Elden Ring Ancestor Spirit boss guide

Put the Ancestor Spirit to rest with our Elden Ring boss guide

Jack Bye

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The Ancestor Spirit is one of Elden Ring’s earliest hidden bosses, and easily one of the most memorable. From its unsettling yet strangely graceful appearance, through to its haunting music and unique boss arena, the Ancestor Spirit is right up there with the best bosses FromSoftware has ever designed. We’ll show you how to find and defeat the Ancestor Spirit right here.

Elden Ring: Where to find the Ancestor Spirit

The Siofria river is a massive hidden area that can be accessed very early in your Elden Ring playthrough. Once you find yourself in this unearthly underground space, you have an objective that you must complete in order to reach the Ancestor Spirit. You must light the eight flames dotted around the Siofra River, avoiding the Ancestral Follower spirits and lightning-spewing will o’ wisps as much as possible.

Once all eight flames are lit, you will have awakened the spirit of the beast corpse located in the Hallowhorn Ruins. Interact with the corpse and you will spawn in a cavern with a giant fog wall and a nearby Stake of Marika. Past the fog, the Ancestor Spirit lies in wait.

Elden Ring: How to beat the Ancestor Spirit

The Ancestor Spirit’s boss area is huge, giving you far more space to move around than any other boss up to this point. Torrent would be decidedly useful here, but you must fight the Spirit on foot.

The Ancestor Spirit’s movements are surprisingly slow and graceful, which can throw you off when it uses its quicker attacks; the headbutt and kick. Keeping aware of these moves can allow you to pre-emptively dodge, and have time to land a few hits before the Spirit inevitably backs off.

Patience is key here. While some bosses in Elden Ring can be rushed down, the Ancestor Spirit does its best to never let you have too much time to damage it. It will frequently dodge away from you and maneuver its way back. And many of its moves are extremely damaging on approach. Knowing when to pursue the Spirit and when not to is the key to this battle.

You should be aware of how you are positioning yourself relative to the beast. Staying in front of it leaves you open to a powerful headbutt. And when directly behind you are vulnerable to its devastating backward kicks.

Staying at the beast’s side whenever possible. can help you stay away from quick and powerful attacks.

Wide-ranging Ashes of War like Bloody Slash can be useful, as can Glintstone Sorceries to get some free hits in while the Spirit moves through the air.

Ancestor Spirit Boss mechanics

• The Ancestor spirit’s movements are not the most difficult to predict, but it makes up for this with its significant mobility. The Spirit dances and jumps through the air, staying out of reach, before closing in to deal huge damage in brief bursts.
• If you stand in front of the Spirit, it will charge forward with its giant prongs in a quick headbutt. Equally if you are behind it, it will kick backwards with lightning speed.
• The beast can move in a slow, loping arc through the air, with its spectral flames slowly drifting down from above. These flames will stay active for a while where they fall, so keep an eye on them until they fade,
• Similarly, it will sometimes walk around slowly with its head low to the ground. While it does this, it breathes out blue flames in a persistent wall, blocking off part of the battlefield.
• The Spirit often tries to get above you by jumping in the air – similar to Torrent’s double jump. It then slams down onto you quickly from the air above, dealing massive damage. Dodge forward towards it when it tries this to get out of the way.
• If you are within striking distance of the beast, it may decide to rear up and stamp down with its front legs, dealing damage in a small AOE.

Put the Ancestor Spirit to rest to acquire the Ancestral Follower Ashes. This is a very powerful spirit summon that will serve you well in Elden Ring, especially if you acquire it early on.

More Elden Ring content

We’ve been waiting to get our hands on FromSoftware’s Elden Ring for so long, we almost can’t believe it’s finally arrived. Other than our Tier List, We’ll be here to walk you through every step of your journey through the Lands Between. Join us for all our Elden Ring content and guides over the coming days and weeks!