Dragonlord Placidusax |
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|---|---|
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| Location | Crumbling Farum Azula |
| Drops | |
 280,000Remembrance of the Dragonlord |
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| HP | 26,651 |
| Stronger VS |
Weaker to |
Magic
Holy
PierceDragonlord Placidusax is a Legend Boss in Elden Ring. This massive, two-headed dragon is found in Crumbling Farum Azula. He reigned as the current Elden Lord at some time before the reign of Marika and the Golden Order and presumably ruled alongside his god, who later fled. The Old Lord's Talisman suggests that Placidusax had at least two more heads that had been removed by the time the Tarnished reaches him.
This is an optional boss, as players don't need to defeat it in order to advance in Elden Ring.
The Dragonlord whose seat lies at the heart of the storm beyond time is said to have been Elden Lord in the age before the Erdtree. Once his god was fled, the lord continued to await its return.
Elden Ring Dragonlord Placidusax Boss
- This is an optional boss
- Closest Site of Grace: Beside the Great Bridge
- Multiplayer is allowed for this boss (put your summon sign near the entrance of the boss arena)
- You can summon Spirit Ashes for this boss
Elden Ring Dragonlord Placidusax Location
From the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace, turn around and take the elevator back down into the church. Go past the Beastmen and exit the church. Head straight ahead out of the church, towards the cluster of trees, and look over the edge for a platform to fall down to. Follow the path down to the end, and look for a cubby on the stone floor that doesn't have bones in it. Approach and look for the Lie down prompt. This will teleport you to Placidusax's arena. [Map Link]
Dragonlord Placidusax Combat information
- Health: 26,651 HP
- Defense: 121
- Stance: 160
- Parryable: No
- Is vulnerable to a critical hit after being stance broken
- Counts as neither
Dragon type nor 
Ancient Dragon type, and so does not take extra damage from dragon weapons or Dragonwound Grease. - Weak spot: heads (very difficult to hit unless its stance is broken)
- Damage:
Standard, 
Fire, 
Lightning - Drops 280,000, Remembrance of the Dragonlord
Negations (or Absorptions)
Slash
StrikeThe negation numbers are the % of your damage that gets blocked. For example, if a negation is 60, 40% of that damage by that type will go through and 60% will be negated. Bigger number = less damage. A negation of 100 means no damage goes through, and a negation of -100 means the enemy takes 2x damage from that source. 0 means damage goes pretty much as is.
Resistances
Poison: 1349 / 1806
Scarlet Rot: 1349 / 1806
Hemorrhage: 1349 / 1806
Frostbite: 1349 / 1806
The resistance numbers are the buildup amount to trigger it. For example, if a resistance is 100 you must deal 100 points of the given buildup to trigger it. Note that these go down over time, and increase each time the effect procs. The values after the "/"s indicate the increased resistances after each successive proc.
NG+ and Beyond (click to reveal)
| NG | NG+ | NG+2 | NG+3 | NG+4 | NG+5 | NG+6 | NG+7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 26,651 | 26,677 | 29,344 | 30,678 | 32,012 | 34,680 | 36,013 | 37,347 |
| Defense | 121 | 120 | 123 | 126 | 132 | 138 | 144 | 156 |
| Runes |
280,000 | 560,000 | 616,000 | 630,000 | 672,000 | 686,000 | 700,000 | 714,000 |
Resistances |
||||||||
| Poison |
1349 / 1806 | 579 / 1036 | 587 / 1044 | 596 / 1053 | 605 / 1062 | 613 / 1070 | 622 / 1079 | 631 / 1088 |
| Scarlet Rot |
1349 / 1806 | 579 / 1036 | 587 / 1044 | 596 / 1053 | 605 / 1062 | 613 / 1070 | 622 / 1079 | 631 / 1088 |
| Hemorrhage |
1349 / 1806 | 579 / 1036 | 587 / 1044 | 596 / 1053 | 605 / 1062 | 613 / 1070 | 622 / 1079 | 631 / 1088 |
| Frostbite |
1349 / 1806 | 579 / 1036 | 587 / 1044 | 596 / 1053 | 605 / 1062 | 613 / 1070 | 622 / 1079 | 631 / 1088 |
 Sleep |
Immune | |||||||
 Madness |
Immune | |||||||
Elden Ring Dragonlord Placidusax Boss Guide
Dragonlord Placidusax Boss Video Guide
[video coming soon]
Dragonlord Placidusax Fight Strategy
The Best Tips for Dragonlord Placidusax:
- Suggested Spirit Ashes: Black Knife Tiche, Mimic Tear
- Suggested protection: Flame Protect Me, Golden Lightning Fortification, Flamedrake Talisman +2, Boltdrake Talisman +2, Lightningproof Dried Liver, Fireproof Dried Liver
- Suggested weapons: Envoy's Long Horn, Death's Poker, Lion Greatbow
- A +10 Lion Greatbow with Radahn's Spears can do over 3k damage to him with the skill.
- Suggested skills: Black Flame Tornado, Blade of Death, Destined Death.
- Suggested sorceries: Shard Spiral, Comet Azur, Night Maiden's Mist, Rykard's Rancor
- Suggested incantations: Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike, Black Flame, Scouring Black Flame, Black Blade, Pest Threads
- Pest Threads casted at point blank range can hit him multiple times and deal massive damage even on a low faith build, as long as you can get 200+ incantation scaling
- Lock-on during his teleporting part of the fight should make avoiding attacks easier
- The fight starts once you approach the inner circle of pillars, buff up and summon before approaching.
