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Lichdragon Fortissax is one of the many dragon bosses spread throughout The Lands Between in Elden Ring, but what elevates the Lichdragon to legendary status is his relationship with the Demigods and his incredible list of powers. He can be fought after 'Entering the Deathbed Dream' when talking to Fia at the Prince of Death's Throne.
Boasting four wings and red lightning powers makes the dragon incredibly intimidating for a lowly Tarnished, but players will need to defeat him if they want to achieve the 'Age of Duskborn' ending. The Tarnished will find the dragon in the Deeproot Depths, corrupted by Death Blight after losing his companion Godwyn the Golden.
Lichdragon Fortissax's Move Set
Lichdragon Fortissax is characteristic of many of the other dragons that the Tarnished will find in The Lands Between. He will utilize the massive battle area to his advantage and punish those who get too close to him. Where his move set differs from other dragons is the sheer range of different attacks he can use to cause problems for the player.
While many of his attacks are well telegraphed, the challenge comes from remembering how each attack works and what specific point the player will need to dodge the attacks. This only gets worse in his second phase, where he starts using a couple of extremely powerful lightning attacks that deal massive damage.
Phase One
- Vertical Slam and Lightning Slam - Fortissax is able to use multiple slam attacks to force the player to move away from him. If either of these attacks connects it will do a large amount of damage and send the Tarnished crashing to the floor. The Tarnished will be able to tell which type of attack is coming by the way they are telegraphed, this should also give them ample time to get out of the way. The player will see the Vertical Slam coming when he rises to his hind legs and raises his left arm above his head. The lightning slam will come when the player underneath Fortissax, and will rise on his hind legs and raise BOTH of his arms. Both of these attacks can be avoided by simply running away when Fortissax begins to rise, although for the Vertical Slam the Tarnished could dodge at the right moment to avoid the attack.
- Rearing Firebreath, Forwards Firebreath, and Aerial Firebreath -Fortissax can use several different Firebreath attacks depending on where the Tarnished is standing relative to the Lichdragon. The Rearing Firebreath will come when the Tarnished is standing adjacent to Fortissax, The Forwards Firebreath will trigger when the player is standing far away from him and the Aerial Firebreath will happen when the Tarnished is right underneath him. The timing to dodge the Rearing Firebreath is very tricky as Fortissax will spread fire along the entire length of his body to the left and right of him. As soon as Fortissax arches his neck to breathe fire, the Tarnished will want to sprint forwards to reach his tail, which will minimize the chance of being hit by the flames. The Forwards Firebreath is the easiest to dodge, it will only trigger when the Tarnished is at a far range where Fortissax will bathe the arena in the fire. If the player sprints in one direction it will almost certainly guarantee that the Tarnished will avoid the attack. Dodging the Aerial Firebreath is also relatively simple. If the Tarnished sprints backward or to the side (essentially anywhere but underneath him) they will avoid the flames. However, this attack is usually followed up by a number of other attacks in a combo, so the player should be careful before running back in.
- Repositioning Claw Swipe - This attack is a way for Fortissax to reposition himself so that he is facing the player while doing extra damage to the player. It is, therefore, one of the harder attacks to dodge successfully due to the lightning trails that strike after on a delay after the Claw Swipe. The player will need to sprint out of range of the swipe and then use invincibility frames to dodge through the attack.
- Ancient Dragon's Lightning Spear - A lesser version of Fortissax's Lightning Glaive in the second phase, he will reach up with his left arm and hurl a spear of red lightning into the ground creating a massive explosion. This could be dodged at point-blank range, although the timing is a little difficult, therefore the safer counter is to simply run away and then run back while being careful of the lightning leftover from the explosion.
- Divebomb -Fortissax will launch into the air before hurling himself back at the Tarnished. This attack is mostly a relatively easy challenge of timing. The player can dodge through the attack and then quickly get a few hits in before the next attack.
- Claw Combo - Fortissax will use his left arm to swipe forwards and backward in front of him, both attacks will also cause lightning explosions. Due to the residual lightning that comes from these claw swipes, timing is critical when dodging through these strikes. Rolling too early will mean the player will get hit by the explosion and rolling too late will mean getting knocked down by the claws.
