Elden Ring Shadow of Erdtree has some of the strongest bosses in the franchise, and the Divine Beast Dancing Lion is one of them. The Dancing Lion is really aggressive and has multiple phases. To top it off, players will often find him around the start of the DLC in the Belurat tower. If you are struggling to defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring, then here is a complete guide with a handful of tips and tricks.
Divine Beast Dancing Lion Location
The first Divine Beast Dancing Lion is located in the Belurat, Tower Settlement. It guards the way to the Divine Gate.
Belurat, Tower Settlement can be accessed by heading West from the Three-Path Cross Site of Grace in the starting area of the DLC. The Belurat is fairly easy to navigate, however, it’s filled with a good mix of long-range and short-range enemies, making it a bit difficult to fight in certain areas.
You can enter Belurat by heading through the big doors near the Main Gate Cross Site of Grace.
Where to Find Divine Beast Dancing Lion
The Divine Beast Dancing Lion can be found at the very end of the Belurat, Tower Settlement Legacy dungeon. The place is really easy to reach, with straightforward paths that mostly lead to the same place. Still, here is a detailed step-by-step guide on how to reach him.
- First, enter the Belurat, Tower Settlement front door and keep moving up the stairs until you reach the first Site of Grace.
- From here, go East until you reach the next room. Move up the stairs and head left. Here, you will find a couple of mages shooting spells at you from the top of a bridge. Simply dodge these spells and keep moving forward until you reach the second Site of Grace.
- From the Site of Grace, head northwest through the door and head right after going up the stairs. Here, you will find some broken buildings. Climb the building on your left and keep moving forward over the rooftops.
- Head through the narrow passage and move right just before the edge of the waterfall to enter the next area.
- Use the ladder in the next room and after reaching the top, head right using the stairs.
- You will see connecting rooftops on the right side with Gravebirds sitting on them. Jump on the connected rooftops to reach the next area.
- Now, head up using the sloped path and head left.
- Run past the trees and enter the room with the big staircase.
- Climb the stairs to the top until you reach the third Site of Grace with a closed door next to it.
- Open the closed door to enter the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss arena.
Divine Beast Dancing Lion Weaknesses in Elden Ring
The Divine Beast Dancing Lion has very few weaknesses that you can exploit in Elden Ring. We have listed all the weaknesses we found in our playthrough:
- Weak to Bleed: Divine Beast Dancing Lion takes considerable damage from Bleed builds, and it is one of the easier ways to defeat it.
- Weak to Fire Damage: The Dancing Lion is also susceptible to Fire damage, so Fire Knight and Messmer incantations have great effect on him.
- Easy to proc Frost Damage: Even though the Dancing Lion has a Frost phase, he is fairly susceptible to Frost buildup and damage. He also recovers quickly from Frost, allowing faster Frost procs.
How to Defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring
Divine Beast Dancing Lion is a massive skill check for players in the early game in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Defeating the Divine Beast Dancing Lion means that you are ready for most of the challenges presented in the DLC.
The biggest issue in his fight is dodging his overly aggressive attacks and not panic rolling to save your skin. Here is a complete guide on to defeating the Divine Beast Dancing Lion.
How to Fight Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Phase 1
Divine Beast Dancing Lion does a lot of physical attacks in the first phase and is aggressive. You need to time your rolls perfectly to avoid damage. The first thing you need to do is not lock-on the enemy. The camera angle in this fight is the hardest to deal with and not locking on makes the fight infinitely easier.
Next, stay at a mid-range from the Dancing Lion at all times and wait for him to do the lunging attacks first. Dodge the lunging attacks and then attack it during the small window that it recovers. Always attack the Dancing Lion at the end of its attack combos, when it is recovering and not in between.
Rotating to the right side of the body in close range and attacking its backside is also a lot easier than its constantly moving head.
Here are all of Divine Beast Danving Lion’s attack patterns in phase 1 and how to dodge them:
- Rotating Breath attack: The Dancing Lion Rotates while doing a mid-range breath attack. You must stay out of the attack range and keep moving backward to best avoid this attack. You can also time the dodge rolls three times when the breath reaches you, but it is infinitely more risky.
