacks at first but after draining quarter of his health he will infuse his attacks with gravity. He can pull you in with an AoE explosion, shooting tracking balls at you and shooting a wave of sharp blades at you. For the balls just keep riding at full speed to the site, for the blades (wave of purple energy) use the double jump. At half health he will disappear and after a short time drop from the sky with a massive explosion which will probably kill some of your minions and deal massive damage to you if you happen to stand where it lands, just keep riding away and you should be safe. You can, however, keep summoning minions as long as there are summon signs on the ground. Make sure to keep resummoning them.
The fight continues in the same with the addition of him being more aggressive and using a few more attacks: he can now cast purple rocks circling around him that will fly towards you or the minions at a random time, as well as an attack where he leaps into the air does 2 strong attacks while spinning at you. The 4 floating purple rocks are most dangerous, getting hit by 2 will instant kill you. It’s safe to attack him for another 30 seconds, then you should back off, ride to the other end of the map and let your minion take the heat – Radahn will most likely shoot the rocks at them if they are engaged in combat with him and you are too far away. If he shoots them at you, ride sideways and dodge + double-jump on your mount, only works if you are far enough away, if you’re close they will home in on you too quick and hit you anyway.
It is surely a test of patience and endurance and also a bit of luck since getting hit with his melee combo off the mount can kill your attempt immediately and there is not much you can do about it.

Reward: Remembrance of the Starscourge, Radahn’s Great Rune, 70000 Runes
Trophy:  Shardbearer Radahn

Boss #42 – Ancestor Spirit [TROPHY]

Location: Siofra River, must light the 8 flames there and then interact with the dead elk at Hallowborn Grounds of the Siofra River Well. See the 8 flames circled red below and Hallowborn Grounds circled in the bottom right:

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: The main difficulty is finding this boss. In the Siofra River Well (underground area), you must light the 8 flames, as circled in the image above. See the video for each of their locations too. Then you can interact with a dead elk at Hallowborn Grounds in the south-east of Siofra River Well. This teleports you to the boss. The fight itself isn’t too difficult, the Ancestor Spirit is a big elk and has a limited moveset. Other than its charge attack the rest of its attacks don’t hit very far, making it an easy fight if you play as a mage. Its attacks are relatively slow and it leaves big breaks between attacks, and it doesn’t do long combos, so there are plenty of openings for melee chars here too.

Reward: Ancestral Follower Ashes (Ashen Remains), 13000 Runes
Trophy:  Ancestor Spirit

Boss #43 – Mimic Tear [TROPHY]

Location: Nokron, Eternal City (available after Radahn boss, enter the hole north-west of Fort Haight West where the rocks are flying in the air, see the video for the exact path)

Difficulty: 2/10

Strategy: Mimic Tear will copy your character, so you will fight yourself and the strategy will vary depending on your character build. This should be a relatively easy fight. As a mage you can simply spam spells. If you have trouble you can change your character loadout and weapon skills before the fight. The Mimic Tear copies what you have equipped when entering the fight, so you can go into the boss room naked, then re-equip all your stuff immediately before the Mimic attacks.

Reward: x2 Larval Tear, x1 Silver Tear Mask
Trophy:  Mimic Tear

Boss #44 – Valiant Gargoyle [TROPHY]

Location: Nokron, Eternal City – Siofra Aqueduct, after Mimic Tear boss head to the very north of Nokron and drop down the cliff where the blue Jellyfish are (available after Radahn boss, enter the hole north-west of Fort Haight West where the rocks are flying in the air to reach Nokron, see the video for the exact path)

Difficulty: 6.5/10

Strategy: Valiant Gargoyle is a double boss of 2 giant gargoyles. After taking half the health of the first gargoyle, a 2nd gargoyle will spawn. They use a variety of melee attacks, poison gas, and and some ranged shockwaves, as well as flying attacks that will home in one you from anywhere. Kill the first Gargoyle before damaging the 2nd one. The faster you can kill the 1st one the easier it will be. When you have to dodge both of them at the same time it can be tricky. The good thing is that the arena is huge and their attacks are very slow and easy to dodge once you learn the timing. You have to dodge in the last moment before their attacks hit, not when they are starting their attack, otherwise you will get hit. Don’t dodge right away when they are preparing for their attack, dodge when they start moving their weapon. For the shockwave on the ground (only used by 1st gargoyle) you must dodge sideways. For everything else you can dodge backward 1-2 times. If you play a mage, it’s not worth summoning Ashen Remains, the mana is better reserved for using spells and carrying some more health flasks (about 6 health flasks and 5 mana flasks will suffice). After evading an attack you can cast 1-3 spells, or in the case of melee chars land 1-3 hits. Dodge, attack, repeat. When a gargoyle spews poison get away to not get hit by the poison cloud – this is also a perfect time to spam them with a few spells from afar, they will just stand there and be defenseless. While fighting both Gargoyle you need to watch what the 2nd gargoyle is doing. Keep your distance to it, but get ready to dodge when it comes flying towards you. As long as you otherwise keep some distance between the 2nd gargoyle it can’t hit you, only when it flies at you from afar it can hit you.

Reward: Gargoyle’s Greatsword, Gargoyle’s Twinblade, 32,000 Runes
Trophy:  Valiant Gargoyle

Boss #45 – Regal Ancestor Spirit [TROPHY]

Location: Nokron Eternal City, must light the 6 flames there and then interact with the dead elk at Hallowborn Grounds of the Ancestral Woods. See the 6 flames circled red below and Hallowborn Grounds circled green.

