Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree is a Legacy Dungeon in Elden Ring. Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree is a big castle that constitutes the second part of Miquella's Haligtree dungeon. It can be accessed after beating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree by going down the elevator found shortly after.
General Information
- Previous: Miquella's Haligtree
- Next: none
- Recommended Levels: 110+
- Bosses: Malenia, Blade of Miquella
- Site of Grace:
Prayer Room [Map Link]
Drainage Channel [Map Link]
Elphael Inner Wall [Map Link]
Haligtree Roots [Map Link]
Malenia, Goddess of Rot [Map Link]
Video walkthrough
Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree Map
2nd Upper Level
1st Upper Level
Middle Level
1st Lower Level
Drainage Channel
2nd Lower Level
Haligtree Roots
NPCs in the area
- Millicent (moves here for the final part of her questline)
Bosses
Items
Talismans
Consumables
- Golden Rune (10) x 2
- Golden Rune (12) x 1
- Golden Rune (13) x 1
- Hero's Rune (5) x 2
- Holy Grease x 3
- Immunizing White Cured Meat
- Lightning Greatbolt x 7
- Lord's Rune x 2
- Numen's Rune x 2
- Pickled Turtle Neck x 1
- Rot Grease x 1
- Spiritflame Arrow x 15
- Warming Stone x 2
Weapons & Shields
Armor
Spells
Upgrade Materials
- Ghost Glovewort (7) x 2
- Ghost Glovewort (8) x 1
- Ghost Glovewort (9) x 1
- Golden Seed x 1
- Great Grave Glovewort x 1
- Smithing Stone (6) x 1
- Smithing Stone (7) x 2
- Smithing Stone (8) x 3
- Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone x 2
- Somber Smithing Stone (9) x 2
Enemy Drops
Lesser Cleanrot Knight:
Lesser Crystalian:
Haligtree Soldier:
- Brass Shield
- Haligtree Crest Surcoat
- Haligtree Gauntlets
- Haligtree Greaves
- Haligtree Helm
- Lordsworn's Bolt
Revenant:
Keys & Other
- Aeonian Butterfly
- Arteria Leaf
- Cleanrot Knight Finlay Ashes
- Ghost-Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing (3)
- Haligtree Soldier Ashes
- Miquella's Lily
- Nascent Butterfly
- Seedbed Curse
Enemies
- Haligtree Knight
- Haligtree Soldier
- Lesser Cleanrot Knight
- Lesser Crystalian
- Lesser Kindred of Rot
- Putrid Avatar
- Revenant
- Ulcerated Tree Spirit
Notes
Important Discoveries
- Reach Elphael by beating Loretta in Miquella's Haligtree
- Two imp statues can be opened with a Stonesword Key
- One has the Triple Rings of Light incantation
- Another has Marika's Soreseal
- Grab the Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone from behind a Putrid Avatar
- Reach Elphael's Inner Wall
- Reach Elphael's Drainage Channel
- Complete Millicent's questline
- Grab the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman
- Reach and defeat Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Full Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree Walkthrough
How to get to Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree
After defeating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree in Miquella's Haligtree, continue heading north past the Haligtree Promenade Site of Grace to reach a tower with a lift that will take you down to the bridge leading to the base of Elphael.
Navigating Elphael's Outer Wall
After you leave the building, head towards the bridge in front of you. There will be a corpse with three Holy Grease on it and guarding the building up ahead will be a Lesser Cleanrot Knight. Defeat him to access the Site of Grace further in. You'll find Millicent here if you're close to the end of her questline. Continuing forward, you can simply run past these enemies but to comfortably and safely loot items, it’d be a better idea to take them out. After you head down the stairs, take the first door to your left to find two Haligtree Soldiers and a corpse with a Golden Rune (12) on it. Exit the room and continue moving forward.
Ignore the next room to the left, we'll be visiting here a little later. If you take a peek in though, you'll see a stairway with a Haligtree Soldier at the top and its base. Continue walking on the outer wall and head down the stairs a level. You'll find two Haligtree Soldiers and a corpse dangling over the broken banister with five Lightning Greatbolts on it. If you jump down to the support beam from this broken banister, you can jump down to the platform with the gazebo. Turn left into the room, fight past a Lesser Cleanrot Knight, and you'll find the Cleanrot Knight Finlay Ashes in a chest. Head back out the room and jump onto the next support beam in the north. Inside the small room is a chest with a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. If you continue north past this room, you'll also find a Seedbed Curse. Backtrack to the broken banister. Head down the next set of stairs and facing south, continue forward through a narrow passageway guarded by a Haligtree Soldier with a greatshield and spear. In the first small room to your right, you'll find a Smithing Stone (7), and if you continue walking down the path, you'll eventually reach an imp statue (requiring a stonesword key) with the Triple Rings of Light Incantations locked within.
Turn around, facing north, and then look to your right where there will be a Putrid Avatar standing on the walkway below. If you're nervous you can fight it from range (though note it can attack you back from the distance), but you'll be able to fight it later up close.
Keep walking forward down the last flight of stairs towards a room with two Lesser Cleanrot Knights. Right before you get to the room, if you jump over the banister down to the lower platform, you'll find another Seedbed Curse by following the path. Head back to the room with the Lesser Cleanrot Knights. Running past these enemies is not recommended as they have quick movement and powerful attacks. In the vicinity, you'll find an Immunizing White Cured Meat and a Smithing Stone (7). Head out the northeastern door to find a Golden Rune (10) on the balcony, then head back and exit through the northwestern doorway.
Through the first doorway on your left, you'll find another large twisting branch. Hop on to it and it'll give you access to an upper ledge with five Old Fangs. Head back down the outer walkway, just outside the room you fought the two Lesser Cleanrot Knights, and head northwest down the stairs. You'll get to a platform with three Haligtree Soldiers. Don't head down the stairs to the bridge, for now, we're just here to take a look at our surroundings. Up ahead on the other side of the bridge, you'll be able to spot two ballistae staring right down the bridge. While it is possible to dodge these two ballistae and cross the bridge, when you get to the other side, there is an Erdtree Avatar and another two ballistae on a higher level that you won't be able to reach from down here.
