Elden Ring: Elemer of the Briar (Shaded Castle) 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.

Elemer of the Briar is in the middle tier, Greater Enemy Bosses, and is the end boss of the Shaded Castle area found in the North-Western part of Altus Plateau. Like most lesser bosses in the game, this one is optional in the sense that you do not need to defeat it in order to advance the main story.

In hindsight, summoning Tiche for this fight was completely uncalled for, as the boss felt very easy. When I got to it, I hadn’t yet discovered the shortcut that you can open by kicking a ladder, so it felt like quite a long run on any eventual subsequent attempts, so I decided to not take any chances. Also, I immediately realized that this is a Bell-Bearing Hunter type enemy and those have been some of the most notoriously difficult for me in the game so far. All in all, I decided that the aid of my favorite assassin would be most welcome.

Unfortunately, that resulted in the boss feeling even easier than the regular Bell-Bearing Hunters. Although I’m generally against nerfing oneself and the primary objective of any role-playing game for me always is to make my character as powerful as possible, I must admit that the use of spirit ashes is starting to feel a bit silly at this point. I think I should probably have taken a different progression route and done Altus Plateau before Lake of Rot, but I can’t change that now.

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 Chilling Mist Ash of War. My shield is the Great Turtle Shell that I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 108 when this video was recorded. I believe that’s way too high as the boss died quite easily and in fact felt easier than the lesser Bell-Bearing Hunters I have encountered elsewhere in the game. 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 illustration of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor fighting Elemer of the Briar inside the Shaded Castle, with dramatic lighting and dynamic sword combat. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style illustration of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor fighting Elemer of the Briar wielding a broad, blunt greatsword inside the Shaded Castle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style illustration of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Elemer of the Briar with a broad greatsword in a candlelit throne room. Click or tap the image for more information.

Realistic dark fantasy scene of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Elemer of the Briar with a broad greatsword in a candlelit throne room. Click or tap the image for more information.

Realistic dark fantasy scene of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor actively fighting Elemer of the Briar with a massive blunt greatsword in a candlelit throne room. Click or tap the image for more information.

Further Reading

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

• Elden Ring: Night's Cavalry (Gate Town Bridge) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Sanguine Noble (Writheblood Ruins) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Grafted Scion (Chapel of Anticipation) Boss Fight