We’re sure that the Tree Sentinel is still giving you bad dreams.
If you’ve played Elden Ring before, this should sound pretty familiar: you’re riding around the Lands Between when all of a sudden, dramatic music starts playing and a boss bar pops up at the bottom of your screen. A Field Boss just attacked you. For our purposes, this term refers to any boss you can fight without going through a Fog Wall.
These bosses can be found all over Elden Ring. They vary a lot in terms of how hard they are, from being fairly easy to being terrifying monsters that will give even seasoned FromSoftware players nightmares. Here are ten that are most likely to cause you problems.
Tree Sentinel
-1.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
In and of itself, the Tree Sentinel is not that hard to beat. But because it’s in Limgrave, it’s likely to be the first Field Boss you fight, and the developers at FromSoftware want to teach you a hard lesson with it. It’s there to teach you that, unlike in the company’s previous games, not every challenge is meant to be faced right away.
It’s not impossible to beat the Tree Sentinel if you take the time to learn its patterns, but you won’t have much fun if you try to fight it as soon as you can.
Ulcerated Tree Spirit
Ulcerated Tree Spirits can be found in different ways all over the game. Some are Field Bosses, while others are at the end of dungeons. They are very big and move very quickly, but in a jerky, flailing way that makes it hard to keep track of them.
These monsters aren’t quite as dangerous as they look, though. In fact, the most dangerous thing about the Ulcerated Tree Spirits might be the panic you feel when you see one for the first time. If you don’t freak out and stay close to them, they won’t hit you as often as you think.
The Dragons
We already have guides and lists describing where these dragons are and how to defeat them (although a handful of the dragons mentioned there aren’t technically field bosses), but there are enough dragons roaming the Places Between to complete this list on their own.
Most of the field bosses do things in the same way. Once you know how they attack, it’s easy to avoid them, but if you make a mistake, they’ll do a lot of damage. And, of course, there’s enough variety here to keep things interesting, between the unique attacks of the stronger “normal” dragons and the occasional Magma Wyrms and Ancient Dragon Lansseax, who use completely different moves.
Dragonkin Soldier
In Elden Ring, there are a lot of Dragonkin Soldiers. The first one is in Siofra River, and the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella is, as you might have guessed, in Nokstella. But the one in the Lake of Rot is the strongest of the three and makes this list. You probably don’t need to know much more than that to see why this Dragonkin Soldier can be a problem for players.
It has better stats than the others, but the Lake’s constant threat of Scarlet Rot is the real danger in this fight. Sticking to the platforms that protect you from the Lake will make the fight easier for ranged builds, but if you really need to get close to the Dragonkin Soldier, you should have a lot of Preserving Boluses on hand.
Black Blade Kindred
There are two Black Blade Kindreds in Elden Ring. One guards the Bestial Sanctum in Dragonbarrow, and the other guards the Grand Lift of Rold in the Forbidden Lands. Both of them are terrible to deal with. They attack in a similar way to the Valiant Gargoyles boss, but they can also use Blackflame attacks that can lower your health if they don’t kill you right away.
Both of these enemies are dangerous, but the one guarding the entrance to the Bestial Sanctum is especially dangerous because you can fight it before you’re strong enough to beat it. However, it can’t get into the Bestial Sanctum, so if you’re careful, you can cheese it.
Draconic Tree Sentinel
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is an improved version of the first Field Boss you face in the game. It stands at the entrance to Leyendell, the Royal Capital. At first glance, the two fights don’t seem that different, except that the Draconic Tree Sentinel has more health and does more damage, and it spams a fireball attack whenever you try to get away.
But don’t be fooled by how much they look alike. In its second phase, the Draconic Tree Sentinel adds a variety of lightning attacks with strange timing that cover large areas and will kill you if you aren’t careful. And unlike the normal Tree Sentinel, the Draconic version has to be killed for the game to move on, which could be a problem for players who are having trouble beating it.
Wormface
Death Blight is one of the most scary things in Elden Ring. Even the bravest Tarnished will be scared to death when they see that status bar on their screen. It shows how close they are to dying right away. The Wormface Field Boss is near a Minor Erdtree in the Altus Plataeu. It can cause Death Blight in two ways: first, by releasing a large cloud of poison, and second, by spitting globs of it at you from a distance.
Then, as you panic and run away from the Death Blight clouds, this gangly weirdo will run after you and try to grab you in a nasty way. If you have a lot of resistance to Death Blight, this fight might not seem so bad, but if you aren’t ready, it can be very hard.
Bell Bearing Hunter
-2.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
The Bell Bearing Hunter is a secret boss who shows up in different parts of the Lands Between. Because the conditions that make him attack are so specific, many players may never have seen him. He only shows up at night near certain merchants, and it looks like he wants to kill them.
From the way he looks, you can tell that this mysterious person is the Shaded Castle boss Elemer of the Briar. He uses the same powerful telekinetic attacks as his boss form, and the most powerful versions of him have more health than the boss. But at least in the versions where Elemer is not the main boss, you don’t have to fight him in a room the size of a shoebox.
Death Rite Bird
You might have run into a Deathbird early on in your Elden Ring game while you were traveling at night. They look scary, but there’s nothing too hard about them. Then, later in Tunnel Rush game, you can find Death Rite Birds, which are basically Deathbirds on steroids. They have full wings, so they can actually fly, and they can use powerful Ghostflame magic.
If you need help getting rid of these magical zombie chickens, try using Holy Water Pots. Since Death Rite Birds are weak to holy damage and Holy Water Pots increase damage against undead, they are very useful even if you haven’t leveled up your Faith.
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast
The Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast is in Mt. Gelmir, northeast of Volcano Manor. It is much stronger than the babies you can find in the Altus Plateau and the Sellia Crystal Tunnel. It has a lot more health and is just as fast and mean as its younger siblings. It also gives it a few more Gravity attacks that can almost kill you in one hit if they hit.
The fact that the Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast’s arena is small and on top of a mountain doesn’t help. The boss is hard enough to beat that you don’t have to worry about dying if you slip and fall.