Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Spectral Flame Dragon: How to beat this boss?
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Raiden Robin
The Ghostflame Dragon is featured in the Elden Ring SOTE DLC, with a breath of black flame, undead summons, and other abilities. Find out all the info you need to kill them more easily in this written guide full of tips, including a video of the fight.
As if you hadn’t had your fill of dragons to slay, Elden Ring is back with another layer with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The fight should be (too) familiar to you, but a few subtleties change things up a bit. They’re only a small part of the new bosses that await you.
List and position of the Spectral Flame Dragons
True to form, FromSoftware has placed several copies of this type of dragon in the Shadow Realm. There are 3 in total. The one in the Grave Plain is by far the weakest, and it doesn’t use all of its abilities. The same goes for the one in Occult Altus, which also has to deal with a whole bunch of Messmer’s soldiers. The only truly dangerous one is the one in the South Coast, find out how to reach it via our guides to the Map Fragments of the Routes to follow.
Preparations
- You can reach level 4 or even 5 of Shadow Realm Blessings by searching the first area well to find Occult Tree Splinters. This will help you greatly in this fight.
- A spirit summon is always useful in case of difficulty. On dragons, favoring a ranged summon like Latenna can be a good idea.
This boss counts as both a Dragon and an Undead, giving it some unusual resistances and vulnerabilities.
- Spectral Flame Dragons have significance Magic resistance (60%) and they are completely immune to Bleeding, Sleep Frostbite, and Poison. Suffice to say that if you play an Afflictions build, you only have the Scarlet rot available.
- Its resistances to physical damage are also higher than those of its kin, except for blunt damage. Its head takes more damage, but the effect is not as pronounced as on other dragons.
- On the other hand, Spectral Flame Dragons are very sensitive to holy damage, coatings and spells of this type will really hurt them a lot.
- The damage dealt by this type of dragon is mostly physical and magical type. The Draconic Shield of Protection and the new talisman of Magic Dragon +3 will help you survive. As will spells and consumables that increase these resistances.
- If you take too much damage from this dragon’s breaths, you may be afflicted with frost. Plan ahead Defrosting balls can help.
Fight
- The movements and attacks of the Spectral Flame Dragons are identical to those of other dragons such as Agheel. We won’t list them all again. There are, however, a few subtleties to be aware of:
- Like some of their more fearsome kin, the hind leg kicks produce a small area effect on impactin this case, it’s hellfire. It’s best to stay mounted and move well away when you see him raise a leg.
- When the dragon focuses and an aura of flames begins to appear around him, run away as far as you can. After a few seconds, a large area around him will be covered in black flames.
- THE South Coast Dragon will summon an army of undead at around 50% health. It’s up to you to see how to handle it depending on your build. Area attacks will generally destroy the undead naturally, and you will just have to take advantage of it to finish them off on the ground for example. If you have sacred spells, you can clean up easily. You can also choose to ignore them and continue to do hit and run on mount under the dragon, taking advantage of the resurrection periods to attack quietly.
- Attacking these dragons’ legs with heavy weapons is very effective, this will cause it to fall forward, allowing you to critically hit its head.
- Casting physical damage spells like Sling, aimed directly at the head, is probably one of the best options for Wizards.
Awards
You will get the usual Dragon Heart as a reward, as well as a large amount of runes. This will also unlock a new type of draconic incantation at the Great Altar of Draconic Communion. The Spectral Flame Breathbut it is particularly disappointing.
