Baleful Shadow |
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| Location | Ainsel River Main |
| Drops |
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| HP | 5445 |
| Strong VS |
Weak to |
Baleful Shadow is an Enemy in Elden Ring. The Baleful Shadow is a wolf-like assassin of the Two Fingers, wielding a large greatsword. If you have spoken to the Miniature Ranni doll, it will ask you to defeat the Baleful Shadow, a necessary step in completing Ranni's quest.
I turned my back on the Two Fingers and we each have been cursing the other since. The Baleful Shadows... are their assassins.
- Miniature Ranni
Elden Ring Baleful Shadow Locations
Where to find the Baleful Shadow:
- By Nokstella Waterfall Basin Site of Grace in Ainsel River Main: Through the cave to the south. [Map Link]
Elden Ring Baleful Shadow Combat information
- Health: 5445 HP
- Poise: 80
Absorptions
- Phy (Standard): 10
- Phy (Slash): 10
- Phy (Strike): 10
- Phy (Pierce): 0
The absorption numbers are the % of your damage that gets blocked. For example, if an absorption is 60, 40% of that damage by that type will go through and 60% is absorbed. Bigger number = less damage. An absorption of 100 means no damage goes through, and a resistance of -100 mean the enemy takes 2x damage from that source. 0 means damage goes pretty much as is.
Resistances
Poison: 245
Scarlet Rot: 245
Hemorrhage: 337
Frostbite: 552
Sleep: 552
Madness: Immune
Death Blight: Immune
The resistance numbers are the buildup amount to trigger it. For example, if a resistance is 100 you must deal 100 points of whatever aux buildup to trigger it. Note that these go down over time, and increase each time the effect procs.
Elden Ring Baleful Shadow Drops
Runes: 8561
Baleful Shadow Notes & Tips
- The Baleful Shadow can be backstabbed.
- Can be poise-broken, riposted and parried.
- Deals Standard and Holy Damage.
- Can heal 1 time.
- It is susceptible to Frostbite. The Ash of War Hoarfrost Stomp can make this fight significantly easier, as it will often catch the Baleful Shadow despite its attempts to dodge projectile attacks of any sort. It will take three or four full hits with Hoarfrost to apply the Frostbite status, dealing a chunk of health damage but more importantly slowing it down significantly, allowing you to dodge his strikes and easily circle around for backstabs, as its turn rate will be significantly reduced.
- You can easily get a backstab opportunity if you roll forward, aiming slightly to his right side, during his jump attack, frontal charge attack and grab attack. When you're close he can use a spinning attack instead of jump attack, both of which begin in the same stance. In this case you can roll forward to his left side for a backstab opportunity.
- Takes two parries to break stance, the first parry is followed by unparryable horizontal slash with very long wind-up and high poise damage.
- The Baleful Shadow first spawns in next to 2 coffins. By keeping the middle one between you and him, he will be mostly unable to cross it, and you can hit him safely with a ranged weapon.
- You can sneak up to this coffin and cast Poison Mist to inflict poison damage. You will need to inflict poison damage six times to kill him, and each subsequent time you inflict takes more casts of Poison Mist, so bring some Flask of Cerulean Tears.
- Resembles Blaidd the Half-Wolf, sharing even the same moveset.
- However, the Baleful Shadow's sword is imbued with Destined Death, not the Frost enchantment that Blaidd's sword is enchanted with.
- If you run past the Baleful Shadow and down the elevator to activate the Lake of Rot Shoreside [Map link] Site of Grace, this will provide a faster and safer boss run.
Can beat Malenia solo without ash summon. Parry sentinels to their deaths. This guy still beat my ass can't get a single parry off. By sheer chance I should have landed at least one successful parry. Bringing the cheese.
- Anonymous
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Cheesed him so hard with breath rot and poison that he turned into yogurt.
- Anonymous
What happens if you kill the Baleful shadow before getting the Miniature Ranni doll? You can get to Nokstella onwards through Deeproot Depths without doing Ranni's questline. Does this softlock you out of getting the key to continue the quest?
