How to beat the giant, fiery Furnace Golems in Shadow of the Erdtree

The Shadow of the Erdtree Furnace Golems are giant, fiery basket minibosses and also the source of Furnace Visages which, helpfully, can be used to craft Hefty Furnace Pots to help take them down. You'll find one pretty early on, stomping around the Gravesite Plains and kicking fire at you when you first arrive. They're generally hard to beat but, if you fancy a challenge, not only will you get those Furnace Visages but also some special and unique items you can use for the Flask of Wondrous Physick. 

As well as taking on the 'living' Golems for rewards, when you finally reach an area called the Ruins of Unte, you'll be able to farm Furnace Visages from dead Golems there. That will make creating the furnace pots that damage them easier. But for now, I'll lay out not only how to find all the Furnace Golems in Shadow of the Erdtree below, but also how to beat them. 

How to beat Furnace Golems in Shadow of the Erdtree

Furnace Golems have several weaknesses and exploitable strategies you can use to bring them down in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

• Hefty Fire Pots and Hefty Furnace Pots. This is the big weakness: if either of these two Consumables are thrown into the top of the Golem's basket (either by getting to an elevated point or by knocking it over), you can deal massive damage. The Hefty Furnace Pot is by far the more deadly of the two, but requires special Furnace Visages to craft, which are very rare, found in the corpses of Golems. We've marked the Cookbooks that tell you how to make these on the map below.
• The Mask. The metal mask on the front of the Furnace Golem that acts as its face takes far more damage than anything else. Targeting it with ranged attacks is a powerful, if tricky option, as it's high up and not easy reached.
• Staggering the legs. Repeatedly attacking one leg will cause the Golem to eventually fall over. This is your chance to either do a critical hit on the Mask with a melee weapon for massive damage, or throw a Pot into the open the basket. Some Golems have leg armor though - this doesn't mean this strategy can't still work, just that it'll take a lot more hits.
• Torrent. The favourite attack of Golems is to cause waves of fire that ripple out when they stomp the ground. Torrent's double jump can leap over these waves - get used to quickly summoning and desummoning your horse as needed.

Ultimately, Furnace Golems are one of those things you don't need to fight straight away though - if at all. They're entirely optional encounters, and while you'll see on arriving you'll be better off focusing on the nearby Shadow of the Erdtree Divine Beast Dancing Lion and Erdtree Ghostflame Dragon first. That said, when you've boosted your Shadow of the Erdtree level and found a few Erdtree Scadutree Fragments to power up it's worth trying your luck as they do drop good rewards - new Crystal Tears to modify your Flask of Wondrous Physick, as well as Furnace Visages to craft the Hefty Furnace Pots.

All Furnace Golem locations in Shadow of the Erdtree

I've found eight separate Furnace Golems across Shadow of the Erdtree, marked on the map above, as well as the two Cookbooks that teach you how to craft the Hefty Pots that are their big weakness.

You might notice two Golems next to each other in Scadu Atlus in the Northeast corner. That's actually a little puzzle - while one of the Golems is aggressive straight away, the other is dormant, blocking off the entrance to the Ruins of Unte. You can wake it up - and fight it - by climbing up the ruins next to it and throwing a Hefty Furnace Pot into its basket, effectively triggering it. This area is also great for getting Furnace Visages generally, as there's lots of dead Golems lying around for you to scavenge.

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