How to beat the Fire Giant in Elden Ring: Boss stats, weaknesses & tips

❘ Published: 2024-02-26T20:27:10

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Elden Ring has over 30 bosses and the Fire Giant is one of the most mortifying ones, not only because of its disgusting design but also due to its control of fire. Here’s how you can exploit the Fire Giant’s weaknesses to beat one of the toughest bosses from the late-game stages.

The Forbidden Lands in Elden Ring may look like the game’s very own winter wonderland, but you’ll soon realize the area is just as deadly as anywhere else. To make things worse, it’s patrolled by an enormous Fire Giant which you have to beat in order to progress in the game’s story.

More so, the Giant guards the Forbidden Flame, something you’ll need on your quest if you’re going to pass through the vines of the Erd Tree, so there’s no going around this fight.

While the Fire Giant in Elden Ring may not be a demigod or a shard-holder, he’s just as powerful as many of the main bosses you’ve fought so far. He’s easily one of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring and will stamp out hasty players with ease. However, there are effective strategies to bring him down.

Here’s how to defeat the Fire Giant in Elden Ring as well as his weaknesses.

Contents

How to defeat the Fire Giant in Elden Ring
- Phase 1
- Phase 2
Where to find the Fire Giant in Elden Ring
Fire Giant stats
- Fire Giant weaknesses
Useful tips to defeat the Fire Giant
- NPC summons
- Spirit Ashes
- Items
- Magic
All Fire Giant attacks
Fire Giant drops

The Fire Giant boss has more than just two eyes.

How to defeat the Fire Giant in Elden Ring

Just because the Fire Giant is big, don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s slow. Unless you’re highly skilled or significantly over-leveled, fighting this boss on foot will see you smushed into the mountainside very early in the battle. So, make sure you tackle the giant on horseback to make it harder for him to get a lock on you.

Of course, if you’re playing in co-op you’ll need to fight on foot, but his attention will be split between you more so than it would be between you and your Spirit Summons. Having one player attack his feet while another Sling Spell from afar can be an effective strategy for two or three players.

Even if you’re far away from him, the Fire Giant can still throw fireballs and make fire burst from the ground around you. He can also shovel snow at you that rips through scenery such as trees. This can be avoided best on horseback, but blocking also works well. It’s a notoriously hard attack to dodge due to the area it covers.

Phase 1

His opening attack will usually be his snow shovel so be ready to block or ride away. Once his initial attacks end, ride or run quickly towards him, targeting his left ankle. You’ll notice he has some sort of injury here, so this is the game’s way of telling you where to strike. He’ll have a splint keeping his foot in place, so attack this with ruthless aggression. Just be ready to dodge and don’t get too greedy in your attacks.

There’s no running away from the Fire Giant, you’ll need to take him down.

Whether you’re a melee build or a ranged/magic build, this should be your target. Watch his attack patterns and try to time your strikes during the moments when he’s coming out of an attack animation. He’ll usually perform his attacks in a sequence but don’t count on this. The Giant also has a lot of health, so don’t expect this to be a quick win.

However, using a weapon with a bleed effect will make this first phase end quicker. He’s also susceptible to scarlet rot and poison once you break down his resistance. While they won’t take much of his health away, they will chip away gradually while you’re running/riding around and repositioning for attacks.

Phase 2

Once you get him to around 50% HP, a cutscene will play in which the Fire Giant rips off his own foot and uses its fire to buff himself. He won’t be able to walk anymore, but he’ll now roll around the map which can cause heavy damage if he happens to do so over you. It’s a hard attack to dodge, so stay mobile and look for tells. Don’t stay in one place for too long either.

In his second part, the Fire Giant will now have a ridiculous amount of health and defense. You’ll notice your attacks don’t do the damage they did during Phase 1. At times you may even wonder if this boss is immune to physical damage. He’s not, but it sure can look that way to those simply trying to slug him to death.

Attacking his hands and feet still works, but you’ll get precious little openings to hit him there before he rolls away. He takes more damage from his hands than from his feet, but they are harder to hit.

In phase 2, the Fire Giant turns his weakness into strength.

During this part of the encounter, the best you can do is go after the eye that opens on his chest, however, this is incredibly hard to hit for a melee build unless you’re riding Torrent or using weapon arts that do decent AOE damage. Learn his patterns and strike there when you can, this is the best way to bring him down, rather than hacking away at his feet until he catches you in a roll.

His new fireball attack does massive damage, so avoid this at all costs. Try to stay behind him on Torrent and continue your strategy. You can take advantage of Spirit Summons in this battle too, and we’d suggest using ranged attacks so you’ve got more chance of hitting his weak spot, but you’ll need to hold his attention while your summon fires their volleys.

Mage or ranged builds should summon a tanky Spirit Ash to keep him occupied while you aim for his chest. If you’re a glass cannon, it won’t take many hits here to bring him down. Just don’t get caught in his AOE fire attacks, these can kill you in one hit, or stun-lock you and kill you in 2 or 3.

Where to find the Fire Giant in Elden Ring

The Fire Giant is a boss you’ll face by simply progressing through the game’s main story. Once you arrive in the Forbidden Lands, you’ll inevitably make your way to the Mountaintops of the Giants where the boss lies in wait.

