How to beat the Elden Beast in Elden Ring

No matter how players got there, the fact remains that they’re one last fight away from beating Elden Ring. The Elden Beast is the final boss of the game and is the only God-foe in the game. As many might expect, the fight with the Elden Beast is one of the toughest bosses and shouldn’t be taken lightly—no matter the player’s level or gear.

This fight is directly after defeating Radagon of the Golden Order. The Elden Beast is the true form of the Elden Ring, taking on the appearance of a sea creature wielding a giant sword. This monster has several attacks, almost no weaknesses, and can wipe players out with one hit extremely easily.

Here are some tips on how to get past the Elden Beast.

How to beat the Elden Beast

The battle with the Elden Beast is a grueling affair that will take players ages to complete. The Elden Beast has a massive amount of HP and no matter what players can dish out in terms of damage, they will have to spend a lot of time chipping away at its health pool.

Damage type

To successfully defeat this boss, understanding its attacks is crucial. Magic and melee characters alike will deal with the same attacks, so the strategy for either is closely similar. Players will want to avoid using any kind of attack with Holy damage since this damage type actually heals the Elden Beast.

Speaking of damage, the Elden Beast is immune to any other kind of status affliction. It cannot be poisoned, frozen, inflicted with blood loss, or anything else. Players have to rely on sheer physical or magical damage to get past the final boss of Elden Ring.

When it comes to the damage the Elden Beast deals, players would benefit from armor with high Holy and pierce defenses. These are the main damage outputs of the Elden Beast that will give players trouble.

Recommended levels

Players should be at a fairly high level for this fight. Anywhere from 130 to 150 should be acceptable, but any levels lower will cause players to have a tough time. Players might also consider a respec of their character and its stat points and place more points into Vigor. The Elden Beast has the ability to one-shot players with certain attacks, so the more points in Vigor, the better. To do this, players must use the Larval Tear system.

Spirit Ash summons

If players haven’t used Spirit Ash summons up to this point, now might be a good time to use one. The Elden Beast becomes much more difficult to defeat if its attention is solely on the player, so a Spirit Ash used as a distraction can help immensely.

While the Mimic Tear received a significant nerf back in Patch 1.03, we still recommend it as well as Black Knife Tiche and the Ancestral Follower—here is where to find the Mimic Tear. All of these Spirit Ashes draw aggro from the Elden Beast giving players time to adjust.

Elden Beast close-range attacks

Now, it’s time to get into the Elden Beast’s attacks. At the beginning of the fight, there is one solid opportunity to get in a few hits. The Elden Beast will always start the fight by spewing yellow breath right at the player. But if players maneuver themselves around the boss during this animation, they can get a few free hits in before the next attack.

The Elden Beast’s next attack could be its glowing sword attack, which sees the boss slam its sword into the ground and then trigger a giant explosion when it pulls the sword out. Players need to dodge the sword first, get a hit or two in, and then get behind the boss to avoid the brunt of the explosion.

Be very watchful of the boss’ command-grab attack. This is preceded by the Elden Beast’s hand glowing gold. The reach on this grab is quite far, so once players see the glowing, they need to run away as fast as possible. Magic characters can get some long-range attacks in after the Elden Beast fails to grab the player.

In addition to the grab attack, the boss will also swipe at players with its sword or body at random times. Players simply need to learn what to watch for to avoid these attacks while up close and personal with the boss.

The last close-range attack the Elden Beast has is a purple cloud of death. If players see this cloud, they need to run far and fast. This cloud explodes after a few seconds of being in the air, causing massive AoE damage to any player close to it. The Elden Beast can either shoot this at the player from afar or spew it over them at close range. Dodging and running is the best way to avoid it.

Elden Beast long-range attacks

For longer-range attacks, the Elden Beast likes to get creative and even more lethal. This is where the boss can one-shot players if they’re not careful.

First, players must watch out for the projectile Rune Arcs. These are shot out of the Elden Beast’s sword. There are four in total. Two of them occur consecutively while the other two come with a delay. Dodging back and forth is the only real way to not get hit by the Rune Arcs.

The Elden Beast can also use another projectile attack. This one is preceded by the boss swimming underwater and popping back up to soar into the air. From here, the boss will shoot more stars at players. The best way to avoid these is to run straight away until the attack ends.

Finally, the first phase of the fight will likely conclude with the Elden Beast trying to smash players from up high. The boss will once again soar into the air, high above the arena, and actually form the Elden Ring while in the air. This ring then shoots a beam down onto the ground, which players need to avoid at all costs. Run through the openings of the ring, or jump over the barriers, and get out of the center as quickly as possible. Try to get to the edge of the arena through all of this.

Phase-two attacks

Once players have dealt around half of the Elden Beast’s HP, it will enter phase two. This phase has new attacks, but most are simply deadlier versions of the phase one attacks.

Wave of Gold

The first is called “Wave of Gold.” The boss will use its sword to fire a cone-shaped blast at players, which carries an AoE explosion. Players can either try to dodge this wave or get behind the boss if they see the attack is coming.

Elden Stars

The other attack sees the Elden Beast throw Elden Stars at players. These are incredibly difficult to avoid since it is homing projectile stars that will follow the player. If players need, they can take damage from the smaller stars but the bigger one must be avoided. Those hit by the larger one rarely survive. Making it out of this attack unscathed is rare, so prepare to take some chip damage from the smaller stars.

Upgraded phase-one attacks

The last two attacks are upgraded versions of phase one attacks.

One of them is the Elden Beast’s Elden Ring attack, which now has three rings that enclose on the player. Once again, the best way to avoid this attack is to run through the openings and jump over the barriers of the rings to get out.

The other is the exploding nebula or cosmic line that it spawns from its hand. This attack can be combined with other attacks like its flaming sword swing and others that get well hidden behind the dark clouds.

Elden Beast’s weak spot

The Elden Beast has one weakness, which is the glowing gold spot on its lower torso. Melee characters should go for this spot as much as possible while mage characters will want to use a long-range spell, such as Rock Sling, and attempt to aim it at the gold spot. But avoiding the Elden Beast’s attacks in between trying to get hits in is no easy feat.

Those are all of the Elden Beast’s attacks in Elden Ring. Players simply need to learn when they can attack since the boss has so many different ways to deal damage. Going for the gold spot on the boss’ lower torso and getting behind it are the best ways for melee characters to go about the fight. For magic characters, staying far away and using spells like Rock Sling or Comet’s Azur is going to be the best route. Using Spirit Ash summons makes this fight much easier as well.