Difficulty: 4.5/10

Strategy: This is a 1:1 copy of the Ancestral Spirit in Siofra River, with the only addition being that it will heal itself regularly so the fight drags on for longer. The main difficulty is finding this boss. In Nokron Eternal City (available after Radhan boss), you must light the 6 flames. It’s a bit tricky to get there, see the video for the exact path. Then you can interact with a dead elk at Hallowborn Grounds in Ancestral Woods. This teleports you to the boss. The fight itself isn’t too difficult, the Ancestor Spirit is a big elk and has a limited moveset. Other than its charge attack the rest of its attacks don’t hit very far, making it an easy fight if you play as a mage. Its attacks are relatively slow and it leaves big breaks between attacks, and it doesn’t do long combos, so there are plenty of openings for melee chars here too. It will heal itself a few times and there’s nothing you can do about it, just keep attacking it when it heals as it will be defenseless.

Reward: Remembrance of the Regal Ancestor, 24,000 Runes
Trophy:  Regal Ancestor Spirit

Boss #46 – Fallingstar Beast

Location: Caelid – Sellia Crystal Tunnel, at the start of the tunnels go up the path on the right and jump over to the rooftop of the wooden hut in the middle of the room, then jump into the destroyed hut and follow the path up some ladders to reach the end of the cave

Difficulty: 6/10 (at Level 60-70)

Strategy: Fallingstar Beast is a huge bull-looking beast coated in crystal armor. It uses a mix of gravity magic attacks, as well as physical charge attacks, slams, and various other long-range hits. The main difficulty is that you are trapped into a small circular room with it, and the enemy hits very far and also quite hard. Having 1500+ health is recommended to survive at least 3 hits. As a mage, distribute your flasks equally between mana and health (5 health flasks minimum recommended at Level 70). Regardless of whether you play a mage or melee build, you have to dodge a lot in this fight. Even if you try to play at long range with a mage, due to the small space the boss will quickly reach you with its fast and far-reaching attacks. Dodging at the right moment is crucial. Between its attacks you have a short opening to land some hits. After taking 25% of its health it will start to use gravity attacks frequently. When the floor glows purple dodge sideways to roll out of the way (just spam the dodge button repeatedly). When the entire arena glows purple, run to the far edge opposite the boss and stand at the edge to not get hit, otherwise it will lift you in the air and smack you own with a gravity spell. When it shoots a purple laser from its mouth, run to the left and forward to get to the side of its head, giving you a perfect chance to attack its head while it uses the laser. When it runs at you, run or dodge to the left. For all other of its physical attacks dodge just before the attack lands. If you are under-leveled it will be too hard, come back at Level 70+, because you must run through the entire cave each time it is quite annoying to have to retry the boss many times.

Reward: 1x Somber Smithing Stone [6], x5 Smithing Stone [7], x10 Gravity Stone Chunk, 1x Somberstone Miner’s Bell Bearing [1], 7600 Runes

Boss #47 – Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast

Location: Mt. Gelmir – Ninth Mt. Gelmir Campsite, at the very top of the mountain

Difficulty: 5/10 (at Level 60-70)

Strategy: This is a 1:1 copy of the normal Fallingstar Beast found in Caelid – Sellia Crystal Tunnel, using the same moveset. The Full-Grown version is actually easier because you are in a bigger arena and can ride your mount, making this boss rather easy to beat with magic spells. Ride around it in a big circle, always stay moving, and shoot it with spells repeatedly. Keep as far away as possible, the sweet spot where your spells can hit it but it can’t hit you. When it charges towards you do a dash to the side to speed up.

Reward: 1x Somber Smithing Stone [6], x5 Smithing Stone [6], x10 Gravity Stone Chunk, 1x Fallingstar Beast Jaw, 21000 Runes

Boss #48 – Elemer of the Briar [TROPHY]

Location: Altus Plateau, The Shaded Castle – Shaded Castle Inner Gate (at very end of the castle you find this boss)

Difficulty: 8/10 (recommended Level 80+)

Strategy: First of all, a ranged build / shooting spells from afar is useless against this boss. He will constantly throw swords at you when going a few meters away from him. You will have to learn to dodge his melee attacks perfectly, land 1-3 hits between his combos and repeat. Play with light armor so that your stamina recharges faster. Having 25 Endurance helps to have more stamina, if you haven’t upgraded stamina it’s more tricky. Because the boss attacks quickly and constantly you always need to watch your stamina bar so that you have enough left to dodge and land a counter-hit. Playing with heavy armor would make you too slow for this. If you get hit you need to dodge back after he finishes a combo and quickly heal, then immediately dodge his next attack (he doesn’t leave long breaks between attacks). You have to stay close to him at all times. His close-range melee attacks are easy to dodge once you learn his attack pattern, but it takes some learning and you have to get good at dodging, which can be challenging at first if you played a ranged build/mage so far. If you play a mage, use the Carian Slicer spell, which is a magic melee sword attack. The good thing is that this boss doesn’t have overly much health, but he is very aggressive and has a very large move set. Start by summoning some ashen remains to distract him a little bit. He will kill your ashen remains quickly but it will at least give you some help at the start of the fight and opens him up for attacks from behind. There are 3 moves you can exploit: after his melee combos you can get 1-3 hits in, the best one is when he stabs the sword forward as you can easily dodge behind him and land 2 quick hits. Another good one is when he smashes his shield on the ground, dodge backward and then land 2 quick hits. For anything else you’ll want to dodge towards him and slighty to the side to get behind him. When he starts spinning his sword and makes it turn red, he will throw it forward in a straight line, then you can dodge towards him and quickly get behind him, while his spinning sword attack is going you can land 4-5 hits from behind to deal a lot of damage quickly. He doesn’t do this move too often but he should do it 1-3 times during the fight, and it’s the best opening to take down 20% of his health in one go. This one of the more skill-based fights due to the perfect dodging required and you can’t run away from him because of his throwing swords that will hit you anywhere, so it’s more of a case of “get good” and learning his move set and dodging perfectly.