Instead, turn back around and go up the stairs. Enter the room with the branch again, hop on to it and climb up until you reach the upper ledge where the Old Fangs were. Walk down the structure and hop onto the top of the building. Kill the Teardrop Scarab and, optionally, the large flower and hop down the stairs to the West. Continue up the stairs and kill the soldiers and ballistae. Go back down the stairs and you'll end up in a room with another two Lesser Cleanrot Knights, two Warming Stones, and 15 Spiritflame Arrows. After dealing with that, head up the stairs to the west and you'll be able to take out the two ballistae up on this higher ledge that we mentioned earlier. On a corpse between them is a Smithing Stone (8), and in front of the large goblet behind them is a corpse with the Haligtree Soldier Ashes.
Instead of jumping down to the lower platform, scale up the support beam to the right of the two ballistae and above the Erdtree Avatar, and facing west, jump into the room on the upper floor. The corpse here has a Haligtree Knight Helm. If you continue west and jump down, you'll find yourself behind the Erdtree Avatar and can interact with the Elphael Inner Wall Site of Grace, as well as pick up a Smithing Stone (6) from a corpse slumped by the wall.
From here, you can safely pick off the Erdtree Avatar for 27090 Runes and a Lord's Rune, and clear out the courtyard. With all the ballistae down, you can safely loot the corpses on the bridge for a Golden Rune (11) and an Arteria Leaf.
Taking a detour for more loot
Backtrack back to the room we ignored earlier - the one with the stairway and a Haligtree Soldier at either end. It's not recommended to teleport back to the Prayer Room Site of Grace as the enemies will respawn, making looting more tedious. Up the stairs, take a right and jump onto the large branch you see right in front of you. Following this tree branch up and across takes you to a bell tower where you'll find the Miquellan Knight's Sword. If you head down the ladder, you'll find a lever that doesn't seem to work. You'll be able to activate a shortcut here later on.
From this bell tower, you can jump down to the walkway in the east patrolled by a Putrid Avatar. If you're having a difficult time defeating this enemy, you can instead snipe it from the balcony where you previously found the Triple Rings of Light. Regardless of how you beat it, it'll drop 27090 Runes and the Rotten Staff and not respawn. In the room up the stairs to the north (where you may or may not have chosen to cheese the Erdtree Avatar) is a Putrid Lesser Crystalian guarding a Somber Smithing Stone (9). With the Erdtree Avatar's defeat, you are now free to collect the Numen's Rune and Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone from the corpses on the walkway.
At the end of the walkway, from the corpse with the Smithing Stone, you'll be able to hop down safely to the lowest level of the castle. Be extra vigilant down here as multiple Revenants will pop out of the ground while you traverse the area. Though risky, it is possible to sneak by the Revenants. Spirit Ashes can be summoned here, however, if you wish to comfortably get rid of these threats. Immediately to your south, is a room locked behind an imp statue. Inside, you'll find Marika's Soreseal. Follow the path north and on your way you can loot four Aeonian Butterflies and a Golden Rune (12). Through the next doorway to your left, you'll find three Beast Blood on a corpse guarded by a Revenant ambush.
Continue following the path north. Once you reach a wider area with a patrolling Revenant, look out for a door behind and to the left of you. This room houses three Lesser Crystalians (two ringblades and one spear), one of which is hidden behind the pillar right next to the entryway, and some loot including a Somber Smithing Stone (9) and 3x Pickled Turtle Neck. Exit again through the doorway and to your right, in a little alcove in the wall is a corpse with a Lord's Rune.
Continue your journey north. The ladder on your right leads to the room with the Lesser Cleanrot Knights that provides the alternate path behind the ballistae. The opening to the left is a clearing where a final Revenant will spawn. Loot the Smithing Stone (8) here and head up the ladder, where it will take you back to the courtyard you fought the Erdtree Avatar in. Head back to the Elphael Inner Wall Site of Grace and we can continue progressing the dungeon from here.
Elphael Inner Wall
As you head through the doorway down the stairs, you'll notice a giant tree root to your left. Climb it and fight the three Lesser Crystalians to loot the Rotten Crystal Sword from the chest they were guarding. Head back and continue following the path southwest. Before climbing up the tree root on your left, continue down the path and you'll find a Hero's Rune (5) at the end of it.
Taking the tree root up leads you through a hole in the wall and down onto a cliffside. Here you'll find a bunch of flowers submerged in water that works the same as the waters of Lake of Rot - quickly building up Scarlet Rot each second you stand in them. Preserving Boluses will help you immensely in combating this section of Elphael. On top of this, be careful of any enemies lurking in the water. While there are no Basilisks in this area, Lesser Kindreds of Rot will still seek to ambush you while wading in these infested waters.
Turn hard left when you reach the water to find a Lesser Kindred of Rot guarding a corpse with a Rot Grease on it. From here, the path forward is rather linear. Make your way to the central island, then to the submerged pillar on the left if you want to collect some Aeonian Butterflies. After which, you should make your way to the fallen pillar found to the right of the cliff up ahead and follow the tree roots to get back up on land.
Before heading up the hill, go through the doorway to your right to find a Golden Rune (10) and head down the ladder. You'll emerge in a small room with the Drainage Channel Site of Grace. With this Site of Grace accessible, you can now go back and head up the hill in the scarlet rot area. At the top will be a Lesser Kindred of Rot, and by following the branches southwest, you will end up at a large lake.
Get ready to fight because as soon as you approach the Great Grave Glovewort in the middle, a Lesser Ulcerated Tree Spirit will pop out from under you. Defeating it nets you 26460 Runes and a Golden Seed. The end of Millicent's questline happens here as well. You'll have a choice between assisting her or betraying her depending on the summon sign you choose. After you're done with that, make your way back to the Drainage Channel Site of Grace.
