Elden Ring has a ton of boss fights, and Dragons take up a good chunk of all the fights in the game. You are constantly running into different types of Dragons, and it can be confusing to know exactly what they are weak to. They all have different abilities, so going in with whatever weapon you have is an option if you don’t know what they will do.
Dragons in Elden Ring are all weak to Physical damage. A bunch of Dragons is weak to Fire, Lightning, and other elements like Bleed. However, it is probably the easiest thing just to use straight-up Physical weapons.
There are a lot of Dragons in the game, so we hope this article will cover all of them. When talking about Boss Dragons, we are talking about the ones that spawn with a health bar on your screen. If they only have a health bar above their heads, those are the non-boss Dragons.
Flying Dragon Agheel
Location: Found in Limgrave on the Lake next to the First Step Site of Grace.
This Dragon is most likely the first one you will encounter. All you have to do to get him to spawn is go toward the enemies surrounded by the giant bonfire. He will drop out of the sky, and you can fight him. The only thing this Dragon is weak to is Physical damage. He is very strong versus all Elementals, so be careful if you have an Elemental weapon.
He is one of the easiest Dragons in the game, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble. We wouldn’t recommend going to fight him as soon as you start a new character, but it is doable. Just watch out for his fire attacks, and you should be good.
Flying Dragon Greyll
Location: Found in Caelid on the Farum Greatbridge.
This Dragon is the same as Agheel but in a different area. The only thing this Dragon is weak to is Physical damage. It is a harder fight because he has a lot more health, and you start the fight on a bridge. The room you get on the bridge is extremely small, so try to lure him to a more open area.
Just ensure you don’t lure him too far because he will disappear and spawn at the bridge. Magic does work on these 2 Dragons, so don’t worry if your Sorceries won’t do any damage. If you get something like Rock Sling, it works well against Dragons.
Elder Dragon Greyll
Location: Found in the Northeast Caelid region, surrounded by smaller dragons.
This Dragon is one of the oddest because it is the largest living Dragon in the entire game. It is soo large that if you try to defeat it anywhere except its head area, it won’t fight back. The only downside is that dwindling his health down takes a long time. You get 80,000ish Runes for defeating it, so it is worth doing very early on for many free levels.
This Dragon is not weak to anything, so just use whatever you have to wack at it until it is dead. It is the best way to get free Runes early on in the game so take advantage of it when you can. It doesn’t fight back if you hit anywhere behind him, so you can use any Elemental Grease to help drain its health.
Magma Wyrm/Makar/Theodorix
Location: Makar is the boss of the Ruin Strewn Precipice. Theodorix is found North of the Frozen Lake in Albinaurics Rise. There are 3 more: one in Volcano Manor, one next to Seethwater Terminus in the lava lake at Mt. Gelmir, and the last in Gael Tunnel in Caelid.
There are 5 versions of the Magma Wyrm, and each time you fight it, the fight is the same. The only thing different from each fight is the arena in which you fight them. They are one of the weirdest Dragons in the game because halfway through the fight, they get up on their hind legs and fight you with a sword.
These Dragons are weak to Physical damage like most other Dragons and are very resistant to Fire. You might not even see one of these Dragons if you do things a certain way in the story or avoid their areas. They are not hard, but they are annoying to fight.
Decaying Ekzykes
Location: Found in Caelid, east of Caelid Highway South.
This is the first Dragon that is weak in pretty much everything. It is the weakest to Fire, so if you have a Fire weapon, take advantage of the weakness and use it. You need to watch out for his breath attack because it deals Rot damage to you. If you get inflicted with Rot, your health will drain pretty rapidly.
Stay underneath him and wack at its legs because it allows you to avoid its breath attacks. If you feel like you need to move, just run away and return after you recover. As long as you don’t rest at the Site of Grace, its health will be the same way you left it.
Borealis, the Freezing Fog
Location: Found in Mountaintop of the Giants, on the frozen lake Northeast of the map.
You won’t encounter this Dragon until very late game because of where he is located. He has one of the most annoying breath attacks, a Frostbite breath attack. Luckily, a Lost Site of Grace is nearby, so if you do die, you can easily run back to him. He is only really weak to Physical damage, so ensure you have a strong weapon.