Reward: Marais Executioner’s Sword, Briar Greatshield, 24,000 Runes
Trophy:  Elemer of the Briar

Boss #49 – Draconic Tree Sentinel

Location: Leyndell, Royal Capital (at end of path east of Outer Wall Battleground, this boss is blocking the entrance to Royal Capital)

Difficulty: 8/10 if doing it legit (Level 70+ recommended), 1/10 if cheesing him

Strategy: An upgraded version of the Tree Sentinel using lightning attacks, and surprisingly one of the more challenging bosses in the game. There is an easy cheese method – sneak around him (from the left) and drop the Poison Mist Spell behind him, rinse and repeat until he is dead, pack a lot of mana flasks to recast the spell. It will take a long time to kill him this way but you don’t actually have to enter combat at all, he will just stand there and takes poison damage until he dies without even noticing you. If you do actually want to fight him, the boss has two phases. First he will use melee and shoots fire. Stay on your horse, as a mage shoot spells at him, especially when he shoots fire and he is standing still. As a melee char you want to land hits between his melee attacks. At half health he switches to lightning, this is where it gets tricky because he has the most broken attack in the game, a lighting strike that always hits where you stand and kills your mount in 1 hit. Luckily, this too can be cheesed – the moment you see him lower his lightning gauntlet you dismount ( ) and you’ll be invulnerable during the dismount animation. This completely negates the lightning attack and you won’t get hit at all. Worst case, if you dismount too early he will hit you once which deals about 700 damage but you should survive if you leveled up your vigor and refill your health after each hit. If your mount dies you can (and really should) resummon it by consuming 1 health flask, do this right away. Sometimes he uses 2 lightning strikes in a row, always get back on your horse immediately after dismounting it, and in case he does this you dismount immediately again. If you are on the mount while his lightning strike hits you will most likely die and so will your mount. It takes a few tries to get the timing down – watch his gauntlet on his hand and the second he starts lowering it is when you must dismount to completely negate the lightning strike damage. Sometimes you get lucky and he only uses lightning strikes like 5 times during the fight if you can kill him quickly, but other times he spams it a lot. He sometimes also uses a shockwave which can knock you off your mount, your best bet is to keep your distance but if he does it after you dismounted you will get hit and can’t do much about it. His other attacks shouldn’t be a problem, ride in a circle around him at all times and dash away when he prepares for a melee attack. Pack mostly health flasks even as a mage, at this point in the game you should have a minimum of 11 flasks, put 7-8 in health and 3-4 in mana. If you want to survive at least 2 lightning hits you should have 1400 health.

Reward: Dragon Greatclaw, Dragonclaw Shield, 50,000 Runes

Boss #50 – Godfrey, First Elden Lord [TROPHY]

Location: Leyndell, Royal Capital – West Capital Rampart, run up the tree branches after this site of grace to find the boss in a building at the top of the branches

Difficulty: 3.5/10

Strategy: A golden ghost knight wielding a big but slow axe. This is a relatively easy boss for this late into the game, due to his attacks being very slow and easy to dodge, his attacks not reaching very far, can run away from him, and his moveset being quite limited. As a mage, simply keep your distance and spam him with spells, when he rushes towards you dodge backwards. As a melee character, dodge towards him and slightly to the side to get behind him and deal a few hits between his combos. You shouldn’t have much trouble dodging his slow axe attacks. Sometimes he likes to do a stomp that deals AoE damage but if you are dodging it won’t hurt you. If you try to heal while being away from him he will instantly rush towards you, so it’s better to dodge a combo and heal afterward, this gives you a long enough break without being attacked.

Reward: Talisman Pouch, 80,000 Runes
Trophy:  Godfrey the First Lord

Boss #51 – Morgott, the Omen King [TROPHY]

Location: Leyndell, Royal Capital – Queen’s Bedchamber (from the room where you fought Godfrey, go up the tree branches in the same room)

Difficulty: 7.5/10 (Level 80-90 recommended)

Strategy: Morgott is basically a reskin of Margit, The Fell Omen. He shares some of the same attacks and looks similar. Particularly his dagger throw is the same, but he also uses some new attacks. He has a lot more health and hits harder, but in one way this fight is easier: the arena is much bigger and it’s easier to get some distance from him. As a spell user this is advantageous to spam him with spells. Before the fight, interact with the yellow sign on the floor to summon the NPC fighter “Melina” to help you. As soon as the fight starts, summon some Ashen Remains. This gives you two NPC helpers to distract Morgott. They should survive at the very least until Morgott’s health is half depleted. During this phase you should play very aggressively and attack Morgott from behind whenever he is focusing on the other NPCs. Ideally you can take around 60%+ of his health before your NPC helpers die. This is where it gets trickier because he will then focus on only you, and he is very aggressive and quick at close-medium range. He often throws a yellow spear, or holds the spear to stab you. When he throws the spear you must dodge in the very last moment when he releases it, if you dodge too early you can get hit by it. He has a long delay between aiming it and throwing it, so don’t evade too early. He sometimes uses AoE swords raining from the sky, get away to look where the swords fall down, there will be gaps where no swords fall and it’s safe to stand there. He also uses explosive bubbles on the floor which explode after a few seconds, don’t stand in them. If you need to heal, either run to the end other end of the arena so far that he won’t throw daggers, or evade one of his combo and heal after that. If you stand at medium range he will instantly throw daggers at you when trying to heal. It’s definitely another test of patience and learning when to evade, due to how much health this boss has and his varied moveset takes some tries to memorize.

