Elden Ring: Erdtree Avatar (Mountaintops of the Giants) Boss Fight

Published: October 16, 2025 at 7:13:36 PM UTC

Erdtree Avatar is in the lowest tier of bosses in Elden Ring, Field Bosses, and is found near the Minor Erdtree in Mountaintops of the Giants. Unlike previous Erdtree Avatars, this one will drop down from the air when you’re almost close enough to aggro it, so it cannot be seen from a long distance. It is an optional boss in the sense that it does not need to be defeated in order to progress the main story of the game.

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.

Erdtree Avatar is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is found near the Minor Erdtree in Mountaintops of the Giants. Unlike previous Erdtree Avatars, this one will drop down from the air when you’re almost close enough to aggro it, so it cannot be seen from a long distance. It is an optional boss in the sense that it does not need to be defeated in order to progress the main story of the game.

It's been a while since I fought an Erdtree Avatar, so I figured I’d give it a go in melee and without the aid of my galpal Black Knife Tiche. Last time, I had the embarrassing experience of getting killed just as Tiche landed the killing blow on the avatar, so I won even though I died. That has happened on a few other bosses as well and I really wish I could get a do-over as it just doesn’t feel like a win when I have to run back from a Site of Grace instead of basking in the glory of victory.

I didn’t want to risk it this time and I actually don’t think I’ve ever killed one of these in melee and without a spirit summon, so feeling unusually conceited and up for a challenge, I decided to give it a go with nothing but my trusty Swordspear and good looks. I’m usually an advocate of not making things harder than they need to be, but I must admit that the last few times I have called in Tiche for help, she has trivialized the fight to the extent where it’s not fun anymore.

As usual in this game, as soon as you think you have figured something out, something new and horrible happens. In this case, once the boss has taken a few hits, it splits itself in two like some sort of amoeba, so now it’s one tiny Tarnished against two grumpy bosses, each with a very large hammer-like object that they like to smack said Tarnished over the head with.

In addition to swinging around their hammers wildly, both of them will also do explosions and summon magic missiles, sometimes even at the same time, so I was actually starting to miss Tiche killing them while I was dead and oblivious to the pain of large hammers to the face. But if I was dead, I couldn’t be headbanging to Hammer Smashed Face by Cannibal Corpse, so there’s that. Funny how it’s always more fun when it’s not oneself at the receiving end of a large hammer-like object.

Trying my best to avoid my infamous headless chicken mode that tends to set in whenever I’m faced with multiple enemies, I somehow managed to separate the two bosses far enough to mostly de-aggro one of them. It seemed to still wander around a bit and sometimes cast a spell, but it didn’t chase me in melee anymore, which certainly made disposing of the other one a lot simpler.

It turned out that I had actually gotten decent at avoiding the explosions, which is something I remember killing me a lot the first time I was up against an Erdtree Avatar all the way back on the Weeping Peninsula, but the reach of that huge hammer-like object continues to surprise me. Not only its reach, but also the boss’s ability to foresee where I will be when I roll and then strike down upon me with great vengeance and furious anger.

I also tried going mounted for a while, figuring the increased mobility would make things easier. Well, maybe if I had decided to go ranged as well, but melee combat on horseback is just something I continue to suck at. I never seem to be able to get the timing of swings just right, so I’m usually past the target or haven’t reached it yet when the swing happens.

These bosses do not seem to have the same problem, they would happily continue to smack me with their large hammer-like objects, no matter how fast I was riding on Torrent, so in the end I decided to get back on foot. Yeah, I decided. I definitely did not get hit by a large hammer-like object so hard that my horse died.

Oh well, 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 Spectral Lance Ash of War. My shield is the Great Turtle Shell, which I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 143 when this video was recorded, which I think is a bit high, but I still found it to be 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 ;-)

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