How to beat Scadutree Avatar in Shadow of the Erdtree

✓ at a glance

• The Scadutree Avatar will revive three times. Hit it with a critical to reduce its HP when it revives.
• Stay close and hit the sunflower head for more damage.
• You will be at a disadvantage at range.

Indeed, many things can kill you in Elden Ring, but did you ever count a sad-looking sunflower – called the Scadutree Avatar – in that group? This boss has a nasty gimmick, where it revives a total of three times during the fight. Each time it comes back to life, it will have new moves for you to deal with. Let’s look at how to beat the Scadutree Avatar in Shadow of the Erdtree, covering how we beat it and tips to get you through the fight.

Scadutree Avatar location

The Scadutree Avatar is found next to the Tree-Worship Sanctum Site of Grace, accessed via one of the many branching paths in the Shadow Keep. Importantly, the Scadutree boss is also entirely optional. The location where it is fought only has the boss arena and nothing else of note. Obviously, you will want to beat it for completion, but it’s important to know you can come back much later and steamroll the poor fellow if you don’t want to mess with it now. We fought the tree after Messmer, and before Commander Gaius, beating it comfortably.

Recommended gear and our build

While we will swear by the Rivers of Blood to the end of time, it’s important to note that it is extremely sub-optimal for this boss. As far as we can tell, you cannot trigger Bleed on this tree, which makes sense since it is, well, a tree. However, the Rivers of Blood has innate fire damage, which is a natural bane to all wooden things and thus probably helped us out more than we know.

• Rivers of Blood +10, Messmer Soldier Shield
• Radahn Solider Helm, Black Knight Armor, Drake Knight Gauntles, Rellana’s Greaves.
• Crimson Seed Talisman, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +2, Erdtree’s Favor +2, Rotten Winged Sword Talisman / Shard of Alexander.
• Mimic Tear +10.

You will probably have an easier time in this fight if you use a different weapon. We generally stuck to the same Talismans throughout each boss fight, but the Crimson Seed Talisman is the one we highly recommend for all of them as it greatly improves your Crimson Flask economy.

Scadutree Avatar boss guide

As mentioned, the Scadutree Avatar will revive itself three times in this fight. It doesn’t have a lot of HP and it takes increased damage from hits directly on its beautiful sunflower face. This boss could give you a hard time if you aren’t good at positioning yourself, especially in regards to its thorn AoE attacks.

Aim for its face to deal more damage. Image taken by VideoGamer

Keep close and don’t let up. Image taken by VideoGamer

More like Shadow of the Scadutree. Image taken by VideoGamer

Free damage is only a good thing. Image taken by VideoGamer

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It seems unlikely, but we may have gotten extremely lucky with our footing, finding safe spaces or dodging at exactly the right time to avoid damage. Kill the boss three times to win. When you reduce its HP to zero, it will fall down as if it has been staggered. Go to its beautiful face and hit it for a critical. The critical will reduce the amount of HP it comes back with, giving you a headstart for each phase.

Scadutree Avatar – first life bar

When you first encounter the tree, it waits for you to get into range before it ambushes you. If you die, you’ll have to pass through the fog gate. If you enter the fight through the fog gate, you will have a hard time getting close to the Scadutree Avatar since it will fire all of its ranged attacks at you. As soon as you get into the arena, it will start the fight by firing rows of thorns at you at once. These travel in a line towards you and track your movement, making escape borderline impossible. Your best bet is to block with a shield. Otherwise, dodge to the side at the very last moment to increase your chance of evading it.

✓ Make like a leaf

If you can’t get close to begin with, staying in mind range to bait a lunging sweep attack will help you massively. Punish this attack after it stops, giving you generous access to hit its head.

When the thorns hit you, they will start to accumulate Bleed. A few hits are all it needs to trigger, so try and avoid that if you can. Your first task is to get close to the boss. It has a lot of attack that will gracefully glide over your head if you position yourself slightly to the left or right of its body.

