The Elden Beast is the last thing standing between you and the credits — a sprawling, floor-swimming final boss that shows up with no breather after Radagon, in the same healthbar runback, when your flasks are already half-spent. It's also the fight players complain about more than almost any other, and usually for the wrong reason: they bring the damage type that doesn't work and spend the fight chasing a boss that keeps teleporting away. This guide gives you the real numbers, the two things to stop doing immediately, and the buffs and summons that actually end it.
Quick answer: Beat the Elden Beast with raw physical damage — it is holy-resistant and immune to every status effect (bleed, rot, frost, poison, sleep and madness all do nothing), so leave your Sacred weapons and your bleed build on the bench. Summon a Spirit Ash (Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche) to hold aggro, cast Lord's Divine Fortification and equip a Haligdrake Talisman to blunt its holy attacks, and when it casts Elden Stars run perpendicular or tuck under its body instead of trying to out-roll the barrage. It has 22,127 HP, 121 defense, and drops 500,000 Runes. On this version — base game 1.17, live since 2026-08-28 — the fight itself is unchanged.
Where is the Elden Beast and why is this the last fight?
The Elden Beast is fought on the Stone Platform inside the Erdtree at Leyndell, Ashen Capital, immediately after Radagon of the Golden Order. There is no Site of Grace between the two — Radagon and the Elden Beast share one continuous encounter, and the fog closes behind Radagon the moment he falls. If you die to the Beast, you re-run Radagon first, which is a big part of why this fight feels so punishing: every attempt costs you a second boss.
It is mandatory. The Elden Beast is the final boss of Elden Ring, and every ending in the game runs through it — there is no route, item or questline that lets you skip it (Fextralife, verified 2026-10-01). Lore-wise it is the vassal and true form of the Elden Ring itself, which is exactly why its damage profile is so unusual compared to the demigods you've been fighting all game.
Elden Beast stats: HP, defense and runes
Here are the verified numbers, cross-checked across two independent sources that agree exactly on the headline figure:
- HP (New Game): 22,127 (Fextralife and RankedBoost, both verified 2026-10-01)
- Defense: 121
- Rune reward: 500,000 Runes — one of the largest single payouts in the base game
- Damage dealt: Physical + Holy
- Great Rune / Remembrance: None. Unlike the demigods, the Elden Beast drops only its runes and the game's ending. Reload your save after the credits to begin New Game+.
That 22,127 HP is lower than Malenia's two-phase total and lower than the Fire Giant's — on paper the Elden Beast is not a hard-hitting damage sponge. What makes it a wall is its resistances and the arena-wide attacks that eat your estus between hits.
What is the Elden Beast weak to — and what does nothing?
This is the single most important section of the fight, and the one most "stuck" players get wrong.
Bring physical damage. The Elden Beast has no notable physical weakness, but it takes physical damage cleanly — so a strongly upgraded physical or split-physical weapon is the reliable answer. Your upgrade level and your ability to land safe pokes between its attacks carry the fight far more than any gimmick.
Do NOT bring holy damage. The Elden Beast is holy-resistant (Fextralife, verified 2026-10-01). Sacred-affinity weapons, Golden Order incantations, and the holy portion of weapons like the Blasphemous Blade all underperform here. If your whole endgame build leaned on holy, this is the fight where it falls apart — swap to a physical setup before you commit.
Do NOT rely on status effects. The Elden Beast is immune to every status in the game — Scarlet Rot, Hemorrhage (Bleed), Frostbite, Poison, Sleep and Madness all do zero. This is unusual: almost every other boss in Elden Ring, including Malenia and Mohg, can be chipped by at least one status. The Beast cannot. A bleed build that shredded the rest of your run contributes nothing but its base physical damage here, so plan around that.
The short version: if it isn't physical damage, assume it doesn't count.
How do you survive Elden Stars and Concept of Orders?
The Elden Beast's danger isn't its melee — it's two signature spells that cover the whole arena.
Elden Stars is the move that defines the fight. The Beast casts a huge arcing rain of golden holy projectiles that track across the entire platform and fall over several seconds. Trying to out-roll the full barrage in the open usually fails — the stars follow you. The reliable survival pattern is to run perpendicular to the arc or stay tucked under the Beast's body, where many of the projectiles pass over you. This is the attack community posts complain about most, and the one that punishes panic-rolling hardest.
Concept of Orders is an expanding golden ring-shockwave that travels out along the ground. Jump over it or roll through it on the wind-up — treat it like any FromSoftware ground AoE.
The Beast also swims through the floor to reposition, opening huge distance and then re-engaging from across the arena. This is the source of the loudest complaint about the fight — that it "runs away." One player on r/Eldenring put it bluntly, calling it "the worst fucking boss in existence" largely because of how much it repositions. The fix isn't to chase it across the platform into another Elden Stars cast — it's to close distance aggressively the moment it lands, because its melee punish windows are generous once you're underneath it.
How do you deal damage to a boss that keeps running away?
