Death Rite Bird is a Field Boss in Elden Ring. The boss is optional and is not mandatory for any ending in the game. To face the boss, one must change the time of the day to Night Time for a Death Bird to spawn. Death Birds are considered one of the easier bosses in the game. However, Death Rite Birds are different.

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They have a different move set, more damage, and can inflict statuses such as Frostbite and Death Blight. As the boss is optional, you can come back to it anytime in the game. Here is all you need to know to defeat Death Rite Bird.

Updated July 19, 2022: We've updated this article to include a video that shows you how best to handle those dreaded Death Rite Birds.

Death Rite Bird Overview

There are four Death Rite Birds, located in various areas, and they only appear at night time. The boss fight is optional, and you can come back to them later. There are no summonable NPCs for the fight as these are Field bosses. Sometimes the Death Rite Birds might be close to enemies causing them to join the fight. To avoid this, make sure the area is clear before taking on the boss.

The boss is Immune to most statuses and is Strong against Lightning Damage. Defeating each boss will give you either a melee armament you can use or a Sorcery for Magic users.

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Death Rite Bird Attacks

Compared to Death Birds, Death Rite Birds have a variety of new attacks. The attacks to look out for are Death Roar and Black Flame Rain.

Death Rite Bird Attacks

Jumping Smash

The boss jumps up in the air showing its paws and then smashes down on you. The boss stays in the air for a couple of seconds before coming down.

Counter: Dodging sideways as the boss comes down will avoid the attack and give you enough time to get a few hits in.

Peck Attack

Death Rite Bird lowers its head and starts to peck the player multiple times.

Counter: Roll to either side and try to get behind its back so that you can get free hits in.

Death Roar

The boss starts to Roar making a terrifying noise and causing Death Blight to build up if a player is in range. The boss Roars twice. If Death Blight status is filled, you will die instantly.

Counter: As this attack does not have much range, you can run away from the boss as you see it doing the first Roar. Stay away until it does the second Roar, after which you can go back to it.

Thrust Fire Explosion

Death Rite Bird thrusts its weapon at the player and forms a Black Flame Ball which causes an AOE explosion to take place.

Counter: You have to roll sideways for the thrust as well as the explosion that comes right after it.

Black Flame Rain

The boss floats up, flies back, and fires multiple spears from its wings into the sky. After a second, these spears start to rain down on the player.

Counter: You can run away from the area as you see the boss firing the spears from its wings. You can also roll around the area to dodge most of the spears if you can not run away from the area.

Black Flame Row

Death Rite Bird sweeps its cane and causes a trail of Black Fire to form ahead of it.

Counter: This attack is slow telegraphed and can be dodged to either side with ease.

Black Flame Slash

The boss uses its weapon covered in Death Flame and slashes at the player one to three times. This deals damage over time, and getting hit by multiple attacks can kill you.

Counter: The attacks are slow and have a little delay in each slash, giving you enough time to roll towards the boss and counterattack it.

Jumping Black Flame Slash

Death Rite Bird jumps up in the air and dives down to perform a Black Flame slash attack on the player.

Counter: Dodging this as the boss comes down to slash you is the only way to avoid this. Your dodge timing for this attack needs to be precise.

Black Flame Explosion

The boss charges its weapon with Black Flame and slams it down on the ground causing a massive AOE and making flames spread around the boss. The attack can one-shot your entire health bar.

Counter: As the boss starts charging, try to run away from the boss and watch where the flames spread so you can avoid those areas.

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Strategies

There are three main strategies for fighting Death Rite Birds:

Melee Strategy

For the melee strategy, it all comes down to positioning. If you can manage to stay beneath the boss the entire fight, you can dodge most of its attacks. It does have a few attacks that it will execute to get away from you, like the Jumping Smash or the Black Flame Rain. An armament with good Strike damage is your best tool for this fight. The boss is exceptionally weak against strike damage. In addition to this, the boss is also weak against Holy attacks. This allows the player to use Faith weapons like the Coded Sword or Golden Order Greatsword.

Try to do as many Jumping Heavy attacks as you can on the boss. If using a Greatsword you will cause the boss's poise to break much faster, giving you the opportunity for a free critical hit for massive damage. In the case of the Death Roar, if you find yourself too close to it most of the time during this attack, you can make use of Order Healing (Incantation) to alleviate Death Blight build-up.

Mounted Strategy

For the mounted strategy, you can choose between going melee or ranged. If you go melee, then you can make Torrent stick to the boss while you attack and focus on the dashing through or away from most of the boss's attacks. Dashing on the mount allows you to get behind the boss relatively quickly so that you can constantly attack the boss without worrying about getting hit.

Ranged Strategy

For the ranged strategy, you can use powerful Sorceries that will whittle down the boss's health bar. Rock Sling is an optimal choice as it does serious damage and breaks poise allowing you to do a critical hit. As the boss is not Immune against Scarlet Rot, you can use Rotten Breath or Ekzykes's Decay and inflict the boss with it. This will allow you to stay away from the boss while its health bar gradually goes down.

Black Knife Tiche is an excellent Spirit Ash if you want to summon one. She can get close to the boss and get out to avoid attacks. She also has a high damage output allowing the boss to focus on her while you spam Rock Sling. You can find her Spirit Ashes by defeating Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader, in the Ringleader's Evergaol in southwestern Liurnia. Make sure to bring Cerulean Hidden Tear to make FP consumption zero for the next ten seconds.

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General Tips

• Be the recommended level for the area when fighting its Death Rite Bird.
• Its head takes more damage than the other body parts. Try attacking it to take down his health bar relatively quick.
• The boss is immune to most Status Effects except Scarlet Rot so try inflicting it with Rotten Breath.
• Stay under the boss most of the time to avoid most of its attacks.
• Summon an online player if you are facing difficulties.

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Next: Elden Ring: Complete Guide And Walkthrough