Elden Ring: Ghostflame Dragon (Gravesite Plain) 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.

Ghostflame Dragon is in the middle tier, Greater Enemy Bosses, and is found outdoors in the Gravesite Plain 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.

So, there I was. Minding my own business, just exploring the serene beauty of the aptly named Gravesite Plain. Maybe I was just enjoying the landscape, maybe I was hoping to find a tiny scrap of loot to brighten the day.

But suddenly, an intriguing pile of old bones started to move, and I instantly knew a nefarious plot was afoot. Something was about to ambush me and since I have quite a bit of experience with nefarious plots focused around my untimely demise at this point, I quickly realized that once again, it was a dragon scheming against me. Or just waiting for lunch, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

But it wasn’t just any dragon, it was a Ghostflame Dragon. I’m not entirely sure what makes ghostflames worse than the regular flames most dragons use to roast my tender flesh, maybe it’s just the cool colors.

Anyway, not being in the mood for any draconian shenanigans, I called in my favorite sidekick Black Knife Tiche to help dish some pain in the other direction. And after some wild katana-swinging that hit exactly nothing, I decided to switch to my favorite dragon attitude readjustment tool, the Bolt of Gransax. Since the dragon caught me by surprise, I wasn’t wearing the talismans that boost the ranged damage of the Bolt of Gransax, so the fight ended up being a bit longer than I was comfortable with, but the outcome was inevitable. In this case, the outcome was me pointing and laughing at a dead dragon.

Anyway, dragons tend to be highly annoying to fight in melee because they move around a lot, like to stomp on people, bite, breathe fire and are just generally not very pleasant to be in close proximity to. Also, the only part of their bodies one can reliably be in melee range of are their feet and legs, which further aid with their ability to stomp on people.

This is where the Bolt of Gransax shines. Not only does it do extra damage to dragons, but it can be used in both melee and at range. It’s no secret that I generally prefer ranged combat and often wish for it to be more viable in this game, so when there is a chance to play that way, I’m gonna take it. But if there’s a fat dragon foot right in front of me, I’m still going to poke it too.

I have certainly faced dragons that were much worse than this one before, but it’s still a dragon and still highly annoying with its wing-flapping, foul breath and attempts at biting people. Even though it caught me by surprise, I managed to defeat it on the first attempt, albeit with Tiche’s help and a lot of headless chicken mode especially in the beginning.

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, but I mostly used the Bolt of Gransax in both melee and range in this one. I was level 184 and Scadutree Blessing 4 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 in Black Knife armor lunging at a Ghostflame Dragon amid graves and ruins in the Elden Ring Gravesite Plain. Click or tap the image for more information.

Anime-style artwork of the Tarnished seen from behind confronting the Ghostflame Dragon amid graves and ruins in Elden Ring’s Gravesite Plain. Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric anime-style view of the Tarnished seen from behind facing the Ghostflame Dragon across a grave-filled battlefield in Elden Ring. Click or tap the image for more information.

Dark fantasy isometric view of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing the Ghostflame Dragon across a grave-filled valley. Click or tap the image for more information.

Overhead dark fantasy view of a tiny Tarnished confronting a massive Ghostflame Dragon across a grave-strewn battlefield. Click or tap the image for more information.

Further Reading

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