Elden beast tips?

[Shinneh]

is there a point where it settles down reliably?

I know where it spawns after the ring move, and 9/10 I'm waiting there, great right, fight must be in the bag? But barely a single hit and oop now it's gone, now you have to dodge projectiles, oh, now it's the ring move again.

But every now and then I'll just be able to take off half its health at once, before dying a minute later as I plop against the area barrier as I try to dodge fire or something.

I can probably do it within the next 5 or so tries, but I'm wondering if the fight has been "solved" in some way I'm not seeing, for future encounters. Like is lock on bad? Any tips appreciated.

[Toast]

His weak spot is the crack in his chest. I’ve only ever used the , greatsword . My strategy has always been to just smack him when he’s close by, and not use stamina to get to him. I find, Radagon to be harder than him.

[Greywander]

Maximize your holy resistance.

Haligdrake Talisman
Pearldrake Talisman
Lord's Divine Fortification
Golden Vow
Opaline Hardtear

This will make it a lot easier to survive against Radagon and Elden Beast both. The longer you live, the more opportunities you'll have to deal damage. Save your flask for Elden Beast, and rebuff after Radagon.

Radagon is weak to strike and fire damage. Surprisingly, Elden Beast isn't weak to anything; as long as you're not using holy damage you should be fine. Physical damage will generally be more effective.

What's your build?

[Shinneh]

Radagon can be rough, but I found a rhythm where I could tell when he was about to break, also his big 3 aoe hammer strikes move is nice and punishable.

Yeah that's where I've been hitting it, when I can at least. I guess I need to be more patient. Stamina isn't too much an issue for me. It's more the frustration of running and dodging for a full minute, only to get one R1 off and ya boi is gone, again.

[Lord Bob]

The damage type Elden Beast mainly deals is holy, so try to increase your resistance to holy as good as you can. Your strongest Haligdrake Talisman, Holy Proof Liver, Golden Vow, Commander's Standard Ash of War, but best would be Lord's Divine Fortification if you have access to it.

[Shinneh]

Originally posted by Greywander:

Maximize your holy resistance.

Haligdrake Talisman
Pearldrake Talisman
Lord's Divine Fortification
Golden Vow
Opaline Hardtear

This will make it a lot easier to survive against Radagon and Elden Beast both. The longer you live, the more opportunities you'll have to deal damage. Save your flask for Elden Beast, and rebuff after Radagon.

Radagon is weak to strike and fire damage. Surprisingly, Elden Beast isn't weak to anything; as long as you're not using holy damage you should be fine. Physical damage will generally be more effective.

What's your build?

Dex x Strength and that one bloodhound sword you get from the hounds evergaol boss. Could do with a more impactful ash of war for the beast, but it schools radagon well enough.

40 vigor
45 end
30 str
45 dex

or thereabouts

[Mr.America]

Elden Beast has exceptionally much health. Use that to your advantage and fight him with blackflame, whatever type you have available. An unupgraded stitcher is enough if you know what you're doing, incantations are also fine. An initial destined death attack also takes off a giant chunk of its health. Other than that, it's mainly just running around, dodging projectiles.

It's not a difficult fight at all, more of a scenic final battle.

Also, blackflame is even more effective if you're summoning, as his health increases, but blackflame is % based.

[Greywander]

In that case, Lord's Divine Fortification is probably off the table (Golden Vow, too). Unfortunate, since that one spell gives a whopping 70% holy damage negation. Holyproof Dried Liver is the alternative, though it's only a measly 15%. Still better than nothing I suppose. You could also throw the Golden Vow ash of war onto an off-hand weapon, but the ash of war isn't as strong as the spell version.

You might be a little under leveled, and I don't quite understand your stat spread. The Bloodhound's Fang scales better with DEX than STR, so there isn't much reason to put any extra points into STR beyond the 18 minimum needed to wield it until you hit the DEX softcap at 60. You should also try to push Vigor to 60 for optimal HP.

Have you completed the optional content yet? From the Mountaintop of Giants, there's a whole other area you can access that isn't required to beat the game; you should get quite a few more levels to work with if you complete that content. You need to find two halves of the secret medallion, one of which is found on the Mountaintop while the other is in Liurnia (you might even already have it). I'm also curious if this is your first playthrough of the game.

