How to beat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Shadow of the Erdtree

✓ at a glance

• Bleed works well against the Dancing Lion, especially with the Rivers of Blood.
• Stay close to the boss and try to dodge forward and to the side, never backwards.
• Use the Mimic Tear to help you out and don’t summon Freyja.

For many, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion will be the first boss you come up against in Shadow of the Erdtree. This boss fight is nasty, in a lot of ways, with several elements and on-field hazards to deal with, on top of a janky camera for those who use lock-on. Here is our detailed guide on how to beat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion location

You will fight the Dancing Lion boss at the end of the Belurat, Tower Settlement Legacy Dungeon. There is a Site of Grace directly outside of the boss room, the Stagefront, most likely because FromSoft knows how unfair they make boss fights these days. Anyway, no long runbacks here.

While we didn’t use any Spirit Ash, we highly, highly recommend you use the Mimic Tear if you have a hard time. We also highly recommend you don’t summon Redmane Freyja, and this is because having any NPC summons will inflate the boss’s HP considerably, which puts it astronomically higher thanks to how much scaling the bosses have in the DLC. Her damage is terrible and by the time it begins its elemental phase, she will most likely be dead, leaving you alone to deal with its huge HP pool.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss guide

As soon as the fight starts, the dancing lion can begin with a number of attacks. The one you want it to do is the leaping jump. If it uses the breath attack in a straight line, you have to run to the side to avoid it. The Lion will jump into the air and delay for a second then it will come crashing down doing one hit. Dodge forward when you see the lion start to lunge down, instead of rolling backwards, otherwise you will get hit by the splash damage.

✓ Tip

This is good practice throughout the fight: never roll away from attacks, always roll to the side or forward. Bear in mind, that the boss also has a grab attack with massive forward range, so you want to roll to the side at the last second to avoid this.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion first phase

The boss doesn’t have a lot of attacks, so he will basically spam them on repeat. The way to exploit this is to stay close and punish the attacks you know you have time to counter. A big problem with Elden Ring boss fights is that it is hard to know when you have a chance to attack, and there are a few moves this boss has you can punish. The first is another jumping attack where it will float in the air and perform a flip, it will do this twice, and then come in for a final hit when it lands. If you dodge forward through these attacks, the combo should end with the lion landing behind you. When it lands, it will then perform a short spin and a breath attack. When this ends, go in for a combo or a weapon skill to get some damage.

✓ Tip

Generally, throughout the fight, you want to stay close to the lion and try to keep at its side.

The next attack you want to look out for is where it will stand up and spin on the spot moving towards you spraying breath at the floor. It will spin three times and when the attack ends it looks like it will go for another. This isn’t the case, and as soon as you see the spinning breath attack end, rush in and get some damage. Another attack you can exploit is one where it rears up and charges for a slam attack. You can roll behind it while it rears up and get in a ton of damage while behind it. It will do an attack that turns it around afterwards, so don’t get greedy. When you’ve nearly done half its HP, it will start to change elements, cycling through Lightning, Wind, and Frost.

In this phase, lightning will be called down on the ground. The ground glowing indicates these spots. You have a few seconds to get out of the way, but it is extremely difficult to focus on the lightning and the bosses’ attacks. Another good reason to stay close is the lightning it calls down will rarely land on the boss, it will mostly always land slightly away from the boss in a radius. Stick to its side or survive long enough for it to change elements.

After some time, the element will change to Wind. This is by far the easiest element he has to exploit. The wind will now accompany attacks but he doesn’t have a lot of range with the splash. If you can, stay in his face and go super aggressive. He doesn’t spend a lot of time in this element before it changes to Frost, which is another nightmare to deal with.

The boss will have a frost aura and its attacks now, and it can spread large AoEs of frost. You will get hit with Frostbite, but you shouldn’t try and gear yourself to defend against this. The frost element doesn’t last very long, but you can get in close without worrying too much about its attacks. Frostbite didn’t give us too much of a hard time, just heal through it when it triggers on you. From now on, the boss will change elements in the same pattern. It’s better to be defensive while the lightning phase is happening.

✓ Tip

Throughout the fight, it will perform the same attacks only enhanced with different elements. One of the best attacks to exploit is its small jumping attack in mid-range.

