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

Shadow of the Erdtree Divine Beast Dancing Lion — (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

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How to beat the Dancing Lion
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The Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Shadow of the Erdtree is at the very top of Belurat, and likely one of the first bosses you encounter, unless you run into the Erdtree Ghostflame Dragon first. The Lands Between have turned the difficulty up to 11, as every foe hits far harder than you're used to, and that includes this Dancing Lion, who is not easy to reach in the first place.

However, once you do make it to the site of grace at the very top of the tower, past the scorpions, birds, soldiers, and more standing in the way, you'll be facing the Divine Beast Dancing Lion. He's the first on our list of Shadow of the Erdtree main bosses in order so there's not getting away from taking him on. Here's everything you need to know in order to beat it.

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

shadow of the erdtree dancing lion — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

For those who need a quick run down of how to beat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, here's a summary of our advice before we explain these elements in greater detail below.

Make sure you summon Redmane Freyja outside the arena
Bring in a Spirit Ash like the Mimic Tear or Tiche
Focus on dodging around its erratic movements in Phase 1 and play defensively
Have Lightning and Frostbite-resistant armor and resistances ready
Use your NPC summons to draw focus while you stay agile and attack from behind for massive damage

First off, make sure you take full advantage of the NPC summon to the left of the entrance to the boss. This will summon Redmane Freyja, who is an absolute asset in this fight, since she can absorb a lot of aggro and stay alive for the majority of the encounter. I'd also recommend using your most powerful Spirit Ash - I succeeded with the Mimic Tear, which is widely considered to be one of the best in the game - mostly due to the fact it can also take away some aggro and allow you to back off and heal.

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When you enter the fight, the Dancing Lion will either stay in the middle of the arena and unleash a smoke attack from afar, or start trotting to you slowly. If it's the former, you'll want to immediately start dodging to the side as it has a wide range, then waiting until the boss is aggroed on Redmane Freyja before summoning a Spirit Ash.

For the most part, the first half of the fight is fairly straightforward: if the Dancing Lion is focused on attacking you, focus solely on dodging. It will perform a variety of melee attacks so keep your target lock on and be ready to roll away as soon as it comes swooping in.

Watch out when the Lion spirals into the air, as it's about to unleash a circular smoke attack that can be a pain to dodge. You can avoid being hit by being directly underneath it as there is a small area of safety, or you should dodge away from the boss as quickly as possible. As you approach the halfway point, the Lion will jump into the sky and enter one of three elemental forms: lightning, wind, or ice, then proceed to switch between the three every 20-30 seconds or so for the rest of the fight. The lightning form will send out lightning bolts which are easy to dodge at first, but keep an eye out for the lingering sparks on the ground afterwards, as more bolts will come down in those locations.

In the wind form, the Lion will emit wind projectiles that deal a surprisingly high amount of damage if they connect but are fairly simple to dodge, plus tornadoes that are much bigger, but travel slower. The ice form can cause you to build up frostbite along with creating ice spikes over the arena surface. Make sure you keep rolling, through the lightning and wind attacks, and the ice spikes on the ground can be jumped over.

Overall, your strategy should be to stay mobile and take advantage of the fact Redmane Freyja will absorb a lot of the aggro, allowing you to pounce from behind. When the Lion rears up, it may be about to grab you in its mouth which can be an insta-kill, so while it's easy to dodge and obviously telegraphed, a mistake here is fatal.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion rewards

Taking down the Divine Beast Dancing Lion will net you 90,000 runes, the Remembrance of the Dancing Lion, and the Divine Beast Head, which is a very solid helmet with decent defensive stats.