Elden Ringfeatures a vast world filled with tombs, catacombs, forts, and caves to explore. Many of these locales feature puzzles, obstacles, traps, and secrets to uncover, and the Deathtouched Catacombs are one such locale.
InElden Ring’s first region, Limgrave, the Deathtouched Catacombs act as an early example of the Catacomb dungeons, which are often infested with imps and the undead, and are excellent sources of resources like Glovewort. Since Glovewort is needed to upgrade Spirit Ashes, exploring Catacombs is a vital part of most playthroughs of the game.
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Reaching Deathtouched Catacombs
The Deathtouched Catacombscan be found to the west of Saintsbridge, with a spirit grieving outside it. This makes it easier to spot at night when the spirit will stand out more. The easiest ways to get to it are to head east along the road from the Warmaster’s Shack and look for it on the left or to head west from the Saintsbridge Site of Grace and look for it on the right.
Navigating the Deathtouched Catacombs
After passing the spirit, opening the door, and touching the Site of Grace inside, players should head further down and turn left to find skeletons and a large room (note the locked door on the way, that’ll be important later.) Skeletons will revive after death unless players smash the glowing ribcage they leave behind or kill themusing weapons or spells that are strong against the undead(examples include the Litany of Proper Death Incantation and the Golden Epitaph Sword).
After taking out the skeletons, players can loot the room fortwo Grave Glovewort (1)before heading down to the next room and encountering more skeletons. The biggest issue here is the skeleton archers, who can cause trouble for players who don’t keep an eye on them while fighting and can’t be reached with melee weapons from here. Check the right side of the room to snag another Grave Glovewort (1), and thenhead into the next room where a Bloodrose can be foundon a dead body against the wall. There’s also a statue here with a lever, which should be pulled before heading back to the stairs where the first skeletons were encountered.
Players can drop and find a narrow corridor here, populated with some Skeletons and containing a Grave Violet along with another Grave Glovewort (1). Take the left exit from this room to reach the upper area where the skeleton archers are and take some sweet revenge on them. After they’re down, players can snag one more Grave Glovewort (1)and the Uchigatanafrom a nearby corpse.
Black Knife Assassin
Now that players have cleared out the rest of the Catacombs,it’s time to head back to the locked door by the entrance.It’s open now, and inside is the boss room. Players will have to deal with the Black Knife Assassin to claim this dungeon’s final treasure. Players making use of status effects should be aware that she’s immune to everything except Frostbite, so bleed isn’t going to help here, unfortunately.
Luckily,this first taste of the Black Knife Assassin boss typeseems to have had a nasty accident before players arrive and only has half of her health. This won’t stop her from moving fairly quickly and unleashing a variety of quick dagger strikes on unsuspecting players, though, so stay on guard. A good shield can deflect her attacks and offer an opportunity to counterattack, and daring players might want to try parrying some of her strikes for even greater effect. Dodge rolling can also be very effective once players get the hang of her attack timings, though her feint attack can be a little trickier to avoid.
Her feint attack begins with her leaping toward the player with a fake counter-clockwise swing before switching up to a clockwise slash right after the feint. The fake swing won’t damage players, but also can’t be parried, so it’s important to watch out for it.
Melee Strategies
Players engaging the Assassin in melee combat should be aware that she staggers easily, making quick weapons andSpirit Ashes like the Lone Wolvesvery effective for creating openings for massive damage. They also don’t have a ton of health, so it’s possible to strategically trade damage and take them down first.
Ranged Strategies
Spirit Ashes are valuable for distracting the Assassin if using ranged attacks.Intelligence buildscan get a lot of mileage out of Carian Slicer and Magic Glintblade since the former is fast enough to stunlock her, and the latter gets around her tendency to dodge ranged attacks due to its delayed launch.Magic Glintbladeisn’t easily obtained this early, though, unless players are willing to ride all the way to the Turtle Pope in Liurna of the Lakes before taking on this dungeon. Carian Slicer requires players to detour to the area south of Agheel Lake and grab a scroll for Sorcerer Sellen first but can be accessed without leaving Limgrave.
Faith Builds will want to use incantationslikeCatch Flameto stunlock her since it comes out fast and deals excellent damage for its speed. Aside from Catch Flame,Flame Slingis one of the few other damaging incantations that can be effective here and easily obtained this early in the game, but she’s very good at dodging it.
Archers will want to make use of Spirit Ashes, as mentioned above,to buy time to pelt her with arrows. attempt to aim for her when she’s unable to dodge, like mid-attack.
Elden Ringis available for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
