How to Beat Margit the Dread Omen in Elden Ring

Elden Ring is a great open-world experience from FromSoftware, but that means it is packed with some insanely powerful bosses. Unfortunately, one such boss is Margit, and he happens to be the first non-optional boss outside of the prologue. So if you’ve been running your head against Margit’s brick wall for long enough then we present some tips and strategies that could help you to get a handle on this boss fight. 

How to Beat Margit The Dread Omen in Elden Ring

There are a few different ways to approach this fight depending on what build you’re using, but no matter what there are some optional things you can do before the fight to make things a bit easier on yourself. For instance, if you find Murkwater Cave up the river from Argheel Lake and complete the encounter there, you’ll gain access to a merchant who sells an item called Margit’s Shackle.

As the name implies, this item can tie Margit down a bit. It has two uses, and keeps the boss out of action for a few seconds, but only works in his first stage. If you’re struggling to get the enemy down quickly, this might be the item that makes the difference.

How to Beat Margit in Elden Ring With a Melee Build

Okay, so for your melee strategy, you’re going to need to fill up your inventory with as many throwing knives as you can. These little suckers play an important part in keeping the pressure up on Margit. Whenever he starts to flee from you, chuck these things and you’ll force him back onto the offensive, but more importantly, you’ll keep his super armor from recharging. 

Super Armor is a new mechanic for Elden Ring. It’s basically a damage threshold that refills if you stop doing damage to an enemy. Once it’s filled, it will put your enemy into a critical hit state. So if you notice a golden glow and Margit staggers, run up and tap R1/RB to get a critical hit and do a bunch of damage. You’ll see it much more often if you use throwing knives to keep super armor damage from recharging. 

Another great tactic is to use bleeding damage. Most bosses are at least slightly susceptible to this status, and once the blood loss threshold is hit he’ll lose a huge chunk of his health, possibly even more than the critical hit if you’re lucky. If you have a fast weapon with bleeding damage then you can probably get it to build up pretty quickly without taking too much damage. 

You can use the bosses summon if you’re in trouble, though bear in mind that they do not have the most HP, but are pretty good at drawing attention. Either way, in the first stage you should focus on learning how far you need to be from Margit. When he’s performing close-range attacks, you should be able to deal damage, then quickly back away from him. In the second stage, he adds some new moves to his combos and starts summoning more glowing weapons to hit you with. Learn the new patterns and don’t get greedy with your hits.  

How to Beat Margit in Elden Ring With a Ranged Build

When it comes to a ranged build, it doesn’t particularly matter whether you’re using arrows or spells. Both sorts of characters can rely on the same tactics. First up, make sure that you’re as stocked up as possible on your chosen ammo. Either you need the right number of cerulean flasks for you to keep casting spells, or make sure you’re carrying as many of your chosen projectiles as possible. Oh, it should also be pretty clear that you won't be relying on getting critical hits, as most of the time you're better off going attack-crazy while he's in the stagger animation rather than trying to sprint close enough to get the attack off. 

Things are a fair bit simpler for ranged specialists whether you’re summoning the helper or not. Keep your enemy in the middle distance to bait his melee attacks, then once he’s committed to an attack that you’re sure he won’t be able to touch you with, fire off with a few of your projectiles. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

If you’re using a bow over spells, you can probably rely on bleed to help you out if you can get your hands on enough specialty arrows. Just remember, if you get too far from the boss he will either close up the gap again or will unleash some pretty annoying magic attacks for you to deal with. 

For the magic users, try to focus on lower-damage spells that are quicker to cast to ensure that you’re not leaving yourself vulnerable to big hits. If you’re using the summon assistant then you can probably rely on their help to pop off your highest damage spells as soon as you can. Once he’s in the second phase, you’ll have fewer chances to get a hit in safely, and keeping your distance is only going to work so well since a few of the new attacks Margit gains are mid-range.