How to beat Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

Divine Beast Dancing Lion is a boss in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, a roadblock situated at the end of the Belurat legacy dungeon. Taking on the Dancing Lion requires new strategies and a careful mix of defense and aggression, and you’ll probably die more than a few times before it finally clicks.

Our Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree guide covers how to beat Divine Beast Dancing Lion, including its weaknesses and the best ways to prepare yourself for the challenge.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion location in Elden Ring DLC

The Dancing Lion is the final boss in Belurat legacy dungeon and makes its home in the theater area near the settlement’s highest level. It’s the dungeon’s end point and, eventually, a mandatory location you’ll visit during the DLC’s main storyline.

Like with all of Shadow of the Erdtree’s major bosses, there’s a site of grace just outside, along with a Stake of Marika for summoning human help, and a single golden summoning mark that lets you bring an NPC ally into battle.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion weaknesses and how to prepare

As far as I could tell, across more than a dozen battles, the Dancing Lion has no status ailment vulnerabilities. It won’t bleed, it shakes off poison, and I saw no effect from rot and deathblight.

On the bright side, it is more prone than most major bosses to having its poise broken if you use the right kind of weapon or spell, which leaves it open to critical hits that take a nice chunk out of its HP bar.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Good timing and movement are more important than specific weapons for this fight, though you might want to consider shelving heavy weapons that move slowly. The Dancing Lion is anything but slow, and there’s a good chance it will have moved on before you finish prepping your attack. Greatswords and hammers work well, as do thrusting and straight swords. The Blackgaol Knight’s sword and the Anvil Hammer from Gravesite Plain’s Ruined Lava Forge are two strong options if your build is geared toward strength and dexterity.

Magic users can stick with their favorite intelligence- or faith-scaling weapon. It should be an endgame weapon, though. Our picks are the Darkmoon Greatsword, Onyx Lord’s Greatsword, Death’s Poker, and Royal Greatsword from Blaidd’s quest are solid choices for intelligence builds, and Golden Order Greatsword or Blasphemous Blade for faith builds.

That said, this boss fight is one that favors spells as well. You have several chances to put enough distance between yourself and the Dancing Lion to where you can safely fling a few sorceries before having to relocate, and the best — and easiest to cast even for faith builds option is Rock Sling. Four or five hits from this spell will break the Dancing Lion’s poise and leave it open to a critical hit, if you strike fast enough with your melee weapon.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Your weapon should be maxed out, ideally, but you can get by with a +7 weapon if you’re missing weapon upgrade materials.

You can summon the NPC Redmane Freyja for this fight and use a Spirit Ash summon of your own. Even though a boss’ HP increases when you use NPC or human summons, I recommend bringing Freyja into battle for at least your first few attempts. The Dancing Lion’s moves are erratic and unlike pretty much anything in the base game, and it takes practice to understand the right timing. Freyja and your Spirit Ash keep it occupied so you can take pot shots with spells, sneak some melee strikes in, and learn how its attacks work from a safe distance.

Good Spirit Ash summons for the Dancing Lion fight include anything fast and powerful, such as:

• Black Knife Tiche, from the Black Knife Catacombs
• Mimic Tear
• Nightmaiden and Swordmistress Puppets

Tanky summons like Lhutel aren’t tanky enough to last more than a few hits from the Dancing Lion, so avoid using them. Stock up on Ghost Glovewort for Spirit Ash upgrades, if you haven’t already, and pick up some Bell Bearings if you’ve exhausted the natural supply of Glovewort.

Finally, you might want to have some Thawfrost Boluses on hand, depending on how well you fare during the fight’s later stages.

How to beat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring DLC

The Dancing Lion fight is a challenging battle that demands a more agile and adaptable strategy than earlier Elden Ring bosses, and the only way to learn what not to do is to make mistakes — a lot. If you can, consider recording the fight so you can play it back and learn without the pressure of not dying.

A good rule of thumb that applies to the whole fight is that, if the beast is still, you should hit it once or twice before retreating. The method I used to wear the Lion down was casting Rock Sling to break its poise, then rushing in for a critical strike, lingering to execute a few melee attacks, and repeating the process. The caveat is that this method is only easy to use if you have summons to distract the Lion, which means once they vanish later in the fight — as they almost surely will — you’ll have to rely on something more hands-on.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss fight phase 1

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The Divine Beast has multiple attacks in the first phase, including one that might finish you off in a single hit. The most common is a three-move combo where the Lion rears back and dives forward, then spins in a circle, and dives forward slightly more before finishing with an upward head thrust. If you’re close, the Lion will sometimes forego its big swirly animation in favor of a lunging bite, so stay on your toes.

