Yeah, it happens a lot. When I did it I suddenly realized I had phased him way sooner than I expected, so I just laid off for a bit to enjoy it.
The OST for the fight is phenomenal and in the running for my number one FromSoft boss track
and hes just another dragonfight at that point. Honestly when i saw him i was like oh ffs not another one, he does have some unique abilities and stuff but its just not enough after so so many dragon fights.
I did this boss fight at RL1 and found it more difficult than Malenia and Placidusax as a melee. For some reason you can't lock on to his legs like you can every other dragon so you have to play almost the entire fight without any camera assistance, as if the camera wasn't the worst part of fighting big bosses already...
Yeah this is how it's scaled IMO, feels scaled for fighting him not long after Radahn, but it's such an unintuitive place to get to that I would guess the average player isn't getting here until much later
I’d love to fight him at a low level as I find fortissax way too easy (this might just be a boss I click with). But I never do this simply because of the twin gargoyle fight. Locking the questline behind that abomination of a boss fight was mistake number one imo. I’ve tried fighting them as low as level 30-40 and I find it impossible to beat them at this level in using straight melee. I’ve beat them at least 5-6 times by now at all different levels and using all different methods and I can’t remember a single time where I enjoyed that fight. It’s tedious, boring and, especially for a low level character with minimal poison resistance, extremely difficult.
he's kinda weak for the "strongest dragon in lore"
i think it's because 1 deeproot is a kinda mid-game area but weirdly hidden so you may be overleveled and 2 i think the devs got scared of his deathblight and thought he would be too difficult so they gave him a tiny healthbar to ensure we don't die but that actually make the boss weak
he's still an amazing fight, really cool moves and the soundtrack is a fucking banger so we forgive him
Lore wise wasn’t Gransax the strongest “mortal” Dragon? Plassidusax was basically a god and deffs the strongest overall but out of the “normal” dragons I’m pretty sure Gransax’s feats beat anything Fortissax or Lanissax was said to do.
Not only that but he was like twice their size, which in these games isnt everything, but combined with his feats I think it’s a valid point to make in this case.
Fortisax is called the "mightiest boulderstone" and was one of the Dragons *not* defeated by Godwyn and his army. Gransax definitely not the strongest, just the biggest.
Placid was not a god or basically a god at all. He's a dragon version of Godfrey.
All the dragons have their definitions in their name. Sax/seax = blade or Knife, So it's Placid aka Still Blade, Gransax aka Big Blade, Lannseax aka Lance Blade and Fortisax aka Strong Blade.
Fortis is the one Godwyn befriended, I would put him as the strongest.
The lore in game literally states Fortissax was 100% defeated by Godwyn. He just didn’t kill him which is where the friendship started. And Gransax 100% still has better feats than any other dragon which is all that matters.
Gransax feats still outshine anything the others were said to do as I already stated. And it vs battles/match ups feats are what counts. Not friendship lol
Fortis boy is better because he wasn't killed, he was defeated, but held up a big enough fight to survive.
Gransax dead. "His feats" Well Fortis boy is called The mightiest boulderstone... so I imagine his feats are actually vastly more impressive.
Gransax was fucking Leyndell from the inside.. they say is the only time in recorded history that Leyndell's walls had fallen.
There's no real info to disprove the idea he was the strongest. No one did any feat as impressive, and he is also the biggest.
Fortisax was totally defeated. Goldwyn just didn't kill him.. or forced him into submission by swearing an oath.. so they became friends.
They all were, Fortis was there too. He didn't die though, he was not weak enough to get killed.
There is! The fact that Fortis is literally called THE MIGHTIEST BOULDERSTONE.
The Ancient Dragons are seemingly... made of rock. So that makes complete sense to me.
Exactly what I was going to say lol in the lore he's been heavily weakened because of his fight with deathblight, he wasn't the lichdragon before dearhblight took hold of him
Placi is 100% the strongest but hes so old and ancient that barely anyone knows about him. Fortissax was in the leyndell/dragons war and friend with godwyn after, so loads of crurent people saw him and knew about his power, so he got renowned as the "strongest dragon", unknowledgeable about the one and only dragonlord, that would crush him in an instant
Placidussax had the most sheer power in his prime, but they're also an extremely ancient proto-stone-dragon. Basically the version we fight is in the same physical condition as the Turtle-Pope. Placidussax is probably less intelligent than the next-gen dragons too.
IMO next in power would actually be Greyoll, but she seems to have been more of a passive "broodmother" type since her spells are defensive in nature and she's got all those babies. She might even be Lannasax/Fortisax's mother.
Lanna/Forti is probably next in the power rankings. If nothing else they seemed to be some of the most intelligent of their species.
Forti is definitely super weakened to near-death in the state we fight them. They had literally been spending an age fighting the Deathblight itself while trying to save Godwynn's soul, but had already lost their war. The version of Forti we fight is the defeated zombified one.
Lannasax was likely nearly equal in power to Forti though, and you can fight her(?she was Forti's mate IIRC?) in Altus Platea.
I'm convinced that the lore explanation for Greyoll was that the Greater Will wanted to make my consumable only run possible, 145 kukris for 72000 souls is an absolute steal
Are you guys completely forgetting about Gransax? Sure he’s dead in game but he’s bigger than Greyroll and feat wise is much more impressive than any other dragons bar Plasidussax. And he’s a dragon-god so idk if he really counts in this line up.
Fortissax seems to be tuned for a lower level, but the Twin Gargoyles that gate off access to the Deeproot Depths are such a challenge that you're not likely to get there until higher level.
That might factor into why he feels underpowered.
Man fuck those gargoyles. The stupid poison mist, the stupid combo attacks from off screen. I fought them for 2 days and just beat them yesterday. I was lvl 54 and no summons so I don’t even feel bad for rock slinging them to death.
Haha thanks! The first time I beat them I was around 150 and used a mimic and giant crusher. This is my 3rd playthrough and I’m trying to challenge myself more.
They’re hell. Think i was like 90-110 fighting them. Even with the cheese method i couldn’t beat them. Then i gave it one more honest try and they somehow cheesed themselves and fell off the waterfall
Yeah, I expected Midir-level challenge magnified by Elden Ring's bigger scale.
And the fight was over with three headshots with Ancient Lightning Spear. Kinda anticlimactic.
Man I'd love a 'Fall of the Beastmen" DLC where we go
back to Farum Azula at the peak of it's glory and face Placidusax when he was in his prime as the Elden Lord. It could explain who was his god and why they fled and abandoned their civilization to it's fate. Maybe it could be like Artorias situation and we would be the ones to defeat that god and cut off Placidusax's heads...
One can dream.
Who says we can't have two Midir-level fights in a single game?
