The first boss of the Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring is Divine Beast Dancing Lion, a massive creature who must be beaten for your Tarnished progress in the DLC. Many areas added to the open world have been introduced along with new weapons and items in this expansion. However, you won’t be able to see everything until you muster the courage to take down this colossal beast.
Once you defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood to access the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, you will come across many areas as you explore a new map added in this expansion. The Divine Beast Dancing Lion can be found in the Belurat, Tower Settlement area beyond a large metal door inside the fortress. You’ll know when a boss fight is starting when a cutscene begins to show the creature awakening.
Elden Ring’s director has revealed exactly where players need to go to access the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC’s content.
How To Prepare To Fight Divine Beast Dancing Lion
Summon An Ally And Stock Up On Supplies
You want to activate the Site of Grace for Belurat, Tower Settlement, before going into the space where you fight Divine Beast Dancing Lion. The Grace is right before the boss room, making it extremely easy to travel back to the Roundtable Hold or somewhere else in the world prior to the battle. This gives you a chance to buy extra supplies from various vendors you’ve met along your journey.
Due to the nature of Divine Beast Dancing Lion as a boss, you have a small window at the beginning of every boss fight attempt to use one or two consumable items to buff your character.
Depending on your build, you’ll want to have specific mixtures of Crystal Tears ready to go as you approach the boss room. For example, you may have an Intelligence build reliant on Cerulean Hidden Tear to give your Tarnished infinite mana on spells useful against Divine Beast Dancing Lion. Make sure whatever you have on hand is something that you can use quickly a second time when it runs out if you find a window during the fight.
Another good item to stock up on in preparation is Exalted Flesh in Elden Ring, especially if you aren’t confident enough in your build’s damage output. Divine Beast Dancing Lion does not have a second phase, but its moves do change as you lower its health. The faster you are able to bring out the beast’s true strength, the fewer chances the boss will have to slowly chip away at your healing resources.
The recommended level for this boss fight is 150, as this should be the amount of power you need to start the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC in general. All the preparation in the world cannot help you defeat the Dancing Lion if you are too low a level to fight it. However, those who have beaten most of the bosses in the game should have a specialized focus strong enough to deal with tough opponents.
How To Defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion (1st Half Of Health)
Watch Out For Long-Reaching Attacks
When you are ready to fight Divine Beast Dancing Lion, you can consider it a multiphase boss due to how its moves change based on health. For the first half of its health, the Divine Beast mainly uses physical attacks with its massive elongated body to strike your character for great damage. Many of these attacks are staggered, leading to strange timings that can be hard to adapt to at first.
As you can see in the above video by YouTube creator Champs World , remember that Spirit Ashes are excellent summons for this fight , giving you allies to distract Divine Beast Dancing Lion and deal good damage to help take it down.
| Attack | Description | How To Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Jetstream Smoke | The Dancing Lion fires a blast of gray smoke that inflicts physical damage in a straight line toward your character. This attack is usually used to reach you from across the boss arena at the start of the fight. | Simply move quickly to one side to avoid this attack. |
| Leaping Bite | Jumping into the air, the Divine Beast stays suspended for a moment before smashing into the ground with a physical bite attack. | Dodge out of the way as soon as the boss goes toward the ground. |
| Double Bite | The Dancing Lion makes two quick bite attacks with its jaw. | Either dodge both attacks or use a shield to block them (only if your character has high Stamina). |
| Hesitant Slam | The Divine Beast raises the front half of their body of the ground before slamming back down to produce a small shockwave around itself. | Watch for when the boss raises itself off the ground, then run away to get far from the incoming shockwave. |
| Attack | Description | How To Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Snapping Lion | After snapping their jaws together a few times, the Dancing Lion rushes forward extremely fast for a bite attack. | Dodge after the boss clamps their jaws together two times. This attack usually follows one hit of the Double Bite attack. |
| Dancing Twister | Jumping into the air, the Divine Beast moves in a corkscrew motion, flying down to the ground to hit anything it reaches before gliding back into the sky to do this move a second time. | Stay under the boss when it goes into the air, then dodge right before it descends. |
| Circle of Ash | After performing Dancing Twister, the Dancing Lion sprays physically damaging smoke along the ground 360 degrees around itself. | Jump above the smoke or stay right next to the boss to avoid this attack. |
The best strategy during this “phase” of the boss fight is to watch out for Dancing Twister and its follow-up move. The physical strikes from Divine Beast Dancing Lion are similar to some of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring due to their absurd damage. Even though the ranged smoke attacks don’t impose a status effect like Bleed, taking one or two hits will be enough to wipe out characters with low Vigor.
As befitting the sheer size of the Lands Between, there are an immense number of Bosses available for the Tarnished to fight in Elden Ring.
How To Defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion (2nd Half Of Health)
Avoid Areas Glowing With Electricity
When you reduce Divine Beast Dancing Lion’s health to around 50%, the boss will gain new moves to unleash against your Tarnished character. The power of electricity begins to flow through the massive beast, making them as terrifying as a monster like Dragonlord Placidusax in Elden Ring. While the Dancing Lion keeps many of its moves from the first “phase,” the elemental boost gives it new attacks you have to watch out for.
| Attack | Description | How To Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Boost | When Dancing Lion reaches 50% health, it twists into the air before roaring, causing multiple bolts of lightning to strike the ground. | Get far away from the boss to avoid both the shockwave from the roar and the lightning bolts that strike the space near the boss. |
| Circle of Electricity | Same as the Circle of Ash attack from earlier, only this time the Dancing Lion uses electricity and spins around itself more than once. | Step back from the boss and jump over every instance of electricity that gets near you. Try to land a jumping attack on the boss every time this happens. |
| Dancing Thunderstorm | The Divine Beast does the same action as the Dancing Twister attack, but causes lightning to strike around everywhere in its path. | The ground will begin to spark with lightning, indicating where the next bolts of electricity will strike during this attack. Dodge the boss and try to avoid these spaces. |
| Lingering Bolt | After jumping up quickly, the Dancing Lion throws a single bolt of lightning at your character. The spot where the bolt is thrown will begin to spark, causing a series of lightning strikes to take place soon after the attack. | Dodge the initial lightning bolt, then run out of the way to avoid the spot where the additional lightning strikes will appear. |
| Divine Beast Roar | The Divine Beast coils into the air before unleashing a massive roar that delivers a damaging shockwave in a large space near it. | Either get far away from the boss or dodge the moment it begins roaring. |
The best strategy during this “phase” is to keep a safe distance from the boss and attack at the end of moves that don’t leave lingering electricity. Getting overzealous with attacks in Elden Ring will prevent your character from moving out of dangerous spots where lightning will keep striking. Perfect dodge timing can’t save you if you leave yourself in bad positions against this boss.
Remaining patient and seizing various opportunities to hit the boss with physical strikes or magic will allow you to eventually drain its health to nothing. Those who manage to beat the Divine Beast Dancing Lion in the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring can claim 90,000 Runes and the Remembrance of this boss, which will lead to other rewards.