Rewards: Remembrance of the Shadow Sunflower, Miquella’s Great Rune, 260,000
Summons Available: Yes
Boss Location: Scadutree Base, Church District, Shadow Keep
Hidden beyond (and below) the Church District of the Shadow Keep, you can reach the Scadutree Base. Like the Erdtree Avatars in the Lands Between, the Scadutree is also represented by an Avatar, though it is notably more agile and far different than its Lands Between counterparts. While it may appear to be sunnier, it is anything but, and so you will need to pull out all stops in order to put down this monstrous sunflower.
General Tips
Fire is extremely effective against the Scadutree Avatar, as it has a -40% resistance to it. Using Fire will make short work of the Avatar.
This boss has 3 Phases, with a significant amount of downtime between each before the Scadutree Avatar emerges from the ground. There is enough time between phases to heal, buff, or summon.
Between each phase, you will have the chance to perform a critical strike on the Avatar, which will cause it to emerge into its next phase with significantly reduced health.
Whenever you have a chance to strike the Scadutree Avatar’s sunflower-like head, you should, as it does massively more damage than hitting its stalk.
Spirit Ashes with flame abilities, like Fire Monk, Fire Knight Hildre, or Fire Knight Queelign, are the best at dealing damage to the Scadutree Avatar.
Strategy
The Scadutree Avatar can be a very tough boss, but there are lots of openings to either punish, heal, or summon. However, the Avatar will usually start by using its ranged Thorn Trail attack, and so you should be prepared to dodge as you enter the arena, and summon or buff later. If you do summon, the Scadutree Avatar’s AoE-heavy, mobile moveset means that your summon likely won’t take much aggro. While they might absorb some attacks, you will still need to be on guard, just using your summon for that extra damage.
Most of Scadutree Avatar’s attacks in phase 1 are very telegraphed and very easy to punish, both with range and melee. So long as you get the dodge timings down on the Avatar’s normal “root” attacks (which most of its attacks are), you should find yourself in an excellent position to attack the Avatar’s head, dealing extra damage. The best attack to bait out in melee is the Spinning Attack, which almost always places the Avatar’s head next to you, perfect for attack.
Apart from that, there are only a few attacks to really worry about in Phase 1. The 4 Slam Attack can be tricky, especially due to its follow-up thorns, and it requires special attention paid to learn it, but it can be punished.
More difficult and less punishable (often following up a Thorn Smash, putting you at a distnace) is the Avatar’s Thorny Stars attack. Similar to the Elden Stars attack from the Erdtree Avatars, this attack will fire many projectiles at you. It will do so in 3 distinct waves, however, giving you a trick to dodging the attack: dodge once for the first 2 waves, and twice rapidly for the 3rd wave. After Phase 1, the Avatar will only create the first wave when it does this attack, so this attack is only really dangerous during the opening phase.
Once you have defeated the Avatar’s health bar, it will collapse, and you will be able to get a critical strike on the flower’s head. If you do so, than that will remove about 1/3 of the health from the boss in the next phase. This happens at the end of phases 1 and 2. Whether or not you get the critical strike, the Scadutree Avatar will emerge into Phases 2 and 3 from the ground with a Phase Swipe.
When a new phase begins, the Avatar will quickly debut its newest and most dangerous move from that phase. In Phase 2, that means that, after the Phase Swipe, the Avatar will almost always commit to its Sliding Charges. These charges can be extremely tricky to dodge, and put the avatar at such a distance as to make it very difficult to punish. In Phases 2 and 3, always watch out for the Avatar getting ready to do Sliding Charges, and be prepared to dodge 2 to 3 of them each time.
Finally, once you reach Phase 3, you’ll witness the Scadutree Avatar’s most dangerous and most punishable attack: the Beam Blast. After the Phase Swipe, the Scadutree Avatar will rise up and prepare to blast you with a beam. The timing on this is deceptive, as the rays of light that damage you actually shoot out just barely after the flash, so you should dodge just a tiny bit after you feel you should (right as the flash happens, rather than before it). After the Avatar blasts, it will need to recover, giving you a great opportunity to massively punish the Avatar, so long as you are close enough.
The final variant of the Beam Blast occurs when the Avatar is nearly defeated: the Avatar will do one Beam Blast as normal, but then the beams will persist for a few moments. Then, the Blast will repeat twice in quick succession, requiring two rolls in a row to avoid. So long as you survive this, the Avatar should be vulnerable and close to defeat, so you can usually end the battle then and there.
Moveset
Phase 1
Thorn Trail: From a distance, the Scadutree Avatar will swipe the ground, seening up 3 waves of thorns. It will do this twice. Right before these thorns reach you, dodge to the left or right.
Thorny Stars: The Avatar will raise its head into the air and detonate a golden burst, which will create 3 waves of tracking golden projectiles. Dodge to the side as each of these waves will hit you, dodging twice for the 3rd and largest wave of them. In later phases, often only 1 barrage will appear.
Spinning Attack: The Scadutree Avatar will brace, then spin twice, sweeping its roots in front of it, with a short delay between each. Dodge into these attacks to come face-to-face with the Avatar’s “Head”.
Golden Head Grab: The Avatar will lift its head, and it will start to glow, and then will pound it down, attempt to grab you. As soon as the head starts moving down, roll backward.
4 Slam Attack: The Avatar will slam its roots down 4 times, alternating which side it uses. The last slam will generate a small radius of thorns. Dodge alternating left and right for the slams, and then dodge back one more time after the last slam to avoid the thorns.
Thorn Smash: The Avatar will pound the ground, and then do so again to create a radius of thorns. Roll backwards twice (if close), once to avoid the pound and again to avoid the thorns.
Head Slam: While you are close, the Avatar will lift its head up and then smash it down. Dodge away as the head reaches its apex.
Head Thrust: The Avatar will rear back, then thrust its head toward you. Dodge backwards.
Swipe: The Scadutree Avatar will swipe with its roots. Dodge into the swipe. It can follow this attack up with a Slam.
Slam: The Avatar will Slam its roots down onto you. Dodge diagonally toward the Avatar’s head.
Phase 2
Phase Swipe: At the start of Phases 2 and 3, the ground will bubble for a moment before the Scadutree Avatar emerges. It will swipe as soon as it does, but it will only hit you if you are close when it does.
Sliding Charges: The Scadutree Avatar will rear back, then lunge forward at a high speed, careening past you. It will do this a total of 2 to 3 times. Dodge to the side right before the Avatar hits you each time (or right as the Avatar begins going forward, if you are close).
Thorn Swipe: The Avatar will swipe in front of it, and then a trail of Thorns will pop up where it swiped. Dodge forward or backward twice to avoid both the swipe and thorns.
Swipe Retreat: The Avatar will quickly swipe and then recoil far back. Dodge any direction to avoid this, and prepare for a ranged attack or Sliding Charge.
Phase 3
Beam Blast: The Scadutree will extend upward, gathering lots of golden energy, then shoot it out in a flash of light followed by multiple beams going in random directions. Dodge roll right after the flash of light. The Avatar can be attacked while recovering from this attack.
Triple Beam Blast: When close to defeat, the Scadutree Avatar will do the above attack three times. There is a short delay between the first and second flashes, and no gap between the second and third. There are beams of light that can damage you between the first and second blasts, so avoid them.
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.
260,000
