This gaming guide is for those who want to tackle DLC content in ELDEN RING at a lower level than expected. If you consider yourself an average player with mid-level skills and low reaction speed, this guide is for you. It is not for those who enjoy challenge runs or dislike Spirit summons. It also assumes you have weapon upgrade restrictions and are interested in PvP/Coop. Please note that beating the boss Promised Consort Radahn at a low level may not be possible. This guide focuses on using strategic and sometimes unconventional methods to survive the DLC content. It also includes tips for obtaining spirit ashes, consumables, and spells. Keep in mind, some bosses have not been beaten yet, but the guide will be updated as they are defeated. Let’s get started!
Preparations
Accessing the DLC
You gonna need bleed, lots of it (a fast bleed weapon, use BFB or bleed infusion – my weapon of choice was Bloody poisonous fang with Endure for that extra poison ticks). A Mohg Shackle. And Purifying crystal tear (obvious). Dug Eater helps bc he deals bleed himself, but any summon that can tank phase 2 will do. Mohg is stupidly easy in Phase 1 , but almost impossible in phase 2. When you enter gate, summon and when he comes closer, shackle. Then… just smack him. He will bleed and lose HP, and when he starts to count, just keep attacking. Don’t shackle again, don’t even dodge, endure on sweeps and keep attacking. When he Nihil’s, rot him with Rotten Breath. Then, in 2nd phase, run. If you have balls you can shoot him from afar with bleed bolts etc, but honestly since most attacks are one-shot, just wait til he dies from Rot while smacking your summon. That is kinda it.
When you are in the DLC, collect all possible Scadu before doing boss fights, you should have 4-5 Blessing level and 3-4 Revered ash level before your first boss, maybe more if you skip Rellana and go to Scadu altus to collect some more. DO NOT FORGET to talk to all NPCs before you trigger breaking Miquella’s rune by approaching Shadow Keep! Remember, always rune up before boss fight!
Remembrance Bosses
Divine Beast Dancing Lion.
Since you will probably suicide-rush Belurat for ashes and fragments anyway, this can as well be your first boss. It hits hard and has oneshot grab (almost any grab will be oneshot for you at this level), but you have NPC Freyja summon if you talked to her before. You can try it with Freyja or without, but you should summon a spirit anyway. The fight itself is pretty basic with a game of rot-and-run. Rot him, poison him, survive. He will smack your summon hard so if you are confident, juggle aggro with Pulley crossbow + bleed bolts. You can use a shield too (my go-to was BK Shield +3) on some attacks, most combos will stance-break you but you will survive. Quite a simple fight. Just keep away.
Rellana.
Ah yes. This lady switches aggro hard. One attack and she’s on you. First off, DO NOT summon Leda. She will cleanse Rot and Poison off Rellana with her weapon skill, so it is a big no-no. Second, learn how to dodge (jump) Twin Moons attack. The trick here is to use her insane tracking and aggro capabilities against her by juggling aggro in phase 1, to let spirit survive and tank combos in phase 2. Use ranged weaponry or melee, if you are confident in your dodging skills (or have a shield). Be careful and only apply rot from max distance during her combos, and then dodge and run away immediately since she WILL charge you! Otherwise the strategy is quite similar, rot and run. Do not forget to equip Spelldrake +3 from Castle dungeon.
Bayle the Dread!
(technically not a remembrance boss, but is epic enough and his heart kinda functions as a remembrance) CURSE YOU BAYLE! Sadly if you wanna beat him at very low level easily, you gotta cheese him, so no epic fight with Igon. You won’t require summoning at all – Bayle is, in fact, only fight afaik that can be cheesed without fighting him at all. You will need a very specific setup. Hidden body, dagger with Assasin’s approach, Black knife chest armor part (unaltered), Crepus vial and Poison mist spell. You must trigger the fight, so that golden fog appears. Before the fog gate, carefully apply Hidden body and Asassin’s approach, then enter the for and immediately crouch WITHOUT MOVING WHILE STANDING. Then go right, hugging area wall, all while crouched. Reapply spell and ash of war by standing still until you finish the animation, then crouch and keep going. Your goal will be to circle around Bayle who sits comfortably in the middle of the arena, and close in when you are behind him. All while reapplying stealth. When you are behind his fat tail, stop and cast poison mist until he dies (no need to reapply stealth buffs, just stay crouched and completely still). It takes long but it is very reliable. I gave up on trying to yolo-smack him with Igon and spirits because at that level you just lose the dps race and hp trade, not to mention it takes even longer.
Messmer.
