Elden Ring: Onyx Lord (Sealed Tunnel) 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.

Onyx Lord is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Sealed Tunnel dungeon in the Capital Outskirts. 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, but it drops a very useful bell-bearing that makes some bolstering materials available for purchase.

I decided to beat this boss without the use of spirit summons as I have felt that I rely a bit too much on them recently. While I don’t believe in nerfing myself by not using all available tools, I’m also mindful of the fact that summoning spirits is not allowed for all bosses, so a Tarnished need to stay sharp and in shape to cope by oneself as well.

It’s not the first Onyx Lord I have faced in the game, and I don’t consider it a particularly difficult fight, but it does take longer without a spirit to split the aggro with, as I can’t just swing away wildly. Well, I can, and I do, but it’s a lot more risky without help ;-)

I’m actually not headed into the capital yet as I have a couple of other areas to finish off first, but I wanted to complete this particular dungeon as soon as possible, because the boss drops the bell-bearing that makes Smithing Stone 3 available for purchase from the Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold. As you may know, I have struggled with not getting my ranged weapons upgraded for a long time because I had run out of these and I generally don’t want to grind for low-droprate items if I can avoid it, so when the bell-bearing was within reach, I went for it.

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, which I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 113 when this video was recorded. That’s probably a bit high but didn’t feel completely off. 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 ;-)