Elden Ring: Chief Bloodfiend (Rivermouth Cave) Boss Fight (SOTE)

Published: January 19, 2026 at 11:56:58 PM UTC

Chief Bloodfiend is in the lowest tier of bosses in Elden Ring, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Rivermouth Cave dungeon in the Land of Shadow. It is an optional boss in the sense that it is not required to defeat it in order to progress the main story of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

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.

Chief Bloodfiend is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Rivermouth Cave dungeon in the Land of Shadow. It is an optional boss in the sense that it is not required to defeat it in order to progress the main story of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

I’m not sure what kind of boss I expected at the end of this dungeon, but after the many many bloodfiends I “retired” on my way through it, I suppose it’s fitting that the last one is their Chief.

Those monstrosities all look the same to me though, so this one mostly differs by a very large health pool. Oh, and his ability to very quickly deplete my own health pool with some wild club-swinging that I haven’t seen the likes of recently.

Some brutes have axes and try to split me in half, but this one has an extremely large club that he tries to use to flatten me like some sort of Tarnished pancake. Considering the fight takes place in what appears to be a large pool of blood, I think he’s most likely to just make a huge mess though.

Even though this boss encounter is a fairly simple melee fight, it did take me a little while to get the hang of it. He hits very hard, has longer reach than I expected and also sometimes hits faster than I would have thought, even knocking me out of the air when I was trying to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee with a jumping double katana whammy. It’s so hard when these boss types are trying to cramp my style. In that regard, this game is highly realistic ;-)

Be careful to not get squished against the wall like I did, as the camera will promptly side with the boss and prevent you from seeing what’s going on. And silly me for once again forgetting to swap talismans before the fight, so I was still wearing the ones I use for exploring.

And now for the usual boring details about my character. I play as a mostly Dexterity build. My melee weapons are the Hand of Malenia and the Uchigatana with Keen affinity. I was level 199 and Scadutree Blessing 10 when this video was recorded, which I think is reasonable for this boss. 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

Anime style Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the Chief Bloodfiend in a blood-flooded cave just before combat begins. Click or tap the image for more information.

Dark fantasy scene of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the monstrous Chief Bloodfiend in a blood-flooded cavern just before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Dark fantasy scene of a towering Chief Bloodfiend looming over the Tarnished in Black Knife armor in a blood-flooded cavern before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Wide dark-fantasy view of the Tarnished facing a towering Chief Bloodfiend in a vast blood-flooded cave just before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric view of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing a towering Chief Bloodfiend across a blood-flooded cavern. Click or tap the image for more information.

Fan art inspired by this boss fight

Further Reading