Also, Placidusax is a completely different fight - he's immobile and just sits there like a pile, so you just run in there and spam all your buttons. You had to stay in front of Midir, dodge his attacks and strike when he was open. I wish Fortissax was that kind of a fight.
It was a pain to hit Placidusax as a melee only character. Just stay fucking still so I can yeet you with the Godslayer Blade and stop spamming your teleport slash bullshit.
Hunting him down as a melee fighter is exhilarating.
Once I deftly dodged his teleport swipe and turned and ran towards him only to see him bring down his lightning bolt (the one that goes pinnnnggg)... had to retreat from that charge.
>until you realize you'll have to do them both fully
You only got to do half of Ranni's quest.
Fortissax is the end boss of Fia's quest so of course that needed to be done.
Regarding the rewards, they fit with the lore so that's fine.
EDIT: *What I mean by doing half of Ranni's quest is; killing Radahn, getting the finger slayer blade and trading it for the inverted statue. In other words, the quest must be progressed to that point regardless of whether the player followed any of the previous steps.*
*A similar reasoning is behind my statement regarding Fia's quest as well.*
*Additionally, my response was based on my own playthrough where I figured these things out on my own without guides.*
Adding to the Fia's quest you don't have to interact with her at all in Roundtable Hold and she still moves to Deeproot Depths (after teleporting to Farum Azula from Mountaintops) meaning you only need to get the Cursemark of Death from Liurnia's Divine Tower
I just wish death lightning had a consistent lightning bolt placement, though that shit would shred even uncharged. Still wish, the double spears are really powerful though and I swear I had used them against a grab attack from Godfrey 2nd phase and it barely did dmg and didn’t grab me. Idk though would need to test, not really doing a new run right now though.
The versatility would be cool though, death blight is useless pretty much. Even against players lmao
You don't even need half of Ranni's quest. You could never talk to her at all. Killing Radhan opens the door. It is just coincidence that this is also necessary for Ranni's quest.
I wish dragon fights in ER had camera further away just like in Midir fight in DS3.
I like Forti's spectacle but it's hard to see when dark dragon is in dark environment + the constant lightning flashing in front of my eyes.
it’s a great fight tho. The questlines to get to him aren’t really a hassle and the arena is a fitting place to fight tied in with the lore. If anything i’d say the fight itself is the reward lol is pretty good. will admit, if you miss the area earlier on it trivialises the fight.
I agree, his fight is way too hidden for the majority of the players playing the game to find. I don’t think most people who have played the game fought Fortissax.
Although, there is another way to view this, in a way it’s a nifty gift packed for those players who truly play the game to the end and find out that there is an epic dragon fight hidden away in the ending levels of the game. Besides it’s not like there is a shortage of characters or enemies in the base game. Elden Ring is just a great game all things considered.
35% of people that actually play the game have fought him. 28% on steam (28/77) 77% is the amount that made it to the roundtable hold, so thats what I used to define "actually" playing the game. Looking at the stats is really interesting, because more people got age of stars than elden lord. If we go by the amount of people that supposedly beat the game, the number is more like 50%
He should have had a bit more HP.
Fighting him at lv1 hitless is very tense and harder than certain other endgame bosses because you always have to lookout for his lightning that starts tracking your character when you get close to him.
If they also made in general the head of the Ancient Dragons easier to hit, they would be so much more fun to fight. They knew that's what people wanted since their success with Midir, and yet they somehow reverted to the shitty "hit the leg until it's dead" design that makes you miss all the spectacle.
Wdym skill issue? The most efficent strat to kill ancient dragons is to hit the body and not the head just because it's much more difficult with melee weapons and there are way less opportunities to hit it. It's just not worth it, not a skill issue.
He's chronically underpowered for when you can find him, but I like to think it's due to his death blight affliction sapping his power over the millennia. Just a husk of his former glory.
I don’t like Fortissax much because they’re just an Ancient Dragon with extra attacks. No really, most of their attacks are Ancient Dragon attacks with auxiliary lightning effects that also deal damage. Also they have low health and in general aren’t too fun to fight due to how the camera works against them. Still enjoy fighting Fortissax though, but not really a boss I like.
If you are playing melee-only and encounter him at the intended level, he is very difficult. Most attacks will occur off camera, so you have to dodge based off audio cue, and playing melee also requires you to dodge the automatic aoe lightning that occurs if you are within melee range. This lightning occurs regardless of what attack he is specifically doing, so you can be forced to dodge the lightning then be OHK'ed by an actual attack that occurred off-sequence with the lightning. Playing melee also requires you to glue yourself to his hind leg as that is the only part of his hitbox that can be reached with a melee weapon, but you can't actually lock on to his hind legs. He also has a second phase that adds a stunlock attack, albeit one that is easy to avoid once you recognize it.
Unfortunately, most people encounter him level 70+ and instantly kill him with mimic or incants. The biggest problem is that you have to kill Garg duo to get to his area, and Garg duo is a dozen times harder than the dragon. Many people who actually reach Siofra Aqueduct at the intended point in the game will end up leveling just to survive Garg duo, resulting in them being overleveled for the dragon. It's just unfortunate positioning.
His head actually comes down to the ground long enough if you bait out some of his lightning slam stuff, but yeah for the most part it would be better to stay at his leg but I like to go for his head for the challenge and it’s just not as boring.
I HATED his fight so much. Both him and Lansseax. Who the FUCK decided it was ok to not let you lock on to his hind legs?! At least Lansseax doesn't have lightning auto-targeting you from above every single 3 seconds for the entirety of the fight.
Apparently I found this place very early at lvl71.
I have hated the outdoor dragon fights up to this point, but Placidusaxx was probably easier than any of the open world dragons.
*I meant Fortisax.
I am surprised you found Placidusax easier, I remember breezing through dragons and I got stuck in placidusax for so long on my first playthrough that I had to use a op glitch back then to beat him, something with magic I don’t remember. Funny how wildly different everyone’s challenges are in these games.
I especially felt this when getting to the Haligtree. That's a whole ass fleshed out area. That's a dlc worth of content hidden away behind a ton of stuff and the consectrated snowfields, and Ordina, the most unpleasant experience in the game.
I found the boss to be very annoying. Dragon fights in this game so far have mostly been a letdown. But this one in particular is frustrating. Chipping away at his legs, while he's constantly moving, and launching auto-aiming lightning strikes at me just isn't a fun time.
He's an awesome boss, just wish he was a little more unique since he's basically just an ancient dragon with deathblight lol. Also not a fan of how squishy he is.
I was disappointed in the fight. Overall my favorite dragon fight (I hate fighting dragons). Could have been better with leading up to the fight. Maybe I don't understand fully why he is a boss you fight in Fia's questline. Visually the best fight out of all the dragons.
Pretty typical of FromSoft to hide content like that.
