Shadow of the Erdtree: How to defeat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss? Elden Ring guide, walkthrough
Divine Beast Dancing Lion is one of the main bosses in the Shadow of the Erdtree add-on for the Elden Ring game. On this page of the guide we have described how to fight him and what rewards you will receive for defeating him.
Last update: 25 June 2024
Divine Beast Dancing Lion is one of the bosses in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. You will face him at the end of the Belurat location, the settlement near the tower in the Cemetery Plain region, where the expansion begins. The boss is mandatory - you must defeat him to continue the DLC. On this page of the guide, we described how to fight the boss and what rewards you will receive for defeating him.
Reward for defeating
For defeating the boss, you will receive 120,000 runes, Remembrance of the Dancing Lion and the Divine Beast Head helmet.
The Divine Beast Dancing Lion in a nutshell
- Stay in the center of the arena - don't let the boss press you against the wall.
- The boss almost always attacks several times in a row - don't stop defending yourself too early.
- The boss's melee combos almost always consist of two or four hits.
- Avoid the grab - the grab attack deals massive damage and puts a status on you that will heal the boss if you heal yourself.
- After attacking with the head from above, there is no follow up - this is a good opportunity to attack the enemy.
- The boss switches between three elements - wind, electricity and ice.
- In wind mode, the boss only deals physical damage, which can be fully blocked with a shield.
- When blocking attacks in electric or ice mode, make sure you have plenty of health as some of the damage will go through your block.
- The key in this fight is positioning - avoid being pressed against the wall and the area effects left by the boss's attacks in electricity and ice modes.
How to fight the Dancing Lion?
The Dancing Lion is the first main boss of the expansion and can pose quite a challenge due to its aggressiveness and strange movements. The most important piece of advice in this fight is not to get pressed against the wall. The boss is very mobile, forcing you to be on the move. If you and the boss are near any of the walls, the camera will go crazy -- you may have problems with controlling your character, which will result in a quick death. Stay in the center of the arena, return there whenever you can, and if the beast corners you, break the lock-on and run back to the center.
The boss almost always attacks several times in a row, and his melee combos usually consist of two or four strikes. Don't break your defense too early and wait for the boss's combo to end. Be especially wary of the grab attack, which you'll recognize by beast the snapping its jaw. The grab cannot be blocked (you have to dodge it), it deals huge damage and inflicts a status effect on you that will heal the boss when you drink a healing potion. Also watch out for an attack from above - if the boss hovers above you, he is about to slam his head on the ground. If you avoid this move, you will have a moment to attack the boss while he is trying to recover.
The beast switches between three elements. The default element is wind - the boss is the least dangerous in this form because he only deals physical damage, which can be fully blocked with many available shields. When the enemy drops to half health, his attacks will gain new properties - he can, for example, create tornadoes or shoot streams of air. However, all wind attacks still deal physical damage. The other two elemental modes give the boss one new move and modify his current attacks with a specific effect.
The Lion becomes much more dangerous in electric mode, gaining access to lightning bolts that require perfectly timed dodges. All of his attacks also trigger lightning strikes from the sky, forcing you to move constantly. You can't fully block electric damage, so focus on dodging or making sure you have plenty of health before blocking.
Ice mode is more dangerous than wind mode, but not as destructive as electric mode. The boss gains a ground stomp attack that covers the floor in ice. All of his attacks also slowly increase your frostbite meter, which when filled will deal high damage to you and increase the damage you take from subsequent attacks.
The key to defeating the Lion is positioning. Staying away from walls and avoiding lightning will help you defeat this boss.