The Elden Beast's floor-swimming repositioning is what turns a 22,127-HP boss into a ten-minute slog, so the real skill of the fight is converting its movement into your damage windows instead of chasing it.
When the Beast dives into the floor and reappears across the arena, resist the urge to sprint after it in a straight line — that straight-line approach is exactly when Elden Stars or Concept of Orders catches you with no stamina to dodge. Instead, close the gap at an angle, keeping your camera on its body so you can read the next wind-up, and only commit to a sprint when it has clearly finished a cast. Mounted play does not help here; the arena is flat and open, but Torrent's turning circle makes it easy to overshoot and eat a shockwave, so most players fight the Beast on foot.
Its melee attacks — tail sweeps, body slams and the trailing golden claws — have long, readable recoveries. Once you are underneath it, you typically get two to three hits before it acts again, and because it has no status defenses to exploit, every one of those hits should come from your highest raw-damage option. Weapon arts and charged heavy attacks that stagger are worth more than flashy status procs that do nothing. Over a full fight, those small, safe punish windows — multiplied by a Spirit Ash keeping the Beast's attention elsewhere — are what close out the healthbar.
What are the best summons and buffs for the Elden Beast?
Because the Beast's threat is spread across the arena rather than concentrated in big melee combos, aggro control and holy mitigation matter more than raw DPS tools.
- Spirit Ash summons. A Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche holds the Beast's attention and gives you clean windows to punish while it's distracted — the single highest-value thing you can bring to this fight.
- Lord's Divine Fortification. This incantation grants a large Holy damage-negation buff. Cast it to cut the chip damage from Elden Stars and the Beast's holy attacks dramatically; re-cast as it wears off.
- Haligdrake Talisman (or holy-absorbing armor). Stacks further holy resistance on top of Fortification, softening the exact damage type that makes this boss dangerous.
With a summon soaking aggro, Fortification up, and holy resistance equipped, the Beast's arena-wide spells stop being lethal and become merely annoying — and 22,127 HP falls fast to an upgraded physical weapon.
What level and stats do you need for the Elden Beast?
There is no official recommended level — FromSoftware doesn't publish one, so treat every number below as community consensus, not an official requirement.
Experienced players converge on roughly level 120–150 with a +24/+25 (or Somber +9/+10) physical weapon and 50–60 Vigor by the time they reach the Elden Beast. The Vigor target in particular is near-unanimous: a common player rule of thumb is "25 Vigor by Godrick, 45 by Morgott, 60 by endgame," and another r/Eldenring regular summed up the endgame bar as "60 Vigor is essential for end game if it's your first playthrough." You can clear the fight with less if your mechanics are sharp — plenty of players finish lower-level runs — but for a first clear, Vigor is the stat that keeps a stray Elden Stars volley from one-shotting you.
Upgrade level matters as much as character level here. Because status effects are off the table, your weapon's raw physical scaling and upgrade tier are doing most of the damage work.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Elden Beast the final boss of Elden Ring? Yes. It is the last fight in the base game, fought immediately after Radagon of the Golden Order, and every ending runs through it. There is no way to skip it.
Can you summon help against the Elden Beast? Yes. Spirit Ashes (Mimic Tear, Black Knife Tiche) are allowed and strongly recommended because they hold aggro while the Beast repositions. Co-op multiplayer with other players is also available.
Why does holy damage not work on the Elden Beast? The Elden Beast is holy-resistant because it is the Elden Ring's true form — the source of the Golden Order's holy power. Sacred-affinity weapons and Golden Order incantations underperform; bring physical damage instead.
Can you bleed the Elden Beast? No. It is immune to Hemorrhage (Bleed) along with Scarlet Rot, Frostbite, Poison, Sleep and Madness. No status effect does anything to it, so a bleed build only contributes its base physical damage.
How much HP does the Elden Beast have? 22,127 HP in New Game, with 121 defense. It drops 500,000 Runes on defeat.
How do you dodge Elden Stars? Run perpendicular to the projectile arc or stay tucked under the Beast's body rather than trying to roll through the full barrage in the open. Cast Lord's Divine Fortification and equip a Haligdrake Talisman to reduce the damage you do take.
The bottom line
The Elden Beast punishes the exact habits that carried you through the rest of Elden Ring: a status-heavy build, a holy finisher, and the instinct to chase a fleeing boss. Flip all three. Equip a strong physical weapon, forget status effects entirely, stack holy mitigation (Lord's Divine Fortification plus a Haligdrake Talisman), bring a Spirit Ash to hold aggro, and respect Elden Stars by moving perpendicular instead of panic-rolling. With 50–60 Vigor and a well-upgraded weapon, its 22,127 HP doesn't last long once you stop fighting it the wrong way. (All stats verified 2026-10-01 against Fextralife and RankedBoost; base game version 1.17.)
If you want to retrace the endgame gauntlet that leads here, see our guides on how to beat the Fire Giant, how to beat Mohg, Lord of Blood and how to beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella — or browse all of our Elden Ring guides for build and boss help across the whole run.
