The Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring is the first boss you’ll encounter after reaching the overworld of Limgrave. After clearing the prologue and actually being set loose on the world, you may be tempted to tackle this individual, to varying degrees of success. Nonetheless, if you’re stuck on this tough enemy within Elden Ring and need some tips on how to defeat it, here’s our guide.
Elden Ring FAQ: Every Guide You’ll Need
ELDEN RING: HOW TO FIND TREE SENTINEL
As soon as you reach The First Steps Site of Grace and speak to White-Faced Varré, you may notice in the clearing below a large rider on horseback patrolling the forest. This is Tree Sentinel, and it’s just as huge and mean as it looks. Contrary to what you may think, Tree Sentinel is actually a completely optional boss and can be bypassed without engaging with him.
Keep this in mind as we would definitely recommend seeking out better weapons and upgrades to bring back to this fight later on. This is especially true of all bosses in Elden Ring; they’ll never move from their location in the world and can be attempted an infinite number of times until you beat them.
For Tree Sentinel specifically though, it depends on your build. For melee-focused characters, we recommend leaving the area for now and grabbing two helpful tools: Torrent and the Twinblade. We have a guide on how to find Torrent here, and another guide on where to find the Twinblade here.
With these two at your usage, you should be able to fight Tree Sentinel with ease. Make sure you upgrade your weapon level a few times, as well as your character level too, as this will make you much stronger and better equipped to fight it.
HOW TO DEFEAT TREE SENTINEL
When you feel ready to take on Tree Sentinel, head back to the First Steps Site of Grace and mount Torrent. Ride down into the clearing below and grab the bosses’ attention. Be aware that its greataxe has a long reach, and so you want to keep as much distance as possible between the two of you. You’ll know when you’ve activated the boss fight, as the music kicks into gear and a giant health bar appears at the bottom.
While on horseback, lure Tree Sentinel back into the clearing below the Site of Grace. This will be your battle arena. Make sure to continue keeping your distance as you fight it. The boss will charge at you and swing its giant greataxe. There will be some moves where it swings it around like a club, and others where it might lunge it at you like a spear. After it does this move, there’s a small window for you to run at it and stab it with your Twinblade.
Using a heavy attack (RT) versus a light attack (RB) obviously does more damage here, but it takes longer to charge up. If going for the heavier option, leave about one second for the attack to land. You’ll also want to keep Tree Sentinel to your right, that’s the side you’ll attack from.
Tree Sentinel also has a few other moves. If you see it jump in the air, clear out of the way as it’ll perform a giant area-of-effect attack all around it once it lands. It can also shoulder-barge you if you hang around too close to it, which deals massive damage. So you want to ideally be keeping a safe distance when you’re not ready to attack.
It also has one final move, where it’ll activate a special magical effect to its shield. You’ll know when Tree Sentinel has done this as a light blue circle will be applied to its shield. This offers it some temporary protection, but the boss also has a chance of disappearing entirely. If this happens, the boss isn’t invisible. It’s actually reset itself to its original position inside the forest. Head back towards and aggro it once more. Luckily, its health pool will remain the same if you don’t reset at a Site of Grace.
Just keep playing it safe with the Twinblade attacks and keeping away from the boss inside the clearing. Stay on Torrent for as long as possible, as Torrent grants you extra speed and attack power that will be instrumental in defeating the boss. Repeat until it’s dead.
And there you go, you’ve just defeated Tree Sentinel, the first real boss in Elden Ring. Congratulations!
Be sure to check out our other guides on Elden Ring. We have starter tips on upgrading your Sacred Flask, using Ashes of War and Spirit Ashes, as well as how to use Torrent. If you want to know more about levelling, check out our guide to each class in the game, how to level up, and the best locations to farm runes. And finally, if it’s boss encounters you’re after we also have some tips to help you beat the early game bosses.
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