Divine Beast Dancing Lion Guide and Location (Elden Ring DLC Boss)

How to Beat Divine Beast Dancing Lion in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

In this Divine Beast Dancing Lion Guide for the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, we’ll cover its location, rewards, recommended level, mechanics, phases, and more.

It will likely be the first boss that you face from the new DLC. Check out our many Elden Ring build guides if you need help clearing this boss or any other content.

Feel free to ask any additional comments in the comments below!

After you defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion, don’t miss our Rellana, Twin Moon Knight Guide and Golden Hippopotamus guide.

Location

The Divine Beast Dancing Lion can be found in the upper levels of Belurat Tower Settlement in the North-West of the Gravesite Plain.

You will encounter this boss after making your way through the Legacy dungeon.

Reward

After killing this boss you will be rewarded with 2 things:

• His Remembrance, which can net you either an Ash of War or a Talisman
• His head, the Divine Beast Head, increases your Strength, Dexterity, and Storm incantation by 5% while reducing the amount your flasks heal.

Recommended Level for Attempt

The DLC has probably the most forgiving way of getting stronger, collecting Scadutree Fragments. These fragments increase the damage you deal while reducing the damage you take. Collecting these is the difference between being 2shot by most bosses and being able to normally fight them.

These fragments are scattered through the Shadowlands and will be collected throughout your run.
For this boss, I recommend a minimum of Level 4 from your Scadutree Fragments level, while making it best if you are either level 5 or 6 even.

Meanwhile, your level should be around level 150 when encountering this boss, considering you completed the entire main game.

Damage Types

Strong Against

Dealing mostly Lightning and Frostbite damage in his second stage, he is very strong against these damage types and I would highly advise you not to fight him with these damages.

Weak Against

This boss is however weak against a lot more damage types, those being:

• Pierce
• Fire
• Bleed
• Scarlet Rot

Bleed is very strong in this DLC because all bosses have very high HP. This means the damage that bleed does is also much higher, which is why I recommend this damage type above the rest. The rest, however, will still get the job done.

Three Phases

Overall, this boss is very aggressive and can feel unrelenting at times but he has windows where you can attack.

The Divine Beast Dancing Lion has 3 phases. His second phase begins when he has lost between a quarter and a third of his HP.

In his first phase, he mostly deals Physical damage while being very aggressive in melee range.

In his second phase, this gets turned up to 11 by giving him ranged attacks that deal Lightning damage.

Around 50% HP his third phase will trigger where he rises in the air again and now empowers himself with Frostbite. He will now alternate between Lightning, Physical, or Frostbite damage.

Notable Attacks

Attack Name	Description	Counter
Wind Blast	This boss stands still while breathing wind toward your position, which usually happens when you enter the arena.	Running to either side or rolling.
Leaping Bite	Usually happens when you are further away. He will sprint towards you after which he leaps into the air and bites down	This attack can either be blocked with a shield or rolled to the left.
Spinning Whirlwind	Usually happens when you are very close to the creature. It will stand up tall and start spinning breathing wind into a circle around him. Being hit will hit you with heavy damage and send you back.	You can either jump over the projectiles once they hit the floor, or run away far enough to not be hit. Do not be close to him however since you can’t jump it then.
Side Bite	Usually happens when you are very close to him after he does his Leaping Bite. He will do a quick bite towards you.	It almost always does this making it predictable, you can either block it with a shield or roll it.
Ground Smash	The beast will cock its head back and smash it into the ground after which he pulls it up making a shockwave with debris.	This attack deals heavy damage and should be avoided by rolling away before it happens or during the shockwave which can give you an opening.
Moving Whirlwind	Very similar to Spinning Whirlwind but he now moves around the arena and the attack is usually longer.	Just like the spinning whirlwind can be either jumped or avoided by running far enough away.
Double Bite	Similar to the Side Bite, but after biting it will immediately do another bite in the opposite direction.	If you have a shield can be blocked, otherwise roll to the left, then the right while backing up.
Tail Whip	Randomly the creature will whip its tail if you are near.	You can either block it, roll it, or avoid it by running away.
Lightning Bolt	In the second phase, the boss will summon lightning in its hand and throw it, this can be followed up by a second lightning strike if he wants to.	The only dodge this attack is by rolling it to the left or the right before the impact.
Moving Whirlwind with Lightning	Similar to the normal Moving Whirlwind but now it’s empowered by Lightning instead of just Air.	The same counter as before, either jump it or run away from it.
Side Bite with Lightning	Like before he will bite to the side but now a Lightning impact will follow immediately after.	Roll to the side away from the boss when he’s about to attack.
Spinning Whirlwind with Lightning	Just like the Normal Spinning Whirlwind but it’s empowered by Lightning.	Same counter as before, either jump it or run away from it.
Ice Stomp	This attack can trigger once he changes form to Ice damage. He raises his foot and stomps summoning Ice on the floor which breaks after.	You can either roll away from the area of impact or jump it to immediately jump attack his face.
Ice Bite	The boss does his usual side bite but now it will have a follow-up Ice impact.	You can either block it with good timing, dodge to the right, or back up.
Double Ice Ground Smash	The beast smashes the ground twice with Ice shards spreading on impact.	This attack has a heavy spread and therefore jumping is a bit risky, you can roll it multiple times, however.

Phase 1

The beast can be either hit on his head or his rear, smacking him in the middle part between those does no damage.

The beast will usually start with either his Wind Blast or his Leaping Bite. These can be easily dodged and the Leaping Bite can be punished but be careful cause sometimes he likes to do his Side Bite right after.

Anytime he lunges towards you, roll into him at the last second cause the I-frames will prevent you from taking damage.

Timing windows to attack/heal

The best openings for Either attacking or healing are after his Spinning or Moving Whirlwind, cause he will never immediately do a follow-up attack. The same goes for the Ground Smash, if you dodge this right and go into him he won’t immediately do another attack meaning you can either get damage in or heal.

Phase 2 (70% HP)

Phase 2 is a lot harder however and has fewer openings.

The beast will empower himself with Lightning giving him unique attacks. He always empowers himself with Lightning first which will scatter Lighting around the arena. These are always random and can be annoying to predict.

He has a lot fewer punishable attacks here cause some now have Lightning Strikes that follow up on the attacks.

Just like before however, the Spinning and Moding Whirlwinds are great attacks to punish him on or heal from even now that they are empowered by Lightning.

His Ground Smash is another great attack to still punish him on

You can make this part easier by either running a Lightning damage reduction talisman or consuming Lightningproof Dried Livers.

Phase 3 50% HP

Phase 3 is more of the same as Phase 2.

He will now empower himself with either Frostbite or Air while transitioning between dealing: Lightning, Frostbite, and Air Damage.

You can easily punish his Ice Stomp as it’s jumpable.

He will also use fewer ranged attacks in his Ice form.

Do care once he goes into his Air form that some of his attacks now have wind follow-up damage which knocks you away as well. This is perhaps the phase where he is the safest to attack cause there are a lot fewer follow-up attacks that deal massive damage.

But keeping in mind all the attacks I mentioned before that were punishable you should be able to clear this Phase as well!