How to beat the Scadutree Avatar in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

The Scadutree Avatar is one of the most unique boss fights in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Of the 10 major bosses, you’ll likely find this one toward the end of the expansion, but it makes it up for that by being a surprisingly tough battle. If you’re struggling, keep reading, and we’ll help you prune the weeds.

How to beat the Scadutree Avatar in Elden Ring DLC

Preparation

You should know by now that every boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree does tons of damage, so you need the health and resistances to survive a couple of hits.

The Scadutree Avatar deals mostly Physical and Holy Damage, so I strongly recommend the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for 20 percent less Physical Damage taken and the Haligdrake Talisman+3 for 25 percent less Holy Damage taken.

Combine this with 60 Vigor, the Crimson Amber Medallion+3 from the Death Knight in the Western Unnamed Catacombs, and Morgott’s Great Rune for 25 percent extra health, and you’ll have nearly 2,600 health going into the fight. This lets you tank a few hits from the Scadutree Avatar while you dish out damage, which is especially important in the last phase.

Many of the Scadutree Avatar’s attacks use thorns and inflict Bleed, so bring plenty of Stanching Boluses and equip them on your quick item menu for easy access. The boss itself, like Erdtree Avatars from the base game, is weak to Fire Damage, so you’ll do well for yourself if you bring a Fire weapon or spells. You’ll do fine with any weapon, though, and I managed it fairly easily with a Bleed weapon.

Lastly, Scadutree Fragments are exceptionally important so you can improve your damage and defense throughout the expansion, and the higher your Scadutree Blessing, the easier the Scadutree Avatar will be. Check out my extensive guide to all Scadutree Fragments in Shadow of the Erdtree—my detailed directions make finding them a piece of cake.

Phase one

As soon as you aggro the boss, get ready to dodge left or right to avoid its ranged thorn attack. The Scadutree Avatar is slow and lumbering, and its melee attacks sweep a wide area of the arena, so try not to get caught if the boss isn’t directly attacking you. Otherwise, its melee attacks should be fairly easy to dodge—just wait for it to lunge backward and dodge at the last possible moment before the attack lands.

Watch out for the Scadutree Avatar’s Holy attacks. They deal huge area-of-affect damage with a massive range, but they’re very well-telegraphed. When the boss lunges downward and plants its roots, run out of the glowing golden patches on the ground, as they’re about to sprout thorns that inflict Physical Damage and Bleed buildup if they hit you.

Aim for the head, where the Scadutree Avatar takes extra damage, and you’ll shred through its health bar in no time. After you’ve killed it, take a breather and compose yourself.

Phase two

That’s right, the Scadutree Avatar is back for phase two with another full health bar. This time around, it’s more aggressive and much faster, darting around the arena and sending trails of thorns in all directions—especially yours. Sprint toward the boss to close the gap as soon as you can after dodging its thorn trails, then start dishing out damage to its head.

You still need to avoid its lumbering sweep attacks, but they come a lot quicker in phase two, so you’ll be dodging faster and more frequently. Try to stay at the base of the Scadutree Avatar and behind it while it’s attacking so its strikes are less likely to hit you.

The biggest challenge in this phase is staying in range of the Scadutree Avatar so you can consistently land attacks. It moves wildly and predictably, often jumping from one side of the arena to the other, so dealing damage can be tricky. The key is to nail the timing of your attacks in the brief windows that the Scadutree Avatar is stationary, and I can’t stress it enough—aim for the head.

Continue dodging its sweep attacks, avoid the glowing golden ground and dodge the erupting thorns, and attack when it’s safe, and you’ll get the wilted sunflower’s health bar down to zero once again. This time, you need to perform a critical strike on the sunflower to kill it, so approach it and attack its head.

Phase three

That’s not all—the Scadutree Avatar is back for a third round of punishment. In phase three, the boss doesn’t move as much. Instead, it slams the ground, does more Holy AoE attacks, sprouts more erupting thorns, and lunges around while remaining in one place. This is the easiest phase by far because its head remains close to the ground and vulnerable most of the time.

Just keep wailing on the boss and dodge its attacks. Heal through the damage if necessary—just keep the pressure on and try to get through this phase as quickly as possible. You’ll see in the video above that I just keep pummeling the Scadutree Avatar and don’t let up, and phase three goes down the quickest of them all.

Next, check out my guide on the best builds to beat Elden Ring’s DLC and all Map Fragment locations in Shadow of the Erdtree.