- Run in close to avoid the lightning strikes on the ground in the first phase. He will always cast this move at the start of the fight.
Melee Users
Dragonlord Placidusax’s attacks are quick and hit hard, but have a generous amount of time between them where you can get easy hits in. Like other dragons, his weak spot is his heads, but unlike other dragons, the opportunities you will get as melee to hit him in the head are rare and unreliable. The safest spot to attack Placidusax is around the base of his tail near his hind legs, behind his wings. This puts you in a position where you will avoid his wing slam, won’t trigger his tail swipe, and unlike other dragons, he has no attacks with his back feet that you’ll have to worry about.
When the fight begins, you will want to quickly close the distance to Placidusax. He will summon large lightning bolts around the arena but these are out of the way and won’t require dodging. Differing from lightning strikes used by previous bosses, instead of small direct bolts, the lightning that Placidusax summons are large AOE bolts, and you can take note of their general size while running towards him. He will summon a second wave of these bolts around the time you get within striking range. You should be moving immediately when the red indicators show up, not just to get out of the way but to give yourself more time to attack. Between each strike you can get 1-4 hits in safely before needing to move again, depending on the speed of your weapon. For colossal weapon users, you only have time to get one heavy/jump attack in before needing to move for the next lightning bolt. After three lightning strikes hit, the move will end.
Following this, Placidusax has a few different moves for the first half of the fight that are all relatively simple and trigger based on your location to him.
Placidusax has two different swiping attacks that he will use often where his hands grow long, red lightning claws. When he raises his left hand (your right if facing him), he will do a wide horizontal slash that is easily avoided by rolling into the direction the claw is coming from. When he raises his right hand (your left if facing him), he will bring the claw vertically down into the ground and cause a small lightning explosion on impact. This, too, can be easily avoided with one dodge by rolling towards him. The explosion is small enough and quick enough that you do not need to worry about being hit by it from rolling too soon.
Placidusax also has a couple of fire-breathing moves you’ll need to look out for. He will jump away a short distance and then both heads will spray flames into the ground in front and in a semicircle around him. Luckily, the distance the flames travel is generously short and in most cases, the distance he jumps away from you will be further than his flames will end up reaching. Just wait for the flames to dissipate and run back in. He will also breathe flames down his left or right side at you, depending on which flank you are attacking. If positioned near his back legs, the area around his tail's base will actually be curved up high enough for you to roll under it to the other side, making this attack trivial to avoid and giving you a huge amount of time to punish the boss.
Two other physical attacks of note that can be triggered based on positioning: if you are on his side near his wings, he will slam his wing down into the ground and then ram it outwards, causing massive physical damage; and if you are too far away from his body near his tail, he will spin and whip horizontally with his tail.
Once you get Placidusax near 50%, he will rise into the air and disappear, signaling the phase change. Storm clouds will form somewhere in the air and you must rotate your camera to look around for them, as Placidusax will rematerialize out of them in a fast dive attack towards you with one set of claws out. It looks more menacing than it actually is, and a single roll toward him will carry you through it unscathed. He then follows this up with a few attacks where he will disappear and reappear quickly in sequence, doing a claw attack each time. You can target lock when he appears for the first attack and the lock will remain on him even when he disappears for all the following attacks, taking away any difficulty of having to guess where he’s going to appear. The claw attacks in phase two now have a second portion to them, where he will follow up the swipe or slam by dragging his claws back in the opposite direction. The timing does not change, however; you just now have to roll twice instead of once. If you are feeling bold, you can roll towards his armpit while avoiding the first claw swipe, and the second part of the swipe will naturally miss you, allowing you to get in a quick hit or two before he disappears. As part of this disappearing/reappearing phase, he might also pull out a new attack where he does a short flight/lunge across with claws out; essentially a baby version of the dive he did to open the phase. Like his other attacks, a single roll under and toward him is all you need.
At any point for the rest of the fight, he can start doing the entire above sequence again, so just be on your guard and ready to start dodging when he dissolves. The trickiest part is that he can summon the lightning bolts from the first half while doing the divebomb and phasing in and out. You will have to be rotating the camera to look for where he’s going to dive from, while also sprinting to keep out of the large lightning blasts that are targeting the area. The attacks themselves aren’t too difficult to avoid, but the large amount of visual clutter going off can make it tough to see what’s happening.
Placidusax’s flames also receive an upgrade in the second half, and both heads can suddenly turn their fire into laser beams that cut back and forth across the arena, causing massive damage if they hit you. These move fast and look unpredictable but there is a pattern where one head starts far and makes three swathes back and forth, getting closer to him with each pass. The other head moves in the opposite pattern, starting close to him and making passes left and right while getting farther from him with each pass. If you are not near him when this starts, your best bet is to try to move far enough to one side so that you only have to worry about dodging one laser. If you are close to him, you can quickly run under the lasers and have several seconds of free time to attack him. Just be cautious of the lasers at the end of this attack as he brings them both back in towards his body. Even if you aren’t close enough to exploit the opening at the start of the attack, at the end of the attack he spends a couple of seconds shooting the lasers into the sky and roaring, allowing you to still get in a couple of free hits.
The last new attack you might encounter in the second half is Placidusax will summon a large lightning spear (Identical to Bolt of Gransax, albeit made of Ancient Dragon Lightning) and stab it into the ground, causing a large red circle AOE to appear before setting off a massive explosion. This move seems to be all show though, as you have several seconds to run away out of it before it actually goes off, even if you don’t notice the spear until it’s already in the ground. The attack will also cause your audio to go mute, giving you a very apparent audial cue that you need to be moving away.
