Elden Ring: Astel, Stars of Darkness (Yelough Axis Tunnel) 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.

Astel, Stars of Darkness is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Yelough Anix Tunnel dungeon in the Southern part of the Consecrated Snowfield. Like most lesser bosses in the game, defeating this one is optional in the sense that it is not required in order to progress the main story.

At this point in the game, I still remember Astel, Naturalborn of the Void whom I fought in the Grand Cloister as one of the hardest bosses in the game. I’m sure much harder ones are still in my future, but as it is right now, that was a very memorable fight.

This boss is very similar to that. Judging by the name, they may be two variants of the same celestial being. I’m not a huge lore buff so I wouldn’t know for sure, but they certainly look very similar.

Astel, Stars of Darkness is apparently supposed to be the harder of the two, even though the first one was a Legendary boss and this one is only a Field Boss, but I guess it depends on the level you are at when you reach either of them.

The only real difference I noticed in the fights was that on one of my attempts, when he teleported away and would end up behind me to grab me and eat me, this version of Astel would duplicate himself so there was an entire circle of Astels all around me, all of them grabbing at me. I didn’t survive that, and I have no idea how I would have. Fortunately, he didn’t repeat that scumbag move on the successful attempt.

I decided to call in Black Knife Tiche for assistance on this one. I would have called her in from the start, but I messed up and spent some focus on nuking with Bolt of Gransax, so I didn’t have enough to summon her. I didn’t want to waste a flask at this point, so I waited until I had spent all of it before I drank one and summoned her.

I’m not sure how big a difference she really made, but just someone taking some of the boss’s attention away from me felt very helpful. Unlike some other bosses, it didn’t feel like she completely trivialized this one though.

The boss has several highly dangerous moves, such as medieval laser beams, long-range tail lashing, and even summoning void meteors. The most dangerous one is still the grab attack I mentioned before, which usually happens right after he teleports away. When I fought the previous version of Astel, I found that just sprinting off in any direction would usually avoid it, as he would just barely miss the grab. If he does manage to grab you, it’s usually death. I have fairly high Vigor at this point and I have yet to survive it.

And now for the usual boring details about my character. I play as a mostly Dexterity build. My melee weapon is the Guardian’s Swordspear with Keen affinity and Thunderbolt Ash of War. In this fight, I also used the Bolt of Gransax and the Black Bow for some long-range damage. My shield is the Great Turtle Shell, which I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 154 when this video was recorded, which I think is a bit high for this content, but it was still a reasonably challenging fight. I’m always looking for the sweet spot where it’s not mind-numbing easy mode, but also not so difficult that I will be stuck on the same boss for hours ;-)

Fan art inspired by this boss fight

A warrior with dual katanas faces a towering cosmic creature with a horned human skull in an underground cavern. More information

A tiny warrior faces a colossal flying insect-like celestial being with a horned human skull inside a massive underground cavern. More information

A lone warrior faces a massive flying celestial insect creature with a horned human skull and a ringed planetary tail inside an enormous underground cavern. More information

An anime-style Black Knife warrior dual-wielding katanas facing the cosmic entity Astel in a vast underground cavern. More information

Anime-style scene of a Black Knife warrior facing Astel, Stars of Darkness, floating horizontally with mandibles and planetary tail rings in an underground cavern. More information

A dark-fantasy scene of a Tarnished warrior facing a horned, mandible-jawed cosmic creature floating over an underground lake. More information

A translucent celestial insect-like creature with a horned skull and star-filled body hovering over a Tarnished warrior in a blue and purple cavern. More information

A dark fantasy scene of a Tarnished warrior facing a vast, translucent celestial insect creature with a horned skull and glowing wings in a blue-purple cavern. More information

Further Reading

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like these suggestions:

• Elden Ring: Astel, Naturalborn of the Void (Grand Cloister) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Necromancer Garris (Sage's Cave) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Runebear (Earthbore Cave) Boss Fight