How to get the Elden Ring Mimic Tear ashes for summoning
How to summon the Mimic Tear and beat the boss fight in Elden Ring
The Elden Ring Mimic Tear ashes are one of the best summons in the game, even after being nerfed in a recent patch. Morphing into a perfect duplicate of the player at the moment they summon the Mimic Tear, these ashes are meant to replicate the Mimic Tear boss fight that players encounter at the entrance to Nokron in Elden Ring. This boss fight can be a challenge, but there's an easy exploit and it's worth pushing through, because everybody will want to get the Elden Ring Mimic Tear ashes and go in with their identical twin. We'll show you how to overcome yourself in every sense in the guide below.
How to get the Mimic Tear ashes in Elden Ring
If you want to get to Nokron, you'll need to know how to beat Radahn in Elden Ring, as he's stopping you getting inside!
You can get the Mimic Tear ashes in Elden Ring by heading to Nokron, Eternal City, and looking for the district within it known as Night's Sacred Ground. This is an area you'll actually go to as part of the Elden Ring Ranni questline and secret ending, though it's entirely possible to head here as a solo agent in your own time.
After killing the boss Radahn, you'll open a crater in South Limgrave that allows you to access the underground city of Nokron. Once there it's a relatively straight path to the Mimic Tear boss fight (which we'll address below), but once past it things get a little more complicated.
After the boss fight, head North-by-Northeast along the long bridge, turning left onto solid ground when it becomes available. There'll be numerous minotaur-like enemies trying to hamper you, but you should be able to ride past on Torrent without too much issue. Just hug the left-hand cliffs until you see a Site of Grace called Night's Sacred Ground and rest at it.
There'll be some ornate, gothic rooftops beyond to the Southwest. Leap down onto them, and follow them around. It's actually a much more straightforward route than it looks - keep heading down, avoiding or slaying the shapeshifter enemies along the way. Eventually you'll end up with a large church with a big ball of silver goo inside that tries to roll over you when you get close.
Rather than fight the ball, stay on the ledge above it, looking down. On the opposite side of the church to the East is an Imp Statue door that requires one of the Elden Ring Stonesword Keys to unlock. Do just that! There'll be a kneeling enemy inside you can easily backstab, and past him a large chest. Open it to get the Mimic Tear Ashes!
Mimic Tear ashes and summons explained
The Mimic Tear ashes are a unique, legendary summon that functions a little differently to all the other ashes in the game. When activated, they effectively make a perfect copy of the player in that moment, replicating your stats, weapons and armor into a spectral NPC who fights with you. There are a few distinctions, limitations and caveats on that though.
- The Mimic Tear requires a rebirth monument icon to bring in, just like all other ashes.
- Summoning the Mimic Tear uses up player health over FP, effectively damaging you to trigger it. It costs exactly 660 HP at time of writing, meaning that it's usually good to heal immediately after bringing it in.
- The Mimic Tear's health is different to yours, and can be either more or less than the player depending on how much they've been upgraded with Roderika.
- The Mimic Tear reflects your character at the moment of summoning. Swapping your weapons and armor around afterwards won't alter the Mimic.
- The Mimic Tear can use any consumables you had equipped, though they won't drain your own supply, thankfully.
- The exception to this is the Crimson Flask - it will always have this available, though only get one use of it.
- The Mimic prioritises its right-hand weapon and, since the update, does not seem to swap weapons. It'll use whatever you have in your hands while summoning it.
- The Mimic appears to have limited FP, but unlimited bolts and arrows.
The Mimic Tear is clearly a powerful ally, and made more powerful by having it replicate certain builds. If you both have bleed weapons, for example, you'll both inflict that status on enemies much faster, or giving the Mimic the Heal Incantation and a Seal means it can restore both your health!
How to beat the Mimic Tear boss fight in Elden Ring
As mentioned, you have to fight a Mimic Tear boss fight on the way into Nokron. This is generally one of the easier boss fights in Elden Ring, as you're literally going up against an enemy who can't be better than you, which makes a nice change from all the elite demigods and ancient horrors you're normally fighting.
Still, it can be a little tough, but thankfully there's a fun exploit - just before you go into the boss arena, de-equip all your weapons and maybe even your armor, then walk in. Then as you enter, quickly get dressed again (this'll require some quick menu navigation, admittedly)!
See, the Mimic will replicate you as you were when you entered the fight, which means it'll have no armor or weapons, putting you at a huge advantage when you pull a sword and shield out of your backpack. Then you can effectively fight an unarmed foe to victory, gaining two Larval Tears (which we'll explain in our Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears page), and a Silver Tear Mask, which boosts your Arcane stat at the cost of some physical attack power - a fair choice for certain spell casters.
It's also worth mentioning that this isn't the only Mimic Tear boss fight in the game. If you've made it to the Hidden Path to the Haligtree far later on, there's an optional boss fight with a Stray Mimic Tear along the way, though fortunately this one follows the same rules and exploits. Keep this in mind and if you find a boss fight door in that area, remember to disarm yourself before going in! Or you can do what we did, activate your own Mimic Tear as you go in, and see who would come out top in a fight between you and you. Talk about win-win.
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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.