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The vast world of Elden Ring has a lot to do. Exploring catacombs, dungeons, castles, or desolated snowfields will keep you on the edge of your seat during the entire playthrough. The game brings new bosses, some of which are a sight to behold. These bosses have unique mechanics and breathtaking stages, making even the most challenging fights enjoyable.

Related: Elden Ring: How To Complete Nepheli Loux's Questline

Draconic Tree Sentinel is a boss that you face in the mid-section of the game, and the fight is not as pleasant as it seems. If you recall the Tree Sentinel fight at the beginning of the game and add Fire, Lightning, and a lot more damage, then you get the newer version of the boss called Draconic Tree Sentinel. Here is all you need to know about this intense boss battle.

Updated June 13, 2022: We've updated this article to include a video guide that details exactly how to defeat the Draconic Tree Sentinel.

Draconic Tree Sentinel Overview

Draconic Tree Sentinel Overview
Location Capital Outskirts
Optional Yes
Summons Spirit Ashes and Players
Drops
  • 50,000 Runes
  • Dragon Greatclaw
  • Dragonclaw Shield
Weak To Physical Strike Attacks Physical Thrust Attacks

Draconic Tree Sentinel is a boss located in Capital Outskirts in Northeast Atlas Plateau. The boss is optional, meaning that you do not have to defeat it in order to enter Leyndell, Royal Capital, and can go through Deeproot Depths by progressing in Fia's questline.

However, the Deeproot Depths method is quite long and time-consuming. So facing the boss to go ahead is a better option. Plus, you get a cool weapon and great shield out of it, so why not.

You can summon Spirit Ashes and online players to help you in the fight. You can also summon the NPC Blackguard Big Boggart if you bought Rya's Necklace from him and a few squids. The boss is quite weak towards physical thrusts and strikes, so make good use of them. After defeating the boss, you will get 50,000 Runes, Dragon Greatclaw (Weapon), and Dragonclaw Shield.

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Draconic Tree Sentinel Attacks

The boss has two phases in this fight, and it is necessary to avoid Lightning Wave and Targeted Lightning as they deal serious damage and can knock you down, leading to another attack from the boss.

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Related: Elden Ring: Where To Find Every Nomadic Warrior's Cookbook

Strategies

There are three main strategies for this fight, and they revolve around your playstyle and how you want to defeat the boss.

Melee Strategy

The melee strategy is by far the riskiest out of all the strategies. You can mount up and use a melee weapon to attack the boss to make it easier for you. Fighting the boss without Torrent in the first phase is manageable; however, in the second phase, the boss performs a lot of AOE moves and attacks with good tracking making it harder to dodge all. The plus side of going for the melee strategy is that the boss is relatively weak against thrust attacks and strike attacks.

Performing jumping heavy attacks or charged ones can break the boss's posture; however, this will not lead to a critical hit.

Mounted Ranged Strategy

The ranged strategy is quite simple for our Sorcerer brothers and sisters out there. You need the Swift Glintstone Shard (Sorcery) and need to ride Torrent. Keep moving around the arena while having a lock-on on the boss, so you can dodge the fireballs coming your way. As you focus on dodging the attacks on your horse, keep spamming the Sorcery to chip away the boss's health bar.

If you have high enough Intelligence, the boss will go down much faster.

Dodging most of the Lightning AOE attacks on a horse is more manageable. This will allow you to create a great distance from the boss. You can also summon a Spirit Ash that can switch the boss's aggressiveness on it while you poke from a long range.

Poison Mist Cheese Strategy

This strategy is for the last resort, one can say. If all else fails and you have to defeat the boss, then make sure to use this cheese. The cheese allows you to kill the Draconic Tree Sentinel without hitting him once or making him aggressive towards you. All you need is the Poison Mist (Incantation), which you can get by killing the Teardrop Scarab located southeast of the Castle Morne Rampart Site of Grace.

You will need 12 Faith in order to use it, so we would recommend grinding some Runes and getting to that Faith if you do not have that much. The Incantation does not take much FP, you can use it many times.

After acquiring the Incantation, equip your seal and circle around the boss by crouching in order to reach the back of him. Once you are near the backside of the boss, you can use Poison Mist over and over again, allowing the Poison to build up and surely kill him.

You will have to do this spell multiple times, so bring a lot of FP flasks as you will not need Health flasks with this tactic.

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General Tips

  • Be Level 90-95 or Higher.
  • Make use of the giant arena and limit the boss's attacks.
  • Do not greed a lot of attacks all at once as the boss can interrupt your attacks with his mace and one-shot you.
  • Do not use consumables like Flasks or mount up near the boss can take out half of your health in this animation.
  • Try dismounting or mounting your horse whenever the boss uses Lightning attacks, as you have invincibility frames in the animation and will not get hurt.

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Next: Elden Ring: Complete Guide And Walkthrough