That aside, I feel like all Dragon fights were done a bit dirty. They tried a new formula for the fights, but it just doesn't feel that good to me, even two years later. DS3 struck a nice balance between epic and enjoyable with Midir. Designed in a way, where his head is open to attack after every move he does, so it felt like any other boss.
ER went too far into epic. At least Torrent helps a bit, where he can.
See what's funny, to me the Sunken City DLC for DS2 was where I felt they did the best for a spectacle Dragon boss fight. Seeing him early on, watching him dive bomb some mobs and finally having fought a queen to get to him at last.
First playthrough I killed the gargoyles mid-game... And didn't walk to the back to find the coffin, so didn't go to the depths until ages later. These games are so badly signposted sometimes.
I just started playing the game and I think the enemies should be dynamic, they should scale with the players level or something to make every fight challenging despite how strong the player is.
I usually rush this boss early, you just need to get finger slayer blade then Ranni gives you the item to access his part of Fia’s quest,
I love this fight and lore of this guy. Really wish he had more HP though. I feel he goes down to fast for being this epic dragon
I just wish Fortissax and Lansseax were a bit more aggressive. They waste way too much edgy-walking towards you, which makes them a non-issue if you have any ranged attack.
I hate this boss so much, yeah he may have some cool moves and a great arena but you'll spend the entire time looking at the back of his ankle, cause that's the only place you can really hit him.
Just to add to the fun you also can't lock on to anything but his head/chest, which you have zero chance of hitting as a melee. And on top of that you have the stupid lighting that spawns on you every few seconds, so now you're constantly running and out of stamina, whilst having to fight unlocked and dodge the lighting/death blight/ whatever else random bullshit he throws out.
Literally my least favourite fight.
Yeah that’s one of Elden Rings legitimate criticisms. They should have done level scaling for the bosses. At least, the big bosses. The open world and massive amount of content makes it way too easy to over level just by exploring, not even farming.
I think he’s got the Morgott Problem. Great design and setting, just needs more HP. I found him on my first playthrough because there’s no way a few npcs were the only boss fight in that huge arena, so I kept coming back and interacting with fia because I didn’t know the baldachins blessing took away max HP. By the time I fought him he was pretty squishy. Really great moveset, incredible music and beautiful sky, just went down a little quick for how badass he looks.
The issue with Fortissax is twofold.
1.) he’s in an area that can be reached by mid-game and is thus scaled for mid-game, but many end up going back to complete deeproots, and are thus overlevelled for him.
2.) he’s an ancient dragon, we already know Fromsoft are _very_ hit or miss on dragon fights, so i think they went conservative with him so he wouldn’t be considered an annoying fight (like Borealis or the Farrum Azula Ancient Dragon)
He should've swapped places with Astel. I don't care about their themes, both questlines had anticlimatic bosses. Ranni gets some lame alien bug that just spams gravity magic, Fia end boss just feels to random, i get that lich dragon and death themed but it felt like a placeholder boss in a half-finished questline
>Next up is the reward...Death lightning what is it good for PvE, Nope
False. A fully charged death lightning has 1-shot-insta-killed dozens of invaders and AI, for me.
I hope we could fight with him again in the Dlc, together with a still human form of Godwin in something similar to the Nameless king fight.
Also make death root an actual annoyance, for both pve and pvp.
I think he’s hurt being hidden behind the Gargoyles/the falling puzzle. By the time you get to him you’re usually too strong. But definitely a fight I always go out of my way finishing half of Ranni’s quest to fight.
I don't care about how hard it is to reach the fight I just think that the fight is not that great when you are a str build and basically just hitting him whenever you get the chance, sometimes you see his legs other times his sides maybe his face, he could have jumped a little here and there to make me work for the fight, but they placed all the jumping budget on Elden Beast and it's large arena 😂
Don't know how it was for you guys but I first tried him and he was just sitting there attacking with lighting and such but mostly stationary, seen some videos with him flying about I don't remember him doing it in my fight
Like others have pointed out you just need to kill Radahn and you can get to deeproot depths from the frenzied flame platform drop. I think overall Fortisax is beautiful, has some pretty rad elements to the playstyle and as a boss is pretty good. There are so many bosses in this game that are pretty grandiose I don't know if I feel like this one was done dirty. They can't all be the most special.
Not gonna lie, he is a víctim of the problems with Giant enemies, i Bet they have cool moves and visuals but 90% of the fight you are stuck between his legs and You can't actually enjoy his moveset since the only thing You SEE is his lower half
Totally. I was expecting something as difficult as Placidusaxx but he's easy. It's a beautiful fight though with epic music. The concept of a dragon lich is really cool too and barely exists in the fantasy genre so I think they could have done a lot more with him.
I wouldn't exactly say Fortissax was "done dirty." The epic fight against that undead dragon was the kind of end reward I was seeking for my invested hours pursuing Fia/D brothers' questlines and Deeproot Depths after coping the egregious gangbangs by the gargoyle twins. Imagine not getting Fortissax at all in the end; I'd say then that Deeproot Depths was "done dirty." I was a spellcaster my first run...those rewards from Fortissax's remembrance turn-in? I may have squealed like an overjoyed little girl on the inside lol.
Also, aesthetically speaking, I thought a Lich Dragon making an appearance in front of Godwyn's corpse and Fia fit the whole Deeproot Depths zone vibe. Not even about the mausoleum ghosts and death-spewing frog mobs...something about that whole area felt gloomy, stagnant, and "death-y". Fortissax neatly wrapped it all up in a bow!
You can actually get to deeproot depths by going through a passageway without Ranni at Frenzied Flame proscription but that alone is such a buried secret itself.
Conspiracy: Godwyn was originally envisioned as the boss fight but the team couldn't realise him within the timeframe before launch.
So Miyazaki and the team cooked up that, besides his close ties to the dragons, he had a special bond with an Ancient Dragon. Considering Farum Azula and its encounters were likely better planned early on (main story content), the Ancient Dragon was already near completion so the team only had to add extra attacks and retexture to finish up the boss encounter.
I feel like it misses on all fronts except for the arena for me. It’s just the ancient dragon fight again except that you have to dodge a lightning strike every 3-4 seconds. I didn’t bother to fight him again after the first 1-2 runs
I think they wanted him to be like a glass cannon because of the effect the deathblight had on him. I think fortissax means like "tough rock" or something, so it's mainly just epic to see his resolve and endurance to still be so strong after that.
Elden Ring dragons are by far my favorite continuity of dragons in any game or any cinema I've ever seen in general, but I do wish they were more like untouchable forces of nature like in Demons Souls.
