Developer FromSoftware makes sure that the player is aware of Elden Ring's difficulty right from the beginning of the game, by placing two bosses in a row that will quickly cause the first couple of deaths. However, the second of these bosses, the Tree Sentinel, later becomes an example of how repetitive the game can get when it is reused and reskinned throughout the rest of The Lands Between.
The overuse of the Tree Sentinel is especially harmful, as this boss is one of the first to incentivize the mounted combat in Elden Ring through a punishing fight that players are better off coming back to later in the game. As a result, it becomes a boss archetype that eventually becomes more frustrating than it is rewarding, as each new version's rewards become less and less impressive.
Excelling Early Against the Tree Sentinel
While most players will likely avoid the Tree Sentinel after the first few deaths, having the challenge appear so early pushes many players to stay until they've killed the powerful boss. The reward for this early kill is also impressive, especially for players looking to grab a good starting weapon for a strength build in Elden Ring. So, most players should make sure to at least try to take the Tree Sentinel on before tackling Stormveil Castle and exploring the later regions of Elden Ring.
The Tree Sentinel can also act as a teaching moment for more than just its ability to instantly kill starting-level players immediately after leaving the tutorial. A series of steady combos from the halberd set the fast pace for Elden Ring's boss combat, while also clearly leaving the shielded side open for attacks from the player. However, the second phase of the fight reinforces the need to quickly adapt to a boss' changing tactics, as the shield that was previously a vulnerable area to attack becomes the source of Tree Sentinel's strongest attacks.
The Tree Sentinel is Interesting Exactly Once
The problem with the Tree Sentinel doesn't even appear until after the player has already left the boss long behind. This is a common problem for Elden Ring's 165 boss encounters, where the massive number of these special fights is padded with repeats and reskins. From a certain perspective, few bosses get as many reskins as the Tree Sentinel, since its archetype of mounted boss can be seen in the form of the Draconic Tree Sentinels, Night's Cavalry, and the two Loretta fights. However, when only accounting for the regular and Draconic variants, there are still four encounters to be found across the world, with one being a duo boss.
Like most bosses in Elden Ring, the Tree Sentinels aren't allowed to be a unique encounter that players will fight once and then move on from after mastering its moveset. In an effort to fill the Lands Between with content, FromSoftware arguably went overboard with the recycled enemies, with the variants of the mounted bosses being one of the worst examples of this design. It goes from being an impressive and interesting encounter against an enemy that teaches the player what to expect throughout a playthrough, into another speed bump on the fast track through the game.
This padding reaches its worst point right before the end of the game, as one of the Draconic Tree Sentinels blocks the path into the boss arena for one of Elden Ring's best bosses, Maliketh. It is a needless recycling of a boss that players have already run into multiple times up until this point and has overstayed its welcome by the time of this surprise appearance. If FromSoftware decided to remove this Draconic Tree Sentinel in a future patch for some reason, Crumbling Farum Azula would lose nothing of value, and the Tree Sentinels in Limgrave and Altus Plateau would only improve due to their gained uniqueness.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.