Guide for Elden Ring - Nokstella & Deeproot Depths

Before starting Nokstella, have you done Putrid Tree Spirit back in Caelid yet? I recommended if you struggled with it that you come back when you're stronger, but you might have forgotten about it, so here's your reminder. You're almost certainly powerful enough now. Go get that legendary! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the cave to the north of Radahn's beach where you fought him).

If you struggled with Leyndell, you might be pleased when I tell you Nokstella is quite easy and short, with just one tough boss, and even then, the difficulty of this boss is different for everyone. I personally had no trouble beating it. In Nokstella, you get a legendary, access to an area with another 3 legendries, an achievement, and full questline completion for Ranni to be ready for her ending. Sound good? Let's get started then. Fast travel to Ainsel River Main underground that you should have from the last page. Rest at the site of Grace and choose to talk to miniature Ranni three times. After silence for the first two, she begins talking and gives you a task.

Once she's done, get up and continue forwards. There are some smaller enemies on the right, and then a much larger one in the distance. As you get closer to the big one, it starts firing off loads of magic rocks at you, similar to your own spell Rock Sling but with three times as many rocks. You need to get past it. I recommend waiting for an opening and sprinting towards the statue on the right. Then take cover behind it and heal if needed. You can now kill the enemy if you like. It drops 30,000 runes and a Somber Smithing Stone (7), so not a bad deal at all. The best way to kill it is to use the cover you're currently behind, peeking out when there is an opening and firing a spell, then ducking back behind cover. Anyway, head southwest further, behind where the big enemy is/was. You soon are in a sort of tunnel with some ants and eventually come out to a more open space with ants to the left guarding a path and another path straight ahead. Go left first, kill or run past the giant ants to an enemy with its arms outstretched ahead. There is another one of those rock firing enemies here, so watch out. There is less cover here. You can go for the chest on top of the pillars and then drop down. I couldn't find a way to drop safely, to be honest, so you probably take damage too. Anyway, once at the bottom, find the map fragment then look for a Grace to the southwest. Ahead of this is another open space with ants in it. Once you arrive here, turn right and go that way. Keep going until you get the choice of right or left again. There is an item on the left and a boss fight on the right, so naturally grab the freebie item but go right to progress. You eventually arrive in a large area with a huge corpse sitting on a throne. Get closer to it and the boss spawns in.

Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella:

This boss feels really out of place to me. Regular RB attacks drain its health so quickly it honestly felt like a boss that should've been in Limgrave or something. Maybe it's because we're at Nokstella later than the game expects, or something, but this one is an absolute breeze. With Mimic Tear taking his attention it could genuinely be over in 30 seconds. The only attacks it has before 50% HP are some slow single-hit attacks. Dodge with one well-timed roll and punish, no combos in sight. At 50% HP he charges up with electricity, but his attacks remain ineffective. If he hovers above the ground, run away because he makes the ground where you stand unsafe, and that's his toughest attack to dodge. Seriously. You can tell this one is easy by the 12,000 rune reward, but I was expecting something more challenging from a boss with an achievement attached, to be honest.

Once he's down, fast travel back to Ainsel River Main, and make your way back to the place with the ants where you went left. This time continue straight ahead. Go through the double doors on the left, to arrive in Nokstella properly now. Take the ladder down and rest at the Grace ahead. Before progressing, you need to get to the top of the stairs to the west for a legendary talisman. Start climbing up, there is only one way up the entire way, though there are various rooms you can dip into for items along the way. There is also a boulder that rolls towards you. If you attack and "kill" it, it drops a Larval Tear. Grab that and continue going up, eventually you come to a room with three enemies, two of which are called silver tears. The item is in the chest at the end of this room, though you might want to kill those enemies before going for it. The item in the chest is Moon of Nokstella [Legendary Talisman 4/8].

Fast travel back to the Nokstella Grace and head west, this time ignoring the stairs and running straight past. There are more stairs further along, ignore those too. Look for two statues in front of a door on the left. Through those doors is a lift leading down. Take the lift to another Grace. There is only one place to go, directly ahead, so start running that way. There are two enemies here that are easy to run past. You eventually arrive in an area that looks suspiciously like a boss room. In reality, it's an invasion. The enemy is called Baleful Shadow, the one miniature Ranni told you to kill at the start of this area when you spoke to her. The easiest way to kill this one is to bait the jump attack. It takes him a really long time to recover from it, and you can punish it a lot easier than other attacks. Also, I've heard people say you can cheese him by leading him to the room with the lift to the southwest. He isn't allowed to go in there and you can get free hits with magic, arrows, or a long reach melee weapon. Just make sure you don't accidentally step on the lift's button and activate it, because this guy does need to be killed, he isn't optional. Once he's down, you get a key. Take the lift down now and activate the Grace for the Lake of Rot for a fast travel point. Now, go all the way back to the Academy in Liurnia to the Grand Library where you fought Rennala absolutely ages ago. In the room is a chest that was previously locked. The key you received opens it. Now go back to the Lake of Rot.