Taking the door to the east will bring you back outside. On your left is a thick tree root you can climb. From here, you'll want to jump down to the next support beam you see on your right. Descend down the beam to the next tree root you can access, then go up the next support beam and root that will lead you onto the roof of a building. There are two holes in this roof; the hole you want to go down is one that overlooks wooden support beams instead of leading straight to the lower floor of the church. On your left is a balcony with the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman in a chest guarded by Lesser Kindreds of Rot.
Head down to the lowest floor of this building. Out the northern balcony, there's a corpse with an Aeonian Butterfly hanging off the banister. Out the eastern door, you'll emerge into a large courtyard. Turn left and you'll find a graveyard infested with Lesser Kindreds of Rot. Explore the area to loot two Ghost Glovewort (7), a Ghost Glovewort (8), a Ghost Glovewort (9), a Numen's Rune, and the Ghost-Glovewort Picker's Bell Bearing (3). Turning right from the eastern door takes you instead to a graveyard filled with Haligtree Soldiers and Haligtree Knights. This area houses a lot of Miquella's Lilies and corpses with three Arteria Leaves and a Hero's Rune (5).
After you're done exploring the courtyard, head back inside the building and through the southwestern doorway is a lift going down. This lift will take you down to the Haligtree Roots Site of Grace. Before going through that fog door right ahead, the doorway to the southeast opens up to a room with a large scarlet flower. Under it is Traveler's Set and heading up the stairs takes you to a lift going up, making the shortcut at the bell tower earlier accessible - make your way back to the Haligtree Roots Site of Grace and prepare yourself for a difficult boss battle.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella
As soon as you emerge through the fog door, a cutscene will play. After a self-introduction and some exposition from Malenia, Blade of Miquella, she charges at you immediately and the boss battle begins. Malenia has quick attacks and though she mainly fights in melee range, her attacks allow her to travel great distances, making it difficult to keep your distance if you're a range or magic-user. On top of this, she heals a portion of her health each time she manages to land a hit on you or your Spirit Ashes. This, along with her quick multi-attacks make for a difficult fight.
Bleed is your best friend here. It is easy to apply on Malenia and the damage it deals somewhat offsets her healing. She can be staggered, allowing you to perform a critical hit on her, but due to how quickly she recovers unless you're right next to her when it happens, it's unlikely that you will be able to perform the critical hit. If you're having difficulties with this boss fight, consider bringing Black Knife Tiche with you. They're a top-tier Spirit Ash who has access to a long-range Bleed and whose quick unpredictable movements prevent Malenia from healing off of them. Deplete Malenia's health bar completely and another cutscene will play, marking the beginning of the second phase.
The second phase starts with her regaining about 80% of her health and crashing down on you like a meteor. In this phase, her attacks become more deadly and she gains access to two extra moves, both of which start with her flying up in the air. One move is what she performs at the start of this phase. When she crashes down and the scarlet flower blooms (explodes), she is immobile for a few seconds, creating the perfect opportunity for you to spam attacks on her. If you're a melee user, make sure to have Preserving Boluses on your hotbar as the scarlet bloom will inflict Scarlet Rot on you.
With the other move, she stays up in the air and sends multiple clones after you, after which she does a charge attack towards you herself. These clones home into you, so having unpredictable dodge patterns help to avoid getting hit. For more specific tips and information on her moveset, visit Malenia's boss page.
Defeating Malenia nets you 480000 Runes, the Remembrance of the Rot Goddess and Malenia's Great Rune. The Malenia, Goddess of Rot Site of Grace also spawns in the boss room and with that, Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree is complete.
Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree Map
2nd Upper Level
1st Upper Level
Middle Level
1st Lower Level
Drainage Channel
2nd Lower Level
Haligtree Roots
Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree Videos
Speed Run Walkthrough
You can get to Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree by beating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree at Miquella's Haligtree, and taking the lift down. While there is a quicker way to finish this dungeon than what is about to be recommended, it misses some key items, including a Talisman for an achievement. Here we'll outline the quickest way of grabbing the essential goodies and getting to the boss.
Cross the bridge to get to the Prayer Room Site of Grace. From here continue forward and keep descending the staircases in front of you. Note the second door to your left with a stairway in it, we'll backtrack here later. After going down the third staircase, instead of continuing down the fourth one, keep going straight. At the end of the path is an imp statue with the Triple Rings of Light incantation behind it.
Now up backtrack to the room, we asked you to keep a note of. Head up the stairs and scale the big tree branch/root to get to a bell tower. Under the bell is the Miquellan Knight's Sword. Head down the ladder and jump down onto the eastern walkway. Up north is a room with a Smithing Stone (9) guarded by a Lesser Crystalian. Head back south and if you fancy yourself the Rotten Staff, defeat the Erdtree Avatar. Otherwise, run past it to the end of the walkway, picking up the Numen's Rune and Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone on the way.
(Alternate route: You can jump down the elevator shaft. It is a lethal drop, but if you position yourself correctly, your corpse can land on the elevator button on the bottom. This will activate the lift and serve as a shortcut directly to the Haligtree Roots Site of Grace, skipping the rest of the loot on the way.)
Turn right and jump down to the nearby building. From here, you can jump down again to get to the lowest section of the castle. Summon any tanky Spirit Ash here - you'll need it to run past the Revenants in the area. Looking south, you'll find the Marika's Soreseal locked behind an imp statue. After picking it up, turn around and keep running, following the path.
Near the end of the path, there will be a ladder to your right. Climb up it and in the room, turn left to go up the stairs. In front of the large goblet to your right is the Haligtree Soldier Ashes and to your left, in between the two ballistae, is a Smithing Stone (8). Connected to a pillar next to these two ballistae, you'll find a buttress you can climb up. When you get high enough, face west and jump into the room on the upper level. The corpse here has a Haligtree Knight Helm. Continue west and jump down to the lower level. To your right is a Smithing Stone (6) and to your left, is the Elphael Inner Wall Site of Grace.
