Elden Ring has plenty of optional bosses, but none are as important as the Draconic Tree Sentinel. It guards the entry to the Royal Capital and you won’t be able to progress the game unless you defeat him or find an alternate route.
In this guide, we will tell you everything there is to know about the Draconic Tree Sentinel, including its location, how you can defeat him, and his weaknesses. We’ll also cover how you can cheese this boss for an easy victory.
Elden Ring Draconic Tree Sentinel Location
This optional boss is found in the region of the Altus Plateau and guards the most straightforward path leading into Lyndell Royal Capital. Other routes exist to this location, but would set you back.
Head east from the Hermit’s Shack Grace in the Capital Outskirts region in Elden Ring. Follow the path along the round wall of the city to get to the bridge guarded by Draconic Tree Sentinel.
How to Defeat Draconic Tree Sentinel Boss in Elden Ring?
The Draconic Tree Sentinel is incredibly weak to Poison and Bleed. Without any upgrades, a single cast of Poison Mist spell will easily deal over 1000 damage to the boss.
If you are a pure melee character, you need to be fast on your feet. Remember that you cannot tank any of Draconic Tree Sentinel’s attacks. You must stay on Torrent to dodge an attack or soak up damage.
The best thing is to use a weapon with good range. For Colossal Sword users, a crouch attack is a good-range stab. Spears have a good range on stabs as well as charged heavies. For straight sword and Katana users, only exploit the opening in his attacks.
You can ask for additional help to defeat this boss by summoning other players using the Furlcalling Finger Remedy. If you are struggling, start working on Millicent’s questline. After you give her the Prosthesis Arm and defeat the boss in Windmill Village, you can summon her for this fight.
Don’t sit on summons. They can be a huge help and will help you get breathing room from the boss. We recommend any ranged archer-type summon.
When the sentinel’s health will be reduced by half, he will boost himself with dragon magic. These attacks will be new and will contain two ferocious lightning strikes. You must use fast spells and maintain your distance at all points to have a chance against him.
Defeating Draconic Tree Sentinel will drop 50,000 Runes, Dragon Greatclaw, and Dragonclaw Shield.
Draconic Tree Sentinel Attacks and Counters
The Draconic Tree Sentinel boss uses a great hammer, which can deal massive damage. If you stay on the side where he is holding the hammer, be ready for many extremely fast attacks with almost no windup.
He will charge his attack, run up to you, and slam his weapon into the ground if you are far away. He can also charge his attack by holding the hammer over his head, striking it into the ground, and dealing AoE damage.
He also uses the Horse stomp, where his horse will stomp on you. His horse also breathes fireballs, which can attack you at a distance and while you are standing next to him.
Along with these, Draconic Tree Sentinel also has a variety of shield attacks, where he can bash you in any direction if you are standing on the side where he is holding his shield. The boss can also slam his shield on you along with front and back bashes.
Draconic Tree Sentinel enters his second phase after his health depletes and starts using Lightning attacks against you. This is where the fight gets interesting, as so many attacks are almost impossible to recognize every time.
The boss will imbue his shield with Lightning and either follow up with a sweep that summons a field of lightning falling at random places or raise his shield and slam it to drop a single targeted lightning bolt at you from the sky.
The first attack can be avoided by looking at the highlighted areas on the ground, whereas you need to master the timing for the second attack to dodge it.
For the hammer, Draconic Tree Sentinel will either smash his hammer into the ground and deal AoE damage or swing his hammer and slam it on the ground which sends out a wave of Lightning. This attack has particularly good tracking, so as soon as you see him charging this attack, run away.
How to Cheese Draconic Tree Sentinel?
To cheese the Draconic Tree Sentinel, you must collect the Poison Mist Incantation first. You must visit Weeping Peninsula and enter Castle Morne Rampart. You need to kill a Scarab here to obtain the poison mist.
After obtaining the mist, you must buy a Finger seal to help cast the poison mist. Finally, the only thing left is to sneak behind Draconic Tree sentinel by walking past trees and bushes so he can’t see us. And cast the Poison Mist incantation.
The boss won’t know your location when you cast your spell. You must cast this spell only once and keep observing the boss. The spell will cause the health of the boss to decline. Once you see the boss’s health has stopped declining, cast the spell again.
Keep repeating the process until the entirety of his health has been depleted.