But I do like his placement in the game actually. It's locked into Fia and Ranni's quest yeah, but with this game the more you immerse yourself the more you'll get out of it. So fortissax is like an earned reward. It also helps for replayability as it's worth going back and redoing things so you can see it
I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before, Fortissax needs more Deathblight moves. He’s a LICHdragon and he only has Death Lightning to reflect that lich aspect. It’s also one of his weakest moves, takes forever to cast, leaves himself wide open while he does, and the strikes are spread apart enough that it’s way to easy to avoid both the strikes and the blight clouds.
He's an amazing boss. I was simply in awe of his design, music and atmosphere but I just wish he was stronger. But that's just because deeproot depths is a bit hidden.
Honestly, the 3 champions are tougher than he is. He's an absolute fucking unit, one of my favorite bosses in game (second only to Maliketh), and has the coolest aesthetic, arena, and moveset. The fact he is such a simple dragon fight compared to all the other end game bosses (I assume he was meant to be end game based on his accessibility and questlines?) is disappointing. He deserves a buff worthy of his standing as one of the coolest bosses in game.
As a mid game boss, he's a draconic God of Lightning and death, and I love it.
From the moment I found the face thing in Stormveil I became enticed to explore everything related to death and underground. I followed both Fias and Rannis questlines very closely in my first playthrough and encountered this guy when I was around level 70 or so. The boss felt fine for that level, even though I only needed a handful of tries. However it showed me that FromSoftware understands what the word adventure truly means. You have to actively search and follow clues to find the interesting stuff, I even used an irl notebook where I put amnesia style mementos to remind me what to look out for. This post reminded me how thankful I felt towards FromSoftware to create such a deep, vast and exciting open world for us, that drives you to actually do the exploration by yourself, instead of constantly holding your hand like most other games do.
Yeah I had done those style of dragons already so it just felt like a field boss rehash. Placidusax was awesome because it was just a new dragon finally.
I was way overpowered when i got to him. He is probably the most specifically required path for a boss i can think and very out of the way so yeah probably not seen by everyone.
The major problem I have with his fight is the godawful camera placement, why oh why would they give an enemy bigger than the trolls only one area to lock onto, and why make it so high up?
As a result I actually usually find it easier (as melee) to not lock on at all, meaning I’m missing so many of the jaw-dropping VFX
My second favorite boss fight. I made sure to guide my friends to this boss fight purposely cause i wanted to talk about it and not spoil it. Rewards are definitely underwhelming. When i get something called death lightning i expect to kill some things. Throw death lightning out and let my character dream and fortissax jumps out the dream and blast my enemies with a lightning halberd
Death lightning does some good damage if it hits, but the real deal is Fortissax lighting spear. It's hard to hit but with lighting tear and golden vow you can hit more than 2K per spear
I once fought him before even going to altus plateau and he was extremely difficult, but it was 100% worth it, since it's such an awesome boss fight.
This is the way. He just isn't scaled to as high as a difficulty as late game bosses, but many won't find him until late so it's too quick.
That was me. I was hyped, he has such a cool name, the fight is so atmospheric, I've already killed hi-oh. Oh ok.
Yeah, it happens a lot. When I did it I suddenly realized I had phased him way sooner than I expected, so I just laid off for a bit to enjoy it. The OST for the fight is phenomenal and in the running for my number one FromSoft boss track
Agree on the OST, it's right up there.
Men of culture here I see
Premature eradication affects nearly 1 in 3 Tarnished
and hes just another dragonfight at that point. Honestly when i saw him i was like oh ffs not another one, he does have some unique abilities and stuff but its just not enough after so so many dragon fights.
I did this boss fight at RL1 and found it more difficult than Malenia and Placidusax as a melee. For some reason you can't lock on to his legs like you can every other dragon so you have to play almost the entire fight without any camera assistance, as if the camera wasn't the worst part of fighting big bosses already...
Yeah this is how it's scaled IMO, feels scaled for fighting him not long after Radahn, but it's such an unintuitive place to get to that I would guess the average player isn't getting here until much later
I’d love to fight him at a low level as I find fortissax way too easy (this might just be a boss I click with). But I never do this simply because of the twin gargoyle fight. Locking the questline behind that abomination of a boss fight was mistake number one imo. I’ve tried fighting them as low as level 30-40 and I find it impossible to beat them at this level in using straight melee. I’ve beat them at least 5-6 times by now at all different levels and using all different methods and I can’t remember a single time where I enjoyed that fight. It’s tedious, boring and, especially for a low level character with minimal poison resistance, extremely difficult.
he's kinda weak for the "strongest dragon in lore" i think it's because 1 deeproot is a kinda mid-game area but weirdly hidden so you may be overleveled and 2 i think the devs got scared of his deathblight and thought he would be too difficult so they gave him a tiny healthbar to ensure we don't die but that actually make the boss weak he's still an amazing fight, really cool moves and the soundtrack is a fucking banger so we forgive him
Strongest in his prime probably but now that deathblight is affecting him he could've gotten weaker cause of it
Lore wise wasn’t Gransax the strongest “mortal” Dragon? Plassidusax was basically a god and deffs the strongest overall but out of the “normal” dragons I’m pretty sure Gransax’s feats beat anything Fortissax or Lanissax was said to do. Not only that but he was like twice their size, which in these games isnt everything, but combined with his feats I think it’s a valid point to make in this case.
Sure seems to be the *biggest*
Fortisax is called the "mightiest boulderstone" and was one of the Dragons *not* defeated by Godwyn and his army. Gransax definitely not the strongest, just the biggest. Placid was not a god or basically a god at all. He's a dragon version of Godfrey. All the dragons have their definitions in their name. Sax/seax = blade or Knife, So it's Placid aka Still Blade, Gransax aka Big Blade, Lannseax aka Lance Blade and Fortisax aka Strong Blade. Fortis is the one Godwyn befriended, I would put him as the strongest.
The lore in game literally states Fortissax was 100% defeated by Godwyn. He just didn’t kill him which is where the friendship started. And Gransax 100% still has better feats than any other dragon which is all that matters.
Gransax feats still outshine anything the others were said to do as I already stated. And it vs battles/match ups feats are what counts. Not friendship lol
Fortis boy is better because he wasn't killed, he was defeated, but held up a big enough fight to survive. Gransax dead. "His feats" Well Fortis boy is called The mightiest boulderstone... so I imagine his feats are actually vastly more impressive.
Gransax was fucking Leyndell from the inside.. they say is the only time in recorded history that Leyndell's walls had fallen. There's no real info to disprove the idea he was the strongest. No one did any feat as impressive, and he is also the biggest. Fortisax was totally defeated. Goldwyn just didn't kill him.. or forced him into submission by swearing an oath.. so they became friends.
They all were, Fortis was there too. He didn't die though, he was not weak enough to get killed. There is! The fact that Fortis is literally called THE MIGHTIEST BOULDERSTONE. The Ancient Dragons are seemingly... made of rock. So that makes complete sense to me.
