Weâve dealt with Messmer The Impaler and his obnoxious, flaming, snaky bullshit in another guide. Right now, though, we gotta deal with the Shadow Keepâs weed problem. The good news, at least, is the Scadutree Avatar is a totally optional boss fight, so, really, walking away is on the table, and thereâs nothing after the Avatarâs area aside from an admittedly pretty look at the Scadutree. You can try another approach to getting out of the Keep, no one will judge you, we swear. But if you really want to prune this shrub for good, weâll get you there.
The Scadutree Avatarâs Abilities
Right off the bat, the Scadutree Avatar is out to get on your bad side by shooting a wave of thorny branches at you along the ground, not just once, but twice. Itâll pull this move just about any time youâre not in armâs reach. If you make it past that, the Avatar will start slithering closer for a couple of wide swipes with its vines, horizontally at first, then overhead. For phase one, the Avatar will mostly try smashing or pushing you with its sunflowery head, taking occasional breaks to stick its âhandsâ into the ground to Miracle-Gro some deadly thorn bushes in yellow pools around its trunk. Thereâs also an unblockable version where its head turns gold, and crushes you flat. Its big magical maneuver is to raise its head to the sky, and fire off a series of flaminâ hot sunflower seeds that can home in on you over short distances, kinda like a slower version of the Elden Beastâs big projectile attack. That attack is at its most dangerous in phase one though, where it shoots off in four waves.
Phase two is when this thing gets straight-up annoying, and it adds a few new tricks. For one, itâll perform a full-on bumrush across the field. The first time it does this will be when phase two begins, and heâll sweep across three times before stopping. The sunflower seed spell makes a reappearance, and heâll fire it when youâre a good distance away. The good news is this versionâs much slower and easier to dodge.
The bad news is everything else. All of the vine attacks from phase one now have an additional strike tacked on that generates more thorn bushes. The dedicated thorn attack now spreads halfway across the area. On top of that, get too close and the Avatar will do its version of a backstep, scooting about 100 feet away from you, taking a parting swipe at you on the way.
Oh but wait, thereâs more. On top of everything from phase two, when phase three(!) starts, the Avatar goes nuclear and explodes. And somehow, after that, you still have to fight it one more time. Remember we said this was optional?
Defeating The Scadutree Avatar – Phase One
As much as Iâd love to tell you that calling this plant-based son of a bitch every filthy insult in the book will do significant damage, alas, itâs just not the case. So, I guess a sword will have to do.
First off, and I donât know if itâs a minor glitch or what, but if youâre one of those folks who likes to be trigger-happy with Spirit Ashes the second you go through a boss door, be aware the little gravestone sigil indicating you can call the Spirit Ash doesnât turn on until youâve taken a few steps forward into the area. Ordinarily, that wouldnât be a huge deal, but timeâs a factor when you step through that door. The Avatar will send the thorn bushes towards you on sight. Theyâre easy enough to dodge, at least, just go directly left or right. Remember, itâll send two waves, one after the other, so keep an eye on the far side of the field for the second one.
After that second wave, you can start closing the distance between you and the Avatar. Youâll be able to spot the wind-up for the vine swipes a mile away, but they still do a big chunk of damage if they hit. For tanks: this is one of three attacks a greatshield will actually fully absorb. Youâll get your first clean shot at the Avatarâs head after that second swipe. If youâre super-close, you can even guard counter the second swipe to do a little extra damage.
From there, things get tricky. Magic users are the chosen people on this one. You just want to stay at mid-range and keep tossing spells at the Avatarâs head, just being careful not to get caught mid-cast on an attack. Unsurprisingly, the leafy Avatarâs weak to fire spells. The Spelldrake Talisman will help with that, but the barrage of attacks can get pretty hectic, especially with the thorn bush attacks. At a distance, though, itâs easy to telegraph when those are coming your way. Same goes for the gold-colored unblockable, and youâll want to create a little distance after youâve dodged that. Donât get ambitious when the Avatar goes for its projectile attack; unless itâs clear your Spirit Ash is taking the L from that, you need to be running from it at high speed.
Melee users, strap in, because this entire fight is gonna be a pain in your ass. By and large, youâre best suited making a stand maybe about 50 feet from the Avatarâs trunk. The bashing attacks from the creatureâs head can be dodged pretty easily with the right timing, and good shields can shrug off the damage and leave you in a good place to capitalize for a strike or two. Pick a weapon with some range so you have to do less running around trying to stay close. The thorn attacks are still dodgeable, but youâre going to need to repeatedly back away a bit so you can see when the thorns are sprouting up.
