Though the Magma Wyrms are another example of Elden Ring bosses that the game reuses a few too many times, the design is still elevated enough to be well worth the praise in some key locations. Not only does the boss have a moveset that keeps the encounters interesting from location to location, but the way that it dominates some of Elden Ring's best boss arenas makes it a fight that can be fun to face off against multiple times.
Of course, as impressive as the design can be when a Magma Wyrm is placed into a fitting arena, it does still run into a number of the issues that many of the reused bosses have as Elden Ring progresses into tight caves and over the Mountaintop of the Giants. That being said, a few hiccups across the giant open world of The Lands Between aren't enough to knock the boss down from its pedestal as one of the most interesting encounters in the game.
How Elden Ring's Magma Wyrm Dominates its Arena
Two of the most notable encounters against the Magma Wyrms in the game include Magma Wyrm Makar in the Ruin-Strewn Precipice and the more mundanely named variant near Fort Laiedd in Elden Ring's Mt. Gelmir. Both of these are among the best examples of these bosses because they are the ones that are given the most space for the giant, crawling dragons to move as they were designed to. In these wide-open arenas, each of these Magma Wyrms is able to swing their swords with reckless abandon or crawl along the ground in rapid sprints without running into too many random bits of geography.
Apart from the more standard movesets of these bosses with sword swipes and sweeping claws, the Magma Wyrms can also spew globs of lava around the arena that linger for a time. While this isn't a new concept for FromSoftware bosses, it is one of the best uses of an enemy-specific floor hazard outside of Elden Ring's Rykard fight. There are also several attacks that are able to make certain parts of the floor inaccessible, either during the crawling sprints across the arena or when standing still and firing directly at the player.
The Magma Wyrm at Mt. Gelmir is actually one of the best examples of this lava being used in Elden Ring thanks to the same hazard already being present throughout the rest of the arena. With players only given a thin strip of safe land to fight on, the extra lava from the Magma Wyrm adds an extra layer of danger to the arena the longer the fight goes on. This creates an incentive to keep the boss facing out towards Mt. Gelmir's lava pools in Elden Ring so that if an attack comes that might limit the space it is directed to the already dangerous sections of the arena. In this case, careful positioning and quickly reacting to the changing environment are needed to come out with a win.
Elden Ring Arenas That Are Too Small for Magma Wyrms
While there are examples of arenas that have the look and feel of having been built specifically for a Magma Wyrm, there are a handful of these reused bosses in locations that don't lean on their strengths. One of the most notable of these locations is in Elden Ring's Gael Tunnel, where players can challenge a Magma Wyrm in order to find the powerful Moonveil katana. However, this specific iteration of the boss isn't given a large-open arena or a space built with the fight in mind and is instead shoved into a tiny room within a cramped cave.
The most obvious sign that the arena and boss were not designed together is that the Magma Wyrm does not have enough space to do the sprints that spew lava across the area. Instead, it has a tendency to run wildly into the wall, spewing almost all of its most interesting concept into an isolated corner of the arena. This isn't the only example of an Elden Ring boss being overused, but the many poor choices of location are the sticking point that makes some of the side content across the Lands Between a bit underwhelming.
Elden Ring is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
