Elden Ring is taking gamers by storm with an awesome, Soulborne open world by the folks over at FromSoftware. And the game is as punishing as ever – pushing many players to rage quit only to come back for more a few hours later.
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While there’s a lot to love about this game and to consider, we’re going to focus entirely on bosses. In fact, the entirety of the rest of this article is an Elden Ring boss guide, covering:
- Main bosses
- Optional bosses
- Rewards
- Locations
- How to defeat the main bosses
Elden Ring Boss Guide 101: Your Chance to Beat Elden Ring
If you want to beat Elden Ring, you must beat the 12 main bosses. You can also try and beat the many optional bosses, but they’re not a necessity to complete the game. Let’s take a look at each boss and strategies to defeat them.
Beating Elden Ring’s 12 Main Bosses
1. Margit, the Fell Omen
Margit is found in Stormhill and offers you 12,000 runes and a Talisman Pouch. As the game’s first main boss, you’ll find that this encounter is a lot easier than others. However, a magical blade and staff make it difficult to attack.
The attacks and pressure from Margit are intense, but if you have your shield up, you’ll absorb a lot of the damage.
You’ll want to start the fight by learning his basic attacks and the combinations he hits you with. Pay special attention to the glowing daggers being thrown at you because they’ll inflict a ton of damage if you’re unprepared.
The game plan to beat this boss is:
- Stay close yet far enough away that staff hits miss
- Wait for an opening and hit two to three times
- Leave enough stamina to retreat when necessary
- When you need to heal, be sure to use Lone Wolf Ashes or other items to distract the boss.
2. Godrick the Grafted
Godrick is found in Stormveil Castle. If you defeat him, you’ll receive the following:
- 15,000 runes
- Godrick’s Great Rune
You should be level 30 to take on this foe. He’s the hardest boss up until this point, and you’ll have to go through multiple phases of attacks. We recommend shielding up to guard against his attacks and keeping your distance.
If you allow your guard to be broken, you’ll be killed quickly.
The trick to making this boss easier is to bring an NPC with you. You’ll find the NPC behind the fog gate. Just talk to her a few times before she agrees to lend help during the fight. She’ll attract the boss, and once she does, get behind the boss and start unleashing your attacks.
3. Red Wolf of Radagon
Red Wolf drops the Memory Stone and 14,000 runes. You’ll want to be level 36 to kill this boss, and you’ll find the wolf in the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Red Wolf is an intense fight, with lots of magic damage and a very agile wolf that doesn’t want to be killed.
You’ll want to start the fight and learn the wolf’s patterns.
Keep your distance, dodge and roll, and be careful of the magical blade attacks. A neat trick is to throw your Ashes to distract the boss and then attack when its back is turned. Timing is everything in this fight, and you’ll need to dodge the magical spears if you plan on winning.
Two tips to help you drop Red Wolf are:
- Jump to dodge attacks
- Use fire grease
4. Rennala, Queen of The Full Moon
Rennala is also found in the Academy of Raya Lucaria. If you can beat this boss, you’ll receive:
- 40,000 runes
- Great Rune of the Unborn
- Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen
We recommend being level 40 for this two-phase fight. During the first phase, you’ll need to attack at least three followers in the room. Hitting the followers will break the shield and allow you to start attacking the queen.
Run away when she starts glowing yellow.
Phase 2 starts with a cinematic and will require you to dodge a lot of attacks. Timing is everything in this fight. Since she’s weak to bleeding, use Hookclaws to damage her. Additionally, have a lot of ashes ready to throw.
5. Godfrey, First Elden Lord
Godfrey is found in the Royal Capital of Leyndell, and he drops 80,000 runes and a pouch. While you should be level 80 to take him on, he’s actually an easy boss to kill. You just need to stock up on Ashes of War, keep your distance and spam throwing them at him.
You’ll also want to use any Ashes of Summons if you have them.
6. Morgott, The Omen King
Omen King drops 90,000 runes, Remembrance of the Omen King and also Morgott’s Great Rune. You’ll find this boss near the Elden Throne Site in Grace. You’ll find that Omen King is very similar to Margit, but he has a lot of additional attacks to consider.
You’ll want to:
- Summon Melina to help during phase one of the fight
- Mount attacks from his back while he’s distracted
- Retreat and keep your distance during the fight
- Use Storm Blade
- Once you reach the second phase of the battle, you’ll find that the boss is crouching. Attack the boss but be prepared to run because he’s about to unleash a massive AOE.
This is a tough fight, so you can expect Melina to die and will need to have Ashes ready to summon. Take your time and be patient because the Omen King has very few weaknesses to exploit.
7. Fire Giant
Fire Giant is going to be one of the most challenging fights you’ll face because fireballs will fly at you while you try to dodge the flames coming out of the ground. You’ll find him and his 180,000 runes near the Forge of the Giants.
You’ll start the fight by running at the giant and attacking his feet.
