Elden Ring: Dryleaf Dane (Moorth Ruins) Boss Fight (SOTE)

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.

Dryleaf Dane is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is found outdoors near the Moorth Ruins Site of Grace in the Land of Shadow. He is an optional boss in the sense that it is not required to defeat him in order to progress the main story of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

When you first encounter this boss, he will appear to be a silent monk standing next to a Site of Grace. Interacting with him does nothing, but what you need to do to start the fight is use the May the Best Win gesture on him to challenge him. You should have acquired that gesture along with the Monk’s Missive near the Site of Grace after Castle Ensis.

I found this to be a surprisingly easy fight. Usually, the humanoid bosses that don’t look like much are very hard and I fully expected a martial arts monk to be something truly horrible in this game, but as it happened, it was an easy and quite simple fight.

Just lay some pain on him, move away when he’s about to do his area of effect explosion, go back and lay some more pain on him, rinse and repeat. It’s not possible to use spirit ashes in this boss fight, so it’s a good thing it’s easy or my tender flesh would have been in for a beating.

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 190 and Scadutree Blessing 7 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 fan art of the Tarnished seen from behind in Black Knife armor dueling Dryleaf Dane amid the ruined arches of Moorth Ruins, sparks and flame bursting between them. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style fan art of the Tarnished battling Dryleaf Dane in Elden Ring's Moorth Ruins Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric anime-style fan art of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor clashing with Dryleaf Dane in flame-lit Moorth Ruins, seen from above and behind the hero. Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric dark fantasy fan art of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor thrusting a glowing dagger forward at Dryleaf Dane amid the ruined stone courtyard of Moorth Ruins. Click or tap the image for more information.

Close-up dark fantasy fan art of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor thrusting a glowing dagger into Dryleaf Dane’s flaming fists amid crumbling stone ruins. Click or tap the image for more information.

Further Reading

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• Elden Ring: Black Blade Kindred (Forbidden Lands) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing (Erdtree Sanctuary) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Crucible Knight Siluria (Deeproot Depths) Boss Fight