Besides the new additions, Placidusax can also still use any of his attacks from the first phase so be mindful of positioning and you’ll breeze right through the fight. His moves leave plenty of openings for free hits without needing to make your own windows so as long as you don’t get greedy, you should make it through the fight without much issue.
Magic and Ranged Users
Shard Spiral can deal tremendous damage to the boss (enough to even skip the 2nd phase if lucky). Use Godfrey Icon along with your other magic buffs. During the first phase use the spell after charging it fully and use it close to the boss so more of the spell travels through him. During the transition to the 2nd phase after reaching the middle of the boss's health bar spam the uncharged shard spiral while you are still locked on to him and he should be either dead or nearly dead. Night Maiden’s Mist can be highly effective, as it often stands still when attacking, while Tiche or some other summon draws most of his attention. Just be wary of the phase two disappearance moves, as sometimes it can be hard to tell when he's done and can catch you if you commit to a spell too early.
As for incantations, Swarm of Flies deals great damage to the boss, applying Hemorrhage pretty quickly. The first phase won't be hard as the boss mostly stays still, but in the second phase, the dragon is getting much more mobile, so casting more than 2 spells after his attacks is very dangerous. It is also highly recommended to use Bloodhound's Step to easily dodge and keep distance to use spells safely. Other notable incantations are Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike and Pest Threads for both of which the user needs to be close to the dragonlord in order for them to deal tremendous damage. Pest Threads is more FP efficient than Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike but requires better positioning than the other in order to deal the most damage. Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike is able to shred the Dragonlord's HP a lot faster so it is recommended if you have high FP.
Dragonlord Placidusax Attacks & Counters
| Attack | Description | Counter |
| Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike | Placidusax will roar, summoning lightning strikes across the arena. Red sparks will appear before the lightning lands. Three of them will target the player sequentially, while others are randomized. | Equip Lightning damage negation. Move out of the strike zones or roll through the strikes, and attack Placidusax between lightning strikes. |
| Overbalancing Swipe | Placidusax raises his right arm and summons claws of red lightning. He then lunges forwards to slash at the player, falling partially onto his side as he does. | Roll to your left through the attack. |
| Claw Swipe | Placidusax raises his left or right arm and summons claws of red lightning. He then sweeps them from his left to his right (if attacking with his left hand) or from his right to his left (if attacking with his right hand). | Roll through the attack, preferably in the direction Placidusax is swinging his arm from. |
| Claw Smash | Placidusax raises either his right or left arm up high and summons claws of red lightning. He then slams them down in front of his chest, creating a large burst of electrical energy. | Move towards Placidusax’s flanks, or dodge late through the blast. |
| Claw Scrape | After a Claw Smash or Swipe, Placiudsax keeps his electrical claws active and pulls them back along his body. | Roll backward to exploit the attack’s short range. |
| Double Claw Slam | Placidusax raises both of his hands and summons claws of red lightning. He then slams them down in front of himself, causing a large electrical explosion. This attack is only used as a follow-up to his Overbalancing Swipe. | Sprint behind Placidusax, or roll late through the attack. |
| Rearing Claw-Firebreath Combo | Placidusax raises his left arm and summons claws of red lightning. He delays for an extended period and then swipes from his left to his right, rising onto his hind legs as he does. He then spews golden fire in wide arcs in front of himself. | Sprint behind Placidusax and attack his tail and hips. Do not stand in his crotch; the fire goes far enough back to reach you there. |
| Crawling Claw-Firebreath Combo | Placidusax raises his left arm and summons claws of red lightning. After delaying for a moderate period, he swipes from his left to his right, then begins breathing golden fire in wide arcs in front of himself. | Sprint to Placidusax’s side or hips and attack him. |
| Rearwards Firebreath | This attack is commonly used when the player is at Placidusax’s hindlegs or sides. Placidusax looks back over his shoulder, then begins breathing gouts of golden fire along that side of his body and in front of himself. | When at Placidusax’s side, keep an eye on the front of his body. If the dragonlord looks at you and fire particles begin to appear in his mouth, immediately sprint backward and away from his body. |
| Repositioning Firebreath | Placidusax leaps backward and to his left or right, spewing a bout of golden fire at the ground between himself and the player as he lands. | Wait a moment for the fire to dissipate, then pursue Placidusax. |
| Leaping Claws | Placidusax rises slightly and begins to glow with tendrils of red lightning. He then leaps forwards at the player, summoning claws of red lightning on his right hand and swiping as he hits the ground at their location. As he lands, Placidusax spins himself around to face the direction he jumped from. | Roll to your left, then pursue the dragonlord. |
| Boulder Throw Combo | This attack is occasionally used when Placidusax wants to adjust his positioning and face the player more closely. The dragonlord raises his left arm and summons claws of red lightning. He then scrapes them across the ground in front of him and along his left side, turning slightly to face the player as he does. Then, Placidusax digs his right hand into the ground and flings a spread of rocks at the player. | Move backward out of the range of the claw swipe, then roll forwards through the rocks to attack Placidusax. |
| Wing Slam-Swing Combo | This attack is only used when the player is on Placidusax’s left side. The dragon raises his left wing, then slams the edge of it into the ground at his side. After a moment of hesitation, he whips his wing outwards and up. | Roll once to dodge the initial slam, then roll through the follow-up wing swing and attack Placidusax. |
