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As in all Soulsbourne games, Elden Ring provides excellent locations to go rune-farming, allowing you to level up faster. But there is one particular boss nestled in the hardest area in the game that proves to be an unconventional, and deadly, place to gather a bucketload of runes.
You might have heard of the massive sleeping dragon that could give Game of Thrones' Drogon a run for his money. Found in Greyoll's Dragonbarrow in the easternmost end of Caelid Wilds near Fort Faroth Site of Grace, Elder Dragon Greyoll has proven to be another victim of the Scarlet Rot, just like any other denizen of the Caelid region. Here's how to defeat it and earn yourself nearly 80,000 runes.
Elder Dragon Greyoll Overview
| Elden Dragon Greyoll | |
|---|---|
| Location | Fort Faroth, Greyoll's Dragonbarrow, Caelid |
| Optional | Yes |
| Summons | Players and Spirit Ashes |
| Drops |
|
| Weak to | Bleed Attacks |
Elder Dragon Greyoll is the Empress of all dragons in the Soulsborne franchise. The definition of a tank, Elder Dragon Greyoll's flying abilities may have disappeared due to Scarlet Rot, but her kids are still around to protect their mother. Even attacking Greyoll takes time and patience if you don't want to face her brood of lethal babies, so you might need to come back with a weapon that's maxed out or has the ability to inflict Bleed damage.
Smaller Dragon Overview
| Smaller Dragon | |
|---|---|
| Location | Fort Faroth, Greyoll's Dragonbarrow, Caelid |
| Optional | Yes |
| Summons | Players and Spirit Ashes |
| Drops |
|
| Weak to |
|
There are five of her baby dragons, and they're halfway close to the size of dragon bosses like Agheel. Should you decide to confront them, you'll realise that their health bar has already been drained to half. Make sure to deal with them one by one, as they're more vulnerable than their mother to a variety of attacks. Greyoll might be grounded right now, but her HP is immense. However, note that killing all 5 dragons will thereafter kill Greyoll as well.
Elder Dragon Greyoll Attacks
As mentioned before, just because Greyoll can't go airborne anymore, doesn't mean she's entirely stripped of all defences. She may not be able to unleash dragonfire, but she can still move her head and wings slightly and call her babies to defend her. We are going to give you a full overview of Greyoll's attacks.
| Elder Dragon Greyoll Attacks |
|---|
Greyoll's Roar Attack
As soon as you're within sight of Greyoll, or come up behind her and start attacking or attacking her babies, Greyoll will emit a loud, screeching roar. This will alert her baby dragons, and they'll start hunting for you.
Counter: Stick to her tail, or summon Spirit Ashes and start picking off her babies one by one.
Tail Sweep Attack
Greyoll's dragon babies have the usual move set you see when fighting Flying Dragon Agheel. You'll be able to tell when they're about to perform the tail sweep attack when they lift their tail up at a certain angle.
Counter: As soon as you see the tail lift, immediately roll forward. Or if you're on horseback, gallop away.
Charge And Bite Attack
Another one of the attacks Greyoll's dragon babies do is that they charge while opening their jaw, ready to bite you. They'll go for a swift strike by swiping their jaw at you.
Counter: You can use a shield to block this attack. But if there's more than one baby dragon coming at you, gallop away.
Ground Slam Attack
For this attack, the dragon will launch itself into the air, before landing in a destructive slam.
Counter: Either gallop away or roll forward and as far away as possible from this devastating attack.
Battle Strategies
There are two ways to go about this fight if you're playing melee or sorcerer. You can off her babies, which once that's done, will automatically kill Greyoll as well. Or you can take the slow and steady route and attack Greyoll with a weapon that causes Bleed damage.
Melee Strategy
If you're largely melee, you can literally cheese this fight by having a Bleed weapon or coating your weapon with blood grease. Position yourself on the left-hand side of Greyoll, because on the other side there are two of her baby dragons. You can do this by the mid-point of her tail, on horseback or on foot. Slowly but surely, your Bleed weapon will cause massive blood loss, and you can kill Greyoll without confrontation with the baby dragons.
If you would like to face the baby dragons instead, use a shield and make sure your weapon is maxed out or close to it. It'll be easy to end them with the help of a Mimic Tear summons, or any other Spirit Ash summons you've upgraded to +7.
Ranged Strategy
If you are playing largely as a sorcerer build and would like to only focus on Greyoll, then blood loss spells like the Swarm of Flies would be ideal. But otherwise, Greyoll is immune to nearly all types of attacks.
For the baby dragons, it's preferable to summon your Mimic Tear for backup. As for attacks, whip out Rock Sling or Comet Azur to deal with them quickly. You can even use weapons like Moonveil Katana, Rivers of Blood, or Reduvia daggers for ranged fighters.
General Tips
- Arm yourself with a Bleed weapon (i.e. Bloodhound's Fang, Hookclaws, etc.).
- Coat your weapon with Blood grease or use Seppuku Ash of War
- Use Rock Sling on the baby dragons
- For mages, try Swarm of Flies incantation on Greyoll
- Go all out with elemental sorceries on the baby dragons
- Summon Spirit Ashes or Multiplayer when dealing with baby dragons
- Upgrade your weapon at least to +7