- Anonymous
I used glintstone pebble... He didn't even attack me. just slowly walked toward me. easy kill I guess.
- Anonymous
the way I beat it was with uchigatana and nagakiba both around +8 with one with poison mist that I used to inflict on him at the start and the other was bloody to increase blood loss. after that it was just a matter of knowing when to attack and when to hold back.
- Anonymous
This boss ez just make distance and wait for jumping hit roll behind free crit + extra hit
- Anonymous
I struggled with this fight as pure mage until I cheesed it by kiting him around 2-3 coffins that are lying behind him at the edge of the island....
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If you're using sorcery and struggling, you can simply beat him with rock sling.
Just keep spamming it as you approach. If you start to get low on fp, chug a cerulean tears flask while he's poise broken.
I tried Hoarfrost Stomp and it did not stop him. What finally worked for me was the Bolt of Gransax. This weapon can one-shot lesser enemies and takes out Baleful Shadow after three or four hits.
- Anonymous
He can get stuck on the coffins in the middle of the battlefield. Then you can just cheese him.
- Anonymous
Spent a couple days on the BS. What finally worked was the Lions Claw ash and some albunauric pots. I also put my soreseal down and went with Haligdrake talisman because his DOT hits hard. Go 2h, be relentless, and throw the Albi pot after you down him the first time. The Albi pots don't last long so keep hammering, and be ready to toss another one if needed. GL tarnished.
- Anonymous
This dude's resistances are kind of nuts. Felt like I was barely tickling him with my attacks. Fortunately, his attacks are well telegraphed, so just be patient and wait for an opening, and don't get greedy
- Anonymous
I just poked him with the Antspur Rapier to apply Scarlet Rot and once it was on I kept my distance. It took 3 applications but it put him down.
- Anonymous
>use Night Comet to hit him from afar
>keep doing it as he approaches the cave
>back up into the cave
>Sword of Night and Flame's laser beam
>he can't dodge in those tight quarters
Ya love to see it, folks. Sorta wish they'd tweak the AI so they'd know they're in a bad location for their moveset but on the other hand, I do enjoy using the environment to my advantage.
- Anonymous
Took a couple tries but thank lord almighty gravitas and elevator still works
- Anonymous
Maybe I got lucky with my Faith build. Lured him to the elevator area, spammed incantation “Flame Fall Upon Them”only took about 6 casts at 53 faith. He just walked slowly back and forth, didn’t try to heal, didn’t attack.
- Anonymous
Easiest boss fight in the game. He only healed once and I only needed to heal fp once. Not a scratch on me. Night Comet is such a cheese for any human enemies
- Anonymous
He was definitely tweaked, and yes he keeps healing if you try to cheese him. Stamp-uppercut for the win on +12 Flamberge, most of his attacks miss or are disrupted and he goes flying in the air.
- Anonymous
Healed more than once for me in 1v1 combat, please correct the above
- Anonymous
What I did was invite invaders and then turn on the hunters and have them take care of it
- Anonymous
This guy has such a sexy moveset, feels like i'm fighting Guts from berserk.
- Anonymous
bruh i did this with the Giants Flame incantation, charged version knocks him on his ass so bad. first try, took about 4 or 5 tosses, i have 55 faith
- Anonymous
based on the last hour+ of my rl1 attempt he will absolutely heal an infinite number of times if you try to cheese him
- Anonymous
Yeah that 1 time is a lie. I just fought this guy and he healed 3 times before I got him. Bolt of Gransax wrecks his day. He'll be stunlocked and barely close any distance.
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Absolutely and entirely trivialized by Rotten Breath. I had Cerulean Flask charges and all I did was stay at a distance while casting breath to recharge. The Baleful Shadow does not run up to you, does not attack if you get close, so you just slowly kite him around the room while he takes ticking damage. He'll heal one time, but you have 5 full casts of Rotten Breath so there's no worry on actually killing him.