Reward: Morgott’s Great Rune, Remembrance of the Omen King, 90,000 Runes
Trophy:  Shardbearer Morgott

Boss #52 – Mohg, the Omen [TROPHY]

Location: In the sewers below Leyndell, Royal Capital – see the video for the path, it’s a very long and tricky way to get there

Difficulty: 8.5/10 (Level 100+ recommended)

Strategy: Mohg, the Omen is one of the hardest bosses in the game, having one of the largest health bars and having high resistance to basically all sorts of attacks (both magic and melee deal vastly reduced damage against him). Level 100+ is highly recommended. The good thing is that his moveset is quite limited. His melee attacks are also slow but they have to be dodged in the very lost moment to not get hit, it will take a few tries to learn the timing. He also throws red dust that burns the ground, but dodging backward will easily evade it. The red dust has limited range and can’t hit you if you’re at the other end of the arena. The fight is easiest with a magic build. Have the legendary spell “Comet Azur”(requires 60 Intelligence, from Mt. Gelmir: Primeval Sorcerer Azur, talk to Sorcerer to get it) and the Wondrous Physick Flask Mix “Cerulean Hidden Tear” (from Mt. Gelmir: Minor Erdtree at Volcano Manor) will help a lot. The Cerulean Tear makes it so you don’t consume any mana for 10 seconds, and the Comet Azur will cast a beam of energy that deals very high damage. Summon some Ashen Remains to distract the boss, then shoot him with the Comet Azur spell from behind for 10 seconds and you should take about half of his health. Then drink mana flasks and repeat the spell a few more times. Try to stand at the opposite edge of the arena so he can’t hit you. If you don’t have those spells, an alternative would be to keep your distance and shoot him with other spells repeatedly, always trying to stay at the distance where your spells can barely reach him but he can’t melee you (when he throws red mist dodge back). However, he has so much health that it would be a very tedious and long process to fight him normally. With a melee build you’ll have a harder time, you pretty much have to “get good” and dodge perfectly for a few minutes. Sometimes he will cast a red explosive blast in front of him when you fight him in melee, get away immediately when he uses any of the red spells, for all other melee attacks dodge them and counter-attack after he is done with a combo.

Reward: Bloodflame Talons (Incantation), 100,000 Runes
Trophy:  Mohg, the Omen

Boss #53 – Fell Twins

Location: Leyndell, Royal Capital – Divine Tower of East Altus: Gate – to get there, open the gate in the east of Royal Capital (east of Avenue Balcony site of grace), then use the elevator and follow the path to the end towards the divine tower. If you already reached Forbidden Lands you can simply use the elevator up from Forbidden Lands site of grace.

Difficulty: 3/10

Strategy: Fell Twin is a double boss, consisting of two “Fell Twins”. When approaching the Divine Tower, the screen will fade to black and you are trapped in a black void with these bosses. However, you can fight them one at a time. One of them uses melee only and will come to you first. The second one uses some ranged attacks but it will hang back and you don’t have to fight it until the first is defeated. Just keep dodging backwards for the first melee boss, its attacks have short range and are super easy to dodge. Just keep luring it away from the 2nd boss. When the 1st is dead, you repeat the same for the 2nd boss. When it shoots projectiles simply dash sideways, they are easy to dodge. For its melee attacks dodge backwards, nothing spectacular here.

Reward: Omenkiller Rollo (Ashen Remains), 29000 Runes

Boss #54 – Fire Giant [TROPHY]

Location: Mountaintops of the Giants – Flame Peak, Church of Repose

Difficulty: 9/10 if fighting him legit, 3/10 if using cheese instant kill method see below (Patched as of Patch 1.03/1.04)

Strategy: One of the hardest bosses in the game if you fight him legit. He has a ton of health and 2 phases with 2 full health bars, and he deals a lot of damage per hit. Luckily there is an easy cheese method to instant kill him (*patched as of 1.03/1.04). When the fight starts you’ll want to ride to the top right corner of the arena where some rocks are. Lure the boss there and get him stuck behind the rocks, then jump down the rocks and wait for the boss to do his jump-attack, which will make him jump down the rocks. The fall instant kills him. This triggers a 2nd boss phase where he has another full health bar, repeat the exact same process to instant kill him a 2nd time. See the video for the exact path and where to stand. If you want to fight him legit, you’ll have to focus on his feet which are his weak points and constantly ride on your mount to get around quickly. You can evade all his attacks by dismounting just before an attack hits (you are invulnerable during dismount animation). This is a tricky fight for mages because he has so much health and you’ll need a lot of mana, so you won’t be able to carry many health flasks into the fight, and you should also have found all Flask Upgrades so far to stand a chance. With melee chars this is slightly easier, can ride to his feet and land a few melee hits from your mount and you can just carry lots of health flasks and don’t have to worry about mana. In his 2nd phase he will start to cast fire, especially his fast flying fire balls are trouble but you can stand behind trees or rocks to avoid being hit (or again dismount when they hit to be invulnerable). His other fire attacks are easy to dodge, when he sprays a stream of fire ride away, when he makes magma rocks fly out his chest ride away, when he uses slow homing fire balls ride away until they explode. Level 150+ is recommended when fighting him legit with at least 60 Vigor and at least 60 points in whatever your weapon damage scales to.

Reward: Remembrance of the Fire Giant, 180,000 Runes
Trophy: Fire Giant

Boss #55 – Godskin Duo [TROPHY]

Location: Crumbling Farum Azula – Dragon Temple, you go there automatically after speaking to the woman at the “Forge of Giants” site of grace after the Fire Giant boss.