| Bite | A rarely used attack is employed when the player stands to the side of Placidusax near his front end. Placidusax will look to the side that the player is on and then bite once with each head, one after the other. | Move away from Placidusax to get slightly out of range, and then jump attack one of his heads as he finishes the second bite. |
| Tailslam Turnaround | Placidusax commonly uses this attack to turn around when the player is standing behind him. The dragon curls to his left or right side, raising his tail and slamming it down onto the ground as he turns around. | Move towards the tip of Placidusax’s tail or back up. Alternatively, roll through the attack. |
| Tailsweep Turnaround | Placidusax commonly uses this attack to turn around when the player is standing behind him. The dragon curls to his left or right side, sweeping his tail across the ground as he turns around | Move towards the tip of Placidusax’s tail or back up. Alternatively, roll through the attack. |
| Bolt of Placidusax | Placidusax raises his left hand and summons a massive bolt of red lightning. He then slams it into the ground in front of himself, dealing heavy damage to anything caught under the attack and embedding the bolt in the floor of the arena. At this point, waves of red lightning begin to emanate outwards from the bolt along the ground while Placidusax raises his hand above it. The Dragonlord then slams his right hand down on the bolt, detonating it in an enormous explosion of red lightning. | Sprint away from Placidusax. The rings of red lightning that emanate from the bolt roughly indicate how far the explosion will reach; stand just outside where they stop, then run in to attack the Dragonlord as the explosion dissipates. |
| Stationary Thundercloud Form (phases 2 and 3 only) |
This attack is always used to initiate phase 2. Placidusax turns to mist and vanishes. A few moments later, a stationary stormcloud with red lightning appears in the sky. The dragonlord appears within it, then swoops down to strike at the player with claws of red lightning on his left hand. As he lands, he will spin to face the direction he flew down from. | When Placidusax disappears, turn the camera around the arena to identify which direction he will be swooping from. Then, as he swoops down at you, roll to your right through the attack, turn around, and pursue Placidusax. |
| Traveling Thundercloud Form (phases 2 and 3 only) | Placidusax leaps forwards into the air, turning to mist as he rises higher. Moments later, a stormcloud with red lightning will appear and begin to move to the player’s left in the sky. The dragonlord then emerges from the cloud, diving downwards and striking with claws of red lightning on his right hand. He slams into the ground and drags them as he slides, creating a massive burst of red lightning in his wake, but unlike the Stationary Thundercloud Form, Placidusax will not turn around to face the player as he completes this attack. | After Placidusax disappears, turn the camera around the arena to identify which direction he will swoop from. As he appears, move left, and then roll late as he dives down to strike you. Then, turn around and pursue the dragonlord. |
| Teleportation (Phases 2 and 3 only) | Placidusax turns to mist and vanishes, reappearing shortly afterward in another location. He will often reappear with an attack already beginning, and if he was performing a combo when he vanished, he will often continue that combo when he reappears. | Lock onto Placidusax; the lock should follow him to some extent and make his reappearance easier to locate. If he was performing a combo, be ready for potential follow-ups. Otherwise, prepare to dodge whatever attack he emerges with. |
| Placidusax’s Ruin(phase 3 only) | Placidusax will use Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike, but will instead turn to mist and disappear early in the animation. A single bolt of red lightning will be summoned at the player’s location. Moments later Placidusax will execute his Stationary Thundercloud Form, appearing in the sky and swooping down to strike them. As he turns around following this move, Placidusax will breathe gouts of golden fire across the ground in front of himself. These gouts of fire then turn to devastating golden lasers, and Placidusax sweeps them sequentially across the arena before firing them into the sky. | Ideally, after dodging the lightning bolt and divebomb, you will be able to either sprint up to Placidusax and hug his side where the lasers and fire do not reach or sprint far enough backwards to be out of range of the lasers. If this is not possible, you will have to dodge some or all of the lasers. They move according to the following pattern (all directions are in reference to the player’s point of view; that is, “right head” is the head on the right when looking at Placidusax from in front of him, left and right are the player’s left and right, etc.): 1: Placidusax begins with the right head aiming diagonally to the right and the left head aiming diagonally to the left. 2: Right head beam sweeps to the left (dodge to the right). 3: Right head beam sweeps back to the right (dodge to the left) 4: Right head beam sweeps to the left and left head beam sweeps to the right (dodge to the right, because the right head beam extends farther) 5: Both beams are brought back towards Placidusax’s chest, then fired along the ground in a straight line in front of the Dragonlord (move sideways) Frequently, you will be in a position where the only beam long enough to reach you is that of the right head in step 4. If you are not confident in your ability to dodge this attack, consider mixing an Opaline Bubbletear into your Flask of Wondrous Physick to massively reduce the damage should you fail. |
Dragonlord Placidusax Lore, Notes & Other Trivia
- As pointed out by the youtuber Antonius Tertius, the Latin student who contacted the music producers and singers of the game, the name Placidusax is a compound of 2 Latin words: PLACIDUS(quiet,still) and SAXUM(large stone, rock); however he stresses that the lyrics are not in Latin and convey no lore at all. He published what the choir sings on Youtube and explained how the lyrics were made.
- The position that Placidusax is in, with his two heads looking towards the sky, is similar to how the Two Fingers commune with the Greater Will. He may be attempting to reach and/or contact his god, who apparently fled the Lands Between.
- According to the Old Lord’s Talisman, he is depicted as having four heads.