GET ALL SCADU AND ASHES YOU CAN. I only ever tried to do him while +14 and revered ashes at +8, when at low level. This is a hard fight. He has all Rellana’s strengths but the weaknesses too. This is probably the first boss where you gotta git gud at least a bit, although shield helps immensely. Drink physick BEFORE you enter and summon IMMEDIATELY, then dodge and run and get away as far as possible. When summon draws aggro, rot him. He can change aggro mid combo and his moves are so fast and LONG, that juggling aggro from range is very dangerous. Get a shield and a pokey poison/bleed thrusting sword, or just Antspur, and poke him while he slaps summon. He has many small fire aoe moves that will chip your health hard, so manage your flasks well (you should prob go 10/4 in ration Crimson/Cerulean, you gotta cast breath after all). When he nears phase 2, summon Hornsent if you can or Jolan if you can’t (gotta do 1st stage of Ymir quest for her to appear, but that quest doesn’t require fighting anyway). Your Dung eater will probably die shortly after phase transition, so you need someone else to hold aggro (and both summons do not affect Messmer’s stats and have bleed so it is a nice bonus). Be VERY careful when applying rot in phase 2, he has insane aggro for some reason. Better just shield up and use opportunistic pokes and poison mists with antspur. Beware the grab and snake storm in phase 2! If you manage to rot and poison him in phase 2, just survive. He will die by himself.
Romina.
A hard fight too, because our usual strategy won’t work. She’s immune to both poison and rot! Take 2 Frost great stars, pref with braggart’s roar off-hand and mist raptor main-hand. Dual-wield. Use omensmirk mask if needed. She only deals physical damage so stack phys def. Dump all flasks into Crimson. Now the drill. Summon, roar, run up to her and spam dual jump attacks. She gets stance-broken like no tomorrow. When she is stance-broken, don’t crit, just keep on jumping for extra bleed procs. That’s pretty much it. When she enters phase 2, roll away and reapply braggart’s roar. Grab can be ignored if you just hug her side and stay as close as possible (which you should). There will be a lot of running so stamina regen is good. Disregard rot, it is a weaker version – just chug through it. Dane is trash, don’t bother.
Metyr, Mother of Fingers.
This boss is quite endgame but a nice spirit ash is locked behind it, so here we go. Get at least as much Scadu as for Messmer. Metyr is memetically weak to bleed – I used a bloody antspur with poison mist. You will most definitely need a shield, probably with Vow of the Indomitable aow, because she has some hard-to-dodge attacks (or straight up undodgeable). Rot her, poison her and then carefully poke together with a spirit. DO NOT APPROACH HER FROM THE SIDES, only attack from front, since being at the side triggers her undodgeable fingercreep attack that will probably kill you. Do not bother with lesser Fingercreepers, although you can set them on fire if you want. Second phase is tricky. It is RNG half the time, some attacks are easy to dodge, some must be tanked. Try to let your spirit survive so that he can tank her in phase 2 for a bit. She has a huge spin laser attack – run near very edge of danger zone when she floats, and use Vow when 1st ray is near. That way you only must facetank 1 ray. Then you can pelt her with burred bolts while she floats. Again, she is very weak to bleed, and if you know her moveset a bit, it will be easy. I 3rd tried her on my low-level char.
Putrescence Knight.
Before you advance to Enir-ilim after Romina and Messmer, you should do Thiollier’s quest because you will REALLY need him to be summonable later (on one of the chars I forgot it, and it was the only time I needed to summon a player for a boss fight). The dungeon itself is actually quite hard and CAN’T be just suicide sprinted through, so you gotta take your time and methodically slaughter all stone sentinels and birbs. However before you meet Thiollier, you must kill this chumbo. Thankfully, Dung Eater has holy projectiles, Thiollier has a golden summon sign in the arena, and you have rot. Rot him and let the two cook. Your Scadu and Ash should be high, just like for Messmer, but other than that, not a very hard fight, use Sacred blade to do some damage from afar. Horsey-spinny combo is hard to dodge, so either block it and get some stance breaks and chip dmg, or don’t be the target of it and wait till he uses it on others, it seems to have a cooldown. When he spams blue flames in phase 2, don’t roll – jump (or block and chug). Get phys and magical resistance.
There are 2 more remembrance bosses, namely Gaius and Midra, who I am currently struggling with. I will update the guide as soon as I kill them!
Non-remembrance bosses
Demi-human Swordsman Onze.
