Regal Ancestor Spirit is Elden Ring’s Best Use of its Strangest Enemies (2024)

The Regal Ancestor Spirit is one of the more unique bosses in Elden Ring, and not just because it only has a single reuse placed elsewhere throughout the Lands Between. There are a few key factors that helps this boss stand out among the plethora of other encounters throughout the game, with the strongest coming from how it utilizes Elden Ring's wildlife like sheep and boars.

With tons of little animals scattered around Elden Ring, it is interesting to see that at least one boss managed to actually use this wildlife, both for the base animations of the Regal Ancestor Spirit and in its later phases. This then becomes a great example of FromSoftware not only making the world of the Lands Between feel alive, but also utilizes a number of animations that might otherwise go unseen through most of a playthrough.

RELATED: Elden Ring's Astel, Naturalborn of the Void's Lore Explained

Regal Ancestor Spirit's Animal Teleporting

Even when compared to the regular Ancestor Spirit, the Regal variant is its own beast of an encounter thanks to a handful of attacks unique to the second of the two fights. One that stands out is the teleport that the Regal Ancestor Spirit can use, allowing the boss to slowly melt away into the ground before rising through one of the spirit animals roaming around its arena. This can often help disrupt the pacing of the fight, forcing the player to reassess the arena and chase down the boss which can easily become a punching bag if it doesn't shake things up.

While the teleportation itself is interesting on its own, there is an added wrinkle that comes from the specific way that the Regal Ancestor Spirit manages to move across the arena. In teleporting to the location of another spirit animal, the boss takes on some of the characteristics of the animal itself, gaining a new attack depending on the chosen wildlife. These unique attacks can range from a boar charge to the ram roll that even the players can learn using Elden Ring's ashes of war.

The result is a series of attack animations that would normally be given to the wildlife that most players will spend most of their time in the Lands Between avoiding, unless they are farming for bones or Elden Ring's powerful exalted flesh consumable. These attacks can also help to shake up the pace of the fight against the Regal Ancestor Spirit, thanks to the way that the new attacks can easily catch an unsuspecting player off guard with a quick roll or the giant boss jumping around like a jackrabbit. This is one of the better ways that the boss manages to catch the player off guard, unlike the boss' unique ability to heal which appears in the later phases.

RELATED: Elden Ring's DLC Should Draw Inspiration From One Iconic Bloodborne Enemy

Regal Ancestor Spirit Doesn't Know When to Quit

Another unique ability that the Regal Ancestor Spirit has that sets it apart from other bosses and the first Ancestor Spirit enemy is the ability to heal after reaching below roughly 50% health. This is actually a dual-purpose ability, in that it not only heals the boss but can also damage the player if they are hanging around too close after it activates. So, to add insult to injury on top of a player having their progress through the boss' health bar reversed, bad positioning can easily lead to a quick reset back to the nearest Stake of Marika.

While extending the Regal Ancestor Spirit fight isn't too bad, especially with this healing ability also being an attack, this specific attack can often be a point of criticism for the boss. This is more because of the frequency at which the boss will sometimes use the ability, completely undoing the player's progress every ten seconds. It makes for a great case to leave Regal Ancestor Spirit until a player has made the most out of Elden Ring's stats in order to burn the boss down before it has the chance to heal more than once.

Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Why Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Wasn't at Summer Game Fest