Head forwards from the Site of Grace. After going through the doorway, you'll find the Rotten Crystal Sword guarded by three Lesser Crystalians behind a giant tree root on your left. The path forward is to your right, with a Hero's Rune (5) at the very end. After looting, climb the large tree root you passed by earlier and it'll take you through a hole in the wall to a new section.
The water here inflicts scarlet rot, so bring some Preserving Boluses. Keep running forward, getting to a small island in the middle of the waterfall, then down onto a branch to the right of the cliff ahead. Follow it and when you get back on land, head through the doorway on your right. Down the ladder and in the little room is the Drainage Channel Site of Grace.
Head through the doorway taking you back outside, and follow the tree roots and castle support beams until you get to a roof with a hole in the wall. Jump down to the building's wooden beams and your left, you'll see a balcony with the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman surrounded by Lesser Kindreds of Rot. After you grab the talisman, jump down to the lowest floor of the building and head through the southwestern doorway to get to a lift going down.
When you get off the lift, turn left into the room with a large scarlet flower to grab the Traveler's Set and activate the shortcut to the bell tower at the top of the stairs. Head back out of this room and interact with the Haligtree Roots Site of Grace.
Through the fog door ahead is Malenia, Blade of Miquella. This is a tough boss fight so feel free to visit her boss page for strategies on how to beat her and more info on her moveset. Upon defeat, she drops the Remembrance of the Rot Goddess and Malenia's Great Rune. The Malenia, Goddess of Rot Site of Grace also spawns and with that, this dungeon is complete.
Gallery
AnonymousIn this place and farum, enemies' damage just goes bonkers. Don't feel bad about using cheese or op ****. **** this late game bs just gotta stomp thru it
I might be hitting myself with a severe case of the Mandela effect... but weren't we once able to simply run through the initial Rot waterfall area instead of trudging through it?
- Anonymous
I want Miyazaki to challenge himself and design a game without an area where you have to slowly plod through status effect soup or have enemies who spew status effect gas at you. It's not fun, it's just tedious.
- Anonymous
I don’t see why everyone is so upset. FromSoftware may be an lutstoundkng company but everyone makes mistakes. I’m sure they didn’t intend to make an area so unbearable with enemies two shotting you from every angle with the most annoying minibosses imaginable. There’s no way after a seemingly easy game they wanted to go full Dark Souls and have you die over 50 times in one hour. Surely they didn’t intend to create such a broken, god-awful area. Not everyone is perfect guys. No reason to be upset.
- Anonymous
Guys I went thru this at 160 with claws. Frost blood claws. If you can’t do it with anything else, you’re doing it wrong. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s ELDEN RING.
- Anonymous
The damage enemies do in this area is ridiculous and it's not like the enemies are new or have different gear either. But after a while you get used the garbage enemy placement and make sure to dispatch everything as efficiently as possible.
Radahns Rain of Arrows works massive wonders here too or anything ranged if the build allows it.
- Anonymous
Branch platforming is just as sh*t as it was in 2010. But besides that, the map visually is probably the best in the game and the city itself is absolutely beautyful and I is a great challenge to play through. As much as I think FromSoftware shouldn't try to force platforming (this game ain't Crash Bandicoot after all) I gotta say this place is my favourite
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The Haligtree soldiers arent hostile to the rot pests, pretty wacky oversight
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
It is funny seeing people give this area a pass yet everyone whined about Frigid Outskirts/Iron Passage and Cave of the Dead in Dark Souls 2 back in the day. The Elden Ring normie fanboyism is real. Then again, there is a lot of bad players playing these games now.
Elden Ring had a lot of issues in its endgame unfortunately and this is one of them. Pretty lazily put together area with no real concept of difficulty (LOL @ difficulty in Elden Ring tbh, this is the easiest From title by far just from the sheer fact at how much damage a player can inflict and the resources you're given.)
But hey, Maliketh and Godfrey were the saving grace in the end. Here's hoping the DLC holds a candle to AOTA and TRC. At least invading people here was fun (when they weren't getting carried by their friends using their bloodhound step)
Apologies for the rant, I'm just a jaded vet who is still kinda disappointed with how Elden Ring turned out (mostly multiplayer and endgame wise)
- Anonymous
i see all these dudes complaining about the difficulty, do you have a ranged weapon? do you upgrade your gear?
- Anonymous
i can deal with everything except those grafted scions. oh my god why those things.
- Anonymous
"purists" (more like smoothbrain tryhard flexers who get hard carried by co-op summons) gonna call me "overleveled casual noob trash" for being level 210, and getting destroyed by EVERYTHING in somewhere between, depending the enemy, in 2 to 4 hits with a quality build, stats being 45 vigor, 20 mind, 40 endurance, 40 strength, 40 dexterity, 37 intelligence, 36 faith and 30 arcane, having full royal knight set, crimson seed talisman, green turtle talisman, dragoncrest greatshield talisman and pearldrake talisman +2
whole area, if not everything past leyndell has a sudden, way too sharp and insanely punishing difficulty spike, makes it feel like attempting Caelid before even setting foot in stormveil, or going from lothric high wall directly to lothric castle in DS 3, and i say that having beaten DS3 at level 150 cause i'm not that great a player, and play PvE only, so it's all down to my own skill and learning of the game here
- Anonymous
Ok, we all like to seethe about artificial difficulty, but the only enemy that can't be cheesed here is malenia herself. Recruits and soldiers are the same thing you deal with in leyndell, cleanrot knights are the same as the ones in swamp of aeonia, revenants are an optional pain in the ass, but optional nonetheless, putrid avatars are absurdly weak for their placement and knights are manageable with backstabs or by breaking their guard. Even the ulcerated tree spirit is at a disadvantage for the tiny plataform it's in. The one and only difference are health at damage, both of wich should be abundant on your character (or else you got lucky in the consecrated snowfields and still didn't notice). At this point of the game you should have learnt that spamming r1 isn't going to get you anywhere, stealth is actually useful to the point where you can get to malenia without fighting anyone else in between, you can take 1 enemy at a time if you use certain objects like ruin fragments, (or multiple if you use those pots) etc. Bad practices like skipping everything through running, letting summons do your work for you or simply forgetting the r2 button exists it's gonna cost you a lot, and this applies not only here, but also in farum azula and mohgwyn.