- Anonymous
most annoying invader ever, but with ekzykes decay he goes down in 4 casts
- Anonymous
Can heal more than once. Maybe because I lost aggro by sneaking away, but he just healed 4 times.
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You can run or sneak by him and go down the elevator to get to the grace on the lake shore in case the fight goes poorly. His AI glitched out when I came back to start the fight from behind him. He just walked slowly towards me, never made any real attempt to close the distance while I spammed swarm of flies and slowly backed away to maintain the distance. If you let him get closer he will fight like normal.
- Anonymous
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anyone having trouble on this guy, just backstab him. when he does his uppercut > lunge jump attack, stay a far enough distance to miss the first swing, and roll into his jump attack. walk around and backstab, repeat 5 times.
- Anonymous
Aspect of The Crucible: Horn does a great job at shitting on this guy with good timing
absolutely worst NPC PVP, hands down, his attacks hitboxes are DS2 levels of BS and hit you in the middle of rolls
- Anonymous
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I managed to somehow kill him before activating Ranni's mission and I didn't hear her voice, and won't after activating the mission. Now I'm lost. What am I supposed to do now?
- Anonymous
I saw him heal twice. Once before and once after buffing. Before the second heal, he lost aggro.
- Anonymous
Felt like I was way underleveled at 67 for this fight but I just Rot Breath'd him and then shot him with a crossbow and he didnt even try and heal
Was funny when Ranni said I fought him well when I cheese'd his awful AI to death lol
- Anonymous
Would’ve been cool to be able to get the destined death version of blaidd’s sword
Pulled him toward the cave, spammed lightning bolt. mission accomplished.
- Anonymous
Accidentally used the blasphemous blade on him. Dead after 4 hits from taker’s flame.
- Anonymous
For fellow mage's and wizard's using Gavel of Hamia stuns lock's him from a short distance.
- Anonymous
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This guy kept killing me with like two hits so I had enough and decided to cheese. If you can cast Noble Presence, just sneak behind the coffins as soon as he invades with the incantation ready. A fully charge blast will knock him in the air, when he's on the ground do it again. Should take no more than 5-6 times, you're welcome.
- Anonymous
Whenever I do this fight as a mage I just bring Magic Glintblade, you can easily kite the enemy around the arena. Cast like 4 Glintblades at a time because he won't dodge when they actually fire at him. Night sorceries may achieve the same outcome.
- Anonymous
Most people doing Ranni quest early and reaching baleful shadow at low levels might be roleplaying as a mage or magic swordman, relying on spells or some magic weapon art. But this mini-boss takes way less dmg against mgc, and should be a wakeup call to diversify your build. My recommendation to sidestep it is to just pick your normal weapon with the highest upgrade lvl and slap flames of the redmane weapon art. It stun him incredible easy, a stun for each 2 casts. But down the line you will meet lake of rot and astel, and diversifying your build with a little bit of faith (for flame cleanse me) and str/vigor (to fight astel) will benefit you tremendously.
- Anonymous
Guy was kicking my ass. Then I equipped the Inquisitor's spear, and killed him on the first try. The charge forth weapon art knocks him down and the charged R2 seems to partially stagger him.
- Anonymous
I swear I once got Preceptor Seluvis here back in patch 1.00. I remember dying to magic and when I came back it was Blaidd who spawned in.
- Anonymous
If you’re having trouble with backstabs, try the darkness incantation. You can even sneak up behind him before initiating the fight if you hug the wall to your left, but I would still use darkness even coming up from behind him because he’ll still sense you if you get close enough. I learned that the hard way. Twice.
- Anonymous
I used radahns blades gravity ability to pull this enemy into the elevator shaft and he fell to his death. Easy cheese.
- Anonymous
Doing a level 1 playthrough, and I was initially intent on just poisoning him to death.
However due to impatience, I hit him with an Albinauric pot, and melted him with the black knife. After two attemps to use a flask, he stopped trying and died quickly.
