Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - How To Get Dane's Footwork

Elden Ring

By Jake Buchalter

Published 3 days ago

Out of all the new items advertised across the multiple trailers for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, one of the ones that garnered the most interest was the martial art-type weapons. Turns out these are hand-to-hand martial art 'weapons', and there are two of them introduced in this DLC, the Dryleaf Arts and Dane's Footwork.

Elden Ring: All Legendary Armaments, Ranked

These ancient weapons are among the greatest that the Tarnished can find in their travels.

Both of these items come from one specific NPC in the DLC named Dryleaf Dane, and you can absolutely get both of these weapons in one playthrough of said DLC. But, a lot of you who are only partially through SoTE are worried that you might miss out on getting Dane's Footwork if you progress too far or clear certain areas. So, to ease any worries, let's go over where exactly these can be found in Elden Ring.

Dane's Footwork Overview

What Type of Weapon is it?

Name	Type	Damage Type	Scaling	Stat Requirements	Default Ash of War
Dane's Footwork	Hand-to-Hand Art	Strike	Strength (D) & Dexterity (D)	8 Strength & 8 Dexterity	Palm Blast

Dane's Footwork is less of a weapon in Elden Ring and more of an equippable martial art. But, for the sake of the game's mechanic, players actually 'equip' Dane's Footwork in any of their weapon slots. Dane's Footwork is a kick-based martial art that's unique to Dryleaf Dane, and he apparently invented these martial arts while training under a waterfall. And, the guy seems to have invented a pretty powerful martial art, considering how much raw damage each of his attacks deals when you fight him at Moorth Ruins.

Mechanically Dane's Footwork and Dryleaf Arts are very similar, the main differences being that the Dryleaf Arts are more punch-focused while Dane's Footwork is more kick-focused. This is seen in the movesets of each of these weapon options, as Dane's Footwork has a lot more kicks both in the light and heavy attack strings, especially if you 'two-hand' it, which essentially functions as a dual-wield power stance. It's also worth noting that you can swap the Ash of War on Dane's Footwork just like you can for the Dryleaf Arts, and you can use the Whetblades to even make these weapons scale differently, such as making them into Keen, Cold, or Bleed weapons.

Where To Find Dane's Footwork

You Really Can't Miss It

As it turns out, it's pretty much impossible to miss Dane's Footwork if you clear all the main content of Shadow of the Erdtree. To get this Martial Art, you'll need to defeat Leda, the Hornsent, and Dryleaf Dane in battle at Enir-Ilim, one of the final (story) areas of the DLC. Essentially, progress through this area until you arrive at the Cleansing Chamber Anteroom Site of Grace and touch said Grace to unlock it. After this, the next room you'll enter is this gigantic arena filled with either ash or sand and you'll see a red summon sign in the center of it after talking to Leda. Interact with this red summon sign, and say yes to fighting Leda and her allies, and you'll be teleported into an alternate variant of this arena where the Hornsent, Dryleaf Dane, and then Leda all spawn in as NPC invaders in that order.

While you can't miss Dane's Footwork, you can miss out on obtaining the Dryleaf Arts if you don't fight Dryleaf Dane at the Moorth Ruins by walking up to him and using the 'May the Best Win' Gesture (and then beating him in the arena you're teleported into). Do this NPC questline before lighting the shadow tree using Messmer as kindle or you'll miss out on this martial art entirely.

This fight is incredibly chaotic, and it's highly recommended you summon Pureblood Knight Ansbach for this fight (and a co-op partner at the Anteroom SoG if you can find one) as it's incredibly easy to get overwhelmed in this battle. After successfully beating Leda and her allies, you'll notice that a popup appears after defeating each individual that says 'X has died (with X being the character's name).

Once they're all beaten, you'll be taken back to the default version of this room, and you'll see that the bodies of the NPCs you fought in the battle are now littered across the arena. Dryleaf Dane, in particular, is found slumped dead against the wall near the door leading out of this room, and interacting with his body is exactly how you get Dane's Footwork. As stated previously, it's pretty much impossible to 'miss' this weapon, as there's no way to exclude Dryleaf Dane from this fight (AKA avoiding this questline), and there's no way of progressing past this room to the 'final boss' of the DLC without beating Leda and her allies.