Why would you even?… Anyway he is easily stunlocked by any mob ash like Radahn soldiers or Greatshield boys. Dung Eater sometimes can solo him too. He can be easily stunlocked by bigger weapons. Do not attack him when he guards with a sword. Overall a very easy fight even at low level, gaol he is in is much harder.
Ancient Dragon-Man.
Does whatever a dragon can. Well, not really. Meme-y NPC boss that has oneshot move (his katana weapon skill). Greatshield soldiers bully him but honestly, since he is an NPC, all NPC cheese strats apply to him. Giant hunt, Blackflame tornado, grabs, you name it. Invader version can be cheesed with a suicide jump (sometimes he follows). For such an important boss that gatekeeps an entire area he sure is kinda lame.
Dryleaf Dane.
You want that Dryleaf arts don’t you. Surprisingly easy on low level. Rot him then use Bloody poisonous fang. Endure then smack. He staggers and goes down quickly. Watch for spells and infinite-hyperarmor hand clap, they will probably oneshot you.
Ghostflame dragon.
No. Just no. You don’t need Ancient somber dragon smithing stones on your +3/+1 twink. Forget it.
Golden Hippo.
It will be your first major roadblock since Rellana can in fact be skipped. He is frustrating to fight at low level. You should probably run around and collect about 10 Scadu, but some of his attacks are still oneshots – namely grab and Sonic spin in 2nd phase. Learn how to dodge grab. Pray to RNGjesus he doesn’t do them often or at all. He also has some dead angle shenanigans so be careful with your shield. He rots, bleeds and is poisoned quite easily, but you better summon Hornsent for that extra body and bleed. 3 bleed sources = dead Hippo. Freyja is trash, do not bother.
Death Knight.
He is intimidating but his moves are laughably blockable by +3 Banished knight shield. Rot him and wait, but you better juggle aggro a bit because if Dung Eater gets grabbed, you will regret it. Other than that, if Dungie decides to spam his bairn, you are golden, and he pretty much dies by it and rot alone. AVOID THE GRAB AT ALL COSTS.
Redmane Freyja.
Wait she is not a boss! WRONG. This gal here must be disposed of on a low-level DLC run. In a certain fight later in the game, she is single MOST OBNOXIOUS NPS besides Leda at low-level, and unlike Hornsent, you gotta attack her and kill her yourself. You might want to do her quest to get Lion shield, but then you must attack AND kill her right after you obtain it IN A SINGLE TRY or she will vanish and later participate in that fight anyway. She is cheesable as an NPC but she is kinda hard, since she has hyperarmor weapon and a shield, AND an oneshot ash of war that stunlocks. When fighting her at Seventh Floor grace, do not go out of the room, or enemies will join and you will probably lose.
Hornsent.
He MUST be killed too but thankfully you are presented with an opportunity to do so in normal gameplay, either with Leda or later in an invasion. Only thing to watch for is his Pursuers-like bairn – it will oneshot you, even at lvl 125 in fact. Thankfully it moves slow and when he casts it, he is wide open. Seems to be almost immune to rot. Only thing you shouldn’t do is killing him with Leda and then helping Leda kill Ansbach. You will NEED Ansbach later, don’t screw his quest up. Feel free to kill Hornsent with Leda and then help Ansbach.
Demi-Human queen Marigga
She is a pushover but has many goons (that are pushovers too). Kill them first, lure them from range and then rot and kill her like any demi-human queeen. Watch for magical shotgun.
Jori, Elder Inquisitor.
A hard fight but also a gimmick fight. Equip all phys and holy resistant gear you have and take a bleed weapon (probably the same Bloody poisonous fang). When you enter fog, go left, hide from projectiles behind a tombstone and summon ash (unless RNG screws you over and he spams spira first, then just die and start over I guess). Rush him down, rot him while summon smacks him and draws aggro, and then go full DS1 PvP and fish backstabs. Yes, he can be backstabbed! 2nd phase is a mess but as long as you manage to lock on on HIM instead of his many mooks, you can easily circle and backstab him. You should, too, because the fight is aoe fest, and backstabs make you invulnerable and cancel his attacks and even some summons.
Lamenter.
My oh my, what a weird fight. At low level it is crucial to focus clones, since the fight will be tediously long (he is immune to all status effects). They are NOT oneshot, but two inputs of stormcaller kill a clone, sometimes two or three if they all run at you. Summon something aggressive, like Messmer soldiers or Radahn soldiers, something that can knock him down and stunlock, and draw aggro on clones so that they all get in your aoe. Always try to kill as much clones as possible. Use blackflame stuff or black knife weapon skill to spam him down with % health damage.
