Elden Ring bosses come in all shapes and sizes. Some are big, while some are small. Some are human-like, while some look otherworldly. Each encounter in Elden Ring is a surprise to the senses.
Royal Revenant is one of Elden Ring’s most distinctly unique and terrifying bosses in the game. The agility and pure annihilation of its attacks make this boss fight even more frightening than originally anticipated. However, with an astute strategy and tactic in place, you’ll effortlessly ace this boss fight.
Royal Revenant Overview
If you’re squeamish, you’ll find this grotesque amalgamation of humanoid and arachnid body parts to be more of an obscene and disturbing abomination than it was ever meant to be. Having said that, its nightmarish body is the reason it’s so deadly and agile.
Health Bar: The Royal Revenant’s health can be depleted relatively quickly. However, beware that once it reaches 50% of its original value, the boss will enter its second phase, meaning it will deal more damage.
Types of Damage: The Royal Revenant deals standard damage and sometimes inflicts poison.
Weaknesses: The Royal Revenant is weak to slash, fire, holy, and lightning damage. It is also extremely weak to healing incantations with an AoE like Heal, using such incantations near the Royal Revenant will break its poise and deal massive damage.
Weapons: The Royal Revenant has no weapons, per se. Instead, it uses its many limbs to strike and deal standard damage, as well as spit poison.
Parrying: None of the Royal Revenant’s attacks can be parried.
Elden Ring Royal Revenant’s Location: The Royal Revenant can be encountered in the following location:
- Kingsrealm Ruins: Located on the western side of Liurnia of the Lakes, Kingsrealm Ruins houses the Royal Revenant inside one of its many dungeons. The area can be easily reached on foot or horseback, just watch out for any enemies lurking around.
Moveset:
- Flailing Advance: This attack consists of numerous swipes and slashes at once from the Royal Revenant, using all but two of its limbs. It’ll rush into you and lock onto your character, making it harder to evade. This move is often followed by a ground slam. Blocks are ineffective against this attack, so stick to dodging to the side.
- Lunge: The Royal Revenant stands on its hind legs and lunges at you, slamming everything in its way. It’ll often perform this move twice in a row, so be ready for that and dodge just as it’s about to slam the ground.
- Ground Slam: During this short yet powerful attack, the Royal Revenant stands up on its hind legs and raises its front arms before violently slamming down on the ground.
- Teleporting Swipe: If you keep your distance, the Royal Revenant will react by teleporting to you and unleashing a quick swipe. As long as you’re locked onto the boss, you can easily dodge away from it.
- Poison Spit: Once the Royal Revenant’s mouth starts foaming, get out of its line of sight, as it’s about to spew a stream of poison in a straight line directly in front of it.
Pre-fight Preparation
Some pre-fight preparation is certainly needed before heading into battle with the Royal Revenant. We’ll disclose some general tips, applicable to all builds, then move on to build-specific tips to increase your chances of defeating the Royal Revenant.
Bring Neutralizing Boluses to negate the Royal Revenant’s poison damage
In case you sustain poison damage from the Royal Revenant’s poison spit attack, some Neutralizing Boluses will come in handy to alleviate your poison build-up or cure you completely.
Neutralizing Boluses can be purchased from the Nomadic Merchant for 600 Runes or obtained through crafting if you have the Armorer’s Cookbook [2].
Equip a shield and enchant it with the Ash of War: Barricade Shield
The Barricade Shield skill that comes with this Ash of War will allow you to deflect powerful attacks and set you up for a devastating counter-attack, as well as preserve your stamina and keep it from depleting too early.
Ash of War: Barricade Shield can be obtained after defeating Night’s Cavalry in Weeping Peninsula.
Melee Builds
Equip your hardest-hitting weapon
As a melee player, you’ll have rather limited striking opportunities. Equipping a heavy, hard-hitting weapon will allow you to make the most out of every striking opportunity and even break the Royal Revenant’s stance if you’re lucky.
Coat your weapon with Holy Grease or Fire Grease
You can exploit the Royal Revenant’s weakness to fire and holy damage by coating your weapon with Holy Grease or Fire Grease. Doing so will allow you to deal additional damage and accelerate the depletion of the boss’ health bar.