In its different element forms, it will have some new ranged attacks if you’re too far away from it. The lightning attacks are the worst, since it fires immediately and super fast. The Wind ranged attacks are pitiful and you can really get the upper hand when its aligned to this element. Frost is another nightmare to deal with, especially because of Frostbite. You should have enough healing to deal with any stray frost attacks, just make sure you stay topped up.

Even if it takes you 10 or so tries, like it did for us, you will beat it eventually. It’s important to know when you can heal and when you can exploit attacks. The more you fight a boss, the more you will get tuned into its patterns and this is when you’ll notice you get better each time. One final hint; try not to use the lock on for this fight. It jumps around so much you end up battling the janky camera and it will get you killed.

Diving Beast Dancing Lion move list

Move	Description	Strategy
Jumping Lunge	The lion jumps into the air and does a slamming strike on the ground in front.	This attack is good to bait. The lion will go over your head if you roll forward towards the attack. Punish this by hitting it from the back or side.
Sweeping Melee Combo	The lion’s default melee attack is a three-hit combo where it uses its head to slam into you. It can also perform swipes with its hands during these attacks.	Since the hitbox is the lion’s head, you can exploit this and stay close to the middle of its body to get free damage in.
Flipping Aerial Combo	The lion will leap into the air and be surrounded by white streaks of wind. It will hang for a moment, then perform a flip. It will pause, and do the same thing again. After the flip, it will crash into the ground with its head, dealing damage in a small AoE. Then, it will spin around using its breath attack in a small circle.	You can wait roughly one second between the flips to dodge them, then back up a bit to avoid the spinning breath attack. After the breath, move in for some free damage as it finishes the animation.
Frontal Breath	The lion will shoot a breath attack in a straight line at you. The range is pretty large.	Move to the side and keep moving. The attack will follow your path and it can be a different element depending on which phase the lion is in. You can use the time at the end of the attack to heal or summon a Spirit Ash if needed.
Spinning Breath Attack	The lion will stand on its hind legs and spin to win. It will fire a spread of breath in a circle, spinning three times before stopping. It takes on the element of its current phase.	You can stay close if you want, but it’s safer to get away. You can jump the breath attack or you can roll it, but we found great success backing up and then moving in as the attack finishes to exploit rare downtime for the enemy.
Grab	The lion will rear up and then dash towards you, mouth first. The range on this is deceptive and it will grab you even if you are a bit away from it.	You want to wait until the last second to dodge this attack. Always dodge to the side, preferably the right, and you should have no problem.
Big Frontal Slam	The lion rears up and holds the pose for an obscenely long time to catch you out. The lion’s little legs/arms will wiggle a lot during this and it will track your movement.	When it rears up, you can get at least two quick swings in. To dodge it, roll toward the lion or to the side. It is left open for a while after this attack, so punish it as much as you can.
Lightning Bolts	Lightning will be summoned down around the arena when the lion attacks during its lightning phase. They strike single spots, but some attacks leave an AoE.	You almost have to get lucky during this phase. The bolts explode fast and you don’t have a lot of time to react when you focus on more than two things. Stay close, mostly the bolts appear behind or to the side of the boss, never on top of the boss.
Wind Tornado	It will sit twirl and power up a huge tornado that will ever so slightly track after you. Mostly, it travels in a line towards you.	Run to the side, just keep running while it charges up and you will dodge it every time.
Frost AoE	During the frost element phase, all of its attack will have a frost aura or AoE.	Try and stay close, healing through any Frostbite inflicted. You can roll through these attacks and it’s always better to go forward since the frost AoE has a long reach behind it.
Back Swipe	If you are behind the lion, it will perform this hit with its back legs to reposition itself. The lion looks behind it before doing this attack.	If you get greedy hitting it in the back, you will get caught by this. Try and monitor its head to see if its about to get you. Roll to the opposite side of where its back is position.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion rewards

For killing the boss, you will get the Remembrance of the Dancing Lion, which you can take to the Finger Reader at the Roundtable Hold to turn that soul into equipment. From the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, you can get the You also get the Divine Lion head armour, which is literally its head. You will need this headgear to access a secret Incantation in Belurat, tied to the Storage Key.

We hope this helps you beat what is one particularly annoying boss in the Elden Ring DLC. Congrats if you did, but be warned that even more annoying and frustrating bosses lie ahead.