- Straight Breath attack: The Dancing Lion does a straight breath attack, which turns slightly, following the player. Dodge it using side rolls and keep moving after rolling to completely avoid damage.
- Jumping Tail Whip: This is one of the most lethal attacks in its arsenal, where it first does a lunge attack and then does a delayed tail whip after (or jumping leg smash). This attack is easy to dodge but becomes tricky if you have committed to attacks and are stuck in animation. Just wait for his attack when jumps for the tail whip and dodge roll to the side to avoid it.
- Lunging Bite Attack: The Bite attack of the Dancing Lion is deadly because it puts an effect on the player. While this effect is active, healing using the Estus Flasks also heals the Dancing Lion. The easiest way to dodge this attack is to sprint away and dodge roll at the last second.
- Dancing Attack Combo: The main attack combo of the Dancing Lion is when it does a double rotating lunge attack, followed by a rotating breath attack. Dodge-roll backward during the first lunge, hold a second and a half, and dodge roll towards the Lion to avoid the second lunge. Now sprint away from it to avoid the rotating breath attack.
How to Fight Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Phase 2
After lowering the Divine Beast Dancing Lion’s HP to 75% or less, it enters phase two where it starts rotating between using Lightning, Frost, and Storm attacks.
Generally, the first transition is into the Lightning Variant, followed by the Frost Variant, and finally the Storm Variant, which transitions again into the Lightning variant. However, a few times during our fights, the Dancing Lion entered the other transitions first over the Lighting Variants.
I suggest you focus on dodging its attacks during the Lightning phase. This is the hardest phase in my opinion with quick and long ranged breath attacks. Wait for the Frost or Storm phase transition before jumping in and focusing on attacking again.
You can also summon or heal easily while the Dancing Lion phase transitions. Having a summon is good to take its aggro away from you, but it can also backfire, thus, making its attack patterns more unpredictable. I preferred fighting him solo over using a spirit summon.
Here are all of Divine Beast Danving Lion’s attack patterns in Phase 2 and how to dodge them:
- Lightning Variant: All its base attack combos become imbued with Lightning. During this phase, his breath attacks use Lightning with a lot bigger range, there is lightning striking from the sky around the Dancing Lion, and he can shoot Lightning bolts at a distance. This, in my opinion, is his strongest variant and you need to focus on dodging his attacks during this transition instead of doing damage. The attack combos can be dodged in a similar way as mentioned in phase 1, but stay extra cautious about the falling lightning attacks around the enemy.
- Frost Variant: All its base attack combos become imbued with Frost. During this phase, his breath attacks use Frost damage, and every ground slam attack creates frost spikes around the enemy. This is the easiest variant to deal with and you can dodge most of its attacks following the phase 1 guide. However, when he does a ground slam attack, dodge roll to his back section to avoid the frost spikes, or simply double-dodge roll to be safe.
- Storm Variant: All its base attack combos become imbued with Storm. During this phase, his breath attacks use Storms, and he can shoot tornadoes that follow the player before dissipating. This is the second easiest variant to deal with and you can dodge most of its attack following the phase 1 guide. Make sure to run away to side roll when the tornadoes reach near you to dodge them, as back rolling will get a delayed hit.
Divine Beast Dancing Lion Rewards In Elden Ring
After dropping the HP of the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, it is defeated and you get the boss rewards. The Divine Beast Dancing Lion drops the Remembrance of the Dancing Lion and the Divine Beast Head.
You can wear the Divine Beast Head as a Helmet, and it somewhat boosts Strength and Dexterity at the cost of less healing from the Estus Flasks. The Divine Beast Head is required to finish Hornsent Grandam’s NPC quest.
You can give Remembrance of the Dancing Lion to the Finger Reader in the Roundtable Hold for the following items:
- Ash of War: Divine Beast Frost Stomp
- Enraged Divine Beast (Talisman): Raises potency of storms
We hope this guide helped you defeat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. If you are still having trouble, ask your queries in the comments section.
