Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Bayle Fight Is Elden Beast Again

Summary

The highlight of almost any FromSoftware game is the boss fights, as they generally pose a significant threat to the player and require plenty of patience to learn their unique mechanics.Elden Ringwas no different, giving players over 200 boss fights to be frustrated by, to enjoy, and to be rewarded by. Now,Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has added dozens more bosses to the overall experience, most of which are optional bosses players can find simply by exploring the sizable Realm of Shadow. Most of Shadow of the Erdtree’s optional bosses may put up quite a fight, but their rewards are almost always worth the effort.

Of all the optional bosses inElden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC — including the unstoppable Commander Gaius — Bayle the Dread is one of the toughest to take down. Bayle is a massive dragon who awaits players at the top of Jagged Peak for one of the most challenging fights in the DLC, but the reward for conquering him should be more than enough to satiate the appetites of those with the patience to endure his brutal onslaught. Unfortunately, Bayle may be one of the more exciting encounters in Shadow of the Erdtree, but his fight comes with a massive downside that is reminiscent ofElden Ring’s Elden Beast battle.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Tag Page Cover Art

Shadow of the Erdtree’s Bayle Fight Borrows the Worst Part of Elden Ring’s Former Elden Beast Fight

Players Formerly Couldn’t Use Torrent During Elden Ring’s Elden Beast Fight

The battle with the Elden Beast is the final encounter inElden Ring’s base game, and it is certainly an exciting one. There is nothing quite like facing off against a creature that is one hundred times the size of the player character in aFromSoftware game, and the Elden Beast fight delivers all of that and more. However, originally, the Elden Beast encounter was a no-riding area, which means players couldn’t summon Torrent at any point during the fight. This was a significant point of contention for the battle because the Elden Beast’s boss arena is the largest in the game and attempting to close the gap by running would often prove futile.

This was especially unfortunate consideringElden Ringplaces such an emphasis on using Torrent to travel long distances, and there are plenty of other boss fights in the game that allow him to be summoned during the fight. Fortunately, FromSoftware recently released apatch forElden Ringthat allows players to use Torrent during the fight, but that still hasn’t stopped other encounters from being frustrating for the same reason — namely, Shadow of the Erdtree’s Bayle the Dread fight.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Bayle Boss Arena Is a No-Riding Area

Like the Elden Beast encounter was originally, the fight with Bayle the Dread inElden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLCtakes place in a no-riding area. Bayle’s boss arena isn’t as large as the Elden Beast’s, but it is still large enough that it would make sense for players to be able to use Torrent. This is especially noticeable with how fast Bayle is and how quickly he can overwhelm players, making it difficult for magic-users to ever be far enough away to avoid being damaged and having their spells interrupted.

While the size of Bayle’s arena is enough to justify the use of Torrent, it also doesn’t make sense as a no-riding area considering Torrent is all but required to scaleJagged Peakand reach Bayle. With such an emphasis placed on Torrent being used to even reach the boss arena, it makes little sense that players would be unable to use him during the fight. All of this said, it might be worthwhile for FromSoftware to release another patch forElden Ringthat allows the use of Torrent during the Bayle fight, just like it did with the Elden Beast encounter.