- Anonymous
man, every time I think I've found the shittiest boss, there's another zinger
- Anonymous
why does the wiki have NO mention of the DOT effect? it's literally the shittiest part of this fight.
- Anonymous
At what level is Nokstella meant to be done? I've found high level ghost glovewarts and the ghost glovwart picker's bell bearing [2] so I didn't think I came here too soon but this baleful shadow is killing me in two or three hits. I'm at a decent level and the valiant gargoyle duo couldn't kill me that quickly. I don't like having to put flame of the redmanes on a greatsword to cheese a fight like this because I can't take more than two hits.
- Anonymous
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I can't seem to trigger this fight. Did I wait too late in the game? I have defeated all lords and cleared farum azula
- Anonymous
This enemy seems to have as many crimson flasks as he has time to use unless damaged with a weapon. Arrows and Rotten Breath just get healed up unless accompanied by actual attacks.
- Anonymous
The elevator strat still works, light swing your sword once when he does the slam, then roll back to the other side of the shaft.
then repeat
- Anonymous
After MANY attempts I finally cheesed this using just glintstone pebble: approach from Nokstella waterfall basin, kill the basilisks in the cave. Then lure baleful shadow INTO the cave, to a point where it's fairly narrow. Then from a middle distance, spam glintstone pebble. There is a sweet spot where won't be able to dodge, and he also he won't come towards you, so have at it. Takes a while and a few FP flasks, but it's successful.
- Anonymous
After defeated, he said: "It is a good fight, better than I envisioned. I can finally stand before them. Tell Blaidd and Iji, I love them."
What does this mean? Was he forced to kill Ranni against his will?
- Anonymous
Cheesed him so hard with Ekzykes's decay. He can't dodge it, and for some reason, didn't charge me down as I was casting.
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HP listed here is very wrong. they have somewhere around 15,000 HP in NG
- Anonymous
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Crushed him with the Starscourge great sword weapon skill: Starcaller Cry. The first gravitational wave call does not pull the Baleful Shadow to you, but the followup slam will lay him flat on his back and cause significant damage. Keep alive while spamming this weapon art and you are good.
- Anonymous
"They have many health flask charges." False. He's only ever healed himself once in every fight.
Seems like his quest dies if you head to the mountaintops of the giants before helping him in Liurnia.
- Anonymous
I snuck up behind him before the battle even started, and obliterated him with corpse piler. Rivers of blood level 10
- Anonymous
I felt like Ranni was severing her iink to Blaidd by destroying this baleful shadow (shadow is the name of the wolf creatures bonded to Empyreans by the two fingers, a protector and failsafe assassin should the Empyrean turn against the two fingers). I'm not sure if this is the case, but it would be cool if destroying this shadow in the underworld is what allows Ranni to sever her link to Blaidd, the last connection with the two fingers.
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I have no idea why players aren't doing it, but even though there isn't a summoning pool next to the site of grace just before the Baleful Shadow, you CAN drop a co-op summoning sign there. I've left my own a few times to help people, yet I don't think I've ever see anyone else do it.
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A lot of people saying bait his attack but he will just 180 slash you and hit you in an invisible frame. its wild.
- Anonymous
Is there a transcript for Ranni's dialogue from when the Baleful Shadow shows up?
I thought she said something along the lines of "this is the last one". It made me think that I was supposed to have fought multiple Shadows elsewhere but I somehow messed up and only came across the last one at the final location.
- Anonymous
you can bait all of his attacks out by just walking into his range and then walking backwards. if he does the jumping attack just dodge forwards then backstab him, repeat until dead.
- Anonymous
you can bait all of his attacks out by just walking in his range and then walking backwards, if he does the jumping attack dodge roll forwards and backstab him, repeat until dead
- Anonymous
LIon's Claw just before he prepares to attack. It staggers him and you can do about one or two attacks after that. When he starts to swing, dodge and put some distance between. He will stop attacking and then continue to walk towards you, Repeat until dead. Took about 4 Lion's Claw, with +17 Claymore.