- Anonymous
Whoever created this area needs to be slapped. Unplayable garbage.
- Anonymous
Ngl I don't think any of you played the previous games. This level is about has hard as Farron Keep.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Easiest way to get across the scarlet rot mud that I have is to spam Bloodhound's Step along the edge of the waterfall and then kill the tiny pests that follow you when you reach the safe ground at the start of the branch
- Anonymous
The real problem with this area and the areas before it (IN MY OPINION, DON'T CRUCIFY ME) is powercreep, pure and simple. Lower level areas often have a 'good strategy' for clearing them out, such as using the traps in Stormveil against the enemies who set them, utilizing gravity abilities in Raya Lucaria to remove the main advantage of sorcerers (range), or using the many pillars and retaining walls in Leyndell to block arrows so you can focus on melee enemies. In Ordina, the Haligtree, and Elphael, you pretty much just have to run past everything and use cheese because of the ridiculous amounts of damage and health enemies have at this point. I'm a VIG/END build. Every area before this was a piece of pie, because I could take a hit/block and deal damage in equal measure, without being completely out of stamina afterwards. This area, on the other hand, pretty much forces you to be either entirely ranged (read: not really having the Souls experience of hackin' and slashin') or redo it over and over because you weren't packing the tremendous variety of damage types and resistance equipment needed to legitimately complete this area in any reasonable amount of time. Don't get me wrong, I love my trusty Heavy Crossbow, it just really sucks the fun out of the game for me. Yes, Elphael is absolutely beautiful, but I don't really play the Souls games for the scenery.
Anyways, this is just my personal opinion, you don't have to agree. If you love these areas, I'd love to hear why, it might give me a different view of things. Besides, I'm an adult, and hearing people call me an idiot about my opinions of a video game might help remind me that I have, you know, a job and real responsibilities. Cheers!
- Anonymous
hot take: The ulcerated spirit for millicents quest is harder than melania
- Anonymous
I really hate that the room with the Traveler's Set has three aeonian butterflies that are out of reach. Anyone know how to grab them?
- Anonymous
I love this place so much, It's like a darker version of leyndell.
- Anonymous
People that complain about the difficulty of this place either don't remember The Ringed City, or they simply never played it to begin with. It's the exact same. Also, Depth 4/5 Chalice Dungeons or Fishing Hamlet in Bloodborne and post-invasion Ashina. It's almost like optional end game areas tend to be hard.
- Anonymous
An amazing final legacy dungeon, the only shitty part about this is that you have to get through the goddamn haligtree platforming area to get here
- Anonymous
"Keep walking forward down the last flight of stairs towards a room with two Lesser Cleanrot Knights. Right before you get to the room, if you jump over the banister down to the lower platform, you'll find another Seedbed Curse by following the path. Head back to the room with the Lesser Cleanrot Knights."
****ing how? I jumped off a ledge with no way back up per your instructions. I know fast traveling back to the Grace is a thing, but if that's the case then say so instead of implying there's a physical way back up to where we were.
- Anonymous
so let me get this through my thick skull. I'm Elden Lord and I went back to this fight to clear the game and i got my A$$ handed to me. Should i even be Elden Lord???
- Anonymous
Extremely fascinating area, very aestethicallu pleasing. Asides from that is ****. It's not hard, just unfair ad dumb. I do not want to spend years travelling thru the rotten mud or whatever. Tedious and definately a missed opportunity. (The opportunity to make it actually good)
- Anonymous
Grafted scions, Erd Tree Avatars and those **** pests are what make this dungeon a huge pain in the ***.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Triggering the putrid UTS near Millicent's summon sign to spawn then running straight up the branch as far as the fork where none of its attacks can reach you still works. Good work from Anon 5th May 07:31.
- Anonymous
The Putrid Avatar near Elphael Inner Wall grace can be easily cheesed with volcano fire pot from grace position, each pot can do like 1k damage to it without pot talismans. Just sharing my knowledge. Hope this help.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The Lesser Cleanrot Knights will drop all parts of their armor, not just the Helm.
I got the full suit with the Silver Scarab talisman and a few reloads.
- Anonymous
Alot of underleveled ppl complaining about this area in the comments. Ive died a few times like any new area but no enemies are hard.. Maybe revs. That's literally it.. Other then them its not bad.
- Anonymous
The weapon art on the lion greatbow with Radahn's spear great-arrows and arrow's reach talisman will shred both rotten tree avatars from the upper walkway without them being able to land a single hit from spamming the homing golden darts, it also makes the knights and the ballistas at the northern end of the walkway easy to kill with manual aim and at no risk to yourself.
The weapon art on Bolt of Gransax makes short work of the cleanrot knights scattered around as long as you know where they are and have enough distance / time for two fully charged casts.
The crystalians are a headache if you want all the loot but 'the flame of frenzy' incantation can stagger and hit them hard where lightning and fire incantations do very little damage, combo it with the weapon art on the blasphemous blade and they are defenceless against it. Taker's flames will knock them on their arse, start a full charged cast of 'flame of frenzy' and it will hit them just as they stand up it really f**ks their s**t up. I'm happy to take the madness damage burst from spamming it as long as I have enough flasks or the blasphemous blade / taker's cameo equipped.
