Death Knight Guide Elden Ring: Locations, Weaknesses, and Combat Tips

The Death Knight is a formidable optional boss in the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, posing a significant challenge to even seasoned Tarnished. Encountering these spectral warriors requires strategic preparation and a solid understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. This comprehensive guide will equip you with the knowledge to effectively combat the Death Knights, covering their vulnerabilities, locations, combat tips, and the valuable rewards they guard.

Death Knight Weakness: Exploit Holy Damage

Holy is Your Key to Victory

Death Knights in Elden Ring are particularly vulnerable to Holy damage. This elemental weakness should be the cornerstone of your combat strategy. Prioritize armaments and spells that inflict Holy damage to maximize your damage output and shorten these challenging encounters.

To effectively exploit this weakness, consider the following:

• Sacred Affinity Weapons: Utilize the Sanctified Whetblade to imbue your weapons with the Sacred affinity. This allows you to scale your weapon’s damage with Faith and convert its damage type to Holy, or add Holy damage.
• Innate Holy Damage Weapons: Seek out weapons that inherently deal Holy damage. These weapons are naturally effective against Death Knights without requiring buffs or infusions.
• Holy Grease: If you lack dedicated Holy weapons, Holy Grease is a readily available consumable that temporarily adds Holy damage to your weapon. This is a great option for builds that don’t typically focus on Faith or Holy armaments.

For specific weapon recommendations, consider these powerful Holy options:

• Siluria’s Tree: This Great Spear is a formidable weapon that deals significant Holy damage and scales well with Faith. Its weapon skill, Siluria’s Hurl, unleashes a powerful Holy projectile, perfect for both melee and ranged engagements against Death Knights.
• Weapons with Sacred Blade Ash of War: Applying the Sacred Blade Ash of War to your preferred weapon grants it Holy damage and the Sacred Blade skill. This skill imbues your weapon with Holy energy, further enhancing its damage against undead foes like Death Knights.
• Discus of Light and Black Blade Incantations: For Faith-based casters, these incantations are excellent choices. Discus of Light offers a fast, spammable projectile, while Black Blade delivers a more potent burst of Holy damage. Both are reliable spells for consistently targeting the Death Knight’s Holy weakness from a safe distance.

Explore the List of All Holy Weapons in Elden Ring to discover more armaments that can aid you in your fight against the Death Knights.

General Tips for Defeating Death Knights

Bolster Your Lightning Defenses

Death Knights are masters of lightning magic, frequently imbuing their attacks with lightning to amplify their damage. Equipping gear that enhances your lightning resistance is crucial for mitigating their powerful assaults.

Consider using the following to improve your lightning defenses:

• Boltdrake Talisman +3: This talisman significantly boosts your lightning damage negation, providing substantial protection against the Death Knight’s lightning-infused attacks.
• Armor with High Lightning Resistance: Equip armor sets that offer high lightning resistance. While heavier armor generally provides better protection, prioritize sets that specifically excel in lightning negation.
• Umber Platform Shield: This medium shield boasts exceptionally high lightning resistance, making it invaluable for blocking or mitigating lightning-based attacks from the Death Knight.

Master the Parry Timing

If you prefer a melee approach, the Death Knight’s attack patterns are telegraphed and relatively predictable when fought at close range. This predictability makes them susceptible to parries.

• Practice Parry Timing: Spend some time observing the Death Knight’s melee attacks and practice parrying their swings. Successfully parrying an attack will open them up for a critical riposte, dealing massive damage.
• Small or Medium Shields: Small shields and medium shields are ideal for parrying due to their faster parry frames compared to greatshields. Consider shields like the Buckler or the Brass Shield for parrying.

Be Wary of the Drain Attack at Half Health

Upon reaching 50% HP, the Death Knight enters its second phase, becoming more aggressive with lightning attacks and gaining a dangerous life-steal grab attack. This grab attack can quickly undo your progress in the fight, restoring a significant portion of the Death Knight’s health.

• Prioritize Dodging the Grab: Learn the animation for the grab attack and prioritize dodging it above all else. A well-timed dodge roll is essential to avoid this devastating move.
• Aggressive Offense: Once the Death Knight enters phase two, increase your offensive pressure. Aim to defeat them quickly before they have too many opportunities to use the drain attack and prolong the fight.

Exploit Status Effects: Poison, Frost, and Bleed

Death Knights possess a substantial health pool, making status effects valuable tools for chipping away at their HP and accelerating the fight. Poison, Frostbite, and Bleed are all effective against them.

• Bleed Weapons and Skills: Weapons that inflict Bleed buildup, such as katanas or weapons with Bleed Ashes of War, can inflict Hemorrhage, causing massive burst damage.
• Frost Weapons and Spells: Frostbite from weapons like the Icerind Hatchet or spells like Glintstone Icecrag reduces enemy damage negation and deals a burst of damage.
• Poison Weapons and Skills: Poison weapons or skills like Poison Mist can apply Poison, dealing damage over time and steadily reducing the Death Knight’s health.

Scorpion River Catacombs: Ranged Attack Awareness

The Death Knight encountered in the Scorpion River Catacombs possesses unique ranged attacks that differentiate it from the Fog Rift Catacombs variant. Be prepared for these long-distance assaults.

• Knight’s Lightning Spear Incantation: This Death Knight can cast the Knight’s Lightning Spear incantation, typically at the start of the encounter. A simple side roll is sufficient to evade this projectile.
• AoE Ground Lightning: After a brief delay, the Death Knight will unleash a two-handed hammer swing, followed by lightning explosions in a circular area just outside melee range.
  • Safe Zone: Roll into the small safe zone directly adjacent to the Death Knight to avoid the explosions at close range.
  • Distance and Dodge: Alternatively, create distance and focus on dodging the explosions by rolling or jumping as they detonate.

Death Knight Locations in Shadow of the Erdtree

Death Knights appear as optional bosses in two distinct locations within the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, each offering unique rewards and challenges.

Both Death Knight encounters are optional, but they provide valuable rewards and contribute to your overall progression in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Death Knight Rewards: Unique Weapons and Talismans

Defeating each Death Knight variant grants unique rewards, including powerful weapons and talismans that can enhance your build.

These rewards are highly sought after, making the Death Knight encounters worthwhile challenges for any player seeking to maximize their power in the Lands Between.

Explore More Elden Ring Guides

Comprehensive Boss List for Elden Ring

Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Boss Guides