Jagged Mid Drake.
Just a dragon fight from base game with one (UNO) single extra lightning move. You would like to kill them to do Igon’s questline. Equip Fire protection talismans, maybe ritual shield. Rot, poison, hop on Torrent, run around. Summon Latenna for fun. The usual.
Ancient Dragon Senessax.
God no.
Count Ymir, Mother of Fingers.
Now this fight is hard at low level. Sadly it is required to get a certain cool spirit ash. First phase you will only fight Jolan. Take it slow, use poison and bleed, pref on a big hyperarmor weapon with stormcaller (Great Stars). They both are immune to rot and have truckloads of hp, but poison works just fine. Try to conserve flasks. When you deal with Jolan, Count Ymir will appear. Now things get messy. When he spawns creepers, your goal is to smack him and poison him. Then IGNORE THE HANDS AND RUN. His spells can one- or two-tap you, and if you fight hands or stay in place, he will spam you down. Throw fire at hands and run away instead, to where a small corridor behind the throne is. Unlike Jolan, Ymir would rarely follow you if you run away, and the hands are quite docile too. They could follow you one by one, then kill them. Just do not engage within Ymir’s line of sight. When poison stops, reapply it and run again. It is boring, but safe. You may occasionaly proc bleed too. This is a long fight at that rl, so have blue dew and golden land on you for some sustain, if you run out of flasks.
Leda and Allies.
A very hard fight where everything one- or two-taps you. EVERYTHING. So you gotta prepare for it. Kill Freyja before. Kill Hornsent. Make Moore forever sad (HE JUST GOES TO SLEEP! He will be ok!). Help Ansbach and drink eepy juice 4 times to get Thiollier angry and then get him on your side. If done right, it will be You + Ansbach + Thiollier + Spirit ash vs Leda and Dane. Out of all possible outcomes, you NEED to dispose of Hornsent and Freyja and get both helpers. Else you lose DPS race. Status is good but they are immune to rot for some reason. Blackflame tornado is best but watch for that rat Dane casting discuses from afar. This fight is the embodiment of strategic approach. No amount of git gud will help you here if you fail to do the preparations, at least at lvl 15.
There are some bosses I did’t fight yet, so I will probably update this guide!
Mini-bosses and farmable enemies
Curseblade.
First DLC enemy should not necessarily be farmed or fought at all (since you can get al his stuff dropped by friends). Still, he is very easy to farm. Ride around him on Torrent and spam Dragon breath spells – my sequence was Frost Breath for extra dmamge then Rotten breath. 3 casts are usually enough, considering Dragon communion seal and all the arcane-boosting farming gear.
Fire Knight.
Their drip is immaculate and some of them have unique items on death. I farmed them for some time on all my low-level chars because I love it. These pricks are hard and kinda RNG-ey. You need Great stars with stormcaller, frost-infused (also a staple weapon). AoW and normal attacks will stagger them just fine, EXCEPT when they block or have hyperarmor jump-back moves. That is why you are better off farming a Greatsword version – dagger guys are plain cancer. Even if he blocks, you can just attack again and you will stagger him. However if he blocks while you are locked in finishing Stormcaller move, you are screwed – hence RNG. Equip all discovery boosting and stamina regen you have – if done right, you won’t even be hit.
Horned Warrior.
They are a pain at low level and solo. Thankfully there is a place where you can fight him with your spirit ash – the ruins near Temple Ruins site of grace. Ride through the ruins to the top level and summon your ash there, then spam him from afar with breath spells or let spirit ash solo him! Torrent gives you mobility but be careful, his attacks have deceptively long range.
Fat Inquisitor.
They are very rare but drop crucial items – Revered Ashes that enhance your spirit’s attack and defence. You should use a heavy weapon, preferably Great Stars, to stagger him fast (4 2-handed light attacks usually do the job), or you could go ham and dual-wield them while spamming jump attacks. They also can be backstabbed quite easily!
Lesser Golden Hippo.
Overworld versions of the boss, they drop Scadutree fragments so must be slain, and are so much easier that the boss because you have Torrent AND spirit ashes available. Rot them from afar, poison them with serpent arrows and enjoy the gladiatorial combat between your spirit and the hippo.
I will probably update this guide if I find another hard-to-farm regular enemy.
And that wraps up our share on ELDEN RING: How To Do DLC At Very Low Level And Survive. If you have any additional insights or tips to contribute, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below. For a more in-depth read, you can refer to the original article here by Old Captain Yon, who deserves all the credit. Happy gaming!