You’ll come across the Fire Giant as you progress through the main storyline.

He’s guarding the flame you need to burn the Erd Tree’s vines, so he’ll need to be killed for you to progress the story. He’ll be outside the Forge of the Giants, which is your next destination. The only issue is he stands between you and it.

Therefore, equip as many fire buffs as you can and prepare for an epic clash.

Fire Giant stats

Health: 42363 HP
Defense: 118
Stance: 120
Parryable: No
Immunities: Madness
Deals: Fire, Standard, and Strike physical damage

Fire Giant weaknesses

The Fire Giant has only a few weaknesses, which is why it’s one of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring.

One of its weaknesses is to Slash damage, which is a physical kind of damage that can be dealt with a particular set of weapons. Also, you can take advantage of its susceptibility to scarlet rot and poison.

Its other weak spots are directly physical and they unlock depending on which phase of the combat you’re at. During Phase 1, you need to focus your hits on the wounded left leg, and in Phase 2 switch to the left forearm. This will make the Fire Giant pause for a moment, so you can take the opportunity to deal some more damage.

While both leg and forearm hits deal a great amount of damage, the main weak spot of the Fire Giant is the eye on his chest, so during the second portion of the encounter try to hit it as much as you can.

Useful tips to defeat the Fire Giant

NPC summons

You can summon Warrior Jar Alexander to aid you in this very difficult fight. While this will give the Fire Giant a health and power buff, having an ally in this battle to draw his attention can be very valuable. You can also still use your Spirit Summons alongside Alexander.

To use Warrior Jar Alexander, you need to get through his quest first.

Remember, you won’t be able to summon your horse Torrent if you summon Alexander or co-op partners. This can make the battle much more difficult and limit your maneuverability.

Alexander’s gold summon sign can be found between the Site of Grace and the Fog Gate. However, in order to summon Alexander you’ll need to have been following his questline. Summoning him here also helps you progress his story.

Spirit Ashes

The ideal Spirit Ash to use for this battle is the Black Knife Tiche, which summons an assassin that attacks with a Black Knife imbued with the Rune of Death.

It costs 132 FP and no HP, and can only be obtained by defeating Alecto, the Black Knife Ringleader at the Ringleader’s Evergaol in the southwestern side of Liurnia.

Items

Due to the Fire Giant appearing during the late-game stages, you’d be able to get ready accordingly. As its name says, the Fire Giant will attack you with fire constantly, so you must equip yourself with items that will protect you from that particular element.

The Flamedrake Talisman and the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman will increase your fire and physical resistances, so make sure you equip them before the encounter.

The Flamedrake Talisman +2 can be found in the Dragonbarrow Cave on the eastern side of Caelid.

To take advantage of the Giant’s weakness to Slash damage, you should get weapons like Daggers, Katanas, Curved Swords, Halberds, or Glaives.

Finally, for the scarlet rot and poison susceptibilities, you can use Incantations such as Rotten Breath and Poison Mist, or throw at him Poison and Rot Pots.

Magic

There are three Incantations that can be of a lot of use during your fight with the Fire Giant.

The Fire Giant is resistant to bleed, but because he’s not immune, which is why you should use both Rotten Breath and Ekzyke’s Decay to cause Scarlet Rot.

Rotten Breath channels a dragon to spew Scarlet Rot breath and costs 36 FP. It requires 15 Fatih and 12 Arcane and can be exchanged at the Dragon Communion Altar at the Cathedral of Dragon Communion in Caelid for 1 Dragon Heart.

Ekzyke’s Decay conjures the head of Ekzykes to spray a rot-inducing cloud. It costs 48 FP and requires 23 Faith and 15 Arcane. It can be obtained through the same process as Rotten Breath, but requires 2 Dragon Hearts.

Swarm of Flies is an Incantation that can cause Hemorrhage.

Swarm of Flies is an Incantation that releases a swarm of bloodflies towards the enemy to inflict Hemorrhage. It costs 14 FP and requires 11 Fath and 16 Arcane. It can be found on a corpse in the east wall of the Mohgwyn Palace’s blood marsh.

All Fire Giant attacks

Here’s the list of all the Fire Giant attacks players need to be aware of:

Avalanche
Jumping Smash
Lid Swing
Stomp
Roll
Giantsflame, Take Thee
Flame of the Fell God
Burn, O Flame!
Flame, Fall Upon Them
Fire Breath
Swipe

Fire Giant drops

After the Fire Giant is finally defeated, the player will be rewarded with 180,000 runes and the Remembrance of the Fire Giant.

The Remembrance of the Fire Giant is a very useful item.

This item is similar to the Remembrance of the Blood Lord obtained from Mohg, Lord of Blood and the Remembrance of the Grafted taken from Godrick the Grafted.

Remembrance of the Fire Giant is a Consumable item that grants effects such as recovering HP, anuling negative effects, and temporary buffs and debuffs. It can also be sold for 30,000 runes or given to Enia at the Roundtable Hold to exchange it for the Giant’s Red Braid or the Burn, O Flame! Incantation.

For more Elden Ring content, check our guides below: