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 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.

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.

Erdtree & Putrid Avatar - Deadly Moves

The Avatar variants don’t have a terribly deep move set at their disposal, and each move is well-telegraphed, which helps quite a bit. Taking a direct hit can do quite a bit of damage, so you’ll want to pay extra attention to this boss’ tells and when an attack is coming down. This guide will not cover every attack in this boss’ move set, but it will instead cover the ones that tend to cause the most grief to players.

Leaping Slam

This move is fairly easy to avoid, but it’s the Putrid Avatar variation that makes it so devastating. The Putrid Avatar leaps up into the air, then slams down hard. When it hits the ground, it sprays a heavy dose of Scarlet Rot in a wide cone in front of it. This move can be devious, as one would think the Scarlet Rot sprays all around it, so you'd think it’s best to run away—this isn’t true. The Scarlet Rot sprays in a forward cone, and it covers quite a lot of ground.

Due to the size of the battlefield, you’re not likely to fully escape the range of the spray by simply running away. Instead, you want to stay close to the Putrid Avatar when it initiates this attack. When it slams into the ground, roll diagonally around to the side. This should get you out of the Scarlet Rot—if it doesn’t, simply roll again in quick succession to fully escape the Scarlet Rot hazard.

This boss will sometimes perform this attack over and over again, but the Scarlet Rot hazard doesn’t linger on the ground for very long, so you’re good to repeat the same dodging maneuver. The boss has an extensive recovery from this attack each time, affording you ample opportunity to punish it between moves.

It still might be worth having some Preserving Boluses available in case you do manage to get infected with Scarlet Rot. Or, if you have the Faith for it, consider the Flame, Cleanse Me Incantation.

Golden Projectiles

This move can devastate even the most seasoned Tarnished. It’s a move that demands your attention. It can be easy to avoid, but only if you are ready for it. The Avatar will turn its staff upside down and thrust its head into the ground. After a short delay, the golden light will explode, causing some AOE damage. Then, several golden sparkling motes will form in the air around the boss. These golden motes will shoot out toward the Tarnishes over a period of two seconds. During this time, the Avatar boss will also begin attacking again, creating a potentially deadly combo.

When you recognize the boss readying this move, you want to put some distance between you both—this helps delay the boss when it is finished performing the move, and it helps you avoid the initial AOE damage. As soon as the golden motes appear, you want to start running to the side. The projectiles move fast, but they have no tracking. As long as you’re running to the side, they will all harmlessly pass just behind you.

This strategy will help you avoid damage from this attack 90% of the time, but sometimes the boss is close enough to initiate an attack, and you might catch a couple of golden rays. This is fine. The attack is only devastating when you take the full brunt of it.

By following the above tips, you'll conquer any Erdtree or Putrid Avatar you come across in the Lands Between.

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