- Anonymous
"A wolf-like assassin of the Two Fingers sent forth to carry out their dirty work. Wields a greatsword that it can use along with their agile movements." where is this quote from, which item?
- Anonymous
Or...just stay in the cave and spam Rock Sling. Beat him first try; he just walks slowly toward the cave and takes it.
- Anonymous
Was having a lot of trouble with this one, then I tried GIANT HUNT aow. Fight became so one sided I almost felt bad.
Strat: wait until he gets close but just before he attacks, run in with a stab or any attack that does pierce damage, use giant hunt asap into charged attack, retreat to regain stamina and avoid retaliation, repeat until dead. Took me maybe 4 combos to get him down, GH does massive damage on top of allowing a large opening.
- Anonymous
Super easy..... Use Cerulean Hidden Tear in physick flask to eliminate the FP consumption, then just use Comet Azur and he goes down before he even starts walking.
- Anonymous
Just to point out, its sword isn't actually imbued with Destined Death despite its appearance. While it looks that way, its mechanics are actually blackflame as it has a dot-effect with no accompanying decrease in max health like seen with Alecto and the Black Knife Assassins. This makes sense when you think about it as there were no known swords forged with the Rune of Death, only the knives, and also since we know from the wolf-head armor that the Two Fingers have on more than one occasion sent their assassins in disguise. This may also explain why the assassins near Iji apparently used blackflame, since while the Black Knife Assassins can be considered to have a monopoly on their very iconic weapons, there's no reason to assume that other assassins couldn't use similar clothing sets.
- Anonymous
Rotten Breath + Jumping R2 did it for me. Also somehow managed to get Queens Black Flame to connect which threw him on the floor, allowing for more Jumping R2, then his stance broke and I managed to kill him with a grab.
- Anonymous
Rock sling seemed to work well against him. I went in just far enough to aggro him and then started spamming the Rock Sling. It can make him stagger after 3-4 hits but I never had enough time to get to him for the visceral attack. I was able to stunlock him with the rock sling so he didn't have time to heal.
- Anonymous
Wiki is wrong. He has permanent blackflame blade. Fire monk armor did the trick.
- Anonymous
I used gravitas and sucked him down the elevator, lost the souls but he didn’t drop that many
- Anonymous
Silver tear mask, +4 ealanora poleblad. Dodge into bloodblade dance
- Anonymous
easy fight strat: dodge to his right when he jumps and then backstab him also keep distance from him because he deals massive damage
- Anonymous
Absolute bullshit. Just begging to be cheesed. Too much HP. Too much damage. 6 hit hyperarmor combo where he can't be staggered. Insanely ****ing annoying. Try beating him without faith/int and you'll see what I'm talking about. Every benefit from using large weapons is taken away from you. Not to mention his illogically large resistances. Astel was ****ing easier than this bastard for me.
- Anonymous
For me he just very slowly walked towards me the whole time and all I had to do was spam Rock Sling until he died.
- Anonymous
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The GRAFTED DRAGON is perfect for him, the weapon art knock him over and give you enough time to recharge the move.
- Anonymous
I managed it on my 2nd try by mixing Rotten Breath, Hoarfrost stomp and backstabs with the Dagger Talismen (extra Crit damage) . When you first walk up to him, get near-ish him and blast him with a full Rotten Breath, you should be able to get a fully charged Breath off before he comes at you. Then stay at medium range and hit him with Hoarfrost 3-4 times when safe. Now that is he moving slowly you want to try to circle around with a strong shield (I'd recommend Briar Greatshield as it's very light for a Greatshield) and get as many backstabs as you can. If you find a good opportunity, hit him with another Rotten Breath. Be sure to keep the pressure on as much as you can and stay close or else he'll heal a massive amount of health.
I want that destined death sword he has. Every hit destined death would be perfect for a certain boss who heals on every hit, and claims to have never been defeated. With her animation reading waterflow dance, and that scarlet rot clone garbage.
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