- This is contradictory to the analysis of Placidusax's model/artwork, which reveals that he had five heads, as he has three stumps where the heads should have been.
- Placidusax is said to be the previous Elden Lord before the arrival of the Erdtree.
- The Ancient Dragon and Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones are said to be the scales of the Dragonlord. Due to their unique ability to twist time, Weapons upgraded with these Smithing Stones are capable of harming and slaying gods.
- Placidusax has an extra model with one of his remaining heads cut off. This was suggested that you could cut off one of them during the fight, but this was likely cut due to the heads being out of reach of melee attacks.
- The Red Lightning Bolt he summons is reminiscent of the Bolt of Gransax, used by the massive ancient dragon inside the Royal Capital. Ironically, this dragon is much larger than Placidusax himself, taking up a large portion of the dungeon.
- Though he has no actual idle animation while hovering before the fight, Placidusax will flinch when struck by arrows while doing so. Each wing, including the vestigial stumps of his second pair, each arm, each leg, the tail, each head, and his entire body (shot to the torso) can flinch.
- The Dragon King's Cragblade, the weapon you can get from his Remembrance, is a possible reference to the tail-cut weapons from Dark Souls I, where cutting off the tails of certain dragons will net you a special weapon. Placidusax's own tail appears to have been cut off as well.
Dragonlord Placidusax Image Gallery
AnonymousHoly hell, what I've just witnessed. And I mean... Holy ****. Immediately equal with Morgott and Maliketh, which are my favourite encounters so far.
Every single attack is fair and square, he hits like a truck, but not in a bullshit way like Godfrey, has a lot of HP, but the fight doesn't become tedious like with the Fire Giant.
And the moment his obese body is coming towards me from the sky... Nothing can get better than this, except for maybe Ludwig's mid fight cutscene.
10/10 would meet him again someday
- Anonymous
This became my favorite boss fight the moment I saw how much effort was put into his gameplay mechanics.
First of all this is a big boss and you guys know these suffer equally big problems when it comes to their fighting movements, like fire giant and how you spend half the time staring at his legs.
Ancient and normal dragons aren’t terrible fights but they do suffer a bit of that problem too, especially ancient dragons with their odd hitboxes, and the devs had to come with some countermeasures like some tail and swipe attacks that could target the player when you were below them, attacks that change the boss position and some things that were super bllsht like the lingering hitboxes of the lightning claws of lansseax and fortissax.
But Placidusax took it to another level. Depending on your position he will use different attacks that seek to punish a certain abuse of placement when attacking him: claw and wing side swipes, fire breath to any side or below him, rock slings when you heal in front of him, and more.
His large healthbar is compensated by leaving you with plenty of openings, and he encourages active gameplay by countering your attacking positions with particular movements, while still allowing you to keep a good track of his picture as a whole despite his size.
His second phase is pretty much an even more active fight that makes you chase placidusax while he carefully teleports to catch you off guard. Some people don’t like that but I don’t care tbh. But I believe his laser attack is one of the best things they designed, since if you go forward and know when to dodge instead of going backwards you’ll earn a good chunk of hits and you might finish him off, so this attack is a smart way to reward you for not being intimidated by it.
This is one of those fights you can’t argue there was some lazy design, considering the major drawbacks giant bosses have faced in the souls games. They covered every possible angle the player would be and customized the attacks accordingly.
Not to mention how the visual dragon design, ost and arena combine to give you this feeling of fighting some ancient being from another era.
If there is something about the boss fight that can unironically be regarded as sht is how there isn’t a single stake of Marika near the boss fight, for whatever reason Miyazaki thought it would be a great idea. He’s sometimes an asswhole.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
is there any reason not to respec and just ruin him with ancient lightning strike? basically ultra resistant to everything besides one damage type on top of breath attacks that reach you even if you're all the way at his tail thinking you're safe and his diving lightning claw attack that might as well one shot you if you so much as fail to dodge frame perfectly
- Anonymous
"Elden lord before the age of the erdtree." So... this guy was married to the elden beast, or what? Also who cut of all the other heads? I doubt anyone could make it past an army of ancient dragons, let alone land a single hit on Placidusax in his prime before being intakilled by at least four giant golden laser beams.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
As an incantation user, I handled this fight by equipping only Heal, Stone of Gurranq and Golden Lightning Fortification. Used the Physic to reduce damage and increase poise damage. Summon mimic, apply lightning fortification to mimic, she becomes an unkillable tank even with cloth armor on.
Also keep the greater Omen Bairn equipped. It doesn't do much damage, but when the mimic uses it, it helps tell which direction Flacidragon is coming from.
The only thing you do is spam SoG. Even when Flacid's poise breaks, you just keep spamming SoG. Manually aim for his head when his poise breaks. You should be able to kill him before he does the laser beam attack. The laser is fire damage, so if it hits you, you'll die in two hits or less. He does two sweeps that are very hard to dodge, so it's best to kill him before that happens.
- Anonymous
pro tip: constantly strafing to his right will make it so that you can roll the double-hit AOE slam he sometimes does
- Anonymous
Absolutely love everything about this boss, the arena, the music, the design, it's incredible.
- Anonymous
Rotten Breath + Tiche = the fight ended literally in seconds.
- Anonymous
The moment he sticks the lightning spear into the ground and the music just -cuts- gives me chills every time.
