Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

As a seasoned Elden Ring adventurer with countless hours spent slaying dragons and navigating the treacherous lands of the Lands Between, I can confidently say that understanding the intricacies of status effects and anti-dragon abilities is crucial for any aspiring dragon slayer.


In the game Elden Ring, players frequently encounter dragons, particularly those aiming to access the abilities provided by Dragon Communion. These dragons are not only significant due to their role in unlocking powers, but also because they drop a large number of souls upon defeat. This guide will provide effective strategies for defeating them.

As a gamer, I’ve found that Elden Ring’s dragons are agile adversaries, packing quite a punch with their devastating breath attacks that sweep across wide areas and pack a hefty damage punch with their claws and teeth. It takes some practice to dodge all of these attacks consistently, but the good news is you can use your steed, Torrent, to outrun many of those breath attacks in open environments.

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Stance Breaking

Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

An excellent strategy to make Dragons susceptible to attack involves disrupting their posture, causing them to fall to the ground defenselessly. Various efficient techniques can be employed to break a Dragon’s posture, tailored to the player’s physical attributes.

In this scenario, players wielding hefty weapons may not require additional assistance due to the substantial poise damage they can inflict on dragons, especially when targeting their vulnerable head area. Timing your strikes during the dragon’s breath attack cone sweep is crucial; dodge the flames and move towards its side head, then execute a powerful charge attack to shatter it. Additionally, leaping attacks aimed at the dragon’s head can cause significant poise damage. After a few successful hits, the dragon should become weakened and susceptible to further assault.

Players seeking rapid combat strategies, particularly those who dual-wield weapons, might be keen on acquiring the Cragblade Ash of War. This skill covers a player’s weapon in rock, much like Radahn uses during his boss battle, and significantly boosts the poise damage inflicted by the weapon. Dual weapons such as Caestus and Hookblades can dish out an astonishing amount of poise damage when combined with this Ash of War. This allows players to repeatedly strike the dragon’s feet (and its head with jumping attacks) until it succumbs, collapsing under the relentless onslaught.

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Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

Spellcasters specializing in intelligence have a selection of potent spells capable of knocking down dragons by inflicting massive poise damage. These are predominantly from the Gravity School, with Rock Sling being an early-game choice for this purpose. This projectile is surprisingly versatile and delivers substantial poise damage, particularly when aimed at a dragon’s head. As gameplay progresses, players might opt to position themselves beneath the dragon and cast the meteorite spell acquired in Liurnia instead. This spell inflicts even more poise damage and also agitates the dragon’s Health Bar. Ultimately, the most effective sorcery for handling dragons is Meteorite of Astel, which generally outperforms the basic Meteorite and excels at tearing through these formidable creatures.

As a devoted spellcaster, I’ve found some fantastic ways to dispatch dragons, yet breaking their defiant stance isn’t as straightforward. Fortunately, the Beast Incantation Bestial Sling is an excellent early choice for this purpose, particularly when targeted at a dragon’s face, delivering a decent amount of damage while also wearing down its poise until it breaks stance. Later on, I might switch to or combine it with the Stone of Gurranq, which deals immense damage and outperforms Bestial Sling in poise damage. For those who prefer Frenzy Incantations, the Flame of Frenzy is another early option that unleashes a barrage of projectiles capable of dealing tremendous poise damage when fired from beneath a dragon.

One potent option for Faith builds is , which is available from the DLC. This should be aimed at the Dragon’s body and fired from a position that allows it to pierce through the dragon, dealing damage multiple times. This will dish out an incredible amount of damage and also break the Dragon’s Stance almost instantly. During the Base Game, the Incantation can serve the same purpose, though not quite as effectively.

Using the Stonebarb Cracked Tear in your Physik Flask is suggested for increased poise damage, helping you break an enemy’s defensive posture more effectively.

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Dealing Damage

Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

Strategies for taking down dragons are quite robust, catering to various play styles. For those who prefer hefty weapons, focus on disrupting the dragon’s posture (as explained earlier) and follow up with powerful, charged attacks aimed at the dragon’s head when it’s knocked down. While critical hits may not deal a significant amount of raw damage against dragons, players using colossal weapons are advised to carry the Assassin’s Crimson Dagger and Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger. These daggers can boost the effectiveness of critical hits. Colossal weapons, when they score a critical hit, activate the Assassin’s Dagger Talismans twice, allowing players to use this benefit for healing or FP restoration if their resources are low upon breaking the dragon’s posture.