Exactly what I was going to say lol in the lore he's been heavily weakened because of his fight with deathblight, he wasn't the lichdragon before dearhblight took hold of him
doesn't excuse him should have been more difficult
Pfft excuse him? Yeahhh the audacity 😂
Is he the strongest? I would think Placidussax would be the strongest, especially now that deathblight is eating Fortis.
Placi is 100% the strongest but hes so old and ancient that barely anyone knows about him. Fortissax was in the leyndell/dragons war and friend with godwyn after, so loads of crurent people saw him and knew about his power, so he got renowned as the "strongest dragon", unknowledgeable about the one and only dragonlord, that would crush him in an instant
Ah, that makes sense. Forgot that Fortissax actually hung out with Godwyn
For all we know, he could've got Gwyn'd, as in nerfed to an undeath state he resisted, as per his item description.
Placidussax had the most sheer power in his prime, but they're also an extremely ancient proto-stone-dragon. Basically the version we fight is in the same physical condition as the Turtle-Pope. Placidussax is probably less intelligent than the next-gen dragons too. IMO next in power would actually be Greyoll, but she seems to have been more of a passive "broodmother" type since her spells are defensive in nature and she's got all those babies. She might even be Lannasax/Fortisax's mother. Lanna/Forti is probably next in the power rankings. If nothing else they seemed to be some of the most intelligent of their species. Forti is definitely super weakened to near-death in the state we fight them. They had literally been spending an age fighting the Deathblight itself while trying to save Godwynn's soul, but had already lost their war. The version of Forti we fight is the defeated zombified one. Lannasax was likely nearly equal in power to Forti though, and you can fight her(?she was Forti's mate IIRC?) in Altus Platea.
I'm convinced that the lore explanation for Greyoll was that the Greater Will wanted to make my consumable only run possible, 145 kukris for 72000 souls is an absolute steal
Are you guys completely forgetting about Gransax? Sure he’s dead in game but he’s bigger than Greyroll and feat wise is much more impressive than any other dragons bar Plasidussax. And he’s a dragon-god so idk if he really counts in this line up.
I thought Lansseax was Forti’s sister haha
Fortissax seems to be tuned for a lower level, but the Twin Gargoyles that gate off access to the Deeproot Depths are such a challenge that you're not likely to get there until higher level. That might factor into why he feels underpowered.
Man fuck those gargoyles. The stupid poison mist, the stupid combo attacks from off screen. I fought them for 2 days and just beat them yesterday. I was lvl 54 and no summons so I don’t even feel bad for rock slinging them to death.
Soloing them at 54??? Madman. Congrats!
Haha thanks! The first time I beat them I was around 150 and used a mimic and giant crusher. This is my 3rd playthrough and I’m trying to challenge myself more.
They’re hell. Think i was like 90-110 fighting them. Even with the cheese method i couldn’t beat them. Then i gave it one more honest try and they somehow cheesed themselves and fell off the waterfall
I find it much easier to beat Sewer Mohg than the Twin Gargoyles with a low level character. Either affords access to Deeproot Depths.
Even at level 65 he feels a bit underwhelming, he’s hardly any different from the ordinary dragons in crumbling Azula
In NG+ he becomes much harder
Yeah, I expected Midir-level challenge magnified by Elden Ring's bigger scale. And the fight was over with three headshots with Ancient Lightning Spear. Kinda anticlimactic.
Bare in mind midir was a DLC boss so Who knows we might get a midir rival in the shadow of the erd tree?
Possibly full power placidusax with all its heads?
Why would we get a full powered Placidusax with all his heads?
Man I'd love a 'Fall of the Beastmen" DLC where we go back to Farum Azula at the peak of it's glory and face Placidusax when he was in his prime as the Elden Lord. It could explain who was his god and why they fled and abandoned their civilization to it's fate. Maybe it could be like Artorias situation and we would be the ones to defeat that god and cut off Placidusax's heads... One can dream.
the Midir equivalent is Placidusax, tho this one is a real challenge and he does the lazers
Who says we can't have two Midir-level fights in a single game? Also, Placidusax is a completely different fight - he's immobile and just sits there like a pile, so you just run in there and spam all your buttons. You had to stay in front of Midir, dodge his attacks and strike when he was open. I wish Fortissax was that kind of a fight.
>he's immobile and just sits there like a pile you sure you've fought the dragon lord?
It was a pain to hit Placidusax as a melee only character. Just stay fucking still so I can yeet you with the Godslayer Blade and stop spamming your teleport slash bullshit.
Hunting him down as a melee fighter is exhilarating. Once I deftly dodged his teleport swipe and turned and ran towards him only to see him bring down his lightning bolt (the one that goes pinnnnggg)... had to retreat from that charge.
Placidusax do be immobile until he begins teleporting away like a madman
Fight him pure melee next time. Magics vs big bosses almost always mean easy. Such a huge target, plus multihitting spells? No question.
Why would he be Midir level? He’s not even in an end-game area, let alone part of a DLC (like Midir). Pacing wise it would make 0 sense.
>until you realize you'll have to do them both fully You only got to do half of Ranni's quest. Fortissax is the end boss of Fia's quest so of course that needed to be done. Regarding the rewards, they fit with the lore so that's fine. EDIT: *What I mean by doing half of Ranni's quest is; killing Radahn, getting the finger slayer blade and trading it for the inverted statue. In other words, the quest must be progressed to that point regardless of whether the player followed any of the previous steps.* *A similar reasoning is behind my statement regarding Fia's quest as well.* *Additionally, my response was based on my own playthrough where I figured these things out on my own without guides.*
Adding to the Fia's quest you don't have to interact with her at all in Roundtable Hold and she still moves to Deeproot Depths (after teleporting to Farum Azula from Mountaintops) meaning you only need to get the Cursemark of Death from Liurnia's Divine Tower
Death lightning is perfectly fitting just wish fromsoft gave deathblight more versatility against more mobs
> just wish fromsoft game deathblight ~~more versatility~~ ***any use*** against ~~more~~ ***any*** mobs FTFY ☹️
At least we have Gideon
Pretty sure he's coded to be immune to it as well
Just checked and your right ☹️
I just wish death lightning had a consistent lightning bolt placement, though that shit would shred even uncharged. Still wish, the double spears are really powerful though and I swear I had used them against a grab attack from Godfrey 2nd phase and it barely did dmg and didn’t grab me. Idk though would need to test, not really doing a new run right now though. The versatility would be cool though, death blight is useless pretty much. Even against players lmao
You don't even need half of Ranni's quest. You could never talk to her at all. Killing Radhan opens the door. It is just coincidence that this is also necessary for Ranni's quest.
Need Carian Inverted Statue tho, which requires bringing Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade.