Difficulty: 8/10 (recommended Level 100+)

Strategy: Godskin Duo is a mandatory story boss, consisting of two enemies that you must fight at the same time. There is one slim enemy that uses mostly spells and sometimes melee attacks, and a larger enemy that uses mostly melee and likes to roll around. They have a shared health bar. When one of them dies they will respawn after a short while. But damaging either of them will reduce their overall health at the bottom of the screen, so attack whoever is easier (the big enemies is easier to hit). Playing as a mage, you’ll want to use the same strategy as for Mohg, the Omen – get Comet Azur legendary spell, use the wondrous physick flask with Cerulean Hidden Tear (doesn’t consume mana for 10s), summon some Ashen Remains to distract the bosses, then shoot them with the Comet Azur for 10 seconds to take like 50-75% of their health. If you can line up both of them at the edge of the area you can get lucky and hit both of them simultaneously. Spawn your ashen spirits at one corner of the room, then head to the opposite corner and wait for both bosses to go to your ashes and get ready to shoot the Comet Azur Spell for massive damage. Finish them off by using whatever Pebble spells you have, use the 6 pillars around the room as cover and shoot the spells while peeking out of cover, then hide behind the next pillar. For melee chars it’s a bit trickier but there are other workarounds available – the Ash of War: Hoarfrost Stomp is perfect, it will create AoE ice damage on the ground and can hit both bosses through the pillars. Just stand behind a pillar and spam this. You get this Ash of War by killing the scarab (dung beetle) in the little lake south-east of Caria Manor, up the hill directly north from “The Ravine” site of grace in Liurnia region. Spam just these Ashes of War repeatedly with any build and it will be an easy fight. Trying to fight the bosses legit would be one of the more annoying fights in the game.

Reward: Smithing Stone Miner’s Bell-Bearing [4], Ash of War: Blackflame Tornado, 170,000 Runes
Trophy:  Godskin Duo

Boss #56 – Beast Clergyman & Maliketh, the Black Blade [TROPHY]

Location: Crumbling Farum Azula – Beside the Great Bridge, you go there automatically after speaking to the woman at the “Forge of Giants” site of grace after the Fire Giant boss.

Difficulty: 8/10 (recommended Level 100+)

Strategy: Beast Clergyman & Maliketh, the Black Blade are one and the same boss consisting of 2 phases, taking on two different forms with different names throughout the fight. At exactly 50% health Beast Clergyman will transform into Maliketh, the Black Blade. As a mage, he is weak to Gravity Spells and easily stunned with it! Use the Rock Sling gravity spell & the Meteorite Staff (both found in Caelid in the big red lake around Street of Sages Ruins). This gravity spell will stun the boss after 4-5 repeated hits. As a melee character, this fight will rely heavily on dodging and it’s best to not have a heavy load (medium load is fine), so either have enough Endurance to bring down your Load Percentage or put on lighter armor. With heavy load your stamina will drain too fast and your dodges will be too slow for this fight.
The first phase is fairly easy, he does use a mix of short-range melee attacks and some medium-range projectile attacks, as well as an AoE attacks that summons rocks from the ground and brings them crashing back down. All of these are easily evaded by dodging sideways or hiding behind the pillars. Summon some strong Ashen Remains, ideally the Mimic Tear (and have them upgraded) to distract the boss. This will make the first half quite easy, and in the best case have your Ashen Remains survive until the start of the 2nd phase. With a mage simply spam the Rock Sling spell while your Ashes distract the boss, after 4-5 hits he will get stunned and you can take down his health pretty quick with this one spell. As a melee char, land a few quick hits while he focuses on your Ashes.
The real “fun” starts in the 2nd phase which is actually one of the harder boss phases in the game. Learning his move set and when to dodge is essential to survive, because a single combo can instant kill you even with 99 max Vigor and heavy armor. He hits very hard, reaches far, and is very jumpy. Ideally your Ashes are still alive to distract him at the start, allowing you to get some quick damage in while he focuses on your Ashes. When he focuses on you, you’ll want to stay close to him to bait him into melee attacks. He will use those more often when you are close, they have fewer hits and are easier to dodge than his 5-hit ranged attack. Dodge his melee attacks and land a few hits, repeat. As a mage you’ll want to dodge backward to get some distance and use the Rock Sling spell again immediately after he misses his combo, hopefully stunning him, then you can spam Rock Sling for massive damage. When he does his ranged projectiles attack, he will throw 3 projectiles, followed by a sweep that deals two hits. You can hide behind pillars from the 3 projectiles or dodge each one sideways just before it hits. But the sweep he uses immediately after is really tricky as it cuts through the pillars and will damage you if you just stand there. You should do at least two dodges just before he hits with it, the reason being that he likes to do two spins when he lands which deals two hits. Dodge a couple of times, but make sure your first dodge is just before hit lands on the ground, dodging too early will get you hit. It takes a few tries to get the timing down. This double-sweep can instant-kill you if hit with two sweeps. Learning to dodge this move is annoying but crucial for survival. After he misses any combo you always have a short window to land some hits, be that melee or magic. Try not to lose many flasks during the 1st phase so you have plenty of health flasks left in the 2nd phase. Even as a mage bring mostly health flasks. You should also have found 30 Golden Seeds to get the max amount of 14 Flasks and found all Sacred Tears to reach maximum Flask level, to have an easier time here. The good thing is he doesn’t have super much health, just the 2nd phase is quite annoying and harder to dodge.

