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At the very end ofElden Ring, players head back to the foot of the Erdtree and pass through the barrier previously barred by thorns. The final boss ofElden Ringis split into two separate fights: one where players faceRadagon of the Golden Orderof the Golden Order, and the follow-up battle with theElden Beast.
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There’s a lot of complex lore behind the Elden Beast, but essentially it is the manifestation of the Elden Ring after being sent to the Lands Between by the Greater Will. After beating Radagon, the Elden Beast is the game’s true final boss, and it can be rough if players don’t know what they’re doing - its attacks hit hard, but they’re far from undodgeable.
Updated Aug 04, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: When figuring out how to beat the Elden Beast, players must be ready to try some non-traditional methods. There isn’t really an Elden Beast weakness so to say, but that doesn’t mean that some strategies and maneuvers aren’t better against it than others. The best build for Elden Beast dominance is ultimately anything ranged and anything non-Holy. Melee players may have a harder time finding out how to beat the Elden Beast, but with updated avoidance advice below for each of the Boss’s attacks, even the most stubborn Warrior can find their way around its wide-sweeping attacks. In the end, players have a choice to make, but with DLC on the way, that choice may not be so easy to make.
The Elden Beast Moveset (And How To Counter It)
The Elden Beast is a single-phase fight, when not counting the lead-in fight with Radagon. Thisdoesn’t mean it’s easy, though, as the Elden Beast has a massive HP pool, can move around the battlefield with ease, and has an unparalleled number of attacks and abilities at its disposal.
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The number one thing to do to counter the Elden Beast’s moveset, especially abilities that track the player, is to practice Stamina management to maintain a balance of attacking and dodging. Players will only be able to get a hit or two on the Elden Beast before it retaliates, so it’s vital to keep enough Stamina for evasive maneuvers like dodging and sprinting.
How To Beat Elden Beast: Strategies
The Elden Beast is the game’s final boss, but thatdoesn’t make it the hardest boss. It has a plethora of attacks at its disposal but the majority of them are moves players have likely already seen in their pursuit of the Elden Ring. It’s a fight that can take a long time, though, thanks to the Elden Beast’s high HP pool and maneuverability. If the Tarnished gets hit more than once without healing, chances are its high-damage abilities will kill even the most well-armored character.
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The best Spirit Ash to take into this fight is theoretically the Mimic Tear, but that depends on the strength of one’s build. For those who would prefer to avoid the Mimic Tear, choose a Spirit Ash with high mobility and evasiveness, like Black Knife Tiche or Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff. They will more often than not avoid the Elden Beast’s rapid attacks, and their own retaliations can draw its attention for a relieving few seconds. Use that time for a heal or to re-apply anti-holy items, then go back and take its attention back from the spirit.
When it comes to the Elden Beast weakness, it really doesn’t have one. However, its enormous size is both to its benefit and detriment. Because it takes up a lot of space, AoE attacks – like Black Flame Ritual – absolutely dominate it.
Best Strategy: Pillar Attacks, Black Flame, and Anti-Holy
Because the Elden Beast has such a high HP pool and takes up such a massive area, there are a few tricks players can use to cheese the boss. Pillar-type spells, like Black Flame Ritual, deal damage in focused points over a spread area. Because of the Elden Beast’s size, these focused areas all hit at once and stack, taking out chunks of its HP bar.
In general, theBlack Flame is powerfulagainst the Elden Beast because the lingering damage is percentage-based. The damage-over-time unique to Black Flame spells doesn’t last long, but against a high-HP enemy like the Elden Beast this small amount adds up quickly, to the point that it deals as much damage as the attack itself.
Using gear and spells that reduce incoming Holy damage is key to surviving the Elden Beast’s strongest special attacks. The majority of the Elden Beast’s attacks deal majority Holy damage, so going into the fight with the Haligdrake Medallion Talisman, the Holyproof Dried Liver consumable, and spells like Lord’s Divine Fortification can go a long way in negating the boss' deadly moveset.
Melee Strategies
Melee players will be surprised to learn that the Elden Beast is actually staggerable. It’s difficult to pull off because of how often it moves around, though. Instead, try to stay as close to the Elden Beast at all times to be able to get hits in when openings appear. Because sprinting back and forth and dodging takes up so much Stamina, it’s not a bad idea toequip the Green Turtle Talismanto make it easier to catch up to this mobile boss.
The boss' attacks are all pretty well telegraphed, but avoid locking on. The camera will go haywire when the Elden Beast moves. A few moves are much harder to avoid in melee range, especially because it can cast a spell, move in for melee attacks, and have the spell activate later on while players are trying to dodge its sword. Be patient and focus on dodging rather than attacking and even melee-only players can come out of the Erdtree with nary a scratch.
Spellcaster and Ranged Strategies
Being a spellcaster makes the fight against the Elden Beast a bit more cinematic, but it isn’t without its challenges. Incantation users should use the Black Flame against the Elden Beast as it deals percentage-based damage that wrecks the boss' enormous HP bar. Sorcery users should opt for high-poise-damage spells like Rock Sling to regularly stun the Elden Beast, and long-rangespells like Loretta’s Greatbowcan keep players safe while a Spirit Ash keeps its attention. Ranged-focused players should avoid using Arrows that cause Status Effects, as the Elden Beast is completely immune to all of them. Instead, opt for heavier Arrows, or consider upgrading to a more impactful class of Bow.
What Happens After Defeating the Elden Beast?
After beating the Elden Beast, first, give yourself a pat on the back. The final boss ofElden Ringis downed, and the game is over – kind of. The Tarnished is given the choice to end the game with one of their unlocked endings. There are six endings inElden Ring, each of which (except the Elden Lord ending) is unlocked after completing an associated questline.
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The Elden Beastdrops the Elden Remembrance item, which like all Remembrances can either be consumed for Runes (50,000 in this case) or traded with Enia for unique boss weapons. The Elden Remembrance gives two options: the Sacred Relic Sword, or Marika’s Hammer. The Sacred Relic Sword comes with an Ash of War that lets players blast a holy Wave of Gold, just like the Elden Beast, as an attack that reaches further than just about any other in the game. Marika’s Hammer is the very thing that broke the Elden Ring in the first place, and its Ash of War – Gold Breaker – sees players imitate Radagon as they leap into the air, raise the hammer, and come crashing down in a holy burst.
After all this, and after choosing an ending, players are given the option to start New Game+. With the first “Elden Ring” DLC “Shadows of the Erdtree,” finally announced, progressing into Journey 2 isn’t necessarily the default choice anymore. Instead, it’s not a bad idea to keep this high-level character ready to jump straight into the DLC on normal difficulty when it’s released, instead of the heightened stakes of NG+. The DLCs forSoulsgames typically house the hardest enemies, so a character with some gear is going to fare a lot better than a freshly-made one.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S.
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ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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