After invading the Shadow Lands in search of Miquella, you’ll eventually come face to face with its despotic ruler. You’re in for a tough battle against Messmer the Impaler, but we’ll explain exactly how you can take him down below.
The Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree trailers built up Messmer the Impaler as a ruthless tyrant and the main antagonist of the DLC, so it’s surprising that you’re up against someone so pivotal so soon. Nevertheless, the firey demigod now stands between you and your objective and someone must extinguish his malevolent flame – here’s how.
Messmer the Impaler’s location
Messmer is the boss of the expansion’s third Legacy Dungeon and awaits you on the top floor of the Shadow Keep’s Specimen Storehouse in his Dark Chamber.
There’s a Site of Grace outside his arena called the Dark Chamber Entrance.
Once you’ve rested at the Grace, enter Messmer’s Dark Chamber for your showdown with the ruler of the Shadow Lands.
How to beat Messmer the Impaler
Before the battle begins, we’d advise equipping some items to protect you against fire damage such as the Flamedrake Talisman. Messmer uses a lot of fire attacks so this could prove invaluable in the battle to come.
We found Messmer to be considerably harder than any bosses that had come before in Shadow of the Erdtree, so before facing him make sure you’ve tracked down some Scadutree Fragments & Revered Spirit Ash to increase your stats.
If you’re struggling to get Messmer’s health past 50%, then this is a clear sign you may need boost your stats by finding more of these items out in the wilds.
Phase 1
After some scintillating and revealing dialogue, the fight will begin. Messmer will live up to his name “The Impaler” by striking at you with his long spear. After this, Messmer will conjure a ball of flame and launch it at you from mid-air.
This will home in on you but is easy to dodge, the real danger comes from the AOE flame that bursts all over the floor once the ball lands. Roll out of the splash zone and if you’re close to Messmer, strike him while he recovers from his drop animation. If that isn’t possible, then get yourself into a position to attack or prepare for his next move.
If you’re going to use a summon (like the mimic), use it as soon as you enter the gate, then dodge roll his first attack as soon as he lands. Once you’ve evaded the flame burst AoE, you’re free to heal (if you used mimic) or get some attacks in.
His next attack will likely be a lightning-fast series of strikes that he may or may not fuse with fire damage. These can be blocked or you can roll sideways, but then roll forward to flank him and attack his exposed side. Just don’t get greedy with your attacks, once he recovers he’ll likely jab at you again.
Messmer’s most deadly attack is his grab animation which can result in instant death. This is when he fills his hand with flame and runs at you. Don’t panic roll, but keep your head and get well out of the way. You may even be able to counter him when he grasps at thin air and fails to connect his attack.
Your spirit summons or NPC allies are more likely to fall victim to this move and it could one-shot them, so be aware. What we found to be more frustrating though, is when Messmer is in the middle of this animation, he’s completely invincible. So rather than slashing at him uselessly, forget about the well-being of your AI comrade and instead take the time to heal or buff yourself.
Another of his most deadly moves is when he throws some red dust into the air before igniting it into a wall of flame. This will hurt if it connects, but the real danger comes from his jabbing combo that he’ll do from the cover of this firey wall. Try to run or roll behind him, to avoid this and then to counter.
If you time it right, you’ll appear behind him as his jabs and it’ll take him a while to recover from this animation, meaning you’ll have a nice opportunity to hit him with a few strikes before retreating to a safe distance.
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He may sometimes do another variant of this attack where he ignites the dust and leaps into the air. If he does this run to the other side of the arena, let the attack play out then run back and try to get a hit on him. Do not get caught in the blast when he lands, players who have less than 40 Vigor could be instantly killed by it.
For those who are skilled in the art of parry and riposte, Messmer is especially vulnerable to this in his first phase, and landing a successful riposte attack can stagger him, allowing you to inflict massive damage.
Phase 2: Base Serpent Messmer
After a rather gross cutscene, Messmer will transform into his true self; Base Serpent Messmer, and the second phase of the battle will begin.
Messmer is angry now, having underestimated a lowly Tarnished before, he’ll now become much more aggressive and determined to end the threat you pose. He’ll keep many of his attacks from Phase 1, but will move quicker and chain together his attacks at blistering speeds.
Continue with the strategy outlined above, but prepare for things to be more frantic. As you’d expect, Messmer’s moves also do more damage now and his AOE attacks cover more ground and even cause fire to spread faster. However, Messmer now has a new party trick, a massive snake that rises up and shoots a ball of fire at you from a distance – which also covers the ground in AOE damage when it lands.
We found rolling towards it effective, as the attack usually went over our heads if timed right, and we could then run to avoid the fire spreading behind us and land a few hits on Messmer. When the boss summons dark clouds around him he’s telegraphing another snake move that lunges forward. We found we could block this, or just rolled to the side. Be warned this thing is fast.
He can also use this smoke attack to teleport, disappearing then striking from below. If you notice him vanish in a blast of black smoke, just run forwards then spin around and attack once his attack fails to land. He’s vulnerable during this animation and we were able to pepper him with bleed attacks that caused him massive damage once our Mimic Tear joined in on the action.
Eventually, he’ll summon a large swarm of snakes and it will feel like they’re everywhere. Panic dodging here can be deadly. Instead, it’s wiser to find a safe spot and stay still until the attack ends. Then, strike at Messmer before he pivots to the next attack.
The good news is that Messmer is a bigger target in his second form and therefore easier to strike. While Messmer hits hard, he hasn’t got much health when compared to other bosses, which makes the fight much shorter and more survivable than it could have been.
NPC allies
Hornsent can be summoned for this battle. However, his summon sign can be found in the middle of the arena during the fight, rather than outside of the boss gate.
Messmer the Impaler rewards
Messmer drops the following after he’s been slain:
- 400,000 Runes
- Remembrance of the Impaler
The Remembrance can be traded with Enia (even if she’s dead now) at the Roundtable Hold for either the Spear of the Impaler or Messmer’s Orb, his powerful fire spell.
Messmer the Impaler’s weaknesses
Messmer the Impaler is weak against the following elements and status ailments:
- Hemorrhage
- Frostbite
As you might expect, Messmer is resistant to fire, so try and avoid using this against him.
Jumping into Shadow of the Erdtree? Check out what we thought of the expansion after spending many hours exploring the Shadow Lands.