Holy Grease can be found across several locations in the game world or crafted if you have the Missionary’s Cookbook [4]. The same can be said for Fire Grease, only you need the Armorer’s Cookbook [1] to be able to craft it.
Magic and Ranged Builds
Equip the Heal incantation
While the Heal incantation is not inherently offensive, against the Royal Revenant, it is an excellent offensive tool that will passively drain the boss’ health bar due to its low resistance to Faith.
If you chose the Prophet class at the start of the game, you should already have the Heal incantation. If not, it can be purchased from Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold for 1,500 Runes.
Summon tanky or multi-unit spirit ashes
The agility and excessive teleportation of the Royal Revenant will make it extra difficult to maintain a safe distance from it. Tanky or multi-unit spirit ashes will keep the Royal Revenant focused on them, hopefully for the entire length of the boss fight, and allow you to strike from distance.
Our picks for this boss fight are Banished Knight Oleg, Greatshield Soldier Ashes, and Lone Wolf Ashes.
Fight Strategy
First things first, we must let you know that the ideal build for this boss fight would be ranged, as it’s extremely difficult to safely stay within melee reach of the Royal Revenant.
We’ll begin with a general tip and then move on to build-specific strategies.
Be mindful of your surroundings
Despite the relatively spacious arena —devoid of any obstacles—, the aggressiveness and speed of the Royal Revenant will have you scrambling for space to dodge into. It’s fairly easy to get yourself cornered against one of the four walls in the arena if you aren’t alert to what’s around.
Try to always keep some empty space on either side of you.
Melee Players
Make the most out of your shield
During this boss fight, you’ll always find yourself on the wrong foot, with the Royal Revenant constantly at your throat. Use your shield whenever possible, as it will both protect you and create striking opportunities for you.
Refrain from blocking the Royal Revenant’s Flailing Advance, Poison Spit, and Lunge attack.
Maintain constant movement
You can’t afford to stand still against the Royal Revenant, as it’ll duly punish you. Try to keep within melee range of the Revenant while continuously circling around it and keeping out of its direct line of sight.
Make sure to dodge to the side
Dodging into or away from the Royal Revenant’s attacks is wholly unreliable and dangerous. Your best bet is to dodge laterally, out of the Revenant’s line of sight, as all of its attacks target whatever is directly in front of it.
Anticipate the Royal Revenant’s Poison Spit attack
As soon as you notice the start of the Revenant’s Poison Spit attack, stray far from its line of sight and wait for it to finish the attack, then charge at it and perform a heavy or jumping attack for best effect.
Ranged Players
Capitalize on the Royal Revenant’s low resistance to Faith
Cast the heal incantation near the Royal Revenant whenever you have enough Faith. It’ll deal considerable damage to the boss in a short period of time.
If your faith is high enough, you could even spam the Heal incantation and end the boss fight in 2 to 3 usages of the incantation.
Keep out of the Royal Revenant’s line of sight
While you keep your distance, refrain from directly facing the Revenant as that is where most of its attacks will originate from. Regardless of how far you are from the boss, you’ll always be vulnerable to a teleport, a charge, or a long-range attack, so don’t leave it to chance.
Make the most out of your summoned spirit ashes
The likeliness of your spirit ashes surviving the entirety of the boss fight is incredibly low, further emphasizing the need to capitalize on their existence while they’re still alive. Try to be more aggressive while the Royal Revenant is distracted by the spirit ashes and shave off as much of its health bar as possible.
Resort to your shield if need be
If you get ambushed by the Royal Revenant or find yourself cornered against the walls of the arena, quickly pull up your shield and hope for the best, then try to safely remove yourself from that awkward situation.
Rewards
Unfortunately, no noteworthy rewards are granted after defeating the Royal Revenant, which is quite a disappointment.
That being said, you do get 3,100 Runes in your first playthrough and 12,400 Runes if it’s your second playthrough.
For some, these monetary rewards might be worth it but for others… maybe not so much.
In either case, with the aid of this guide, you can now head into battle and implement the tips and strategies bestowed upon you to make easy work of the disgusting abomination that is the Royal Revenant. And with that, we wish you the best of luck!