If you can’t get close to begin with, staying in mind range to bait a lunging sweep attack will help you massively. Punish this attack after it stops, giving you generous access to hit its head. Depending on what the AI wants to do, the boss can use a few moves to swing and reposition itself. It is basically pressuring you to keep moving towards it, and you always should. If you’re too slow to catch up to it, the Scadutree Avatar can use so much nonsense to keep you from getting close. This is why Spirit Ashes are fantastic for taking the heat while you reposition.

✓ Fishing for moves

When you’re in front, try and bait the attack where it swings its branches forward, hitting multiple times and ending in an AoE puddle of thorns. The boss will keep going with the attack and, if you get behind it, you can get in so much free damage as it stays animation locked while these attacks go over your head.

Get in close and don’t let up. You should try jumping attacks aimed at the head and be as aggressive as you can. While close, the tree will use an AoE thorn move to try and catch you out of position. This might not work for everyone, but there are safe spaces to stand while this attack is being charged up. Look at the ground for gaps in the murky water. If you can’t find one, you should still stay close and roll into the boss to dodge the AoE explosion. The hitbox on the explosion is fairly generous, being quite small.

Scadutree Avatar – second life bar

When the Scadutree Avatar comes back to life, make sure you back up enough and make a bit of space. The tree will come out of the ground swinging and it can catch you if you’re in its face. When the second phase begins, it will start using new moves, specifically, it can now skate around the arena in a straight line. It will do this three times, and typically it will try to drive away from you so it ends its attack at a safe distance to start throwing more hate your way.

At range or even up close, it can use magical attacks that shoot several golden projectiles that will home in on you. This is usually when the Scadutree will use this attack, but it can also come out in close range. It is easy to dodge, just look for its head to raise up straight and for golden magic to swell above it.

This second life bar is more of the same. There isn’t anything too nasty that it hasn’t already used on you. The swinging attack it does where it spins a few times and leaves its head open will also have a follow-up attack, so wait for three hits when you see it spinning towards you. Overall, the philosophy remains: stay close and be aggressive throughout the fight. Always aim for its head, but don’t be shy about whacking it in the body over and over again.

✓ Get over here

It wants to keep you at range, especially after the skating attack. Sprint forward and try to roll through the thorn projectiles.

When you get close, always be mindful of the AoE thorns it will use. This is indicated by the ground glowing yellow and bubbling. Once again, when you get the boss’s HP to zero, it will go down and be open for a critical hit. Again, don’t worry if you miss it, but definitely try to get to the head for this. Just one more round to go, what else is this simple tree going to throw at you?

Scadutree Avatar – third life bar

Guess who’s back? As ever, get away from the area the boss spawns back in because it will start swinging. For us, it also brought out a brand new attack immediately after, where it caused a huge magical explosion. The tree will stand up straight and begin to charge with golden energy, exploding a few moments later. This move takes a bit of time to charge, but the explosion comes out fast. If you are far away enough, you can avoid it entirely but if you are still close you will need to time your roll as the magic comes towards you.

✓ should I stay or should I go

It’s in your best interest to stay close because you can punish the attack after it finishes. When the attack finishes, the Scadutree Avatar will slump down and look extremely sad and displeased. If you’re quick, you can get to its head and score a ton of free damage before it recovers.

After the explosion attack, there is nothing new from the Scadutree Avatar to fear. Go to its head and try to bait any frontal attacks with your positioning. Push forward when it attacks and get close to its body, favouring the left side if you can. Be extremely aggressive, and it will pay off for this fight. If the boss pushes away from you, prepare to block or dodge incoming thorns.

Close the distance as best you can, but watch out for the tree’s AoE golden magic explosion. It can do this several times, but you should have the timing down if you dodge it the first time. It roughly does half your HP, so you can use the time it takes to charge the attack to heal. When it’s done, punish.

