How to Beat the Erdtree Avatar & Putrid Avatar
As You Journey Across the Lands Between, You’ll Encounter Many Strange and Bizarre Creatures in Elden Ring. Sometimes, It’s Hard to Predict What Manner of...
As you journey across the Lands Between, you’ll encounter many strange and bizarre creatures in Elden Ring. Sometimes, it’s hard to predict what manner of monstrosity you’ll find around the corner, but the Erdtree Avatar and Putrid Avatar field bosses are, for the most part, predictable.
With only a couple of exceptions, these field bosses can be found at the base of any Minor Erdtree. They are the guardians of the Minor Erdtrees, battling all trespassers who wander too close.
The Difference Between Erdtree & Putrid Avatars
These two bosses are variations of one another, with the Putrid Avatar being the more hazardous of the two. They share an identical move set and near-identical appearance. The main difference comes from an infection of Scarlet Rot. The Putrid Avatars are protecting Minor Erdtrees, which are rotting from within due to a Scarlet Rot infection, and the Putrid Avatars, in turn, are themselves afflicted by the same rot.
This affliction makes the Putrid Avatars the more dangerous of the two because their Leaping Slam attack sprays a wide area of the battlefield with Scarlet Rot, making it difficult to avoid infection—unless you know exactly where to stand.
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General Combat Tips
For weapon types, both field boss variants have slight resistances to Standard, Slash, and Pierce attacks, but they have no resistance to Strike damage. It’s always handy to keep a Strike weapon (hammer, mace) at the ready since there are several enemy types in Elden Ring who are only vulnerable to Strike damage. A Strike weapon can come in handy here, but it only offers a slight advantage, so not a make-or-break situation.
For you sorcerers out there, the Erdtree Avatar and Putrid Avatar field bosses have a slight resistance to magic but nothing too prohibitive. They do have a decent resistance to Holy damage, however, so if you’ve been specializing in Holy-based incantations, you might be better served to have a couple of backup Incantations that inflict a different damage type.
The real star of the show here is Fire damage. The Erdtree Avatar has a strong weakness to Fire damage, and the Putrid Avatar has a devastating weakness to Fire damage. Whether you have access to Fire Sorceries or Incantations, or you’ve been saving up some Fire Grease for a special occasion, Fire damage is devastating to this boss.
- Almost all of its attacks are performed while facing you, so try to roll behind it when dodging. This forces the Avatar to turn to face you before initiating its next attack. Some attacks are initiated while you are standing at its side, but those are easy to avoid.
- Don’t Summon Your Spirit Ash – it might be tempting to bring along your favorite combat companion, but they can actually make this fight much more difficult since it can be harder to predict where the boss’ attack will land. Especially with the Putrid Avatar variant, knowing where its Scarlet Rot attack lands are crucial for survival.
With the Erdtree Avatar variant, you could attempt mounted combat, but this only offers an advantage if you have a lot of room to move around. With a more cramped battlefield and due to the tracking on several of the Avatars' staff attacks, Torrent will be more of a hindrance than a help.
Sarah Jenkins is a veteran tech journalist with over 12 years of experience covering artificial intelligence, mobile innovations, and digital ethics. Her insights have appeared in leading technology publications worldwide.
