Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is the real version of the spirit shade you might have fought in Carian Manor in Elden Ring. How to defeat the boss? What is the boss weak to? What strategies can you use to beat it? Are there ways to cheese the boss? All will be answered in this ultimate boss guide to beating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree in Elden Ring.
The fight against Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is similar to her spirit form, Royal Knight Loretta. If you have bested her before this fight will be easier. Although, she has a second phase in this fight where she uses much deadlier spells and attacks to watch out for. Staying aggressive during this fight is the right strategy.
Let’s take a look at the best strategies and builds in this boss guide that can help us easily defeat Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree in Elden Ring.
Is Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree Optional?
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is an optional boss. However, if you are going for the Blessing of Despair ending then she must be defeated.
Strategies for Defeating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree
Below are some strategies for defeating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree boss in Elden Ring. The build you selected will determine the approach you should go for. We will cover the basic melee/magic caster strategies here:
Melee Strategy
The fight against Loretta is relatively easier if you are paying attention to the other horseback bosses in this game up til now like Tree Sentinels and Knights Cavalry. The attack patterns are generally the same in this case too. The added difficulty stems from her ability to cast spells during the fight.
Spells like Glintblade Phalanx that have a much longer delay and track you all the while she is trying to hit you with her melee and other magic projectiles will keep you on your feet quite a lot. You have to be very careful about your dodges.
Melee builds will find it better to stay aggressive throughout this fight and stay close to the horse’s front end. The front is generally the safest place to be, you just have to watch out for a few attacks. Keep whaling on the boss when you are close to her.
When she is casting the Phalanx spell, it is the best time to move in and get as much damage as you can and then dodge away when the blades are about to fly to you.
Weapons with high stagger potential will work just fine. A few charged heavy attacks will discombobulate her giving you more opportunity to deal damage.
Use the time when she is casting her projectiles, especially the Phalanx to move in and wait for the blades to fly at you and then dodge into melee range and go for a couple of hits.
The charged time of her bow attacks will give you ample time to run up to her and dodge the attack and go for a few swipes.
During the second phase of the fight, her Phalanx spell will have even more blades, and they will shoot out in intervals making it even harder to predict. Couple that with her other attacks and it’s a recipe for disaster so up your dodging game at this point.
Try to keep your distance close to her as she darts around the arena and utilize each window effectively. She doesn’t have a ton of health, and the fight will be over sooner than you think.
Magic/Faith Strategy
Although she is strong against magic damage, spells do deal a good amount of damage to her. The best spells at your disposal would be the ones that deal physical damage to her like Rock Sling or Meteorite.
Faith builds will benefit from Lightning spells and Rotten Breath Dragon Communion incantations. Use lightning as and when you create some distance from her.
Rotten Breath should be left for when she is either distracted or further away from you. Scarlet Rot can really eat away at her health if applied regularly.
She does like to dodge spells, but it’s not that much of a problem as with other bosses.
Other than the Bow attack, you can parry her spells too with Carian Retaliation. This will absorb her projectiles and sends glintblades to her in the process.
Maintaining distance is harder than you think. Not only will her projectiles haunt you, but she can also easily cover distances in a few jumps. You need to be constantly moving and employ a stop-fire-run technique.
What is Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree Weak To?
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is weak to the following damage types:
- Lightning
- Poison
- Scarlet Rot
- Sleep
What is Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree Strong Against?
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is strong or resistant to the following damage types:
- Strong
- Magic
- Fire
- Hemorrhage
- Frostbite
- Immune
- Madness
Can You Parry Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree?
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree can be parried. Most of her attacks can be both melee parried or spell parried. You can not perform a critical strike on her after parrying though. The same goes if she is stance broken.
Can You Cheese Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree?
There is no cheesing strategy per se when fighting Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree. There is however a couple of things you can do to end the fight in mere seconds. To accumulate the items needed for this “cheese”, you need to have explored a good chunk of the game.
The items we need are:
- Magic Shrouding Tear
- Cerulean Hidden Tear
- Meteorite Spell
- A magic staff – Meteorite Staff will deal more damage
- Spirit Summon – Redmane Knight Ogha or Mimic Tear preferably
Summon your spirit companion as soon as you enter the arena. Let the spirit grab all the aggro while you distance yourself from the fight.
Consume the Flask of Wondrous Physick with the aforementioned tears. Equip the Meteorite spell and take out your staff of choice.
With the unlimited FP effect in place from the Cerulean Hidden Tear make your way to where the boss is fighting your buddy and cast the Meteorite spell.
Hold the casting button to continually rain meteorites on the boss without worrying about running out of FP.
As a result, the boss will be continuously stagger-locked by the meteorites offering her no time to evade. Between your summons attacks and the meteor shower, her health will swiftly whither away. If you do things right, the fight will be over in around 30 seconds.
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is another mounted boss, but you won’t have Torrent to even the playing field. She is not a hard boss and most of her attacks can be parried if you have mastered that particular skill.
Any type of build will breeze through this fight provided you can properly react to her hard-hitting spells.