Lake of Rot is terrible. The map is directly ahead, but what you need to do isn't necessarily clear. For the sake of your sanity, I'm going to help you avoid this area's frustrations entirely. Rest at the Grace and put all your flasks to Crimson for safety. Go to the edge of the lake, don't hop in just yet, and look to the southwest. You can faintly see where you need to go. Now, hop into the lake and just start sprinting for that area. The lake is going to make you suffer Scarlet Rot and chip away at your health, so heal when necessary, and just sprint towards the next area. There's a Grace coming up anyway so you lose Scarlet Rot once you rest at it. This method is a lot easier than trying to navigate the most annoying area of the entire game, trust me. Eventually you arrive where you need to be, take the stairs down and rest at the Grace. That area is now over with, you never have to go there again, thank goodness. Don't forget to reallocate your flasks back to what you're used to, and equip the Loretta's Greatbow spell if you don't already have it in a memory slot. Now look to the west for some platforms you can jump on and safely make your way down to the bottom. My least favourite enemy type are down here in their numbers, so do your best to avoid them if possible. They are super frustrating so don't be surprised if you get hit by their ranged attacks. Look for a coffin at the end of the rotted river to the south, get in to go to the next boss.

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void:

Depending on who you ask, this boss is either a piece of cake or one of the hardest in the game. Personally, I wouldn't say it is easy or hard, but I understand why it might frustrate people who have trouble killing it. This boss definitely isn't very melee friendly, hitting the weak spot (the head) is only consistently doable with ranged attacks and the boss constantly teleports away, like the Regal Ancestor Spirit did but much more annoying.

• The first move Astel does seems always to be a purple beam, sort of like what Radahn would do. You have to roll to the left or right when you see Astel nod its head to avoid this one.
• Another move makes use of its tail by slamming it down on you twice in fairly quick succession. You have to learn the timing of the rolls for these, and they become easy to avoid.
• The main type of attack to watch out for at the start is when it makes use of exploding purple balls. Astel flies up into the air, his hand glows purple, and then he drops a large number of purple balls that explode after a second or two.
• When the boss teleports away, there is an AoE explosion, and then one of two things happens. He either appears somewhere else or flies towards you and attempts to grab you. YOU CANNOT LET THIS GRAB HAPPEN! I've heard that this is potentially a one shot regardless of Vigor. If you don't see him spawn straight away, this attack is about to happen, be ready to roll away.
• Sometimes the boss clicks its pincers and lunges towards you a couple of times. Try and roll into it and get some hits off when this happens.
• At 50% HP, Astel summons large rocks to rain down on you for a few seconds. I always took a hit here, but your best bet is just to sprint towards him and hope you have good RNG. Roll if you can see one that is about to hit. Other than this one attack, the fight doesn't change as its health gets lower or anything

If you're level 100+ with at least a +7 weapon and the relevant stats for that weapon at a decent level, your hits chip away at Astel's health very quickly. Like I suggested earlier, use Loretta's Greatbow if you're a magic build and keep your distance. A lot of attacks do nothing to you if you're far away. Always aim for the head by locking onto it. Every attack does slightly more damage to this weak point and that adds up. Overall, you're probably over-levelled for this. If not, you can always head back to a rune farm and get a few more. My Intelligence was approaching 50 at this point, I had a +7 Bloodhound's Fang with Strenght and Dex at around 25, and because of all this I was hitting really hard. You can always go back to Rennala and respec if you feel any stat, especially Vigor, isn't as high as you want it. Chances are you have plenty of Larval Tears. Defeating Astel gets you 80,000 runes, a remembrance and this achievement:

And with that, you're almost done with Ranni's quest. Al that remains is taking the lift in Astel's boss room to the north, emerging out back at Liurnia, specifically the Moonlight Altar, an area you couldn't access until now. Find the nearby Grace and to the north you can see a cathedral, the next destination. Ride up to it and a dragon spawns, but you can ignore it and go to the Grace inside. To the south of the Grace is a hole you can drop into. It's quite dark down there but there is only one path to go until you get to Ranni. Hive her the ring, and she appeard after a cutscene to say goodbye and give you a legendary weapon, the Dark Moon Greatsword [Legendary Armament 7/9]. You've also done everything required for the Age of Stars ending and finished Ranni's quest. Next, you is Fia's, but first you need to clear a few legendries that are in the area of Liurnia you just unlocked access to.