Everyone knows the revenants are absolute c**ts of the highest order and about the heal incantation's AoE, but I think the revenants at Elhpael are a little different at least to those in shaded castle and in Selllia hideaway. I was easily able to kill those by throwing volcano pots down on them from an elevated position but I just tried doing it to the revenant closest to the inner wall grace and it teleported up onto the concrete beam I was standing on. I just about s**t a brick when I heard it screech behind me then hit me with the poison, I was just lucky I was on the lower end otherwise I'd have been well f**ked. As it was I just made it to the grace for the reset before the poison got me. I don't think they can teleport to your location no matter where you are but don't take it for granted.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Surely I'm not the only person that thinks the run through the treetop section with the bubble spamming Envoys, magic spamming Battle Mages and the Loretta fight is way harder than anything you find here, with the exception of Malenia herself ofc?
- Anonymous
Dude this zone is ****ing cancerous, wrf is with that absolutely ridiculous sudden increase in difficulty going from everywhere leading up to the putrid avatar + 2 haligtree knights fight, to everything after that? Its likely playing an entirely different ****ing game, I feel like it just jumps suddenly from expecting around lol 130-150 to expecting rl 300+, every single enemy suddenly goes from maybe getting 1 or 2 easily dodged hits while stagger lock em and deal reasonable damage, to being a constantly aggressive nightmare of multiple damage types, infinite poise, and ridiculous damage reduction, either by being a 'hardened' enemy or having a great shield and an infinite stamina pool... seriously needed to smooth that transition out way more. And don't even get me started on revenants.
- Anonymous
How i fight here: oprah winfrey's "EVERYBODY GETS x!!" gif, but it's me spamming Giantsflame Take Thee
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Not sure if it’s intentional, but the patrolling putrid avatar guarding the lords tube dropped two rotten staffs for me. One plopped in my inventory and the other was a drop from the corpse.
- Anonymous
Why does everyone hate this area? I understand the op enemies but with my Str/Int build i mostly wrecked the enemies (i came to this area before i even killed maliket), had 45 vigor and the only thing that almost one shotted me were the 2 knights with the avatar and the tree spirit (which i died more to malenia, btw), and did malenia second try with +10 starscourge greatsword! If i were to say it might be my 4th favourite place in the game (along with farum azula, liurnia, nokron and Leyndell)
- Anonymous
We should have the option to burn this shithole, not a single area in this game has inspired more hatred in me than this stupid tree.
- Anonymous
Remember when you could go through an endgame area with endgame Vigor and be able to wear robes and be ok? Yeah, not anymore. Now you gotta wear that ugly AF heavy armor because if you don’t, have fun being oneshotted.
- Anonymous
This area gets a lot easier once you realise almost every enemy here is incredibly weak to fire damage
- Anonymous
the painful route between prayer room and the grace 10KM after.
Amazing level design, but just too unforgiving. Miss a roll and you down by two flasks, heal in the wrong time, one more gone and a f****** lot of enemies that drains hp like an old muscle car drains fuel...
- Anonymous
Melina, you burned the wrong tree. This one is so much worse.
- Anonymous
this place reeks of the unfairness of the late game of elden ring, such a shame cuz this place is the prettiest look wise and lore wise
- Anonymous
Go to prayer room grace with gold scarab talismen equipped and kill all the soldiers up to the room with the two cleanrot knights and you can make an easy 50k runes
- Anonymous
Does anyone know the point of the elevator shortcut right before Malenia's arena? There's already a grace there so I can't really think of a purpose for it other than if you for some reason haven't defeated the tree avatar on the bridge nearby the bell tower.
- Anonymous
I don't understand all the complaints about the difficulty of this area, it's perfectly balanced for the levels/equipment your character should have through normal progression, with 60vig and +24 weapons it's no harder than Stormviel/Raya Lucaria with 20vig and +3 weapons or Leyndell with 40vig and +12 weapons, the only "late game difficulty spike" is that being near the endgame you can't simply farm runes to overlevel anymore
- Anonymous
Ironic how even though Elden Ring is praised for being open world, the best and most interesting/beautyful areas for me were the more enclosed ones like Elphael, Leyndell, Volcano manor and Raya Lucaria
- Anonymous
This area showed me how useful armor/defense talismans are in this game, I rolled up in a light robe with 60 Vigor thinking it would be fine, after seeing single attacks were taking off 3/4 of my health bar I switched to Veterans Set with Dragoncrest Greatshield+2 and Pearldrake+2 Talismans, now the same attacks take off just over half my health bar
- Anonymous
Beat her on 3rd try, used my mimic tear, and don’t even feel bad about it.
- Anonymous
This was tough, but I enjoyed every single minute of it! Great dungeon design and a real challenge. Reminded my of the feeling I had when I played Dark Souls for the first time. The suspense of lurking carefully around every corner, planing your attacks, knowing every enemy is absolutely deadly. I died a lot, had to think about new strategies often, but never felt frustrated. Reaching a new grace felt like such a relief and reward at the same time. Killing the Avatars, the f'n Treespirit, Millicents Sisters and finally Malenia gave me the greatest "I did it!"-Feeling I had in the whole game. And that's what Souls is all about!
So intense, I loved it! Now I'm really hyped up for the DLC.
- Anonymous
skip doesn't work? ok buddy CE here we gooo, this map's **** anyway
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
As of 1.5, the Elphael Elevator skip doesn’t appear to be working.
- Anonymous
If the Haligtree and Malenia are anything to go by, Miquella may well be the root of all evil. Like, jeez, chill dude!
- Anonymous
This area is divisive because its so challenging. Maybe one of the most complex in all of souls games too. It is full of secret paths, hidden rooms and hideaways. The enemies are all very dangerous unless you use the right tools against them. You are going to want to use healing on revenants, fire on the two types of larger knights, gravity on the crystalines. You need quickstep and anti-rot for rot areas. This area becomes very rewarding as you learn how to move through it.