- Lightning Barrier - Fortissax will surround himself with a barrier of lightning and if the Tarnished are caught in this barrier they will also gain a red lightning ring around them that will drop to the ground and explode after a couple of seconds. This will do minor damage but is designed to overwhelm the player as Fortissax moves into more combos. Staying calm and remembering to roll the instant the ring drops off the Tarnished will negate damage to them.
- Death Lightning- Fortissax will roar causing black clouds to appear all around him, if the Tarnished touch these clouds they will be inflicted with Death Blight over time. Looking for patches of golden electricity around the dragon is the key to knowing where the black clouds will appear. Attacking his front legs during this attack is a good way to get some damage in while avoiding other passive attacks.
- Right Swipe and Reverse Right Swipe and Tail Swipe -Fortissax will do a number of swipe attacks depending on where the Tarnished is stood. The Right swipe is a lesser version of the Claw Combo (as it will be a single swipe) but still requires expert timing to dodge the swipe and the follow-up lightning explosion. The Reverse Right Swipe will only occur after the Right Swipe and if the player is standing on the right side of Fortissax. Therefore, it is wise to dodge to the left when the regular Right Swipe comes to completely negate this attack. The Tail Swipe will come to those who try to stand behind Fortissax and attack his back legs. For Fortissax, players should always aim for his head and front legs so that they won't have to worry about this attack.
- Double Bite and Single Bite - The challenge of Fortissax's bite attacks comes from working out if he will do a second bite after the first. The aim is to confuse the players mid-combat. Thankfully there is an easy way to work out which of the two attacks he will do. For the Single Bite, Fortissax will simply arch his neck to the left and then bite forward. This can be avoided by dodging backward through the attack. For the Double Bite, Fortissax will rise to his hind legs and arch his neck to the right and bite down before doing a normal Single Bite. This can be avoided by sprinting backward as he raises his front legs into the air.
- Repositioning Hop - Similarly to the Repositioning Claw Swipe, the Hop is designed to reorient the dragon so that he's in front of the player. He will jump up, fly away, and land again a short distance away which gives him the opportunity to use the Forwards Firebreath. To prevent this, players should run after him as he flies to close the distance, though the Tarnished will need to be careful that he doesn't land on them.
- Wing Beating - This is an attack that does no damage, but it will stagger and stun the player which makes passive attacks like Death Lightning and Lightning Barrier more deadly. This attack will trigger when the Tarnished is directly underneath Fortissax. The Tarnished should run out, and, after he has flapped his wings four times, run back in to deal maximum punishment.
Phase Two
In the second phase (which occurs when Fortissax reaches 60% health) the combos that Fortissax can pull off get even longer. For example, Rearing Firebreath and Right Swipe can be followed up by a Vertical Slam and Double Bite can be followed up by a Right Swipe.
Additionally, his second phase contains a few extra attacks which are some of the most visually jaw-dropping in all of Elden Ring, which makes Lichdragon Fortissax an optional boss that Tarnished will not want to miss.
- Fortissax's Lightning Spear -This attack is essentially Ancient Dragon's Lightning Spear x2. Fortissax will manifest two lightning spears and slam them into the ground, creating explosions and lightning shock waves. These can also be dodged at point black range, although it's rather tricky to get that right. The Tarnished will also be able to jump over the shock waves and use a jumping attack on Fortissax's head to deal maximum punishment.
- Fortissax's Lightning Glaive -This attack isn't particularly hard to dodge mechanically. It's mostly designed to create a feeling of awe while fighting the legendary dragon. Fortissax will jump into the air and manifest a glaive of lightning. He will then hurl himself towards players while spinning in the air and crash down with his glaive outstretched. The Tarnished should make sure to dodge at the last possible second because if this attack connects it will do an astonishing amount of damage.
Strategies
When preparing for this fight, the Tarnished could use a lot of different item buffs to help negate lightning damage like the Lightningproof Liver or the Boiled Crab. Additionally, keeping some Revitalizing Boluses will help reduce the buildup of the Death Lightning attack which inflicts Death Blight.
His head will take twice as much damage as anywhere else on his body which will encourage the player to always stay to the front of Fortissax while fighting him, although hacking at his front legs is also an effective strategy. Once he is defeated, Fortissax will drop 90,000 Runes and Remembrance of the Lichdragon.
Elden Ring is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.