Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: How to beat Putrescent Knight

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is a bloody big expansion, and with it comes a lot of new optional stuff for players to engage with, such as bosses and even whole areas.

Tucked away in the bottom corner of the map is one of these places, a cave that leads to the Putrescent Knight boss. It's a tough one, requiring a lot of patience and timing on your part, but if you need some additional help with beating it, we've got you covered.

Where to find the Putrescent Knight

The Putrescent Knight is optional and quite out of the way from the main path you need to follow for the DLC's story, but you will need to reach a certain point before it becomes available.

Located in the Stone Coffin Fissure dungeon at the bottom of the peninsula in the Cerulean Coast, you'll first need to approach the Shadow Keep in Scadu Altus. 

As you get to the big doors leading inside, a message will appear on the screen stating "Somewhere a great rune has broken, and so too a powerful charm."

This breaks a seal that blocks off the dungeon, allowing you to now enter. Make your way through the area until you come to the Fissure Depths Site of Grace.

Just next to you will be a set of stairs you can climb that leads to a sheer drop. Jump off to land in the arena and begin the fight.

Boss breakdown

Unlike a lot of bosses in the expansion, the Putrescent Knight doesn't have many long combos; it has one of note, which is also well telegraphed and fairly simple to learn the pattern of. 

It also has a second phase that introduces a number of hard hitting area of effect (AOE) attacks. These aren't the worst to dodge with the right timing, but making mistakes here is a quick way to have to start over.

Luckily, it suffers from a weakness to holy damage, so if your build is centred around this status, you'll have a much better time. Items like the Black Knife from the base game in particular are useful here, due to the fast attacks and high damage output.

Strategy, tips & tricks

First Phase

As the fight begins, the Putrescent Knight will come careening from the other side of the arena on its horse, beginning with usually one of two attacks. 

It may slam its blade down on you, which can begin a combo of some slashes. Just roll through the attacks toward the knight and you can often get in one or two hits before it begins its next attack.

If the attack above doesn't occur at the start of the fight, the knight will likely leap off its horse to strike the ground. You can roll forward to avoid this, but this usually signals the long combo I mentioned in the previous section.

The knight will spin three times to start with, so just roll forward again to avoid it. Turn around, and you'll see the horse appear on your side, roll into it as it charges and then roll forward again almost immediately to dodge the knight's second spin attack. Turn around once more and repeat the process.

After you dodge the third spin attack in this combo, you'll have a chance to run at the knight and get in some hits as it connects with its horse again.

This first phase is essentially a process of chipping away during the small moments you get to attack. Try to stay fairly close throughout if you're a melee user, while ranged fighters should constantly try to keep their distance.

Second Phase

After you knock off around 30-40% of the Putrescent Knight's health, the second phase will begin with a huge AOE attack. 

This is signalled by the knight rising into the air with a large blob forming below it. It will then cast a vortex of blue flame that strikes the ground near it and spreads out across the arena. It will usually do this three times in quick succession, so you'll need to watch as the flame closes in and jump over it or dodge through it.

I had trouble with jumping and found dodging forward easier, but I've seen others who swear by jumping, so find the method that's most comfortable for you and doesn't end in your untimely death.

It can also do a version of this where the flame closes in on you instead. Avoiding it is the same, just in the opposite direction. And finally, it can set out a line of flame in front of you, that's easy enough to avoid by dodging to the side.

There's not much that changed in this phase in terms of how to deal with the Putrescent Knight. The new attacks don't offer much time for you to respond, so you'll need to just avoid them and wait for the same attacks from phase one to get your damage in.

Rewards

• 220,000 Runes
• Remembrance of Putrescence
• Putrescence Cleaver
• Vortex of Putrescence