- Anonymous
Ancient dragon's lightning strike waxes this dude on a high faith build
- Anonymous
Love everything about this guy design arena and music, fun moveset but it’s a shame he’s not very hard, damn near everything but the lightning nuke is incredibly easy to dodge and extremely telegraphed, doesn’t really have a “gotcha” like other bosses do. I was hoping for Midirs older meaner daddy but I killed him first try at SL 85 as a pyromancer. Hopefully we get a full power version of him in the dlc or something
- Anonymous
Probably the most epic dragon fight of all games next to Midir. Both share the tedious way to reach boss tho.....
- Anonymous
Would it have killed them to put a stake of Marika next to the time travel hole?
- Anonymous
Well, that was more manageable than I thought it would be, and more fun. On my first playthrough, I was so terrified to fight this guy (and so sick of dragons) that I cheesed him with poison and rot arrows without starting the fight. And I was gonna do that this time too, but it didn't work, lol. So I had to fight him, and I beat him first try (just barely)! Very reasonable fight, even for a dragon.
Also, the run is nothing. You people must be using the wrong bonfire, trying to run past all the hawks or something. The bonfire by the bridge is like 50 seconds away, and there's only 3 or 4 enemies twixt you and the drop off, all of whom you can easily run past or quickly kill.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Coolest FromSoft dragon boss to date. Midir is a close second, tho.
- Anonymous
If it weren't for his really powerful one shot potential attacks, he wouldn't be so bad. He's so big that you can wail on him and he can't actually get a lot of the time if you're close.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
His arena doesn't truly convey how destructive his power is. I watched someone play Randomizer and ended up getting Placidusax in Limgrave. The fight ended with the entire Mistwood forest completely destroyed from the lightning and lasers.
- Anonymous
Love everything about this fight apart from the insane amount of HP he has, the fight just drags out for so long
- Anonymous
the visuals are the best of all fromsoft bosses easily but the fight itself is not good at all
- Anonymous
Typical From Software bullshit boss - run for 10 mins to the boss, get wiped by attack you can't see because the boss is so huge the camera becomes a pain. Boss with shitton of HP that can teleport and disappear, just to one shot you from unknown diretction. No idea why people consider this boss great.. and no, I'm not crying - I've beaten all 165 bosses multiple times on multiple chars. This boss is just bad design and annoyance, rather than a challenge
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Thanks for making me walk 20min each try from soft, i have literally watched a plant grow, mature and wilt while walking to this guy.
For the love of Marika you have introduced ****ing stakes of her so use them.
For some reason, I had the option to use the Dragonlord Placidusax Site of Grace even though I literally haven't even seen this guy before. I fast traveled there, and I was locked into the boss fight since it's not possible to open the map during combat, and the Memory of Grace item takes you to the last visited grace, which was this one. After I killed him, the grace there was already discovered, and I could just rest there. Pretty weird.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I was expecting to get battered but I beat him first try by using Lion Greatbow +10 Rain of Arrows with Rahdan's Spears to get him to 40% and then me and my mimic tear hacked at his knees with +25 nagakibas for a pretty easy win.
- Anonymous
Ancient dragon lightning underneath him melts him before he can even get into second phase
- Anonymous
This boss was like hell for me lmao. He has so much hp and when I try to stick in his ass he spams me with fire breath which gets me 2 heals down. I don't remember it being this difficult my first time around, and also I just keep forgetting how to dodge the electric claw slam (not the swipe, the one where he slams into the floor I always get hit by the aoe lmao) overall a challenging boss fight but god did it make me so mad lmao, this boss is like my nemesis lol
- Anonymous
Absolute best boss fight in the game. It's got spectacle, most of Placi's moves are pretty fair and easily dodgeable, and the music kicks ass. 10/10
- Anonymous
I wanted to know it's resistances and I was met with the term 'Stronger' WTF does that even mean, is it more resistant to magic than lightning? Is it slightly more resistent to bleed than frost? Useless info
- Anonymous
I just defeated the dragon lord using a +25 blood venomous fang blood affinity with Endure ash of war. I have not been able to solo end game bosses before I discovered Endure ash of war. Endure ash of war allowed me to tank the red Lightning slams with infinite poise for 3 s and piercing damage of the venomous fang with blood and deadly poison procs took him down. Very helpful to arc around to engage when his yellow laser strikes come out, if you do a wide arc, you do not get hit and can re-engage. The blood stone club light attack frenzy with Endure ash of war is my next build and can get the stone club five minutes into the game outside Sellia Hideaway. People are sleeping on Endure ash of war because I can solo the game and it is all because of Endure ash of war, it is that good!
- Anonymous
What can I say? It's a cool boss with a cool fight. I like it.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
His score sounds like it's coming straight from Game Of Thrones
- Anonymous
Don't know how rare this is, but I've kinda half-softlocked myself in his fight. His grace appeared on my map and I teleported there without him being dead first. Now every time I die I spawn directly below him and can't leave. Only solution is closing the game and respawning at the beginning of Farum Azula
- Anonymous
One of my favorite bosses in the game, and my favorite dragon fight in the game. I don't even mind the runback to be honest; I've survived worse runbacks in DS1 (*cough cough* Tomb of the Giants).
I do have one complaint, but it's not with the boss itself:
Why are we restricted to using the Tarnished's Furled Finger to co-op this boss? Why can't we have a Martyr's Effigy at the access point, or at least widen the Bridge Effigy's multiplayer boundary? I was summoned via effigy to help a player fight Placi, only for the game to block the access ledge.