✓ Boom, headshot

Two rounds of it using the huge magical explosion should be enough to kill it, thanks to the window you get when it finishes the attack. Make sure you target the head.

The best advice we can give is to not rely on the lock-on too much and to pay attention to the floor when it spawns the puddles to create the AoE thorns. If your Spirit Ash takes aggro and the boss uses the golden magic projectiles, you can get in there and hit it lots during the attack’s duration.

Scadutree Avatar move list

While fighting the Scadutree Avatar, we’ve noted down its major attacks and moves to help you better understand what they are and what to look for. Take a look at the table below:

Move	Description	Strategy
Double Branch Swing	The Scadutree will spin on the spot hitting with both of its branches twice. In the second phase, it will use an overhead slam.	After this attack ends, it will leave its head open and vulnerable to several hits. Exploit this attack as much as you can.
Repositioning Swipe	The Scadutree will swipe and move backwards to reposition. It is trying to set up ranged attacks.	Chase after the boss as soon as it moves. You don’t want it to start firing thorns at you.
Ground AoE Thorns	While in close range, the tree will plunge its branch into the floor and create puddles around it. These puddles will erupt into thorns.	When you see yellow puddles appear, look for a clear space on the ground. Likwise you can time the roll into the boss to dodge this successfully. The range is limited, just pay attention.
Ranged Thorns	At range, the boss will swing its arms and fire lines of thorns that will track directly to you. He can perform this many times in a row and each hit will build Bleed on you.	When you see the boss move away and start this, you need to get close. If you dodge well, you can avoid them by rolling forward or to the side. Get close enough and the boss will stop.
Head Slam	The tree will slam its head into the ground once.	Dodge back from this attack and get in some free hits.
Grab	This move is extremely rare, but the tree can grab you. If it does, it will pound you into the floor with its head several times.	We only saw this move once, so it seems rarely used. When in doubt, roll to the side or into the boss, never away from it.
Arm Swipe AoE	The tree will perform a combo by swinging its branches several times.	If your Spirit Ash has been targeted, you can get behind the boss and deal tons of damage while it is distracted.
Arm Swipe Combo	The tree will perform a combo by swinging its branches several times. At the end of the combo, it will spawn a pool of thorns where it is hitting.	If your Spirit Ash has been targeted, you can get behind the boss and deal tons of damage while it is distracted. The AoE thorns can be dodged as usual, or you can get away from the puddles.
Gold Homing Magic	Used in close and long range, the tree will stand up and glow gold. It will fire three sets of gold magic missiles at you several times.	Dodge to side to avoid this. If your Spirit Ash is the target, go hard on the offensive and get stuck in for tons of damage.
Sliding	In phase two, the Scadutree will skate across the arena. If it hits you, you will take damage. Its third and final hit will reposition it far away from you.	Try and keep close when it does this. You want to minimise the distance between you and the boss when it slides away. When it slides away the third and final time, take this chance to heal if you need it.
Golden Explosion	This move only comes out in phase three. The Scadutree Avatar will power up and charge a massive golden explosion.	With enough HP, it’s worth staying close and hitting it while it charges. You can roll through the explosion as it comes towards you, or you can run away to clear the range. Get back in immediately after the shockwave to punish its long period of being inactive.

Scadutree Avatar rewards

For killing this harmless, not quite defenceless tree, you are rewarded with the Remembrance of the Scadutree Avatar and the reusable item Miquella’s Great Rune. The Remembrance can be taken to the Finger Reader in the Roundtable Hold to get a new spell or a new weapon. Miquella’s Great Rune is an infinite-use consumable that protects against charms.

The good news is this boss is entirely optional and beating it doesn’t help you get anywhere new. We hope this guide helps you if you’re struggling to beat it. While we had a pretty okay time with it, our reviewer for Shadow of the Erdtree said, and I quote: “The Scadutree Avatar is tough, took me like 20 tries”. If you’re stuck here, know you’re not alone.