Elden Ring: Cemetery Shade (Black Knife Catacombs) 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.

Cemetery Shade is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the main boss of the Black Knife Catacombs dungeon found in Liurnia of the Lakes. 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.

If you think this boss looks familiar it’s because you’ve probably seen it before. This type of boss is re-used in several dungeons with only minor variations. At this point in the game, you will most likely have encountered it in the Tombsward Catacombs dungeon on the Weeping Peninsula.

The Cemetery Shade resembles a pitch black evil spirit. It doesn’t have very much health, but it outputs extremely high damage if you get close to it. Like most undead, it’s critically weak to Holy damage and I take advantage of that here through the use of the Sacred Blade ash of war.

Compared to the previously found version of this boss, this one isn’t much harder, except that it’s accompanied by a couple of skeletons. Just regular skeletons, shouldn’t be too hard. Except that I’m notoriously bad at multi-tasking, so whenever I’m faced with multiple hostiles, you’ll get to witness my infamous headless chicken mode.

Fortunately, neither the boss nor the skeletons are very hard to kill, so even though I made a lot of mistakes, they were put in their place in the end.

Fan art inspired by this boss fight

Anime-style fan art of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the shadowy Cemetery Shade inside the Black Knife Catacombs just before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style Elden Ring fan art showing the Tarnished in Black Knife armor from behind, facing the shadowy Cemetery Shade inside the Black Knife Catacombs. Click or tap the image for more information.

Wide anime-style Elden Ring fan art showing the Tarnished in Black Knife armor from behind facing the Cemetery Shade inside the Black Knife Catacombs. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style Elden Ring fan art showing the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the Cemetery Shade at close range inside the Black Knife Catacombs. Click or tap the image for more information.

Dark fantasy Elden Ring fan art showing the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the Cemetery Shade at close range inside the Black Knife Catacombs. Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric dark fantasy view of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the Cemetery Shade inside the Black Knife Catacombs. Click or tap the image for more information.

Further Reading

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

• Elden Ring: Misbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knight (Redmane Castle) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Putrid Avatar (Dragonbarrow) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Rugalea the Great Red Bear (Rauh Base) Boss Fight (SOTE)