Elden Ring Draconic Tree Sentinel tips and strategy
How to defeat the Capital Outskirts optional boss.
Draconic Tree Sentinel is just one of many optional bosses Elden Ring puts forth for the player to conquer.
You can find the Draconic Tree Sentinel just outside of the northern entrance to Lyndell, Royal Capital, and you're going to have to best this boss if you want to make it into the actual city.
While you can take on the Draconic Tree Sentinel on your own, it's an absolute beast, we'd advise using some co-operation for the tough fight ahead, or even a a spirit ash summon to help you on your way to slaying the boss.
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How to prepare for Draconic Tree Sentinel
Preparing for the Draconic Tree Sentinel is a case of picking your poison - literally. We've found both Bleed-based damage and Poison damage work pretty well against the intimidating boss, and one or the other - or even both - are perfectly viable options.
Additionally, a strong melee weapon is recommended for the Draconic Tree Sentinel. A shield is all but useless in this fight, as dodge rolling is going to be your best friend for getting out of tight situations.
Therefore, we'd recommend taking a strong two-handed weapon into the fight with you, as this stands you a better chance of staggering the foe.
In terms of armor, you want to strike a balance between physical defence, and lightning defence.
We don't recommend going with fireproof armor because the fire-based attacks from the boss are the easiest to dodge, and it's the lightning attacks during its second phase that you'll need to watch out for more carefully.
Draconic Tree Sentinel tips: How to beat Draconic Tree Sentinel
In the Draconic Tree Sentinel's first phase, it's going to be dealing big physical damage against you via powerful swings. The boss will lunge forth at you from atop its horse, smashing down onto the ground with its hammer, and following this up close behind with a swipe attack.
Make sure to time your dodge roll just before the first strike his the floor to avoid it entirely, and then be prepared to dodge again when the boss comes back for the follow-up strike.
Draconic Tree Sentinel's horse can actually breathe fire, because of course it can. The boss will stand still when you're a certain distance away, and its horse will send a fireball creeping towards you, which is actually fairly easy to dodge around if you strafe sideways.
Alternatively, if you hang around in front of the Draconic Tree Sentinel for too long, the horse will breathe a steady stream of fire onto the ground, and if you see the horse go back on its hind legs, start running back immediately.
You'll know you've entered the second phase of the Draconic Tree Sentinel fight when the boss hold its massive hammer aloft, with red lightning ringing around it.
Welcome to the second phase of the fight, where every single physical attack from the boss' hammer now comes with an added area-of-effect follow-up in the form of lightning.
It was important to get your dodges right before, but now it's even more important, as one misstep can spell disaster for even a hardy veteran.
The Draconic Tree Sentinel will periodically stand still during this phase and hold its hammer aloft, and you'll begin to see sparks emitted around the battlefield. These are signals for where lightning is going to strike in approximately two seconds from now, so you'll need to rapidly sprint away from any areas where the sparks are.
You might even want to toggle off from locking onto the boss during this phase, as it's arguably more important to be aware of your surroundings.
Draconic Tree Sentinel reward
When the tough fight with the Draconic Tree Sentinel is done, you'll gain a number of satisfying rewards.
The first is 37,500 Runes, but you'll also get the Dragon Greatclaw Colossal Weapon, as well as Dragonclaw Shield, excellent for rebuffing physical attacks.
Now that the Draconic Tree Sentinel is down, you can venture ahead to Lyndell, Royal Capital, and forge ahead with the story of Elden Ring.