Swift-attacking players might benefit from applying blood grease or the blood infusion on their weapons, allowing them to deplete a Dragon’s health by building up bleed. Another tactic could involve breaking the Dragon’s stance first, followed by delivering damage with dual-wielding or critical hits (for more critical damage, use daggers). An earlier discussed strategy might be helpful in this regard.

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Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

Intelligent casters, when aiming to take down a dragon, should employ the tactics discussed earlier and then boost their spells with Terra Magica. Post this enhancement, players have the option to either keep pelting the fallen dragon with meteorites or use a Comet Azur, strengthened by a Cerulean Hidden Tear/Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear Physik Flask, to burn through the dragon’s health.

In the early stages of gameplay, Faith-based Sorcerers can effectively employ potent damaging spells such as Dragon Invocations and Frenzy Flame to swiftly deplete a Dragon’s health meter. However, obtaining the Dragon Invocation necessitates slaying at least one Dragon initially. In later stages, these Spellcasters can secure some of the game’s top incantations designed for Dragon demolition. The Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Strike is an area-of-effect attack that can severely damage a Dragon’s health bar when properly charged and executed from beneath the dragon. For those who favor fire damage, Burn O Flame! offers similar utility. Throughout gameplay, both Flame of Frenzy and Unendurable Frenzy prove to be highly destructive damage options. To amplify either fire or lightning damage, use the Physik Flask’s corresponding Tear (either Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear or Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear), ensuring that Dragons are quickly defeated.

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Status Effect Strategies

Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

Characters who possess certain Special Abilities can leverage them to simplify encounters with Dragons. For instance, Frostbite is advantageous across many character types as it significantly depletes a target’s health upon activation and increases the damage taken from all sources until it expires. This effect can be consistently applied using Dragonice and Borealis’s Mist on Faith-based characters, ice sorceries for Intelligence builds, or melee-focused Ashes of War like Hoarfrost Stomp.

Scarlet Rot is a harmful affliction that can affect many dragons, including Ekzykes in Caelid. It delivers a substantial initial damage and then continuously weakens their health over an extended period. It’s advisable to employ this alongside another tactic or for players adept at dodging the dragon’s attacks until Scarlet Rot takes effect. Most character builds can inflict Scarlet Rot, with the exception of those focusing on Sorcery, making it a valuable strategy in most scenarios.

In the world of Elden Ring, I’ve found no match for the raw power of bleeding attacks when it comes to taking down dragons or any formidable foe. For those of us focusing on Arcane abilities, nothing beats the effectiveness of a well-blooded weapon. If you’re looking for the perfect tool for the job, consider enhancing your Reduvia or Uchigatana with a blood infusion – these weapons have an innate ability to bleed enemies. While there are sorceries and incantations that can cause bleeding, they can be elusive and often less potent compared to a blood-infused weapon.

Anti-Dragon Effects

Elden Ring: How to Kill Dragons Easily

In this updated guide, we’re going to discuss an aspect of dragon slaying that was overlooked in the previous version – the “Anti-Dragon” effect. This is a unique feature in the game that can be activated by using a certain ability on your weapon. When activated, it boosts the damage you inflict on common dragons (including magma wyrms) by 30%. However, the boost against ancient dragons is slightly lower at 20%.

In the game titled “Shadow of the Erdtree“, you can enhance a certain grease, which significantly amplifies its damaging capabilities against standard dragons (and magma wyrms) by 38%. Against ancient dragons, it boosts damage by 28%. Additionally, you can obtain Dragon Communion Harpoons, a projectile weapon that naturally benefits from the Anti-Dragon buff. To maximize their impact, hold down the item button to charge them, increasing their potency. Primarily, their power stems from your Strength, although your Dexterity also contributes to a lesser extent by providing an additional damage boost.

In addition to regular weapons, some have inherent Anti-Dragon abilities. In the standard game, there’s the (+10% boost against dragons and magma wyverns, +5% against ancient dragons) and the (+30% against dragons and magma wyverns, +15% against ancient dragons), both of which are great choices if you satisfy the necessary stats. The expansion pack introduces the Dragonbane Great Katana, a superior sword that increases damage by 30% against dragons (and magma wyverns) and 15% against ancient dragons. It also boasts a special skill called Dragonwound Slash, which enables a powerful leap-slash dealing an extra 20% damage to dragons (including magma wyverns) and ancient dragons. This move can be charged to send out an anti-dragon aura, acting as a ranged projectile.

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2024-08-06 10:54