Reward: Remembrance of the Black Blade, 220,000 Runes
Trophy:  Maliketh, the Black Blade

Boss #57 – Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing

Location: Leyndell, Ashen Capital (after defeating Maliketh)

Difficulty: 3/10 (recommended Level 100+)

Strategy: This boss is very easy when using the Meteorite Staff + Rock Sling spell (both found in Caelid in the big red lake around Street of Sages Ruins). Gideon is a magic user, but with Rock Sling you have much further range than his spells. This means you can stand far away from him, far enough where his spells dissolve before hitting you, and just spam Rock Sling spell at him repeatedly. Also summon some Ashen Remains (Mimic Tear is best, but any other will do too). While the Ashes distract him you can spam your spell. He will heal himself when his health declines but just keep spamming the same spell from a distance and you’ll be safe.

Reward: Scepter of the All-Knowing (Weapon), All-Knowing Armor Set (Helm, Armor, Gauntlets, Greaves), 150,000 Runes

Boss #58 – Godfrey, First Elden Lord [2] & Hoarah Loux, Warrior [TROPHY]

Location: Leyndell, Ashen Capital (after defeating Sir Gideon), Elden Throne

Difficulty: 6/10 (recommended Level 100+)

Strategy: Godfrey, First Elden Lord & Hoarah Loux, Warrior are one and the same boss. Godfrey transforms into Hoarah at half health. The first phase is very easy, it’s the same Godfrey boss you fought earlier in the Royal Capital, except that he is now in human form and no longer in ghost form. His attacks are the same though and the same strategy applies as in the earlier fight – can simply dodge back and spam him with spells. The Meteorite Staff + Rock Sling spell are great here again, repeated hits will stun him. Summon some Ashen Remains to distract him. In his 2nd phase he is more aggressive and he uses quick melee hits and wrestling throws. He deals a lot of damage, about 1000 damage with a throw even when wearing heavy armor. Having 60+ Vigor is highly recommended to not die in 1 hit. He also does some AoE attacks on the ground, you can tell when he makes the ground glow, then continually dodge backwards out of the danger zone. In his 2nd phase you really want to have some leveled-up Ashen Remains (Mimic Tear is best) to distract him. Then spam him with the Rock Sling spell, 4-5 hits will stun him, it has very long range, deals massive damage, and homes in on him. With this you can take down his health very quickly. If your Ashes die, run away from him, let him miss an attack, then use a quick spell, repeat. Run around in front of him to lure him into an attack but quickly run/dodge away to evade, especially his throws deal brutal damage and should be avoided. As a melee char you can use basically the same strategy, 1st phase is easy, then in 2nd phase have your Ashen Remains still alive, deal some damage from behind while he focuses on your Ashes, then run/dodge from his attacks and land 1-2 quick hits and repeat. The 2nd phase can be a bit annoying but luckily he doesn’t have too crazy much health.

Reward: Remembrance of Hoarah Loux, 300,000 Runes
Trophy: Hoarah Loux the Warrior

Boss #59 – Radagon of the Golden Order & Elden Beast

Location: Leyndell, Ashen Capital (after defeating Hoarah Loux), Fractured Marika

Difficulty: 9/10 if doing it legit (recommended Level 100+), 5/10 using cheese method magic build, see below

Strategy: This is the endboss, consisting of two phases. For his first healthbar he will be Radagon of the Golden Order. After depleting his health he gets a 2nd full health bar and turns into Elden Beast. Normally, this is one of the hardest fights in the game, but you can cheese it with a magic build (if you play a melee build, respec at Renalla in Raya Lucaria Grand Library). It’s highly recommended to have fully upgraded some Ashes (ideally Mimic Tear), have 14 flasks (found 30 Golden Seeds), and reached Flask Level 12 (found all Sacred Tears). Being at least Level 100-120 is recommended.
Now for the method: Equip the legendary Spell “Comet Azur” (requires 60 Intelligence, from Mt. Gelmir: Primeval Sorcerer Azur, talk to Sorcerer to get it). Also equip to your Flask of Wondrous Physick the “Cerulean Hidden Tear” (from Mt. Gelmir: Minor Erdtree) – it gives you infinite FP for 10 sec. Also use the Meteorite Staff and have the “Rock Sling” Spell equipped (both found in Caelid in the big red lake around Street of Sages Ruins).
When entering the boss area, IMMEDIATELY move to the left of the boss before his animation finishes and stand as close to him as possible (touching him). But don’t attack yet. This will freeze the boss in place, see the video where to stand. Now consume your flask to get infinite FP and use the Comet Azur Spell to kill Radagon in one single move. He will just stand there and doesn’t do anything. DON’T summon your Ashen Remains yet. This takes care of the first boss phase without actually fighting the boss, easy peasy!
Now to the 2nd Phase – he turns into Elden Beast. At the start cast some Ashen Remains, fully leveled up Mimic Tear is best. This will help distract the boss, but it’s not absolutely mandatory, you can also do it without any Ashes. The trick here is to spam “Rock Sling” spell using the Meteorite Staff from far away. This spell has a very long range, homes in on the boss, and always hits. Just stay far away and you’ll never ever have to deal with melee attacks. This way you only need to worry about ranged attacks. The only tricky one is when he shoots 4 yellow sword waves at you, which you must dodge with perfect timing. Everything else can be evaded by simply running sideways. When he flies up and makes a yellow ring on the floor immediately run out of the ring to avoid the explosion. It takes a little bit of practice to learn his ranged attacks but once you know them you can easily dodge them and just keep spamming Rock Sling at him repeatedly from far away, making this phase quite easy. You should bring plenty of FP Flasks, and having Mind Level 30+ helps a lot to have more FP and last longer. If your Mind level is too low or if you don’t bring enough FP Flasks you’ll run out. At Mind Level 30+ having 6-7 FP Flasks should suffice, leaving you with 6-5 Health Flasks for this phase. See the video for a demonstration.
WARNING: After this you must choose the game ending. BEFORE doing so, sit at the site of grace and back up your save. Then do one ending, restore save, do the other endings. See ENDINGS GUIDE.