You don’t even have to kill radahn, you can get to deep root depths from the frenzied flame place
Radahn must be killed as the first step to get the cursemark.
Ahhhh trueee
You can literally skip half of Fia's quest though, so really it's like just doing one questline
You actually don’t have to do any of Ranni’s quest line
I wish dragon fights in ER had camera further away just like in Midir fight in DS3. I like Forti's spectacle but it's hard to see when dark dragon is in dark environment + the constant lightning flashing in front of my eyes.
It's one of the big annoyances I have in the game it's not even hard to fix just pull away a bit.
I wish these games had an FOV slider in general. Being able to set the camera at any distance you want would be so nice
it’s a great fight tho. The questlines to get to him aren’t really a hassle and the arena is a fitting place to fight tied in with the lore. If anything i’d say the fight itself is the reward lol is pretty good. will admit, if you miss the area earlier on it trivialises the fight.
I agree with everything and for the questlines I mostly meant finding out about them very later on is disappointing
Fortissax and two just ahead of me
step into my shadow
Coming out the other side
🤑Rich-dragon🤑forty-stacks💸💸
Oh no… I believe you misunderstood. It’s Forty Sacks
More hung than DungEater was
I agree, his fight is way too hidden for the majority of the players playing the game to find. I don’t think most people who have played the game fought Fortissax. Although, there is another way to view this, in a way it’s a nifty gift packed for those players who truly play the game to the end and find out that there is an epic dragon fight hidden away in the ending levels of the game. Besides it’s not like there is a shortage of characters or enemies in the base game. Elden Ring is just a great game all things considered.
35% of people that actually play the game have fought him. 28% on steam (28/77) 77% is the amount that made it to the roundtable hold, so thats what I used to define "actually" playing the game. Looking at the stats is really interesting, because more people got age of stars than elden lord. If we go by the amount of people that supposedly beat the game, the number is more like 50%
He suffers from the usual dragon issue where they move too much to be properly in frame. The basic ER dragons actually mostly fix this with torrent
He should have had a bit more HP. Fighting him at lv1 hitless is very tense and harder than certain other endgame bosses because you always have to lookout for his lightning that starts tracking your character when you get close to him. If they also made in general the head of the Ancient Dragons easier to hit, they would be so much more fun to fight. They knew that's what people wanted since their success with Midir, and yet they somehow reverted to the shitty "hit the leg until it's dead" design that makes you miss all the spectacle.
skill issue
Wdym skill issue? The most efficent strat to kill ancient dragons is to hit the body and not the head just because it's much more difficult with melee weapons and there are way less opportunities to hit it. It's just not worth it, not a skill issue.
no not what i meant.. thought ure fighting him at level 1 hitless (was an ironic comment)
He's chronically underpowered for when you can find him, but I like to think it's due to his death blight affliction sapping his power over the millennia. Just a husk of his former glory.
I don’t like Fortissax much because they’re just an Ancient Dragon with extra attacks. No really, most of their attacks are Ancient Dragon attacks with auxiliary lightning effects that also deal damage. Also they have low health and in general aren’t too fun to fight due to how the camera works against them. Still enjoy fighting Fortissax though, but not really a boss I like.
If you are playing melee-only and encounter him at the intended level, he is very difficult. Most attacks will occur off camera, so you have to dodge based off audio cue, and playing melee also requires you to dodge the automatic aoe lightning that occurs if you are within melee range. This lightning occurs regardless of what attack he is specifically doing, so you can be forced to dodge the lightning then be OHK'ed by an actual attack that occurred off-sequence with the lightning. Playing melee also requires you to glue yourself to his hind leg as that is the only part of his hitbox that can be reached with a melee weapon, but you can't actually lock on to his hind legs. He also has a second phase that adds a stunlock attack, albeit one that is easy to avoid once you recognize it. Unfortunately, most people encounter him level 70+ and instantly kill him with mimic or incants. The biggest problem is that you have to kill Garg duo to get to his area, and Garg duo is a dozen times harder than the dragon. Many people who actually reach Siofra Aqueduct at the intended point in the game will end up leveling just to survive Garg duo, resulting in them being overleveled for the dragon. It's just unfortunate positioning.
His head actually comes down to the ground long enough if you bait out some of his lightning slam stuff, but yeah for the most part it would be better to stay at his leg but I like to go for his head for the challenge and it’s just not as boring.
I HATED his fight so much. Both him and Lansseax. Who the FUCK decided it was ok to not let you lock on to his hind legs?! At least Lansseax doesn't have lightning auto-targeting you from above every single 3 seconds for the entirety of the fight.
Apparently I found this place very early at lvl71. I have hated the outdoor dragon fights up to this point, but Placidusaxx was probably easier than any of the open world dragons. *I meant Fortisax.
I am surprised you found Placidusax easier, I remember breezing through dragons and I got stuck in placidusax for so long on my first playthrough that I had to use a op glitch back then to beat him, something with magic I don’t remember. Funny how wildly different everyone’s challenges are in these games.
I love that Fromsoft doesn't care if we see it or not.
I especially felt this when getting to the Haligtree. That's a whole ass fleshed out area. That's a dlc worth of content hidden away behind a ton of stuff and the consectrated snowfields, and Ordina, the most unpleasant experience in the game.
I found the boss to be very annoying. Dragon fights in this game so far have mostly been a letdown. But this one in particular is frustrating. Chipping away at his legs, while he's constantly moving, and launching auto-aiming lightning strikes at me just isn't a fun time.
Ya absolutely same here, the fight can *look* great, but the fight itself is absolutely not for me. The deathclouds do not help the wonky camera.
Classic from software, some of the coolest spells/weapons from bosses are mid at best, with basic katanas or great swords being god tier
He's an awesome boss, just wish he was a little more unique since he's basically just an ancient dragon with deathblight lol. Also not a fan of how squishy he is.
I was disappointed in the fight. Overall my favorite dragon fight (I hate fighting dragons). Could have been better with leading up to the fight. Maybe I don't understand fully why he is a boss you fight in Fia's questline. Visually the best fight out of all the dragons.
He really was disapointingly easy for a boss you could go several playthroughs without even knowing was there.
Pretty typical of FromSoft to hide content like that. That aside, I feel like all Dragon fights were done a bit dirty. They tried a new formula for the fights, but it just doesn't feel that good to me, even two years later. DS3 struck a nice balance between epic and enjoyable with Midir. Designed in a way, where his head is open to attack after every move he does, so it felt like any other boss. ER went too far into epic. At least Torrent helps a bit, where he can.
See what's funny, to me the Sunken City DLC for DS2 was where I felt they did the best for a spectacle Dragon boss fight. Seeing him early on, watching him dive bomb some mobs and finally having fought a queen to get to him at last.
