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Death Rite Bird (Caelid)
This section of IGN’s Elden Ring guide covers the Death Rite Bird world boss battle in Caelid, southeast of the Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank Site of Grace. The Death Rite Bird is a step up from the Deathbird, with a curious blend of Black Flame and Frostbite attacks and a much more agile attack style.
- Location: Caelid, in a clearing to the east of the Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank past the road and Nomadic Merchant)
- Recommended Weapon Level: +15 to +21 (standard), +5 to +7 (somber)
- Spirits cannot be summoned for this fight
- Drops the Death's Poker, and 15,000 Runes
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Death Rite Bird Tips
The Death Rite Bird requires a more aggressive approach than the Deathbird. If you wait for a solid opening, you’ll never find one. You’ll need to either use ranged attacks and spells while on horseback or rush in, avoiding the Bird’s spear and beak attacks to pull off some hits of your own.
Be wary, as the Death Rite Bird can leave flaming trails of frost-infused blackflame along the ground where they attack, and standing in it for more than a second will likely kill you, or stun and stagger you on horseback until Torrent is killed and you fall down. Avoid getting near the flame trails at all cost.
Death Rite Bird Attacks
The bird’s spear attacks are infused with Black Flame, though they inflict Frostbite rather than increasing your death meter.
- Spear Stabs and Swipes - These are standard thrusts and slashes with the bird’s spear. It’s long and reaches far. Dodge sideways for the thrusts and forward for the slashes. It takes some practice, as the Black Flame often obscures the spear itself. Sometimes, the bird will fly up before using the thrust attack.
- Flame Trail - The Death Rite Bird slams the ground to create blackflame on the ground, then swipes at it to send a trail straight out towards you - but once the trail expands, you can dodge to the side and quickly run up alongside it.
- Flame Spears - The bird’s wings glow and unleash spears of flame. The ground lights up where the spears will fall, and they don’t reach too far out.
- Pecks and Slams - The Death Rite Bird pecks the ground around it. It can also rear back with a screech before lunging forward with a grabbing peck. This will slam you into the ground, and peck you repeatedly. Unless you have heavy armor and high vigor, this move will likely kill you.
- Blackflame Explosion - If the Death Rite Bird holds its flaming poker close and begins to glow, get some distance away, as it will explode and send blackflame exploding around it - as well as streaking off in trails all around it, which can be lethal to stand in for more than a moment.
Death Rite Bird Strategy
You might need to retry this fight a few times to pick up on the bird’s timing and patterns, as its movements are slightly more difficult to predict than usual. Ranged attackers should keep on the move – and on Torrent – since the bird has few ranged moves, but is highly mobile.
Melee classes need to take bigger risks. The best openings are typically after one of the slash or thrust attacks, when the bird takes a few seconds to recover before attacking again. Try staying behind it to avoid the peck attacks, but note that whichever side you’re on, the Death Rite Bird will fly a short distance away after a few seconds, which means you’ll have to start again. The bird is weak to strike damage and holy, so consider infusing your armament with holy to try and make the fight go a bit faster.