[LuckyCheshire]

If you have Black Knife Tiche, that makes the fight extremely easy. Otherwise like people have said, black flame, holy resistance, chest crack. It's more of a battle of attrition than anything, just wear it down faster than it can wear you.

[Shinneh]

Originally posted by Greywander:

In that case, Lord's Divine Fortification is probably off the table (Golden Vow, too). Unfortunate, since that one spell gives a whopping 70% holy damage negation. Holyproof Dried Liver is the alternative, though it's only a measly 15%. Still better than nothing I suppose. You could also throw the Golden Vow ash of war onto an off-hand weapon, but the ash of war isn't as strong as the spell version.

You might be a little under leveled, and I don't quite understand your stat spread. The Bloodhound's Fang scales better with DEX than STR, so there isn't much reason to put any extra points into STR beyond the 18 minimum needed to wield it until you hit the DEX softcap at 60. You should also try to push Vigor to 60 for optimal HP.

Have you completed the optional content yet? From the Mountaintop of Giants, there's a whole other area you can access that isn't required to beat the game; you should get quite a few more levels to work with if you complete that content. You need to find two halves of the secret medallion, one of which is found on the Mountaintop while the other is in Liurnia (you might even already have it). I'm also curious if this is your first playthrough of the game.

I'm two handing it, so strength actually seems to bump it up nicely.

Just beat it, I tried Haligdrake +2 instead of my Greatshield talisman (honestly forgot haligdrakes existed) but radagon seemed to kill me all of a sudden, so I switched back and I managed to do it ok. Locking off during the ring attack was key to get my positioning perfect, then it was just being patient when it spewed fire etc. and not trying to close distance too early.

[Shinneh]

Originally posted by LuckyCheshire777:

If you have Black Knife Tiche, that makes the fight extremely easy. Otherwise like people have said, black flame, holy resistance, chest crack. It's more of a battle of attrition than anything, just wear it down faster than it can wear you.

I am too baby brained to summon her without the infinite FP wonderous physick lol But I will try that on NG+

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by Shinneh:

Elden beast tips?

Frosted. Definitely frosted.

[Greywander]

Originally posted by Shinneh:

I'm two handing it, so strength actually seems to bump it up nicely.

Ah, I was wondering if that might be the case. But if so, then the same argument would apply, just that you should be boosting STR instead of DEX. Though honestly they're probably about the same at that point.

Just beat it, I tried Haligdrake +2 instead of my Greatshield talisman (honestly forgot haligdrakes existed) but radagon seemed to kill me all of a sudden, so I switched back and I managed to do it ok.

Congrats! What you could have done was to hardswap from Dragoncrest Greatshield to Haligdrake immediately after beating Radagon, though if you're not use to hardswapping it can be difficult to do mid-combat. I think Radagon does a mix of physical and holy damage, so the Haligdrake still should have been of some benefit against him. Maybe you just had some bad RNG? Whatever the case, it's done now.

[Shinneh]

Oh yeah my dodging sucked that try, it was my first fight after going back into the game lol

Thanks so much for all the tips, I'll definitely try and make sure I have proper holy damage negation next time.

[Climhazzard]

Use the green turtle talisman, because you're going to be running, a lot.

[Sabaithal]

Some observations on Elden Beast behavior (note it is possible to break its behavior in some ways):
- Opens with fire breath. This should be obvious, but run behind it to avoid it.
- Once it reaches 75% health it will enter "retreat mode" briefly. DO NOT PURSUE, you won't catch it.
- After it gets far enough away it will fly into the air and use a single "ring" attack. The ring can be jumped over. It will then re-emerge nearby shortly after the ring detonates.
- Once it reaches 50% health it uses Elden Stars.
- Elden Stars can be avoided by "running circles" around it. Simply put, the projectile sometimes travels fast but with bad turning, and sometimes its the other way around. The smaller projectiles track you predicatively, meaning if you move erratically they have difficulty actually hitting you.
- Elden Beast's aggression increases at this point, and it often begins chaining attacks together.
- Once it reaches 25% it enters retreat mode and uses another "Ring" attack. This time it is 3 rings.
- Elden beast will re-emerge BEFORE the detonation this time.
- Wave of gold is practically impossible to dodge or jump. You must block it or avoid it outright. Getting close to Elden Beast will do the trick, as will being outside of its range when it executes.
- Its "bullet rain" attack can be evaded easily by just pacing in a circle.