At the summit of the Jagged Peak, you will find the master of the drakes and long-time enemy of Placidusax, Bayle the Dread. This highly cinematic (and highly challenging) dragon fight is like no other in FromSoft’s history, forcing you to adapt to a huge and unique moveset or else be destroyed. Thankfully, we will help you even the odds against this dreadful foe, so that you can — with Igon’s help — defeat Bayle the Dread.
General Tips
You should always summon Igon using his summon sign a few feet in front of the entrance. Not only will he do good damage and apply stance pressure, he also tosses out a ton of excellent voice lines.
Bayle’s moveset is gigantic, but each individual move is fairly easy to distinguish from others. Because of this, be cautious at first and focus on learning Bayle’s many moves. More than most fights, it can be well worth reviewing Bayle’s move set at the bottom of this guide. This will help you immensely.
Aside from summoning Igon, it is hard to find time to summon or buff before Bayle attacks. However, Bayle does give you breathing room to summon, buff, and heal throughout the fight, so you can do so after the first round of fights.
At about two-thirds health, Bayle will enter phase two. This not only grants Bayle new moves, but also modifies many of his existing moves to now have lightning-based secondary damage.
Whether you are using melee or ranged, you almost always want to be directly in front of Bayle, dealing damage to his head. Thankfully, Bayle usually positions himself in this position most often.
Strategy
Bayle the Dread is one of the hardest — but fairest — fights in Shadow of the Erdtree. Because of that, you should take all the help you can get: as soon as you enter Bayle’s arena, activate Drake Warrior Igon’s summon sign just in front of the fog wall. Then, wait for Bayle’s first attack before summoning your own Spirit Summon, with Latenna being especially useful here. In this fight, summons — especially Bayle, with his excellent voice lines — are indispensable. They can draw aggro and keep up stance pressure, allowing you to move in and deal damage.
Summoning IgonUsing Igon to Distract and Get Hits
Beyond this, you should have Bayle’s aggro most of the time, meaning you will need to survive his huge variety of moves. To your advantage, Bayle is slow, and most moves have fairly long idle periods after them. He lacks long combos, and most of your hits — melee or ranged — will be against his head. Make use of all of these advatnages by taking your time, attacking between his many attacks, and learning his moveset.
Despite these advantages, Bayle still manages to be hard due to his huge moveset and health pool, meaning that trades will not be to your favor and Bayle can easily win a “battle of attrition” even if you manage to survive most hits. And, while all of his moves are fair and most are punishable, several of them have very tricky timings or animations that require practice and focus to avoid. Plus, if you get too far under him your camera can block his telegraphs.
Fire Sweep PunishTail Reversal Punish
Once Bayle is at 2/3 health, he will enter his second phase by summoning his Wings of Bayle and then taking to the sky to cast down Meteor Strikes. This transition can be difficult to avoid, requiring you to escape an AoE, avoid tracking projectiles, then avoid both Bayle crashing down and the patches of lava that will spout up.
After the phase transition, Bayle the Dread will generally become more difficult, as he adds several powerful abilities, improves several moves, and removes some of his easiest moves. Most of his melee attacks and slams that didn’t have Fire or Lightning effects before get Lightning after-effects that you will need to dodge if you are close to a strike.
Wings of BayleMeteor Strike
The most dangerous of these new moves are Bayle’s new aerial abiliies — the Meteor Strike, the Aeriel Fire Breath, and the enhanced Fire Leap. Learning these is essential to surviving Phase Two, as will keeping Igon and your other summon alive to take the brunt of some of these attacks.
Beyond this, the only important thing is to preserve your healing flasks as much as possible, because this fight can be quite a slog. So long as you are able to do that, to learn Bayle’s moveset, and to play cautiously, you should be able to take down this forefather of the drakes, and — most importantly — to earn Igon’s respect.
Moveset
Lightning Grab: Bayle will charge lightning in his mouth, then shoot forward, trying to grab you with a bite for massive damage. After Bayle finishes charging his bite, dodge as soon as he shoots forward.
Lightning Claw: Bayle will rear back, charging lightning onto his claw, and then stab downward in front of him with it. Dodge this telegraphed attack as soon as the claw starts moving forward.