He is extremely strong against Frost weapons, so make sure not to use your Frost weapons against him. He does move around a lot, so fighting this Dragon on your horse might be beneficial. You must get good with Horse combat to swap back and forth easily.
Glinstone Dragon Smarag
Location: Found in Liurnia of the Lakes West of the Academy of Ray Lucaria.
There are a few Magic Dragons in the game, and this is one of them. They are covered in Glinstone, and this particular Dragon is guarding the Key needed to enter the Academy. This is most likely your second Dragon Encounter in the game, and this one is unique because of its Blue Fire. It is not an easy fight because he is only weak to heavier Blunt weapons.
Since he is made of crystal, he is harder to hit with other weapons like swords or even daggers. He is also very strong against Magic, so sorry, Magic users. You don’t need to fight him right away, but it is definitely a decent challenge when you finally meet him for the first time.
Glinstone Dragon Adula
Location: First found roaming in the Three Sisters area. After dealing enough damage, it will teleport to the Cathedral of Manus Celes, where it can be killed.
This is another Glinstone Dragon, but it is much harder than the previous one. It has almost doubled its health, and the damage on this Dragon is crazy. He has a ton of new attacks as well that can easily one-shot you if you aren’t careful. It is also weak to heavier Blunt weapons because it is a Glinstone Dragon.
Remember that the first time you meet this Dragon, it will fly away at half health. Don’t expect to beat it the first time, so don’t waste your time fighting it because it will just fly away. Try to use your heaviest weapon to defeat it, or just use the church as cover and slowly chip away its health.
Lichdragon Fortissax
Location: Found in the Deeproot Depths after following Fia’s questline.
This is one of the only major Dragon bosses because you must defeat him to proceed with one of the game’s Endings. It is not easy to get to, but it is a fight you won’t want to miss. A lot of people who are fighting it might be wondering what is its weakness. It is weak to Physical damage. Yes, just like any other Dragon before it.
Most Dragons in the game don’t have Elemental weaknesses, and if they did, that would make most of them relatively easy. Giving them very few weaknesses makes them a harder challenge, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. You don’t have to fight any Dragons in the game, but they are there for the extra challenge.
Dragonlord Placidusax
Location: Found in an open burial ground in the lower section of Crumbling Farum Azula.
This is by far the hardest Dragon fight in the game. He has the coolest boss arena of pretty much anything in the game, other than the final boss. He is weak to Fire and Lightning, which is odd because he is the most powerful Dragon in the game. It does make the fight a bit easier, though, since it is one of the strongest Dragon fights.
He disappears, flies around, and sprays lightning everywhere. It is a hard fight, but if you do end up fighting him, it feels extremely satisfying to put him down and defeat him. You do get a Remembrance when you defeat him, so he is the only Dragon besides Fortissax for that, you get one.
What are non-boss Dragons weak to?
There are non-boss Dragons, but these are pretty rare. On a few occasions, like near Elder Dragon Greyll, a bunch of random Dragons roams around that aren’t bosses. Once you defeat the giant Dragon, all these will disappear, and you will gain 5 Dragon Hearts from all of them. You don’t even need to defeat them to get the Hearts.
The second area is near Glinstone Dragon Adula. Once you defeat him, there will be a bunch of Crystal Dragons to the West of the Church. These are a lot harder because they require blunt weapons to do much damage, but these Dragons don’t have much health. There aren’t many other instances of random Dragons, but these two are the only 2 big ones we know of.
What do you get from defeating Dragons?
Once you defeat a Dragon, they will drop you Dragon Hearts and Runes. Also, depending on which Dragon you defeated, they might give you Remembrance for the higher-tiered Dragon fights. These Dragon Hearts are very important if you want to use Dragon Sorceries and Incantations in your build. There are quite a few items you can get with the Dragon Hearts.
You must trade the Hearts for these items at a Dragon Communion Altar. There are 2 places: The Church of Dragon Communion in Limgrave and the Cathedral of Dragon Communion in Caelid. They both have Altars, and every Dragon you defeat will restock these Altars with new items.