- Anonymous
I'm not a souls player at all (only played DS1 and BB for a while after their releases) but I managed to get into the Haligtree and yes, it was pure pain, but I have done it including beating Malenia and it was a superb feeling. This area is very hard, most of the enemies 2-3 shots you, even when you run with 60 VIG (like me) and my build was very great in the areas before. Ever step in this area was risky and maded me nervous, but after all the struggle and pain, I was happy that I beated Malenia and finished Millicents quest line. I have done this, cuz I put the frenzy ending without knowing what happened... and read how I can cure it... it was a painful walk, but I granted a nice experience, learned alot and was happy as I finished.
- Anonymous
Best farm area from prayer room to inner wall. Super easy to handle the knights and most have back turned. Over 100,000 each run with/without talismans and eagle foot. If your poorly leveled than get you some flies and let them help you till you can take on a clean rot knight to take full advantage of easy farming
- Anonymous
Amazing zone. Love at first sight. While Limgrave is early-autumn themed, Elphael is late-autumn themed. Quiet, slumbering, but not dead at all. Great view from a lot of spots. Enemies are strong, but all have counterplays. Boss at the bottom - just a cherry on a cake.
Too bad that such shitty zone as Consecrated Snowfield leads to such masterpiece as Elphael.
- Anonymous
This area is like a compilation of every horrible enemy that one has encountered so far.
- Anonymous
If that one larger scarlet rot pool is giving ppl trouble, pop Assassin's Gambit and bloodhound's step/quickstep and just zoom through
- Anonymous
If you're having trouble with the Ulcerated tree spirit because of the small area to fight you can run back to the tree branch you drop down on and he won't be able to hit you if you stand where it forks. Then just unload on him with arrows or magic. His head will be near the end of the branch sometimes so if you run out of projectiles you can try hitting his head but he can hit you there.
- Anonymous
In case you're having trouble with the little rot guys waiting to ambush you in the swamp: Try equipping a bow and shooting lightning arrows right next to where they are. This will create an AoE that significantly damages them and helps you clear out this area easily.
- Anonymous
One of my favs locations of the game, but a hard one, I had an easy time by spamming Fallingstar Beast Jaw skill
- Anonymous
In the notes section Marika's Soreseal is spelled incorrectly and linked improperly
- Anonymous
I’m a completionist who likes to explore everything and I also suck ass at this game and this dungeon took me like 4 hours, not even counting Malenia. I can confirm the cleanrot knights will drop the entire set of armor here, having personally killed about 50 of them here while repeatedly dying at the hands of the annoying crown spider things.
- Anonymous
I would like to suggest an edit for this section:
"Continue following the path north. Once you reach a wider area with a patrolling Revenant, look out for a door behind and to the left of you. This room houses three Crystalians (two ringblades and one spear), one of which is hidden behind the pillar right next to the entryway, and some loot including a Somber Smithing Stone (9) and 3x Pickled Turtle Neck."
Your summons will disappear if you go into this room, so either clear the area of revenants first, or try to use ranged or pull the Crystalians so you don't have to enter the room too far and keep your summons active.
Having trouble with the avatar?Facing him, take cover behind the pillars on the on the balcony where the poison flower(s) are. Standing behind the pillars while his holy ranged attack runs will completely block it. Peek to the side, run barrage using the black bow with Bleed arrows or cold/ fire arrows. Admittedly cheesy, but will get the job done if you're tired of dying from one round of his attacks.
- Anonymous
Genuinley have no idea what to do when the Avatar on the causeway does the Golden Homing Beam attack. Just stand there and die/ roll aimlessly? Only possible to dodge it by hiding or on horseback which cant be done here.
Other than that, great area. Love the challenge. Fromsoft being Fromsoft
- Anonymous
Best looking level and great exploration, but its like they ran out of ideas for enemies and so just brought in enemies from other areas but tripled their numbers and hit points to make it an end game area. It ruins the area in my opinion. Getting through it by clearing enemies out is a total chore, made worse by the fact that ones like Revenants and Erdtree Avatars have been seen far too often already and any novelty has long since gone. And of course there's rot everywhere. Feels cheap rather than difficult.
- Anonymous
So, after the Church full of Kindreds of Rot and the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman. There's a field full of Haligtree Soldiers and Haligtree Stunblock Knights. Other than a good time (not) is anything valuable back there? And can you get to the towers out in the ocean? Just curious.
- Anonymous
"The water here inflicts scarlet rot, so bring some Preserving Boluses. Keep running forward, getting to a small island in the middle of the waterfall, then down onto a branch to the right of the cliff ahead. Follow it and when you get back on land, head through the doorway on your right. Down the ladder and in the little room is the Drainage Channel Site of Grace."
Other helpful notes - you can't run only walk (like Abandoned Cave) and there's Pests in the water. Try taking a few out with ranged attacks first.
- Anonymous
From the Drainage Channel Site of Grace return up the ladder and turn right. Climb up the hill and take a swing at the untargetable Pest before it runs away. Turn around while continuing up, cross the branch continuing SW and drop down on the ledge surrounding the pool. In the middle of the pool is a Great Ghost Glovewort. Grab it fast because an Ulcerated Tree Spirit(?) spawns when you enter the pool. If you can fight it in close quarters, have at. Otherwise die outside of the pool, repeat route, grab runes and fast travel back to Drainage Channel. Critter will not spawn if you don't enter the pool.
- Anonymous
I've probably lost collectively at least 500k-700k runes here. But after a while I kinda got over the pain, and have been using it as a testing ground for new weapons and ashes of war. The run from the Prayer Room to the Inner Wall is a mix of grouped enemies, dudes with shields, and cleanrot knights - which I think presents a dynamic obstacle course for any build. You can also throw in the royal revenants at the bottom floor, though that's probably where I've lost the most runes. Each run nets you roughly 80-100k runes, which is about enough to buy a full set of smithing stones. After each successful run I've used the runes to upgrade and try out new weapons, or to level up.
