Guides

Elden Ring: Where to Find Baleful Shadow & How to Beat It

Elden Ring is a brand new action-RPG developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. The game features a large open-world called the Lands Between, and it’s absolutely full of optional dungeons for players to discover and bosses to fight. Here’s where to find the Baleful Shadow in Elden Ring and how to beat it.

Recommended Videos

The Baleful Shadow is an enemy you’ll encounter while trying to complete Ranni’s questline, and requires you to explore the Eternal Cities of Nokron and Nokstella. You’ll also need to have completed Blaidd’s questline in order to encounter it.

Where to Find Baleful Shadow in Elden Ring

  1. After completing Blaidd’s questline and giving Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, go to Renna’s Rise and take the sending gate there.

  2. After going through the sending gate, examine the coffin in front of you to find the Miniature Ranni item.

  3. Rest at a Site of Grace and choose the Talk to Doll option three times until Ranni responds.

    You can choose the Talk to Ranni option while resting at different Sites of Grace in Nokstella to learn more about her backstory.

  4. Make your way through Ainsel River Main to get to Nokstella.

  5. Instead of proceeding up the steps to explore the rest of Nokstella (which you should, at some point), stay on the ground floor and follow the stream.

  6. On your left hand side, you’ll see a small structure with an elevator leading downwards.

    elden ring baleful shadow

  7. Take the elevator down to Nokstella Waterfall Basin and rest at the Site of Grace.

  8. Go straight and get past the basilisk enemies to find an open area where the Baleful Shadow will be waiting for you.

    elden ring baleful shadow

How to Beat the Baleful Shadow

Thankfully, the Baleful Shadow isn’t too difficult of an enemy to fight in Elden Ring. He does carry a greatsword and his hits land hard, which can take away half your HP.

However, his attack patterns are very telegraphed, and he leaves himself wide open in between his combo strings.

For magic users, just keep your distance and pelt spells at him. If you’re using an Intelligence build, three or four Rock Slings will break his super armor, allowing you to get a critical hit on him. Melee builds will need to wait for his combos to end before rushing in to attack.

Defeating the Baleful Shadow will reward you with the Discarded Palace Key, which unlocks the chest at the Grand Library of Raya Lucaria, and is required for completing Ranni’s questline.

That’s all you need to know about how to beat the Baleful Shadow in Elden Ring. Be sure to check our guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.

About the author

Zhiqing Wan

Zhiqing is the Reviews Editor for Twinfinite, and a History graduate from Singapore. She's been in the games media industry for nine years, trawling through showfloors, conferences, and spending a ridiculous amount of time making in-depth spreadsheets for min-max-y RPGs. When she's not singing the praises of Amazon's Kindle as the greatest technological invention of the past two decades, you can probably find her in a FromSoft rabbit hole.

Comments