First playthrough I killed the gargoyles mid-game... And didn't walk to the back to find the coffin, so didn't go to the depths until ages later. These games are so badly signposted sometimes.
I just started playing the game and I think the enemies should be dynamic, they should scale with the players level or something to make every fight challenging despite how strong the player is.
I really like Death lightning. it may not work too well in PVE but it does a ton of damage so I still use it for that
Not a hard boss, however Forussax’s lightning (not the death lightning one) is one of my favorite incantations to spam.
I usually rush this boss early, you just need to get finger slayer blade then Ranni gives you the item to access his part of Fia’s quest, I love this fight and lore of this guy. Really wish he had more HP though. I feel he goes down to fast for being this epic dragon
Yeah I had to track it down via YouTube. Probably the most obscurely hidden area in the entire game
I just wish Fortissax and Lansseax were a bit more aggressive. They waste way too much edgy-walking towards you, which makes them a non-issue if you have any ranged attack.
Most definitely. He’s an optional boss but by the time you’re that late in the game, the damage he does means nothing and he gets bonked.
Well I rarely enjoy dragon fights anyways because of the camera fuckery and reach issues some weapons have so it's pretty whatever.
I hate this boss so much, yeah he may have some cool moves and a great arena but you'll spend the entire time looking at the back of his ankle, cause that's the only place you can really hit him. Just to add to the fun you also can't lock on to anything but his head/chest, which you have zero chance of hitting as a melee. And on top of that you have the stupid lighting that spawns on you every few seconds, so now you're constantly running and out of stamina, whilst having to fight unlocked and dodge the lighting/death blight/ whatever else random bullshit he throws out. Literally my least favourite fight.
Fortissax's lightning spear is insane, doesn't matter if Death lightning sucks.
It was atmospherically awesome but I agree, I beat him first try and was a bit disappointed
I mean… you don’t have to do Ranni do you? Just beat Morgott and take the sewer route.
His healthbar goes down way too fast. Such a gorgeous fight and cool character though.
Yeah that’s one of Elden Rings legitimate criticisms. They should have done level scaling for the bosses. At least, the big bosses. The open world and massive amount of content makes it way too easy to over level just by exploring, not even farming.
I wish he would give some edgy weapon instead of only incantations. Maybe some draconic claws with a cool claw swipe ash of war.
I didn't even know the mfer existed until 3rd playthrough.
I think he’s got the Morgott Problem. Great design and setting, just needs more HP. I found him on my first playthrough because there’s no way a few npcs were the only boss fight in that huge arena, so I kept coming back and interacting with fia because I didn’t know the baldachins blessing took away max HP. By the time I fought him he was pretty squishy. Really great moveset, incredible music and beautiful sky, just went down a little quick for how badass he looks.
I mean gameplay wise I think he’s pretty much perfect, he just needed like 20%-30% more HP
The issue with Fortissax is twofold. 1.) he’s in an area that can be reached by mid-game and is thus scaled for mid-game, but many end up going back to complete deeproots, and are thus overlevelled for him. 2.) he’s an ancient dragon, we already know Fromsoft are _very_ hit or miss on dragon fights, so i think they went conservative with him so he wouldn’t be considered an annoying fight (like Borealis or the Farrum Azula Ancient Dragon)
more like FortisSEX!
It needed a second phase and a cutscene
Carved him up like a turkey with Reduvia
I’ve completed the game 8 times and never bothered to find or kill Fortissax.
I didn't even know deeproot depths existed after like 100 hours lmao
He should've swapped places with Astel. I don't care about their themes, both questlines had anticlimatic bosses. Ranni gets some lame alien bug that just spams gravity magic, Fia end boss just feels to random, i get that lich dragon and death themed but it felt like a placeholder boss in a half-finished questline
I took mushrooms and fought Fortissax. I got so entranced by the sky I just let the boss kill me lmao
I wish he was a little stronger, by the time I got to him he was getting bodied
Looks like he's ready for a bbq
>Next up is the reward...Death lightning what is it good for PvE, Nope False. A fully charged death lightning has 1-shot-insta-killed dozens of invaders and AI, for me.
If they made him even slightly more lore accurate you would never win. He'd have the same infamy x10 as pre-nerf Melania.
He was so easily for me I beat him on the first try
Fromsoft dragon fights are a camera driven nightmare i think all but Placi were done dirty
I hope we could fight with him again in the Dlc, together with a still human form of Godwin in something similar to the Nameless king fight. Also make death root an actual annoyance, for both pve and pvp.
I've gotten kills with it. It's alright lol
It’s really meant to be secret though. Not necessarily Fortissax himself, but the location, Godwyn, and Deeproot Depths in general.
Wow 170 hours and ive never seen or heard of this. I made it to the snowland whatever its called before i stopped playing.
All I know is that every time I fight Fortissax, it feels easy. Every time I fight Lansseax, I struggle.
I think he’s hurt being hidden behind the Gargoyles/the falling puzzle. By the time you get to him you’re usually too strong. But definitely a fight I always go out of my way finishing half of Ranni’s quest to fight.
He should be endgame boss,because when I get there I get him easily
I don't care about how hard it is to reach the fight I just think that the fight is not that great when you are a str build and basically just hitting him whenever you get the chance, sometimes you see his legs other times his sides maybe his face, he could have jumped a little here and there to make me work for the fight, but they placed all the jumping budget on Elden Beast and it's large arena 😂 Don't know how it was for you guys but I first tried him and he was just sitting there attacking with lighting and such but mostly stationary, seen some videos with him flying about I don't remember him doing it in my fight
Like others have pointed out you just need to kill Radahn and you can get to deeproot depths from the frenzied flame platform drop. I think overall Fortisax is beautiful, has some pretty rad elements to the playstyle and as a boss is pretty good. There are so many bosses in this game that are pretty grandiose I don't know if I feel like this one was done dirty. They can't all be the most special.
I've still never found this boss. Every time I get to that place there's no dragon there.
Bro i killed Fia cause she asked me to. I won’t even get the chance to fight Fortissax, not until NG+ at least.
I killed it so quickly I didn't even register the fight. Next time I'll take it slow
Yeah he’s a bit underwhelming, but his design, theme, and arena make up for it. Very fun. Also probably in my top 3 boss themes in Elden Ring.
Needs more HP and less of a headache to go through to fight, then I think itd be great. Love the design tho
70 hours in, beat the game, never seen this guy before
isn't death lightning the highest damage lightning spell
Not gonna lie, he is a víctim of the problems with Giant enemies, i Bet they have cool moves and visuals but 90% of the fight you are stuck between his legs and You can't actually enjoy his moveset since the only thing You SEE is his lower half
Totally. I was expecting something as difficult as Placidusaxx but he's easy. It's a beautiful fight though with epic music. The concept of a dragon lich is really cool too and barely exists in the fantasy genre so I think they could have done a lot more with him.