I enjoy helping players beat bosses in co-op, and I enjoy the Placidusax battle. If I could enjoy both without having to wait on that access platform I'd prefer that.
- Anonymous
You know you’re in for a good time when the boss pulls out an atom bomb made of lightning from his pocket
- Anonymous
I feel like I'm getting downvoted since everybody pronounces it with an "s" sound, but their name is "プラキドサクス", purakidusakusu, so it's meant to be pronounced Plakidusax. Having the "c" in its name could be influence from the latin used in the Song of Lament, but it's most likely following naming conventions influenced by Lord of the Rings.
- Anonymous
In his prime, Placidusax might be the most powerful established character in Elden Ring lore. People overlook the fact that the ancient smithing stones, which in lore are the only thing able to bring a weapon to godslaying potential, are Placidusax’s scales. He's a complete powerhouse even when you fight him decrepit and withered. I bet this guy could even solo Elden Beast no diff in his prime. Even the dragon god he served was probably scared of him.
- Anonymous
He's not that bad almost all of his attacks can be easily dodged or blocked and the only BS move he has are his lasers which he only does once easily negated by an uplifting aromatic.
Overall he was a great end game super boss. People here are just whiny I honestly hope the rest of the community isn't like this.
- Anonymous
By far the best dragon fight in the game. He's not zooming around 24/7 forcing you to run after him to get a chance to whack his leg once or twice before he Zooms away again. No zooming means no BS despawns either.
Pretty cool design wise as well imho.
Got him first try and didn't have to deal with any runback nonesense. Black Blade + Rotbreath incantations melted him
I try not get angry at all this comments about how his run back sucks…….i have suffered though both smelter demons, ancient dragon, the two cats in the frozen wasteland, Laurence, like 75% of demon soul bosses. And to see people complain about this boss that would at the time be considered a easy run back is just…shocking
- Anonymous
Lots of whiny svribs in the comments section lol this community is garbage and doesn't deserve an amazing game like ER let alone a DLC I hope it gets canceled just to spite this whiny toxic community of crying man babies.
- Anonymous
Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike makes short work of this fight. Pre-fight visuals are stunning, though.
- Anonymous
Am I insane or did they add a new attack for him? I'm currently replaying the game and I'm 99% sure he never threw rocks at me when I first played it in 2022?
- Anonymous
After failing 2 attempts I just tried using a Serpent-Hunter +9 and had no further deaths, thanks to Great-Serpent Hunt's 2-3 stuns on Placidusax during the fight, and it was just way easier. All attempts were using Black Knife Tiche +10. All 3 times Tiche died when Placidusax had around 25-30% hp left.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Had a strange happening with this boss. I was half way through ng+, just beaten fourth rune bearer. Just messing around dungeons, scooping up randon weapons for giggles.
I checked the map for a moment and noticed that farum had a grace point I could warp to despite that I had not been there yet. Dragonlord placidusax.
I tried it out and sure enough. Warped me right into the arena in front of where the boss normally drops. Sure enough, he drops the moment I spawn in.
I've never had this happen before or notice anyone else online mention it that I could find. I'm not sure what triggered it though.
- Anonymous
Visually awesome, mechanically boring. I just really wish they stuck with the new regular dragon stuff which is a lot more Midir inspired, the ancient dragons are all really not fun to fight and harken back more so to Kalameet which I feel is a step back.
- Anonymous
for a boss with a resistance to Lightning, he sure doesn't like fully charged ancient dragon lightning strikes
ancient dragon lightning strike + almost maxed Gravel Stone Seal, + Ogha as my summon = Crazy ass damage
- Anonymous
Worst dragon boss after dragon god and ds2 dragons. Like seriously resistant to every Element, aoe, no downtime between combos, too much damage, too much health, just not fun.
- Anonymous
Mohg's Spear works well here. Used the fire physick, golden vow, flame grant me strength and lightning fortification for buffs. Spam some L2's when you can and just jab at him mostly, especially during the triple teleport swipe, you can poke him once each teleport if you dodge into him. Probably the biggest thing, though, was learning to block the laser beam attack. Sounds silly but at first I was trying to outrun it and died a couple times. Then I thought, well this isn't working so maybe just block the hit. You may think, well just dodge through it, and you may do that, but other things like his golden flame breath can't be dodged because the area covered is so massive, thus one learns to run from that and then keep running but he transitions into the laser. So outrun the breath, double dodge to the side for the red AOE lightning, dodge into his body on teleports, and either carefully dodge or just tank the lasers behind a good shield. This fight really comes down to getting your defensive strategies worked out and then any solid weapon will do really. I tried the Ancient Lightning Strike or w/e but I'm not a faith build so it didn't do enough DPS. I'm a casul with a bleed build and I imagine a lot of casul players are too so this one's for you. Hope it helps.
- Anonymous
Should drop Ancient Dragon or Somber Ancient Dragon smithing stone. They are literally his scales smh.
- Anonymous
This piece of garbage just locked me into the frenzied flame ending because the fire glitched out and bounced back towards me after I finished him off. The only good thing about this mess is the soundtrack and lore.
- Anonymous
four wing of astel ashes of war breaks his stance. super good weapon to use on placidusax if you're an int build.
1 hit left, and that f**er teleported to the other side of the arena. And of course, I got stun-locked to death under a myriad of AoE attacks trying to reach him...
So fun !
