- Rewards:
300,000, NPC drops (see below) - Summons Available: Yes
- Boss Location: Cleansing Chamber Anteroom, Enir-Ilim
Leda and her allies are your final roadblock before you can face the final boss of the DLC, and it can be a tough fight. Builds that aren’t optimized for fighting NPCs can struggle, and it can quickly become a 2v1, or even a 3v1. In this guide, we’ll help you prepare properly for the fight, and give some tips and tricks to help you defeat Leda and her gank squad.
General Tips
- Focus one NPC at a time, especially ones that are low HP.
- Moore inflicts Scarlet Rot, so have
Preserving Boluses or 
Flame, Cleanse Me equipped if Moore is one of Leda’s summons. - Using an Ash of War that can stunlock the NPCs, ideally one with an AoE, can be very helpful.
- Frost or Bleed on your weapon(s) will make the fight much easier thanks to the %HP damage both status effects inflict.
- Give your Mimic Tear healing items and let it tank.
- Use the Viridian Hidden Tear in your Flask to allow you to quickly kill the first NPCs that spawn before the others arrive.
Leda’s Allies & Drops
You make the fight easier by reducing the total amount of NPCs Leda summons. One will always show up, but the rest are summoned based on certain actions the player takes — any of the NPCs you encounter can also be killed at any point in their questline, preventing them from being summoned. However, this will sometimes prevent you from earning some of their equipment. The list below also notes what each NPC will drop if defeated in the boss fight. The drops will appear after the fight ends.
- Dryleaf Dane – Always summoned.
- Redmane Freyja – Summoned if you follow her questline and give her the Letter for Freyja from Ansbach in Shadow Keep. Can be killed after receiving the Golden Lion Shield in the Specimen Storehouse, where she will drop the rest of her equipment (killing her earlier will cause you to miss the shield).
- Drops Freyja’s Greatsword, Freyja’s Set
- Hornsent – Will fight only if you didn’t summon him at Messmer in the attempt where you beat that boss, and/or didn’t speak with him after the fight. Can also be killed if you invade him with Leda in Shadow Keep.
- Moore – Will fight if you chose the “Put it behind you” dialogue option when talking to him after breaking Miquella’s rune. Can be killed during his questline, when he invades you, to obtain his equipment and remove him from the fight. It’s important to purchase any Key items you want from him before killing him.
- drops Verdigris Greatshield, Verdigris Set
- Leda – Always shows up.
- Drops Leda’s Armor, Leda’s Sword
Your Allies
Removing Leda’s allies is very helpful, but it’s just as important to have allies of your own. The following NPCs can be summoned to the battle, though the summoning doesn’t work like it usually does — after using a summon sign, you’ll receive a confirmation message, and your allies will spawn once Leda’s allies spawn. Below are the possible summons, along with the requirements for making them available.
- Sanguine Noble Nataan – This NPC only becomes available if Ansbach is not available.
- Sir Ansbach – Follow his questline and give him the Secret Rite Scroll in the Shadow Keep.
- Thollier – Follow his questline and speak with him the final time in the Stone Coffin Fissure.
Strategy
This fight can feel very unfair at first, but remember that NPCs are very easy to stagger and interrupt. With that in mind, you’ll want to equip spells, Ashes of War, and weapons that are good at staggering and/or knocking down your foes. Ashes of War that have hyperarmor (cannot be interrupted) are ideal. There are a ton of Ashes of War that will work, but here are a few suggestions:
If you’re getting interrupted while casting your Ashes of War, try to let your allies draw aggro before using them. You can also try increasing your Poise — 
Bull Goat Talisman is particularly useful for that.
For Spirit Ashes, 
Mimic Tear is always a strong choice, and it’s especially good if you put a Blessing of Marika in your toolbelt before summoning — your Mimic can heal itself to full once, and you can sit back and use ranged attacks while your Mimic and summons tank everything for you. You can put other items in the toolbelt as well — for heals, warming Stones are another option, as are Meat Dumplings. If you have strong Perfumes or Pots, those are also nice to equip before summoning. Your mimic can use these items without them affecting your own inventory!
Another strong choice for Spirit Ashes is Jolán and Anna, which you can retrieve by completing Jolán’s story in the Cathedral of Manus Matyr and visiting the top of Rabbath’s rise. These two sisters are powerful warriors, can proc bleed on the enemy NPCs, and do a good job of keeping up the pressure and keeping other NPCs distracted while you focus them down one at a time. If you feel that having an extra fighter on your side to prevent being overwhelming, Jolán and Anna are the best choice.
Generally speaking, the NPCs in this fight do a lot of damage. It’s very possible for low-HP/defense builds to get one-shot by combos, especially from Freyja and Leda, or Hornsent’s homing dark orbs. Let your summons draw aggro, then get as close as you need and charge up a powerful attack or spell, back off to drop aggro, and repeat. Here are a few specific tips for each NPC, in order of when they show up:
- Redmane Freyja has slow attacks, but hits hard — when she two-handing her weapon, she is particularly dangerous. Freyja is somewhat weak to poison, sleep, and madness, so if you can apply these, it can be a good way to take her out of the fight, if only temporarily.
- Hornsent also has low poise, and does bleed damage — he’s very squishy, and so is an excellent target to focus down first.
- Moore throws a pot that inflicts Scarlet Rot, so always keep an eye on him. He’s very hard to stagger, but he’s slow, so you may want to save him for last.
- Dryleaf Dane can be interrupted by attacking him when he jumps, and he is easily staggered. He can also cast an AoE heal, so it’s very important to kill him ASAP when he shows up.
- Leda has very high damage, so stay away from her. Run like a wuss if you pull aggro! Leda has Low poise, so once she gets hit once, keep whacking!
It’s also ideal to burst an NPC down if possible. The Viridian Hidden Tear gives you infinite stamina for a limited period of time — you can take advantage of this to kill Freyja and/or Hornsent before the rest of the NPCs show up (this tear drops from the Furnace Golem in Ellac River, Gravesite Plain). Use an Exalted Flesh, or other items/spells that temporarily increase your DPS, alongside the Viridian Hidden Tear to increase your ability to kill the first NPCs quickly.
If you summon Ansbach, Thollier, or Sanguine Noble Nataan, you don’t want to let them too far from your sight. While Ansbach is no slouch when it comes to damage, none of your three companions are especially adept at fighting, and can be easily brought down if two or more NPCs gang up on them, eliminating allies. Drawing some aggro from enemies who are targeting such allies will allow them to do the same when you need to focus one down.
Finally, because this is an NPC fight, it can also be worthwhile to parry or guard-counter certain moves, especially from enemies with longer wind-ups on their attacks, like Freyja and Leda. This can help you stagger them and land those hits you need to keep up the pressure on them (especially Leda).
We hope this guide helps you finally defeat Leda and her allies. If you found a strategy or tactic that worked well for you, help people out by sharing it in the comments!
