Elden Ring: Ancestor Spirit (Siofra Hallowhorn Grounds) Boss Fight

As you probably know, bosses in Elden Ring are divided into three tiers. From lowest to highest: Field Bosses, Greater Enemy Bosses and finally Demigods and Legends.

Ancestor Spirit is in the middle tier, Greater Enemy Bosses, and is found in the Hallowhorn Grounds area of the underground Siofra River. Notice that there are two separate places in the game called Hallowhorn Grounds, the other is in the nearby Nokron Eternal City. Like most lesser bosses in the game, this one is optional in the sense that you do not need to kill it in order to advance the main story.

As you explore Siofra River, you will come across what appears to be an old temple with a large carcass of a reindeer-like creature in it. Initially, the carcass is completely dead and can’t be activated, but perhaps you noticed the eight pillars along the stairs leading up to the temple area. These eight pillars must be lit with fire before the boss becomes available.

The way to do that is to find eight other pillars throughout the Siofra River area that offers you to light the flame. As you light each of those, one of the pillars along the stairs will also light up, so it’s easy to see how many you’re missing.

Once all eight pillars have been lit, the large reindeer carcass will start to glow and activating it will transport you to another underground area where you will get to fight a much more lively version of the reindeer called Ancestor Spirit.

Now, this reindeer has obviously been dead for a very long time and the version of it you fight appears to be undead. I’m hesitant to say this, but between you and me, I’m pretty sure that this is in fact one of Santa’s reindeer as it can fly and make a trail in the air when it runs around up there. Which begs the question, who originally killed one of Santa’s reindeer? And how long were they on the naughty list afterwards?

Going melee with the boss was actually a bit annoying as it would often move out of melee range, so I had to chase after it a lot. In hindsight, I would probably have had a better time taking it out from range, but no matter.

The boss mostly attacks with its antlers and also does what appears to be some sort of frosty area of effect attack. And if you thought Santa’s reindeer would be too well-behaved to kick people who are standing behind them, you would be wrong. This particular member of the Cervidae family will happily kick you in the face with both hooves at the same time, so it clearly belongs on the naughty list itself ;-)