The unblockable attack is still dodgeable, but the recovery time on it is such that you canât really afford not to get a couple of hits in while itâs sitting there. If youâre lucky, your Spirit Ash will be going absolutely berserk hitting the Avatar in the trunk while you get your hits in. Even though the trunkâs generally an easier target than the head, itâs also way harder to stay on target and dodge the Avatarâs attacks. So, leave that idea to your ashy friend. Eventually, youâll wear the Avatarâs health bar down to nothing, and itâll trigger a stance break. Run up to the head and riposte it to put an end to this nightmare once and for alâOH WAIT, NOPE, IT GREW BACK. For what itâs worth, though, the riposte is still important: whatever damage your sword does there carries over into the next phase. So, hit it hard.
Defeating The Scadutree Avatar – Phase Two
So, yeah, when the Avatar âdies,â youâll have about five seconds to heal up before it bubbles back up out of the ground, and it does do some damage when it bursts out, so, donât be there when it does. If youâve got a good sound setup, you can hear which direction itâs going to come out of. Take advantage of that.
Once itâs up, if youâre quick, you can hit the Avatar with a cheap shot before the three bumrushes start. You can dodge through that pretty easily, but the timing needs to be fairly precise or youâre still taking a hit. Tanks can absorb the damage from that pretty easily with a Greatshield, but it does take a pretty big chunk of your stamina to do so, and importantly, you need to be facing the Avatar head on when it happens. Keep that lock-on active.
Once it settles down again, itâll likely fire the new and not-necessarily improved seed spell, or send more thorn bushes after you. Those arenât a huge deal, but the problem in phases two and three is that the Avatar apparently thinks you have cooties and will do an aggravatingly effective job at keeping you at a distance. Magic users will still have a slightly easier job, but the fact that every combination of attacks now generates thorns makes dodging even more of a priority. If youâre lucky, your Spirit Ash is still alive to pull the Avatarâs attention from time to time, and in that instance, stand off to the side a bit more so you donât catch any collateral damage from an attack meant for your Spirit Ash.
Melee users, on the other hand, are at an extreme disadvantage here, and the only thing you can do is dodge carefully. In addition, if youâre too close to the Avatar, after a couple of moves itâll slide away, which will sweep your legs from the back, something even a shield wonât protect you from. Now, your only opening is when the Avatar uses its head to try and hit you, so you need to be diligent about being in range when that happens, but not so close that the Avatar can sweep you off your feet. The constant chase can get monotonous, and the longer this goes on, the better (worse?) the chance your Spirit Ash dies first, which just makes things even harder. With some persistenceâand a lot of luckâyouâll wear the Avatar down, itâll stance break again, and you can hit it with a second riposte, which finally puts an end to this bullshâOH FOR FUâ
Defeating The Scadutree Avatar – Phase Three
Yep, itâs not dead yet. And this time, itâs starting things off with a literal bang. After popping up, itâll begin charging up energy immediately for its explosion. Unless you have an absurd amount of defense and vitality, chances are pretty good this is a one-shot death for you. The safe route is to just run like hell when the Avatar bursts out of the ground, and hope you reach the minimum safe distance in time. But after the explosion, the Avatar just sits there wilted for a good ten seconds. Those ten seconds are absolute gold in terms of being able to do damage during this phase, and missing your window means this is phase two all over again. Screw that.
That leaves the daredevil alternative: Dodging through the explosion. To be fair, this is actually pretty doable, especially if youâre not stuck with a heavy roll, since itâs not one of those lingering explosions that can catch you after you come out of your i-frames. Regardless, your timing still needs to be pretty close to the sweet spot. Close as we can tell, the explosion has a five second timer once the Avatar starts lighting up. Hopefully, with a little luck, youâre able to dodge through the blast, leaving you with a prime opportunity to whale on this thing. You may still have to play things carefully once it wakes up and goes back to the phase two pattern, but hopefully, you got enough hits in so youâve only got to smack it two or three times before itâs finally dead, for real this time, for real-real this time.
There ainât enough Runes in the world to make up for this nonsense, but you still get 260,000 of âem, along with the Remembrance of the Shadow Sunflower, which unlocks either a new Colossal Weapon made out of the Avatarâs branches, or the Land of Shadow incantation, which imitates the Avatarâs flaminâ hot sunflower seed attack.
You also get Miquellaâs Great Rune. So, remember at some point earlier, when you made your initial approach to the Shadow Keep, you heard a shattering noise, and a message popped up saying âA Great Rune has been brokenâ or something to that effect? Welp, hereâs the leftovers. The description will tell you all it can do is âresist charms,â which sounds pretty useless right now. Donât worry, itâll have its moment. But thatâs a different guideâŚ.
