In Elden Ring, Ancient Dragons have played a crucial role in the lore and world-building of The Lands Between. The same can be seen in the Shadow of the Erdtree. In the DLC, players can discover more lore pieces related to Dragons, Ancient Dragons, and Bayle the Dread, the one who fought and wounded Dragonlord Placidusax. Shadow of the Erdtree features a whole area dedicated to them, called the Jagged Peaks.

At the end of the Jagged Peaks, players will get to fight Bayle the Dread, which is one of the most amazing and highly difficult fights in the Elden Ring DLC. While the boss fight itself is pretty challenging, the way to the boss's location is equally perilous. On the way to Bayle the Dread, players will come across the Ancient Dragon Senessax lying inside a cavern.

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Ancient Dragon Senessax is an optional boss. Upon defeat, it drops an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone and a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. Even though it is an optional boss, many players will prefer to beat it for valuable smithing stones or 200,000 runes. Follow this guide to find Senessax’s location in the Elden Ring DLC and some helpful tips to defeat the boss.

Elden Ring: Ancient Dragon Senessax Boss Location

Ancient Dragon Senessax is located in the Jagged Peak region of the Shadow of the Erdtree. To access this area, you will have to go through the Dragon’s Pit dungeon located south of the Pillar Path Waypoint Site of Grace, and reach the Dragon’s Pit Terminus Site of Grace. From there, head east to find a Jagged Peak Drake resting on a lake. You can either fight or ignore it. Continue east to find a spiritspring jump taking you up to a cliff. From the cliff, take the bridge to the south to find the Foot of the Jagged Peak Site of Grace.

After resting at the Foot of the Jagged Peak Site, you only need to travel for a few minutes to reach Ancient Dragon Senessax. From the Site of Grace, go southeast to find two Drakes fighting each other. Go past them and continue east to find spiritspring jumps leading to the Jagged Peak. On the way, you will find two boulders rolling down at you. After dodging them, you can pick up one Scadutree Fragment under the boulders’ initial location.

Next, follow the path going up to enter Ancient Dragon Senessax’s arena. This boss will be lying asleep when you first see it, but it wakes up as soon as you enter its arena. Ancient Dragon Senessax has the same design and movesets as other Ancient Dragons, like Lansseax from The Lands Between. However, it has a massive health pool and its attacks have a lingering lightning effect, making the fight more challenging.

How to Defeat Ancient Dragon Senessax

Elden Ring DLC - Using Scarlet Rot on Ancient Dragon Senessax

Ancient Dragon Senessax is a boss worth fighting if you want to max out the new weapons in the Elden Ring DLC. However, beating this boss isn’t an easy challenge. Being an Ancient Dragon, Senessax has mastery over the red lightning of their kind, along with fire breath attacks. The fight is more challenging compared to regular Ancient Dragons because of AOE lightning attacks. What's more, players must be aware of the water in the arena, which lowers lightning damage negation.

The easiest way to defeat Ancient Dragon Senessax is by using the Ekzykes's Decay incantation. Once the boss has been inflicted with Scarlet Rot, the status condition will start ticking down the enemy’s HP every second. From there, you just have to survive until the Scarlet Rot takes down the enemy. Note that you will have to inflict Scarlet Rot a second or perhaps even a third time to actually finish the boss.

If surviving seems impossible, using Torrent to run around the arena is also an option. However, the safest technique is probably inflicting Senessax with Scarlet Rot and running down the entrance from where you entered. Senessax will try following you down, but its large size will prevent it from entering the tunnel. It may also despawn and go back to its initial location, but don’t worry, as the Scarlet Rot won’t be removed if that happens.

However, using Scarlet Rot may go against the rules of some Tarnished. In that case, Mage builds have access to Shard Spiral , one of the best spells to use against large enemies like Ancient Dragons. Shard Spiral goes through the hitboxes of enemies and deals damage multiple times. For melee builds, Dragon fights have rarely been a pleasant experience, and Ancient Dragon Senessax is the same. Senessax has a high poise, making stance breaks quite rare. You will have to rely on a hit-and-run strategy to win the fight. Try to get a few hits on Senessax's feet and then run away using Torrent when it starts spamming AOE attacks.