Reward: Elden Remembrance, 500,000 Runes

Boss #60 – Astel, Naturalborn of the Void [TROPHY]

Location: Part of the steps for “Age of the Stars” Ending, see the video, it requires a long series of secret steps

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: This boss is relatively slow and doesn’t attack often. It has some ranged attacks, all of which can be dodged sideways, and some melee attacks that it only uses when fighting it at close range. With a mage you can simply spam the Rock Sling spell from safe distance, dodge all its attacks sideways. As a melee char you shouldn’t have too much trouble either, spawn some Ashen Remains to distract the boss and attack when it’s focused on your Ashes.

Reward: Remembrance of the Naturalborn, 80,000 Runes
Trophy:  Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

Boss #61 – Commander Niall [TROPHY]

Location: Mountaintops of the Giants: Castle Sol (Castle Sol Rooftop), from the central Mountaintops go to the very north and follow the cliffside to the west to reach the bottom where the castle is.

Difficulty: 2/10 using Comet Azur Spell

Strategy: You can one-shot / instant kill this boss with a mage build. Simply use Comet Azur spell (from Mt. Gelmir: Primeval Sorcerer Azur). Use Flask of Wondrous Physick with “Cerulean Hidden Tear” (from Mt. Gelmir Minor Erdtree) & Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear (from Bellum Highway Minor Erdtree). This gives you infinite FP and stronger magic for 10 seconds. As soon as the fight starts, use the Comet Azur Spell. If your weapon isn’t maxed out yet you may need to use the spell a 2nd time, but with a maxed weapon you can instant kill the boss in one use.

Reward: Veteran’s Prosthesis, 90,000 Runes
Trophy: Commander Niall

Boss #62 – Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree [TROPHY]

Location: Miquella’s Haligtree: Haligtree Promenade – see how to reach Miquella’s Haligtree

Difficulty: 4/10

Strategy: This is a 1:1 copy of Royal Knight Loretta, just with stronger stats. Loretta is riding a horse and uses a long polearm as well as spells. She can either charge at you for a melee attack or use homing swords or a greatbow magic spell. At the start of the fight, summon Lone Wolf Ashes, they will attack her from all sides and keep her busy. As spell user spam her with magic from afar, and as a melee user roll through her melee attacks for an opening to hit her. Don’t let her flying swords fool you, they will not come at you immediately – react to the start of their movement and not the spell casting itself.

Reward: Loretta’s Mastery (Spell), Loretta’s War Sickle (Weapon), 200,000 Runes
Trophy:  Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree

Boss #63 – Godskin Noble [TROPHY]

Location: Volcano Manor – Temple of Eiglay, talk to the woman in Manor to get her key, then open first door on right of corridor and find a hidden door in the right corner of it, leading you to the Volcano Town where you find this boss

Difficulty: 5/10 (at Level 80+)

Strategy: Godskin Noble uses a combination of melee sword attacks, some ranged spells (which are easy to dodge sideways), and he likes to turn into a ball and rams into you. With a mage build he is easy to defeat using the Comet Azur Spell and the Cerulean Hidden Tear in your Wondrous Flask (infinite FP), thus you can potentially one-shot him or at least take most of his health right at the start. Then keep your distance and spam spells until he dies, use the pillars around the room for cover. Especially when he turns into a ball just hide behind a pillar, but keep in mind bosses can hit through walls/pillars with all their melee attacks so stand a few meters behind the pillar to not have him cut damage through it. He will get stuck on one of the pillars when he’s turned into a ball, just wait until he turns back to normal. Also, before the boss you can interact with a lever to open a bridge that connects directly from the start of the Volcano Town to the boss room, thus you don’t need to run far if you need a retry.

Reward: Godskin Stitcher (Weapon), Noble Presence (Ash of War), 50,000 Runes
Trophy:  Godskin Noble

Boss #64 – God-Devouring Serpent & Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy [TROPHY]

Location: Volcano Manor – follow the path behind boss “Godskin Noble” and use the teleporter to be brought to the boss. Alternatively, do the 3 quests for the lady on the throne of Volcano Manor and she will teleport you there

Difficulty: 5/10 (using Serpent-Hunter Weapon found in the boss room)

Strategy: This fight consists of two phases, the boss transforms after depleting his first health bar and turns into Rykard. When entering the boss fight, pick up the weapon to the immediate left of where you enter, it’s called Serpent-Hunter (Great Spear). Equip this weapon! It doesn’t have any stat requirements and it’s a weapon meant specifically for this one boss fight. It has 3 attacks: L2 Heavy Attack, R1 Ranged Attack, R2 Quick Attack (can also Jump + R2 for quick jump attack). These attacks deal a ton of damage to the boss. Start by running up to the boss and immediately use two L2 Heavy Attacks, the 2nd hit does thousands of damage, but you need sufficient Stamina and FP. Now lure the boss into attacking, dodge, then follow up with two L2 Heavy Attacks again and repeat. You can also run backwards and do a Jump + R2 for some quick good damage. Another possible strategy is to run into the lava around the boss and spam Jump R2 attacks from there. The boss tends to take a while to turn around to refocus on you, allowing you to land some easy hits. But generally, the best way is to lure it into attacking, dodge its attack, then do the two L2 Hits as they do the most damage (bring 4 Mana Flasks, the Heavy Attack uses Mana, but the other two Attacks don’t). After the Serpent is dead you will fight Rykard, who is basically the same thing just looks different and uses a Sword and summons some lava and flying skulls. Keep attacking him with the L2 Heavy Attacks. The first hit has a high chance of staggering him, thus he is defenseless for when you land your second Heavy Attack. The only tricky part is when he makes the entire arena lava and summons skulls that home in one you. Your best bet is to get lucky and kill him before he ever summons the skulls. If he does summon skulls, you’ll have to try to dodge his melee attacks while also running away from the skulls and try to get to the edge of the arena to avoid his melee and the lava. The combo between Heavy L2 attacks with Serpent-Hunter spear and jump R2 attacks will quickly bring him down. You can also upgrade the Serpent-Hunter Spear at the smith (it scales to Strength Attribute, so melee builds have a slight advantage).