I also got over my fear of cleanrot knights which is nice. Easily their most formidable attack is the glowing instant scarlet rot impale move, and it's important to top up on health before those fights so you don't get one-shot by that move. Usually when I got hit by that I would heal up, finish the fight, and port back to the prayer room to try again.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
great star, bloodflame and prelate charge+heavy, dominate Malenia first and 2nd phase. Just make sure to have enough fp to keep on charging.
- Anonymous
One of the most beautifully designed areas but unfortunately also one of the most tedious dungeons in the game. There's no fun in getting ganked by some of the strongest common enemies. If it was only for that, it wouldn't be so bad, because come on. Every from game so far has areas like this. What's disappointing is that there is barely any reward: Besides the ending of millicent's questline and the malenia bossfight (which in itself is a whole new debate for some people) there's not really anything that makes this area worth it lootwhise.
- Anonymous
I love this place so much. Beautiful architecture, music, and environment. Wide variety of enemies. Maddeningly difficult. Ahhhhhhh.
- Anonymous
the more time I spend in this place, the more I get fond of it
- Anonymous
This place looks absolutely beautiful and the soundtrack gives me the good kind of sadness
- Anonymous
The reason that Elphael is the toughest area is that the city has never been forcibly breached. So all we are seeing is the city’s defence at their highest capacity. The rest of the dungeons, even Leyndell are all deteriorated by the constant war. Haligtree so far only suffered one infiltration by Mohg and his nobles. On the battlefield Malenia made sure Elphael stands undefeated, so there’s that. This is a city that has all of its defences at close to pristine condition.
- Anonymous
I very much prefer Elphael over optional endgame areas in DS3 and DLC areas in DS3. The Corvian Knights in Ariandel, fat soldiers in Ringed City and serpents with massive poise damage in Archdragon's peak caused me far more trouble than Elphael. If you are a high vigor character, I don't think any area in ER is as difficult as endgame DS3 areas, since you can get 2100 HP in ER pretty easily, but you can barely get 1400 HP in DS3. The extra HP makes all the difference. The only exception would be Farum Azula, that area is more annoying than anything in DS3 due to platforming and the fact that the extra HP doesn't do anything if you fall to death.
- Anonymous
This area is gorgeous, the moment you down from the halighree to ephael is what I love in from games, however the gameplay in this are is so boring straightforward.
- Anonymous
For anyone who think this area and the previous one don't suck because "it's supposed to be hard!" are missing the fact that every enemy and almost every item are just recycled content. Oh, another smithing stone, wow. Oh, another purple item that's a leaf. I sure wanted that at endgame. If this area had been in the middle somewhere, and not completely optional, it wouldn't feel like such a letdown and a slog.
- Anonymous
Tbh when everybody started crying about Haligtree I expected it to be far worse. Yes the beginning tree area is kinda tricky as melee, enemies deal lots of damage in general. But it's an optional secret endgame area and the game gives you lots of options considering the levels you should have already acquired until this point of the game. As a mage or with a bow you can just take it slow and shoot down almost every enemy in the tree area. The only enemy that really causes issues is the Giant Oracle Envoy that will oneshot you if you don't manage to dodge in time.
The Brace of the Haligtree part is filled with strong enemys that take a lot of hits to kill. Most of these are completly optional (crystallians/ revenants at the bottom) since they are on sidepaths with valueable loot, so it's up to you if you are interested in that loot. The erdtree avatars also don't respawn once killed. So if you're taking the right path to dodge the ballistas at the end the only real enemies are the cleanrot knights which should be doable at this stage of the game.
The last bossfight against Malenia is a tough challenge that will will test your patience and skill. But it's a fair one once you figure out how to dodge all of their attacks. Again the game gives you so many options up to this point, if one doesn't work maybe try out one of your 100 weapons, some of your weapons ashes you haven't even used once or try reskilling which most people probably haven't touched once. The game gives you so many options, so experiment with them and you'll find something that works for you. I played a battlemage with a int/dex build and beat her after about 4 hours with lusats staff and adullas moonblade as spell in one hand and a simple dagger with the bloodhound step ash to make dodging her attacks easier. I don't play with any summoning spirit ashes myself as I consider it cheesy/easymode for most bosses, but I think some of these could be very helpful for the fight.
Overall I consider Haligtree one of the best dungeons in the game. Great level design, and a tough lategame challenge that always makes you think how to approach a situation. On top of that a challenging bossfight that feels fair and didn't drive me mad once. If I had to balance /change something I would maybe reduce the dmg of the Giant Oracle Envoy and reduce the number of attacks it takes to break the crystalians shell.
- Anonymous
I've had fun in pretty much every area of this game, some more than others. But this is the only area in the entire game that disgusts me to play through. It's a shame because it looks beautiful but everything about it is ridiculous. Cramming dozens of enemies into tight places and making them way harder than it should be, four ballistas 2 knights and a tree avatar at one time, 3 crystallians grouped together, the ability to fall and die at anytime, a rot lake which slows movement speed and is swarming with enemies, and I can continue. Nothing about this place was fun or rewarding other than how beautiful the zone is. Disappointing to say the least.
how come revenants kill me very quickly but mimic eats them for breakfast ?
- Anonymous
In order to use the progress route you have pay to become a VIP now?
- Anonymous
Those lesser knights (not the valkyries, but the easier knights) on the staircases close to the Prayer Room site of grace drop more runes than Albinaurics in Mohgwyn's Palace, I now use them for rune farming. They aren't that bad unlike the valkyries
If you are having trouble in this area, buy any bow or crossbow and load up on arrows/bolts. Use this to pull 1 enemy at a time. You can snipe anything but the main boss and the revenants. Marikas soreseal would be great in early game but at this point it's probably not worth grabbing other than being a completionist. I think a lot of people that have trouble here are either trying to run through and avoid enemies or they have a terrible build. This area punishes both of those actions.
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