Phase Two: After the initial strike, a line of lightning will crash down in a line going from Bayle to his target. If you are in the glowing line, dodge. Bayle will now use this attack at a distance.
Lightning Roar: Bayle will roar, causing lightning to crash down twelve times on your position. Run or spam roll in order to avoid its strikes. Bayle will almost always begin an attack to hit as soon as the lightning ends.
Fire Leap: Bayle will leap up into the air and then crash down, dealing damage in an area around him. Dodge as soon as Bayle starts descending. This can put you in range for many hits.
Phase Two: After landing, a plume of fire will shoot up after a short delay around Bayle. If you are close when he lands, wait just a moment and then roll.
Fire Beam: At a distance, Bayle will shoot fire at you. Run or spam roll to the side while locked on to avoid the Fire Beam.
Fire Sweep: Bayle will shoot fire from his head, swinging it from side to side to cover a wide area. If you are in front of Bayle, roll when the fire crosses by you. If you can, get to the side of Bayle’s head for free hits.
Fire Spew: While you are very close, Bayle will stand up and shoot fire directly at the ground. Rolling directly away once (or twice if you are very close) will get you out of the damage area here. The hitbox for Fire Spew is smaller than you might expect.
Tail Reversal: Bayle will leap a huge distance away, then leap back with a spin to hit you with his tail. This devious attack is easy to dodge if you are anticipating it, but requires you to expect it whenever Bayle jumps away.
Tail Swipe: If you are behind Bayle, he will swing around to face you, hitting toward you with his tail as he does. Dodge after Bayle looks back toward you, right after he begins moving.
Double Chomp*: Bayle will lunge forward, biting twice in quick succession. This attack comes very quick, and requires a small delay after dodging the first bite to dodge the second.
Side Swipes*: Bayle swipes from side to side twice with his wing. Dodging as the wing would hit you is all you need to do; this can put you directly in front of Bayle’s head.
Claw Leap*: Bayle will leap forward quickly, stabbing down with his claw as he does. Dodge as Bayle lands.
Slash-Bite Combo: Bayle will stab down will his claw, then bite at you. Dodge the stab down as the claw moves, then dodge after a very small delay to avoid the bite if you are in front of Bayle. Bayle can follow this up immediately with another move.
Phase Two: The slash will have lightning strike afterward. If you are in a glowing area after the slash, roll again.
Roar Combo: Bayle will use Side Swipes and Lightning Claw in quick succession (charging the Lightning Claw faster than normal). This requires two quick dodges and a third slightly delayed dodge.
Phase Two: The Side Swipes will cause lightning columns just in front of where they impact, and a column of lightning will shoot down in a line where the Lightning Claw lands. If you are in the area of these attacks, roll away right after the first roll.
*= Removed in Phase 2
Phase 2
Enhancement to Lightning Claw, Lightning Slam, Slash-Bite Combo, Roar Combo, Fire Leap: now they have after effects.
Wings of Bayle: To enter Phase Two, Bayle will hunker down, and the ground around him will begin to glow with flame. After a short delay, Bayle will shoot up and sprout wings, dealing damage in an area. Run away, looking for a patch of ground that isn’t glowing.
Meteor Stikes: Bayle flies into the air, causing trailing meteors to shoot directly at you, then will crash down onto you, shooting spouts of fire up from the ground where he slides. Run to the right to avoid the meteors, then roll right as Bayle lands. If you are near any glowing spots on the ground, roll again quickly to avoid the lava spout. Bayle will always do this move right after Wings of Bayle when he enters Phase Two.
Aerial Fire Breath: Bayle will fly into the air, shoot fire in a wave, delay to charge, then shoot fire directly down as he passes over you. Dodge later than you think to avoid the fire wave, and then dodge right as
Mega Slam: Bayle will charge up a massive strike with his claw, his wings glowing, then crash down, dealing massive damage in an AoE. After a very short time, the ground in a large area will also explode, doing the same. Dodge right as Bayle slams his claw down, then dodge again after about a second if you are close to Bayle or if you are on a glowing spot of land.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
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