After exploring Nokron, Eternal City in Elden Ring, you’ll have the chance to solve another fire pillar puzzle and take on the Regal Ancestor Spirit boss fight. While structurally similar to the Siofra River boss, the Regal Ancestor Spirit throws some unexpected healing and resurrection tricks into the mix. In this guide, we’ll explain how to beat the Regal Ancestor Spirit and stop it from endlessly reviving against you.
Elden Ring: How to beat Regal Ancestor Spirit
© FromSoftware
The Regal Ancestor Spirit is an extremely similar to the Ancestor Spirit of Siofra River, meaning the same tactics used there will work here. The boss only has a few extra attacks to worry about, but its healing and revival are where most issues will arise.
Use Fire or Holy Damage: The Regal Ancestor Spirit is weak to both Fire and Holy damage, making them great options for your primary weapons or throwable pots/jars. It has a huge resistance to Blood loss, Poison, and Scarlet Rot, so don’t bother attempting to inflict them here.
Understand the healing:After you knock its health down to around 75%, the Regal Ancestor Spirit boss will glow with an aura, healing itself by consuming the glowing animal spirits around it. It will then gain access to a new set of moves. The next heal, it’ll gain another move. The ancestor spirit will only heal itself with nearby spirits, but it may also teleport to re-instantiate itself at a nearby spirit when low on health.
© FromSoftware
Be aggressive: Because of its healing capabilities, you need to be ruthlessly aggressive in this fight. After the Regal Ancestor Spirit heals, it won’t have anywhere to warp itself to when its health runs low. As such, you need to pummel it as quickly as possible when it gets to low health. It shouldn’t be able to outpace your damage if you stay close and strike often.
Stay up close: Much like the Ancestor Spirit, the Regal Ancestor Spirit has few moves that come out quickly up close. Stay up close and dodge the telegraphed moves to land a lot of hits, only dropping back when you see the spirit glow or start breathing fire.
Use ranged or fire damage Spirit Ashes: Because the Regal Ancestor Spirit teleports, often in the hope to heal, it's helpful to have ranged Spirit Ashes like the twin Marionette soldiers which can finish the fight if it shifts low on health. Alternatively, Spirit Ashes like the Radahn Soldier which deal fire damage will prove extra effective against this boss
Regal Ancestor Spirit moves to watch out for
The majority of the Regal Ancestor Spirit’s moves match those of the base version, so check our boss guide here to learn its basic headbutts and kicks. Below, we’ll be covering some of the new Regal Ancestor Spirit moves you need to deal with.
Glowing headbutt: The ancestor Spirit glows briefly before ramming forward a short distance. So long as you’re underneath him or towards his rear, this attack won’t hit you.
Healing: The Regal Ancestor Spirit rears its head back and begins sucking in life from all nearby animal ghosts. You can'y stop the heal, but you can deal as much damage as possible to negate the effect. The Ancestor spirit can only heal in large chunks when surrounded by spirits again, so taking down its health quickly afterwards is key.
Teleport slam: The Regal Ancestor glows and then vanishes, reappearing upright at a nearby glowing orb before slamming down again. You can hit the Ancestor as it vanishes, at which point it'll teleport to a nearby animal ghost. Either stay back from the spirit until it's reformed, or stand reasonably close and prepare to dodge sideways as it slams down.
Hops: The Ancestor Spirit whistles, rears back, and begins hopping on its hind legs. It will hop three times, then whistle again and slam forwards. Stick to its side with each hop and it won't be able to track you. If you get stuck in front, listen for the whistle as your cue to dodge the final slam.
Rollout: The Ancestor Spirit curls up in a ball and rolls forward. If you can get to its side as it rolls up, it can't turn fast enough to catch you.
Elden Ring: Regal Ancestor Spirit rewards
© FromSoftware
Manage to outpace the healing and you’ll earn the following Regal Ancestor Spirit rewards:
- 24,000 Runes
- Remembrance of the Regal Ancestor
That’s all we can teach you about how to beat the Regal Ancestor Spirit in Elden Ring. You’ll soon be facing the twin gargoyles, but make sure to beat the easier Ancestor Spirit first in Siofra River if you haven’t already done so. Next up in Nokron is the Valiant Gargoyle boss fight, which is one of the toughest you'll face for a while.
