In Elden Ring, players will often find themselves coming up against dragons, especially if they hope to unlock the powers offered by Dragon Communion. They're also worth taking down for the sheer volume of souls they drop when defeated, so this guide will cover the best strategies for taking them down.
Elden Ring's Dragons are highly mobile combatants with powerful breath attacks that can hit a wide area and also deal a lot of damage with their claws and teeth, so players will likely need a little practice against them before they can reliably dodge all of these attacks. Most Dragon Fights take place in locales that allow the player to use their horse, Torrent, who can be used to outpace many of the breath attacks.
Stance Breaking
A fantastic way to leave Dragons vulnerable to attack is by breaking their stance, which leaves them lying on the ground open to attack. There are several very effective methods of breaking Dragon's stance, depending on the player's build.
Players using heavy weapons likely won't need much help here since the poise damage dealt by heavy weapons can easily break a dragon if aimed at their weak spot, the head. Charged Attacks on the Dragon's head can be landed most easily when it tries to sweep its breath attack in a cone in front of it. Dodge the flames and head for the side of the dragon's head, then charge up the attack and smash it. Jumping attacks on the head will also do a ton of poise damage, and after a few successful hits, the dragon should collapse and be open to more attacks.
Players using fast weapons, especially dual wielding, will want to grab the Cragblade Ash of War for this. Cragblade coats the player's weapon in rock, and is used by Radahn during his boss fight, and this greatly increases the poise damage dealt by the weapon. Paired weapons like the Caestus and Hookblades can unleash a ridiculous amount of poise damage when paired with this Ash of War, allowing players to pummel the dragon's feet (and head where possible with jumping attacks) until it collapses.
Intelligence focused spellcasters have access to a few very powerful spells that can knock dragons over by dealing huge poise damage. These are mainly from the Gravity School, and early-game players' first option for this is the Rock Sling spell. This is a surprisingly versatile physical projectile that deals really solid poise damage, especially when aimed for the Dragon's head. Later on, players will want to get underneath the dragon and fire the meteorite spell obtained in Liurnia instead, which deals even more poise damage and also thrashes the Dragon's, Health Bar. Finally, the best sorcery for dealing with Dragons is Meteorite of Astel, which is a flat upgrade from the basic Meteorite in most respects and does even better at shredding through dragons.
Finally, Faith focused spellcasters have several excellent options for eliminating dragons but only a few good options for breaking their stance. The Beast Incantation Bestial Sling is an excellent early option for this, especially for players who can aim it into the Dragon's face, dealing a reasonable amount of damage while also chipping away with poise damage until their stance breaks. This can be replaced or supplemented later on with Stone of Gurranq, which deals a ton of damage and is even better at dealing poise damage than Bestial Sling. Players with a taste for Frenzy Incantations can get incredible mileage out of the Flame of Frenzy incantation, which is also available early in the game and fires a stream of projectiles that can deal tons of poise damage when fired up at a dragon from underneath it.
When trying to break the enemy's stance, equipping the Stonebarb Cracked Tear in the Physik Flask is recommended to boost poise damage.
Dealing Damage
When it comes to actually damaging dragons, there's some really solid strategies for most play styles. Players who favor heavy weapons will want to break the Dragon's stance (see the previous section) and then unleash charged heavy attacks on the Dragon's head while it's down. The critical hit isn't all that effective in terms of raw damage against the dragon, but players wielding colossal weapons should equip the Assassin's Crimson Dagger and Assassin's Cerulean Dagger to take advantage of the critical hit. Colossal weapons trigger the Assassin's Dagger Talismans twice whenever they score a critical hit, and can use this to heal and refresh their FP if they're running low when the Dragon's stance breaks.
Players using light weapons that attack quickly should ideally use blood grease or the blood infusion on their weapons to tear through the Dragon's health bar using bleed buildup. Alternatively, using the strategy mentioned in the previous section to break its stance and then dish out damage with dual-wielding or critical hits (using daggers for higher critical damage) can also be effective.
Intelligence Focused Spellcasters will want to knock the dragon down using the strategies mentioned in the previous section and then use Terra Magica to empower their spells. After casting Terra Magica, players can either continue dropping meteorites on the downed dragon or use a Cerulean Hidden Tear/Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear Physik Flask empowered Comet Azur to melt through the Dragon's health bar.
Faith Focused Spellcasters can make excellent use of powerful, damaging spells like the Dragon Incantations and the Flame of Frenzy to burn through a Dragon's health bar in the early game (though obtaining a Dragon Incantation does require slaying at least one Dragon first), but in the late game, they can acquire some of the best incantations for tearing down Dragons. Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike is an AOE attack that can ruin a Dragon's health bar with a charged cast, as long as the player gets underneath the dragon first, while Burn O Flame! provides similar utility to players who prefer fire damage to lightning. Flame of Frenzy and Unendurable Frenzy are also tremendously powerful damage options throughout a playthrough. Equip the appropriate Physik Flask tears to boost either fire or lightning damage, depending on which spell is being used, and Dragons will go down in no time at all. (Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear or Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear)
Status Effect Strategies
Players with access to certain Status Effects can make use of them to make Dragon Fights easier. Frostbite is helpful to pretty much any build since it causes the target to lose a huge chunk of health when it triggers and also causes them to take extra damage from all sources until it wears off. This can be inflicted pretty reliably using Dragonice and Borealis's Mist on a Faith Build, by using the various Ice Sorceries offered to Int Builds, and by using Ashes of War like Hoarfrost Stomp on melee builds.
Scarlet Rot can be inflicted on most dragons, especially Ekzykes in Caelid, and will deal a decent chunk of immediate damage before chipping away at their health for a long time afterward. This is best used in conjunction with another strategy or by players confident in their ability to dodge the Dragon's attacks until the Scarlet Rot finishes them off. Most builds have access to a source of Scarlet Rot, except for Sorcery builds, so it's worth considering in most cases.
Bleed is famously powerful in Elden Ring, allowing players to take huge chunks out of enemy health bars repeatedly. This is the single best way for Arcane-focused builds to defeat dragons and works well when the blood infusion is put on a fast weapon, preferably something with an existing bleed build-up like the Reduvia or the Uchigatana. Sorceries and incantations that inflict bleed do exist, but can be tricky to track down and are generally less effective than a blood-infused weapon.
Elden Ring is available for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