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I was struggling a bit with my confessor's bleed build so went in with Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike and I almost regret it, the fight was over before it even began. Placi was dead in like 4 or 5 casts. It was stunned on the third cast and died while floating in the air at the beginning of the phase transition. Popped Golden Vow and a Lightningproof Dried Liver per usual and probably didn't even need them. Had 225 incantation scaling, 50 faith, and Faithful's Canvas Talisman equipped. Literally turned it into one of the easiest boss fights in the entire game.
- Anonymous
Who decided a giant boss needed teleport spam? Who thought that was a good idea?
- Anonymous
I wonder what actually is his god. Is it something like Marika, a puppet of greater will, or another outer god?
If the latter is true, then we can conclude that Greater will is not the creator of lands between, but an invader who drove away the previous ruler of this land.
- Anonymous
If you are a melee enjoyer make yourself a range build just for him with a great bow and it become a really good fight. Otherwise it's a soup of dragon limbs and flashy AOE.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
1 incant, ancient dragon lightning strike, litterally 2 full charge cast with the right build and hes dead
- Anonymous
Not the best mechanically, by any means, but it looks so sick and has such a good OST that it’s fun
- Anonymous
The skill for Death Ritual Spear is fun to use in this fight.
- Anonymous
I definitely had a little bit of a knowledge advantage going into this fight... but I found it really easy. Obviously using a spirit ash, and especially the mimic tear, makes any boss easy... but any sort of multi-hit incantation shreds this guy. Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike and Unendurable Frenzy, in my case, both took chunks out of him. Any spirit ash that can hold its attention while you hit him with a big incant should do.
If you don't wanna use any spirit ashes... uhh... I dunno. What few attacks got aimed at me didn't seem too bad to dodge. Some of his big flame attacks definitely leave him open long enough to get a big hit off, so long as you can get around it quickly enough.
I don't know if I get super lucky or what, but it was first try for me and I was already down half my flasks from the stupid lightning mage beastmen in the church...
I LOVE THIS BOSS!!!!! I beat it NG file after beating Elden Beast. I had almost started NG+ but stopped myself for one reason: Malenia. But I gave up on Malenia (too bad at the game tbh) and kinda wandered. I cam across this fine fellow when I was knocked off the ledge by one of the beastmen. 3rd try with Mimic (no surprise) and Black Flame Tornado on my Godskin Peeler. Probably my favorite boss in this game.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I’m on my ng+ playing with my dragon magic. I havnt killed any major story bosses, but have cleared caelid and limegrave off bosses and dungeons. Now, I open my map and notice that placidusax’s site of grace has appeared on my map. Needless to say, I wasn’t strong enough for the fight so I died many times. Finally defeated him with my mimic’s help. But it’s strange cuss I havn’t touched azula in this play through..
- Anonymous
Tip : Use the Lion Greatbow with Radahn's spears and use Radahn's Rain. It absolutely destroys him, does 3k+ damage to him per volley.
- Anonymous
I beat him and died at the same moment. Now I can't get back to get the grace - or my runes. Anyone else had this problem?
All these 9vigor people who are crying in the comment section have never encountered the ancient dragon of ds2.
All these 9vigor people who are crying in the comment section have never encountered the ancient dragon of ds2.
- Anonymous
Trouble with lasers? After AOE lightning field, divebomb combo, quickly throw Scholar’s Shield spell on a greatshield. No dodging required. It’ll hurt a bit and knock you down but that’s it.
- Anonymous
Trouble with lasers? After AOE lightning field, divebomb combo, quickly throw Scholar’s Shield spell on a greatshield. No dodging required. It’ll hurt a bit and knock you down but that’s it.
- Anonymous
the fact that the lord of dragons is neither dragon nor ancient dragon is... hilarious ngl
- Anonymous
This mother****er teleports more than Ganon from the original NES Zelda
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I have no idea how it happened but on my NG+ run, the site of grace you unlock after beating Placidusax didn’t reset, meaning I could fast travel to the arena. I tried it and it immediately started the boss fight. I have no idea how this happened.
- Anonymous
IMO, this guy woulda been a better final boss than EB. I'm not annoyed at EB's fight or anything, i just like placidusax more. just my opinion, tho
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
His second stage really catches me off guard. The fly by swipes always chip away at my health and I find myself relying on healing rocks
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
he can be poisoned but for whatever reason kindred of rot exultation won’t activate from it
- Anonymous
One of my first goes at this guy, hadn't read up on him. Got him real low, thought I was doing well... and he pulls out the Midir double eye lasers. Wut a chump.
- Anonymous
Man why is there no stake of marika for this fight??? Or grace; the run is the hardest part of the fight
- Anonymous
If you really want to trivialize this boss, just use the envoy long horn. The AoW is just broken in regards to large targets, and every single bubble you land inflicts poise damage. All you really need to do is sprint to the boss while the lightning strikes have started, get out of the AoE of said strikes, and use L2 right up against him. He only has a few moves that can punish you, and as long as you aren't greedy you can beat this boss on your first attempt.
Most of his attacks aren't too difficult to dodge, basically just dodge towards his body as his claw attack is about to hit you. The lightning strikes are more difficult to avoid, but as long as you aren't in the middle of an attack you should be able to dodge the lightning. The golden fire attacks are imo the most difficult, so when he starts those up run towards his tail and back off.
Good luck Tarnished.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Why is he not considered an ancient dragon for damage boosts. He is clearly ancient. He is also very clearly a dragon.
Got one shot with the lazer breath attack (NG+12) with full bull goat armor, 20 diferent items buffing my health, and a bunch of other random buffs. Favorite thing to die to in the game though.
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