Reward: Rykard’s Great Rune, Remembrance of the Blasphemous, 130,000 Runes
Trophy:  Shardbearer Rykard

Boss #65 – Dragonlord Placidusax [TROPHY]

Location: Crumbling Farum Azula, see path in video (secret boss)

Difficulty: 6/10

Strategy: Dragonlord Placidusax is a two-headed dragon that uses mostly Lightning damage attacks. It has a lot of health but its attacks are slow and it leaves long breaks between attacks. The easiest way to victory is to summon Mimic Tear (ideally fully leveled up), then using a mage build spam Rock Sling at it from afar for the rest of the fight. It will get stunned by this from time to time. The only part you need to watch out for is when the dragon becomes invisible and starts flying. Look in the sky, it will show red electric clouds where it flies just before it starts its dive attack, then dodge sideways just before it lands. All other attacks you can dodge backward and spam the spell at it. It will also use a range of other attacks, including lighting beams on the ground (red lightning, get out of the area before it hits), a massive explosive AoE attack (run away), becoming invisible and hitting with lightning melee attacks (dodge back), yellow fire (run away). Just keep your distance and spam the spell, and the boss will mostly focus on your Mimic Tear ashen remains.

Reward: Remembrance of the Dragonlord, 280,000
Trophy:  Dragonlord Placidusax

Boss #66 – Shardbearer Mohg [TROPHY]

Location: Mohgwyn Palace, accessed through portal in West Mountaintops (see boss video for full path)

Difficulty: 3/10 with Comet Azur & Rock Sling spells and 1600+ health

Strategy: Basically a 1:1 copy of Mohg, the Omen but in a much larger arena so it’s easier to get away from him and spam him with long-range spells. Immediately after entering the boss fight, summon your Mimic Tear ashen remains, then drink your Wondrous Mix with Cerulean Hidden Tear for infinite FP and use Comet Azur Spell to take like 50-80% of his health in one go. Then just finish him off with Rock Sling spell, he is very weak to this gravity spell and gets stunned every 4 hits or so. Your Mimic Tear will distract him. Easy fight with these two spells, only annoying part is when he does some AoE red mist attack that hits you from anywhere, keep drinking health flasks quickly until he stops and you’ll survive.

Reward: Mohg’s Great Rune, Remembrance of the Blood Lord
Trophy:  Shardbearer Mohg

Boss #67 – Shardbearer Malenia [TROPHY]

Location: Elphael, Haligtree Roots – see How to reach Elphael

Difficulty: 9.5/10 doing her legit (hardest boss in the game) – 5/10 if using cheese method (see below)

Strategy: Technically the hardest boss in the game, but can be made very simply with the right attack. First, get the the Ash of War: Hoarfrost Stomp, from the lake south-east of Caria Manor (hit the moving white line in the lake to reveal a scarab that drops it, as seen in the video). This Ash of War makes the boss an absolute joke. Equip it to a high damage weapon, like a Greatsword. Also level it up as far as you can (mine was Level 24), otherwise you don’t deal much damage. Also make sure you have the Mimic Tear Ashen remains (fully leveled up).
Now the Malenia strategy is simple: summon your fully leveled Mimic Tear ashens, stand behind them, spam the Hoarfrost Stomp at Malenia. Repeat in her 2nd phase. You can kill her in a minute with this one attack, it deals large AoE frost damage. I had my Hoarfrost Stomp assigned to Frost Damage. Your Mimic Tear will spam the same move, thus essentially stunlocking Malenia the entire time, especially if you can push her into a corner. Always run away when she focuses on you, let her focus on your Mimic. Place your attacks so they hit where your Mimic stands, Malenia will walk into it and you’ll be at safe distance. In her 2nd phase when she does her flying attack that casts a sort of rot flower after she lands, run straight when she flies up and she’ll miss you. The flower deals some rot damage but if she’s near death you can rush in and finish her off quick, as she’s completely defenseless and doesn’t move while in the flower (but don’t do it unless her health is nearly depleted as it will put Rot on you).
If you’ve been playing a mage so far, keep this boss for last (can still go here after final story boss), then respec your character to a strength melee build at Rennala in the Academy of Raya Lucaria, max out a Greatsword at the smith.

Reward: Malenia’s Great Rune, Remembrance of the Rot Goddess, 480,000
Trophy:  Shardbearer Malenia

Boss #68 – Lichdragon Fortissax [TROPHY]

Location: Deeproot Depths, requires doing Fia’s questline – see above video for all steps (it’s a 20-minute long and complicated series of required of steps)

Difficulty: 5/10 (2/10 using Comet Azur spell to kill it in one hit)

Strategy: Use Mimic Tear to distract it, then consume Wondrous Flask with Cerulean Hidden Tear (infinite mana) and fire Comet Azur spell to kill it in one attack.

Reward: Remembrance of the Lichdragon, 90,000 Runes
Trophy:  Lichdragon Fortissax

For Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Bosses refer to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Boss Guide.

For more guides check out the full Elden Ring Wiki & Strategy Guide.