One Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Boss Fight Type Is A Huge Missed Opportunity

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: is another stunning FromSoftware DLC, yet for all its open-world refinements, gruesome enemy designs, and fancy new weapons, it still struggles with one of its most iconic field bosses. The new expansion features four new Ghostflame Dragon fights sprinkled throughout the surprisingly vast Land of Shadow. Despite their undead makeovers, however, fighting these drakes is just as repetitive and tedious as it is in the Lands Between.

Dragons are arguably even more ubiquitous in ’s setting than they were in the series. There are 12 dragon bosses in 's base game, and that’s without counting Magma Wyrms, the hordes of lesser drakes in Caelid, or the hundreds of dead ones strewn about the landscape. Considering FromSoftware’s keen interest in everything draconic, then, it’s a shame that many of the bosses themselves are so egregiously barebones in their design.

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is a victory lap for FromSoftware, bringing in elements from past games without losing what made it special.

The first dragon boss the player will likely encounter in is Agheel, haunting a sunken lake in Limgrave that’s just a stone’s throw from where the game begins. Agheel is a tough and memorable fight for the early game, but he can be dispatched easily enough once the player learns to stay on Torrent and make use of hit-and-run tactics to focus on the dragon’s ankles. As a one-off, the boss would make for a spectacular, if fairly mindless, encounter. Unfortunately, Agheel has rather an extended family, and they all seem to have been copying his moves.

From Smarag in Liurnia to Caelid’s foul-breathed Ekzykes, every dragon boss outside a legacy dungeon in has an almost identical moveset. Some have a couple of unique AoEs, or might chuck in an extra swipe here and there, but generally speaking, the same simplistic tactics that worked for Agheel also work for the rest of his kin. All their attacks, except for the tail flick, charged AoEs, and any aerial bombardments, can