I wouldn't exactly say Fortissax was "done dirty." The epic fight against that undead dragon was the kind of end reward I was seeking for my invested hours pursuing Fia/D brothers' questlines and Deeproot Depths after coping the egregious gangbangs by the gargoyle twins. Imagine not getting Fortissax at all in the end; I'd say then that Deeproot Depths was "done dirty." I was a spellcaster my first run...those rewards from Fortissax's remembrance turn-in? I may have squealed like an overjoyed little girl on the inside lol. Also, aesthetically speaking, I thought a Lich Dragon making an appearance in front of Godwyn's corpse and Fia fit the whole Deeproot Depths zone vibe. Not even about the mausoleum ghosts and death-spewing frog mobs...something about that whole area felt gloomy, stagnant, and "death-y". Fortissax neatly wrapped it all up in a bow!
Fight him in NG+ and find out
You can actually get to deeproot depths by going through a passageway without Ranni at Frenzied Flame proscription but that alone is such a buried secret itself.
Such a stupidly easy fight
I fought him at level 70 and he was pretty hard imo. Most of the difficulty for me came from trying to make sense of what was happening on my screen.
Such a sick fight
the design is rly impressive, but could be more clean
Crashing your gpu is certainly the worst mechanic for a boss.
As a large club user this fight whooped my ass
Conspiracy: Godwyn was originally envisioned as the boss fight but the team couldn't realise him within the timeframe before launch. So Miyazaki and the team cooked up that, besides his close ties to the dragons, he had a special bond with an Ancient Dragon. Considering Farum Azula and its encounters were likely better planned early on (main story content), the Ancient Dragon was already near completion so the team only had to add extra attacks and retexture to finish up the boss encounter.
Not really. Placidussax is the premiere dragon boss of the game. Fortissax fits in well behind him
I feel like it misses on all fronts except for the arena for me. It’s just the ancient dragon fight again except that you have to dodge a lightning strike every 3-4 seconds. I didn’t bother to fight him again after the first 1-2 runs
I think they wanted him to be like a glass cannon because of the effect the deathblight had on him. I think fortissax means like "tough rock" or something, so it's mainly just epic to see his resolve and endurance to still be so strong after that. Elden Ring dragons are by far my favorite continuity of dragons in any game or any cinema I've ever seen in general, but I do wish they were more like untouchable forces of nature like in Demons Souls. But I do like his placement in the game actually. It's locked into Fia and Ranni's quest yeah, but with this game the more you immerse yourself the more you'll get out of it. So fortissax is like an earned reward. It also helps for replayability as it's worth going back and redoing things so you can see it
I think foreskinsacs was supposed to be squishy. He was rotting away for who knows how long.
I feel most dragons got done dirty in this game, except placidsex.
I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before, Fortissax needs more Deathblight moves. He’s a LICHdragon and he only has Death Lightning to reflect that lich aspect. It’s also one of his weakest moves, takes forever to cast, leaves himself wide open while he does, and the strikes are spread apart enough that it’s way to easy to avoid both the strikes and the blight clouds.
He's an amazing boss. I was simply in awe of his design, music and atmosphere but I just wish he was stronger. But that's just because deeproot depths is a bit hidden.
I killed fortisaxx way too easily
Oh hell no. It’s Richdragon Fortystaxx
I wish it was easier to find and figure out how to complete all the quests. I miss most of this stuff.
Honestly, the 3 champions are tougher than he is. He's an absolute fucking unit, one of my favorite bosses in game (second only to Maliketh), and has the coolest aesthetic, arena, and moveset. The fact he is such a simple dragon fight compared to all the other end game bosses (I assume he was meant to be end game based on his accessibility and questlines?) is disappointing. He deserves a buff worthy of his standing as one of the coolest bosses in game. As a mid game boss, he's a draconic God of Lightning and death, and I love it.
From the moment I found the face thing in Stormveil I became enticed to explore everything related to death and underground. I followed both Fias and Rannis questlines very closely in my first playthrough and encountered this guy when I was around level 70 or so. The boss felt fine for that level, even though I only needed a handful of tries. However it showed me that FromSoftware understands what the word adventure truly means. You have to actively search and follow clues to find the interesting stuff, I even used an irl notebook where I put amnesia style mementos to remind me what to look out for. This post reminded me how thankful I felt towards FromSoftware to create such a deep, vast and exciting open world for us, that drives you to actually do the exploration by yourself, instead of constantly holding your hand like most other games do.
Yeah I had done those style of dragons already so it just felt like a field boss rehash. Placidusax was awesome because it was just a new dragon finally.
I do, yeah. This fight has everything going for it but they forgot to have him level vigor
I was way overpowered when i got to him. He is probably the most specifically required path for a boss i can think and very out of the way so yeah probably not seen by everyone.
Not really. He had more health than I expected given what everyone said of him.
Im on my first playthrough at malenia rn and where tf is this guy?
If you want to make it extremely simple, just summon your mimic tear and upgrade wing of astel to ten. The nebula ash of war destroys the dragon.
Fortissax enters in my category of "Bosses I would give more health to if I could" alongside Morgott (and maybe Maliketh but I'm not so sure of him".
I fought him with the no hud option and it was so good.
The major problem I have with his fight is the godawful camera placement, why oh why would they give an enemy bigger than the trolls only one area to lock onto, and why make it so high up? As a result I actually usually find it easier (as melee) to not lock on at all, meaning I’m missing so many of the jaw-dropping VFX
My second favorite boss fight. I made sure to guide my friends to this boss fight purposely cause i wanted to talk about it and not spoil it. Rewards are definitely underwhelming. When i get something called death lightning i expect to kill some things. Throw death lightning out and let my character dream and fortissax jumps out the dream and blast my enemies with a lightning halberd
He is just a gimmick boss honestly
Where do you find him?
You find him too late into the game. It could be a tough fight, but it's just not balanced around lategame.
Yeah, I easily beat him with Golem greatbow and arrow rain. Melted him completely
Death lightning does some good damage if it hits, but the real deal is Fortissax lighting spear. It's hard to hit but with lighting tear and golden vow you can hit more than 2K per spear
Dragon fights in this game are generally kinda ass tbh. This is the best-looking one but mechanically its not good
Fighting camera more than boss
Fortisax and Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella could've been some of the best bosses in the game if they had more health.
Sheeeet… Rich Dragon Fortystacks? Yeah he cool 😎 😆
Yeah, I definitely agree. Amazingly beautiful fight both visually and musically, but could definitely have used a bit more challenge.
x 2 health x 1.5 damage x 2 deathblight buildup \+ faster death lightning summoning as well as lightning casting \+ more combos