If you look closely, you’ll want to attack the foot with the bandage that is already weakened. You’ll continue this strategy for quite some time before the second phase of the fight commences.
You’ll notice that his foot is missing in this phase, and he rolls around the area. While you may assume he’s enraged and will be difficult to kill, you can now attack him anywhere. However, you will want to watch out for fireballs that inflict intense damage upon impact.
8. Maliketh, The Black Blade
The Black Blade has a gigantic sword, which you’ll need to dodge if you plan on living through this fight. You’ll receive 264,000 runes and the Remembrance of the Black Blade for killing this boss, who you’ll find at the Crumbling.
A few strategies that you can employ to win this fight are:
- Top off your health
- Use Sacred Flask when hit
- Mimic Tear Ashes will be alive during this phase, and you’ll want your copy to gain aggro while you take free shots from behind the boss. Once the second phase hits, you’ll need to attack and retreat rapidly to slowly knock down health and win the battle.
This boss is a legend, so be sure to take your time and be patient to land a kill.
9. Godfrey, First Elden Lord (again)
Godfrey is back when you fight Hoarah Loux, who we’ll be covering next. But before he switches into the warrior, you’ll need to make quick work of Godfrey. You’ll find him in the Royal Capital, where he drops the Remembrance of Hoarah and 300,000 runes.
However, you’ll be facing the human form of Godfrey and need to be level 100 to really overcome him.
The good news is that his moves remain the same as the first fight. But you’ll find that he has a lot of health this time around. Here are a few tips for taking him down:
- Use Mimic Tear Ashes to hold aggro
- Attack from the back to inflict a lot of damage
- Use bleed damage to keep his health ticking down
- Try using Bloody Slash to reduce his health drastically
You’ll only need to bring Godfrey’s health down to 50% before he transforms into Hoarah Loux.
10. Hoarah Loux, Warrior
Hoarah is found in the same spot as Godfrey and offers the same rewards. However, he’s the second phase of the fight when you bring Godfrey down below 50% health. During the fight, he’ll use his bare hands and daggers to try killing you.
Thankfully, the match isn’t that difficult.
The key to winning this fight is to avoid the boss’s main attacks, especially where he grapples and hurls you in the air. Allow your Mimic Tear Ashes to hold aggro in the fight, slash the boss from behind and dodge attacks.
Eventually, you’ll drop the boss, and another legend will fall in the process.
11. Radagon of The Golden Order
Deep in the Capital of Ash in Leyndell is Radagon. You’re just about done with the boss fights at this point, and we have another surprise for you: once Radagon is killed, you’ll go right into the final battle.
Because there’s no time between fights, you’ll need to keep as many Sacred Flasks available as possible.
Lightning is his main attack, and even his daggers are lightning-based. If he wants to, he’ll grab you and slam you into the ground, causing immense damage. Once again, your best bet is to use Mimic Tear Ashes to create a copy of yourself.
Hopefully, the copy is upgraded to 10 or higher.
Unfortunately, the boss will only allow you to hit once or twice before dropping aggro. So, your game plan should be to attack twice and retreat to allow your copy to regain control. If you can, use Bloody Slash to end the fight much faster.
12. Elden Beast
Elden Beast is the final phase of the last boss fight. The fight revolves around holy damage, so be sure to equip any resistance that you have. While the boss hits hard, the attacks are slow and allow you a lot of time to attack.
Your goal should be to attack the beast’s stomach, which is glowing.
While you should attack anywhere that you can, stomach hits will cause the beast to stagger and allow you to do more damage. Unfortunately, bleed damage is one of the boss’s immunities, so you’ll need to rely on your Spirit Ash and large AoE spells to kill the beast slowly.
Stay close, attack from behind and use any weapons that you can launch at the beast.
Beating Elden Ring’s Optional Bosses
As you come across main bosses, there are many optional bosses that you’ll come across in the game as well. You don’t need to beat any of these bosses, but if you want to, we recommend trying to take on the following:
- Abductor Virgins, who you’ll find in Volcano Manor.
- Elemer of the Briar, found in Shaded Castle.
- Mohg, Lord of Blood, found in Mohgwyn Palace’s underground.
- Malenia, Blade of Miquella, found in Consecrated Snowfield.
Once you beat these four monstrosities, you can move on to killing other optional bosses. Mohg is a great boss to seek out, although his trident causes tons of damage. If you manage to kill him, 420,000 runes will be your reward.
We chose the most challenging optional bosses available. If you want to go up against some of the game’s deadliest bosses, they’re on the list above. Of course, you can also kill all the optional bosses if you like, there are tons of them littered throughout the game.
Elden Ring is loads of fun, and you should spend time learning more about each class and go through game day highlights to understand it further.
If you’ve read through our guide and are still having difficulty on particular boss fights, be sure to check out gameplay and streams on Twitch and YouTube. You’ll find many gamers sharing their insight into the game and how to beat bosses, step-by-step.