The first one is a spell. Head southwest of the Moonlight Altar Grace all the way until you reach a place called Chelona's Rise, the Grace is called Altar South. The building is sealed off at the moment. Interact with the statue holding the book in front of the sealed off entrance and it tells you to "Seek three great wise beasts". This refers to three turtles you have to kill around this area. The first one is directly west, hanging off the edge (Use a magic or ranged attack to hit it):

For the next one, find a place called Lunar Estate Ruins east of the Moonlight Altar Grace and head south from there, the turtle is below:

And then the third one is all the way in the northwest, near the Ringleader's Evergaol. For this one, use the windy thing nearby it to jump up high with Torrent. When you contact it, it dies:

Those weren't my screenshots because I forgot to take any. Credit to Elden Ring Wiki. The seal breaks back at Chelona's Rise, but while you're here you might as well do the Ringleader's Evergaol. Fair warning, this boss is really hard. Despite my level being ridiculously high (Roughly 125), it still destroyed me a few times. Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader. If you're patient, there is a way to make this fight fairly trivial, but it takes a few minutes. Two of Alecto's attacks involve flying up into the air and slamming back down - one is just a normal attack with no AoE, the other is one with the potential to one shot as several magic swipes directly in front of her follow once she slams down. These deal major damage. However, these two attacks have the best opportunities to punish. To win this fight, run away from her until she does one of these two attacks, avoid taking damage from it, then run in and attack. None of her attacks can hit you if you simply run away and roll every now and then if it is necessary. I also recommend using a shield for this one. If this isn't working for you, here's a video guide from SweetJohnnyCage, hopefully that proves more useful and as always full credit his way:

When Alecto is down, you get Black Knife Tiche [Legendary Ashen Remains 5/6]. Now you can head to Chelona's Rise and go inside. Go to the top and open the chest to get Ranni's Dark Moon [Legendary Sorcery 6/7]. As you can see, you're now one away from the achievements for two of the legendary item types, and two away for weapons and halfway done with talismans as well. With that, this part of Liurnia is done and you can continue with the next questline.

Head back to Roundtable Hold and hug Fia once more to start her quest. Choose to talk in secret. She gives you a dagger and tells you to give it to someone. That person is D, who sits at the table. Give it to him, rest in front of the table, stand back up and then head to the room with the blacksmith. A new door opens at the end, and Fia is there. She's killed D. Exhaust her dialogue and then fast travel to Deeproot Depths underground (you grabbed this Grace soon after killing Valiant Gargoyle), then left the area for later. Now you should be strong enough for what's ahead. From the Grace, head northeast to see a tower and a root next to it. You need to get onto that root from the bottom and go all the way up to the tower, up a little further and then jump down to the next Grace, called Across the Roots. From here, head north to come to a huge open space. Head towards what seems to be the huge corpse of some creature within the roots. Some enemies that protect Fia spawn. These are some pitiful fights. Initially Fia's Champion spawns, then Sorcerer Rogier, then three enemies at once. All of these are easy at your level and even at a level much lower. Once they're down, go speak to Fia who sits alone ahead. She assumes you've come to avenge D. Instead say you want to be held instead. When you talk to her again, she expresses that she is looking for a specific item, and that item is one you actually have on you. Cursemark of Death is picked up at the top of the tower of Liurnia while inverted. After this, she gives you one last embrace. Keep talking to her and reloading the area. When she says, "This is goodbye", reload the area by resting at the Grace and she should be asleep. You can enter the Deathbed Dream, which is a boss fight.

Lichdragon Fortissax:

This is one of just two dragon fights in the game I actually like. Lichdragon does, unfortunately, share some of the more frustrating parts of other dragon fights, such as constantly flying away rather than attacking you, but this dragon is ten times more awesome than any of the normal ones across the open world. This likely isn't an easy fight, although I won on my first try because of my high level and +10 Mimic Tear. The main thing this dragon does differently from all the rest is electric charges that follow/accompany his attacks. When he swipes at you, there is usually a charge attack that follows. That electric attack has much higher range than his regular swipe. While you attack, there is usually a build-up of lightning on your position that explodes and damages you after a few seconds. The strategy for this fight is to stay behind the boss at all times swiping away at his legs. I don't recommend locking onto the legs as you do need to keep an eye on what the boss is up to, because it is obviously does not just allow you to spam attacks from behind. Using the skill of an upgraded Bloodhound's Fang or Moonveil is the way to go here, Moonveil especially because of how fast it is.

• Talismans that negate lightning damage are useful here for obvious reasons
• Don't lock on to the boss, the camera can go crazy when you do that, and you want to be able to see what it is doing in order to read its next attack.
• If you have trouble with melee, the boss is less dangerous at range, especially when you have the mimic taking its attention constantly. It is fairly resistant to sorcery unfortunately, but that can still be an effective strategy.

After the boss is down and you're in front of Fia, you can grab the item on her body if you want. It isn't needed because the ending it unlocks is not achievement-linked, but it also doesn't lock anything in so there is nothing wrong with grabbing it anyway. If you reload the area, you get some of Fia's stuff to appear on her body too. You're done with this area, though. It's time for probably the second longest and by far hardest page of the walkthrough. Be ready for the toughest boss fight FromSoftware has ever made, as well as another seriously tough one. It's not all bad, though. You're almost there. Can't really tell you how many hours are left, because it is entirely dependent on how many attempts you need to defeat certain remaining bosses, but just know there isn't a lot left to do.

9. Mountaintops of the Giants7. Leyndell & Mohgwyn's PalaceFind anything you think is wrong with this walkthrough? Help us fix it by posting in its Walkthrough Thread.

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