Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Kill Winter Lanterns

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Kill Winter Lanterns – The first and only expansion for FromSoftware’s 2022 masterpiece Elden Ring is here, and players have been spending ample time since it’s release digging through Shadow of the Erdtree to discover all of its secrets.

One of those secrets is a new enemy, the kind that most players would probably regret having found at all. The Winter Lanterns can be found in one area of the DLC, the Abyssal Woods, and defeating them is no easy feat – well, if you don’t know how to take them down that is.

This guide will teach you what you need to do to take down Winter Lanterns in Shadow of the Erdtree. Let’s get into it.

Related News – Check out all our other guides for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree to help you through the Realm of Shadow

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Kill Winter Lanterns

Don’t Listen To Miyazaki

If you’ve made your way to the Abyssal Woods, and are trying to head to Midra’s Manse, you’ll have to pass through a few Winter Lanterns first. Typical FromSoftware stuff, right?

On your way to a new boss you encounter a new enemy that’s maybe particularly tough. A little amuse-bouche ahead of the main course. What makes these encounters even cooler is that FromSoftware almost always makes something about this new enemy and how to defeat it a subtle hint as to how you might want to deal with the boss of that area.

That’s all still true about the Winter Lanterns, but there’s an additional key difference this time around. When you first head into the Abyssal Woods, there are messages left by the developers, not other players, which read like messages left from other unfortunate souls who found their way to these forbidden woods.

They’re warnings, telling you that these enemies can’t be harmed, can’t even be touched. Your weapons are implied to be useless, and all you can do to defend yourself is to not engage with them at all. Which is why when you’re traversing through the Abyssal Woods, in areas where you’ll find Winter Lanterns you’ll also find plenty of bushes and trees to help you hide from them, so you can sneak across to Midra’s Manse.

You’re free to sneak by them of course – but you also don’t need to listen to these messages. The Winter Lanterns can be killed, Miyazaki is straight-up lying to you that they can’t be harmed or touched. You just need to know what to do. Elden Ring, like most other FromSoftware games, is more about knowledge, then skill.

Time To Parry

You have to parry the Winter Lanterns before you can actually do any damage to them. So simple! But also of course not simple. If you’re not used to parrying in Elden Ring, getting the timing right can be tricky, especially because it’s all about watching for that perfect moment.

Just like when you’re dodging you have to be very specific, and look out for the animation that helps you time when to press the button. But first you need to be able to parry, which you do by setting it to a shield.

Parrying works like any Ash of War, though the shield you set it to can make or break your timing. Smaller shields are much better for parrying quickly, so you’re better off with something like the Buckler, which also comes with it’s own special faster parry Ash of War skill attached.

A Gilded Iron Shield is also an excellent option, as is the Man-Serpent’s Shield. The Buckler will remain the best choice but if you don’t have it in your inventory or it doesn’t work with your fashion-Souls, then either of those smaller options are more than fine.

Standard-sized shields will also come with Parry attached, but the timing is a little more difficult to get used to since there is more of a delay than there is with something like the Buckler. Getting really precise with your parry’s is going to be a much easier time with smaller shields that weigh less than standard ones.

As far as the timing goes, you want to let yourself be spotted by the Winter Lanterns from a far distance, because this always works best when you can watch them charge you and prepare yourself.

Then, when they raise their right arm for their grab-attack spell, parry them the moment their arm moves down. Done successfully, you’ll be able to get in a critical hit, and damage them further as they’re getting up to kill them, if you didn’t kill them with the critical hit.

Easy as that – just make sure you don’t have a lot of runes (if any) on you when you try and kill them, because you might need to try getting one of them down a few times.