As one of the better-hidden bosses in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, the Scadutree Avatar is surprisingly one of the easier fights in the DLC. Is it actually easy? No, especially given how it deals with phases. Between the boss’s massive and incredibly vulnerable weak spot and simple-to-avoid attacks, however, putting this superpowered sunflower to bed is far from the toughest challenge in the Realm of Shadow.
How to Reach Scadutree Base North of the Shadow Keep in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
First, full disclosure: I could not, for dozens of hours, find the path to Scadutree Base and the Scadutree Avatar. As it turns out, I came within spitting distance of the doorway leading there but looked left instead of right. To get the Scadutree Base, you first need to drain the water in the Church District of the Shadow Keep. Here’s how.
- Reach the Church District of the Shadow Keep by traveling through the path beneath Moorth Ruins, reachable via the small broken balcony on its eastern side.
- Travel east through Bonny Village, across the bridge to the mainland, then north, and then west through the large gateway into the District.
- Platform across the rooftops until you pass the first Fire Knight, drop down onto the rafters, then onto the platform just above the water, and follow the hallway with the additional Fire Knights until you reach your first left turn.
- Follow the path around and more to the left, past the bats, over the gap, and up the ladder. Turn the large crank to lower the water, then grab the Sunken Church Site of Grace.
Once you have the Sunken Church Site of Grace, travel north until you see a church on your left with another Fire Knight at its back. He’ll be summoning a bunch of exploding skeletons when you get close.
When you reach where the Fire Knight is standing, you can either kill the bastard to stop his summoning fire skeletons or make an immediate right into a hallway leading into the mist. This is the hallway that I missed over three playthroughs and finally found by sheer accident.
Go down the hallway until you reach a chamber with a pair of double doors at the bottom of a small staircase and an item up top. Grab the item, then open the doors, take the elevator down, and grab the Grace you find. Continue through the cave, across the rickety bridge, past the headless statue of Marika with the Iris of Grace in front of it, and down the stairs to the left or right.
The Grace you find there is right in front of the Scadutree Avatar boss fight.
How to Beat the Scadutree Avatar in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
The first and most important thing to know about beating the Scadutree Avatar is its weak point: the massive sunflower that acts as its head. Almost any attack that hits the sunflower will deal triple damage or more to the boss, making it possible to two-shot it with the right attacks, even on higher new game cycles.
Secondly, as a living plant, the Scadutree Avatar is massively weak to fire attacks of all types. If you’re running a Faith build, Giantsflame Take Thee buffed by the Giant’s Seal and Flame Grant Me Strength can easily do 6,000+ damage to the boss if you hit it in the “head.”
Third, the Scadutree Avatar fight has three phases, each with its own health bar. The boss gains a slight bump to its health total with each phase, but you can remove a massive chunk of each new health bar by taking a critical hit on the sunflower head when the boss’s health depletes. Doing so removes about a fourth of the next phase’s health, giving you a really nice head start. Should you fail to take the critical, each new phase will start at full health.
All Scadutree Avatar Attacks in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
The Scadutree Avatar doesn’t have that many attacks but does gain a couple of new ones with each phase.
Scadutree Avatar Phase One Attacks
Double Swipe
One of its most common attacks, the Scadutree Avatar swipes its branch-arms across its front from right to left, then left to right. You can dodge the attack by rolling forward or backward through the hitboxes but rolling in the direction the attack goes will likely get you clipped.
(Glowing) Head Slam
There are two variants of the head slam in the Scadutree Avatar’s move set. They both look the same. The boss will raise its sunflower head into the air a bit, then, after a delay, slam it into the ground. The regular version lacks any energy power-up, while the glowing version sees the boss surround its head with golden energy, giving the slam a small, secondary AoE. Dodging backward just before the slam hits avoids both versions.
Double Line of Thorns
The Scadutree Avatar’s favorite long-range attack, it swipes its branch-hands into the water in front of itself, sending out two pairs of intersecting lines of thorns that explode upward out of the water shortly after reaching the end of the attack length. You have about a half second to dodge in any direction, even into the rising thorns, to avoid damage, but beware of the slightly delayed second, smaller line with each part of the attack.
Field of Thorns
After slamming one of its branch arms into the ground, several circles will appear in the water around the Scadutree avatar, where masses of thorns will erupt shortly thereafter. This field of thorns can either be in one or two “rings” around the boss and while you can dodge them like other thorn attacks, it’s usually easier just to run outside the “rings” of the attack itself.
Fragment Lasers
Here, the Scadutree Avatar raises its sunflower-head as high as possible and summons one or three groups of wooden fragments clad in golden energy. The groups have between six and ten fragment beams that will track you enough that you can’t simply run to one side to avoid them. You’ll need to dodge just before the first one hits you, then immediately a second time to avoid the ones that lag behind. If there are additional waves, the dodging continues.
Scadutree Avatar Phase Two Attacks
There are only two new attacks in phase two.
Transition Hit
After its body dissolves, the Scadutree Avatar will generate another from the material in the ground. You’ll know it by the bubbling swamp liquid from which the boss’s new body will appear. When it does pop out, it does a single swipe attack. You can dodge to avoid it or just run backward and outpace the swing.
Triple Charge
The other new phase two attack and the one the Scadutree Avatar almost always opens the second phase with, shortly after it reappears, it will rear back and charge forward. It will repeat the charge two more times, and avoiding it requires different timing depending on how far away the boss is when the charge starts. You need to dodge just before its sunflower-head connects, and I recommend dodging backward for best results. The boss can cancel the third charge, so watch out for that.
Scadutree Avatar Phase Three Attacks
Like phase two, the Scadutree Avatar only gets one additional attack in its third phase, but it’s a doozy.
Grace Explosion
This attack has two modes: single burst or double, with the double being more likely as the Scadutree Avatar’s health gets lower. The basics are the same: golden energy will start shooting out of the center of the boss, and after about three or four seconds, that energy will explode, dealing massive damage. The Avatar can do the attack a second time right after the first for an even larger blast with an even more delayed activation. Your best bet, in my book, is just to run away.
Whew. Now you know not only how to get to it but also how to beat the Scadutree Avatar in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. It’s actually an incredibly fun fight, it’s a bit repetitive. The arena is great, too, and the music gets better with each phase.
For more on the Elden Ring‘s massive DLC, check out our Elden Ring guides hub for the game, including a piece on where the point of no return is.
