ELDEN RING General Boss Tips & Tricks
ELDEN RING is quite a gargantuan game, sporting a whopping 83 bosses scattered throughout the numerous areas of the Lands Between; although every boss has unique tips, tricks, and strategies that you can employ to defeat them, some work universally. This article should be your one-stop shop to understand how to fight against most of these bosses without specific guides. Without further ado, let's start with #1:
#1 — You are going to die, get accustomed to it
It's easy to enter a boss fight and feel the rush of exhilaration overtake you as you try to defeat it. One important thing to keep in mind whenever fighting any boss in ELDEN RING is that you will not defeat it on your first try; the sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you can start strategically employing methods to win. That said...
#2 — Analyse the boss and their moves
Sure, a couple of dozen deaths are inevitable, but that doesn't mean that each one has to be useless. Try to observe the boss and their moves; understand what they do, when they do it, and why. The strongest weapon you can have in ELDEN RING is your knowledge of the game; knowing why and when a boss does something can be the difference between taking a fatal blow or dealing it.
#3 — Have patience
We've established that you will die hundreds — maybe thousands — of times, easily several dozen per boss. Getting frustrated will work for absolutely nothing, no matter how satisfying it might be to fight and fight the same boss until you've defeated them out of sheer rage. Chances are, if you leave, take a breather, and come back, you'll have a better approach; therefore, you'll see the blatant mistakes you were making before.
#4 — Don't get greedy for hits
Guess if I survived that one!
It's easy to get excited when you've fought the same boss over and over again and see their life a hit or two away from death, and it might even be tempting to rush them to get the last hits in and claim victory. It is imperative that you do not; there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. If you got the boss this low, you're doing something right; continuing to do so will ensure your victory, whilst playing recklessly to get the final blow will possibly be the opposite of everything you've done thus far, much like the tale of the hare and the tortoise.
#5 — Learn when to block, roll, and attack accordingly
There are situations in which you should and shouldn't react throughout the boss fight, and learning these early helps work towards your victory. Dedicate 10 deaths to just dying to the boss in different ways as you learn what attacks do and which ones you can easily block, roll over, and punish appropriately. Some bosses have extra attacks on a combo according to how you react (much like Margit), so learning when you're triggering an optional attack is always great to know.
#6 — Get a 100 physical damage shield
I know not everyone is going to want to do this, especially those going for magic-centred builds, but having a 100 physical damage shield can help you by blocking some poke attacks and slowly learning the boss' combo without having to do so by dying over and over. I would recommend to at least use one for the first couple of runs against a boss, as it will help you last longer in a fight to learn more per death.
#7 — Pay attention to the arena
Each boss has a unique arena where you'll have to fight them, and this will often work in their favour. For instance, Margit's arena is thin but long, and fighting the Tree Sentinel in his intended arena is too thin to manoeuvre properly to dodge the shockwave attacks. Instead, moving him to an open area will allow you to roll more freely, and thus make the fight easier.
#8 — Live to fight another day
Sometimes, you enter a boss fight by accident and lose thousands of relics; this will happen, and it's unavoidable. Just because you found the boss doesn't mean you can nor should be able to defeat it, as seen with Margit, since it is very easy to have to fight him without having a strong enough weapon to defeat him with.
That is the ending of our tips and tricks! Think of anything else that I missed that works as general advice for all bosses rather than specific ones? Feel free to tell us in the comments below! I'm sure most of us haven't even been in proximity with all of the bosses thus far.
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