The best way to deal with all variations of this attack is to dodge forward when the Lion first dives at you. Its first attack will miss, and if it finishes the combo, you won’t be anywhere close enough to take damage. It often stops the combo and moves to something else after the first attack misses, though, so attack a few times and move to safety.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

There’s an annoying quirk where the camera goes haywire if you’re right near the Lion while it’s moving, which makes targeting and dodging a nightmare. Dodging forward has the added benefit of creating enough distance between you so this situation doesn’t happen.

The Dancing Lion’s bite is truly more dangerous than its bark. It will sometimes rear back, snap its jaws together a few times, then lunge forward. If it makes contact, it swings you around in its mouth and chomps several times, dealing heavy damage — enough to completely deplete your HP if it’s not full. Dodging forward precisely when it lunges will get you past this attack as well, and the Lion takes a few seconds to recover when it misses, giving you the perfect chance to use some heavy attacks and wear it down a little faster.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The Dancing Lion has several debris attacks it alternates between, depending on your distance. The first one sees it spew an arc of dust and stone at you, which you need to dodge or sprint sideways to avoid. Less frequent is a variation of this where it belches a single stream of debris instead, though dodging sideways works here as well. These attacks usually happen if you’re at a distance, and they keep you from spamming spells like Comet Azur unless someone else distracts the Lion.

When you’re closer, the Dancing Lion stands on its back legs, vomits debris, and spins in a full circle three times. You can dodge backwards and run away from it or dodge sideways, stay close, and attack, if you’re feeling brave.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The camera issue pops up when you’re too close during this attack as well, so bear that in mind. The Lion ends this with a backflip that smacks you hard if you’re too close. There’s a window of about a second or two after this where you can rush in and attack before retreating, so get yourself ready once the Lion spins for the third time.

The final variation involves just one spin and an arc of debris.

Things get a lot more intense once the Lion’s HP drops by about a third of its total.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss fight phase 2

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

From here on, the Dancing Lion ditches debris and alternates between lightning, ice, and wind instead, each with a few slight attack pattern variations. Lightning is always first. The Lion still uses its spewing attacks, only with lightning now. It also throws a spear of lightning at you that explodes — and a second one if you successfully dodge the first — and its lunge attacks summon lightning in an X-shape that strikes and explodes after a few seconds. The ground sparkles in places where lightning is going to strike, and you’ll have a second to dodge away before it hits.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The Lion switches to either ice or wind next, though ice was the most common second element in my experience. Its attacks are the same in this phase, except instead of exploding like lightning, the ice it summons lingers on the field for a few moments before exploding — similar to the Hoarfrost Stomp effect. It builds Frostbite if you’re caught in the explosion, and if the meter maxes out, you take damage and have lower defense for a short time. Try dodging outside the affected area if you can, though if your timing is very good, you can jump before it explodes. Retreat and use Thawing Boluses to reset the Frostbite gauge if you have to.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The wind phase works a little differently. The Dancing Lion still lunges, but it’s more likely to whip up a few whirlwinds. The most powerful of these happens when the Lion spins in midair and creates a proper twister. The funnel moves toward you, and if it connects, it deals damage and launches you into the air for a second. Dodge forward to escape this attack. Don’t try moving sideways, as the tornado is too broad and will launch you anyway.

The Lion also spews a tunnel of air at you, which you can dodge sideways to avoid, and it creates small whirlwinds when it lunges.

The Dancing Lion whirls in the air for two seconds or so when it changes elements, and there’s an extra second after the change before it does anything. Use this moment to retreat and heal if you need to, or fire off some spells.

Regardless of the element, your offensive strategy should remain mostly the same. Use the moments after lunges to attack with melee weapons, and make some distance between yourself and the Lion to use spells.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss fight phase 3

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Calling this a third phase is a little bit of a stretch, as the Dancing Lion doesn’t use any new attacks. However, it does alternate between elements much more quickly, with fewer chances for you to catch your breath. You’ll need to think quickly and play a bit more aggressively to take the Lion down before it wears you out, and if you held off summoning your Spirit Ash earlier, now’s the time to do it.

Defeating the Lion earns you a Remembrance for Enia back at Roundtable Hold and the Lion’s head as a piece of armor.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

“That’s gross,” you might say, and it kind of is, but if you wear it and speak to the Hornsent Grandam in Belurat’s storage room — a locked area near the Small Altar Site of Grace — you’ll get a new Incantation for your troubles.

Looking for more Shadow of the Erdtree guides? Check out our guides on new Elden Ring DLC weapons, armor, map fragments, sites of grace, and talismans. We’ve also got location guides on where to find Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, and an interactive Elden Ring DLC map.