Astel, Naturalborn of the Void is an optional boss in the game Elden Ring.

Description

A freakishly shaped star that erupted far away in a hopeless void once destroyed the Eternal City and took its sky. A falling star that bodes ill for trouble. Killing this foe is a prerequisite for the Witch of Renny storyline.

There is an enhanced version of this boss, Astel, Stars of Darkness.

Location

Ansel River, Lake of Rot area. The boss arena can be accessed by resting in a sarcophagus in the Grand Cloister location.

Attacks

Phase 1

Tail Strike

The boss lifts the back of his body and strikes his tail in front of him for a very long distance. If the character is close to the boss, a second such blow will follow. The attack is easily ignored by a timely roll to either side.

Jawbone Strikes

The boss taps his jaws warningly and tries to bite the character. The attack can consist of one or two, rapidly alternating blows, it is recommended to block with a shield or to dodge. Immediately after that can use the Charged Jawbone Strike.

Furious volley

Fires a fast magical beam in front of you, reaches at any distance. Dodging must be done about two seconds after Astel’s head is down.

Explosions of enchantments

Charges one of the hands with enchantments, then spends it horizontally. This will also leave magical clouds in place, which explode after about one second. In addition, the damage is done by the whole attacking hand of the boss, not just the part with the magic sphere. There are many variants of this attack – Astel can make a sort of uppercut, breaking the distance slightly, he can fly up and dive on the character, striking with his left hands (most often the attack passes by because of the boss’ size), he can just “bring” his right enchanted hand to the character with the subsequent explosion. Depending on the attack, you can either dodge once to any side except the very hand the boss is attacking with at the moment, or just step back.

Gripping

Dives at a character from above and grabs him with his hands, then rips him in half. Lethal attack.
Lunge with Teleportation – The boss creates a large black hole where he stands. Teleportation also deals damage in a small radius. If you don’t stand under the boss, it won’t hit. Can teleport from and to a character. Almost guaranteed to perform a Grip when teleporting to a character.
Sting – Stings in front of you several times. You may notice the sting itself twitching slightly before attacking. You can avoid it with a shield or dodge backwards/forwards – the attack won’t hit the character directly near the boss’s face.

Gravity Grab

Lifts the character if he or she is caught in the attack radius, then sharply lowers to the ground, dealing damage. It is recommended to run away from the attack. It’s also possible to avoid getting hit by dodging, but this requires a certain skill.

Charged by the chews

Charges its chews and tries to grab the character with them. Charging the attack is quite long (about 3 seconds), but the attack itself is very fast. Ignored by simply going behind the boss’s head or shield.
Dark Waves- The boss jumps low and after landing emits 3 waves of charms from himself at the landing spot.

Second Phase

The transition to the second phase occurs after the boss loses half of his health and, more often than not, with teleportation from the character. After breaking the distance when transitioning to the second phase often uses a new attack – Astel’s Meteorite.

Astel’s Meteorite

Summons a rain of meteorites that fly toward the character. The attack can be easily dodged by simply running to the right or left.

Enhanced Dark Waves

Produces the same jump, but releases waves from two points instead of one.

Improved Enchantment Blast

The boss infuses both of his arms instead of one, and then attacks from left to right with his left hand first, then forward with his right.

Tactics

  • Before general advice, it makes sense to break down some of the most dangerous attacks.
  • The Darkwave attack is quite difficult to dodge, so the best solution is simply to move away from where they are spreading. Attempting to dodge in the propagation area will be punished by the second or third wave that appears, due to the speed of their appearance.
  • The gravity grab has unobvious timings for evasion, which, however, you can get used to. The moment the boss uses this attack, the best thing to do is to stop attacking and break the distance, or wait for the moments to dodge. There are a total of two rolls to be made: a roll, to directly evade the tackle, and a roll to end it. The boss’s head during the attack is also out of reach of most weapons, which also reduces the need to attack him at this point.
  • The most dangerous attack, however, is the Grapple, which has a large hitbox and is guaranteed to be used by the boss at least once per fight. To dodge you have to dodge either under the boss’s head or away from him, but not towards his hands (in that case there is a high probability that the character will be “teleported” to Astel’s hands). If you can’t dodge, you can try to use Opal Tear in a bubble or Cheerful Fragrance to significantly reduce the damage of the grapple.

General Tips

  • The boss takes 20% more damage to the head, and a 40-60% reduction to other body parts, which makes it wise to focus only on it.
  • The boss has the lowest resistance to any physical damage, so it’s a good idea to take weapons with pure physical damage.
  • You can use Rotten or Poison Grease before the fight, as the boss has relatively low resistance to both effects.

Combat Tactics in Phase 1

When entering the arena, while the character is far away, Astel will use the Furious volley. A palpably dangerous attack, but the soundtrack allows for precise timing of the dodge – about two seconds after he lowers his head. Once the distance is shortened, the boss will engage in close combat. Tactics to fight the boss are recommended based on the most dangerous attacks outlined above.

First of all, you should avoid being directly under the boss (under the belly). Otherwise it provokes him to use the Gravity Grab – this attack has a very large area of damage. If the character was under the boss at the moment of preparation, it’s most likely that he can’t avoid the damage. It is possible to dodge the attack while being in the damage area, but it requires some practice – it’s better to leave this option for last resort, when it is obvious that escape is not an option.

Most attacks with Charms Blasts don’t pose much of a threat – even if they make you retreat, you should immediately shorten your distance and keep a short distance in front of the boss’ head, focusing on his head. When attacking, you should make small series of attacks of 2-3 strikes (depending on the weapon), but do not be greedy, otherwise the boss will apply the attacks with his teeth. From time to time Astel will break the distance with a teleport or blows – shorten it again. When the boss starts to prepare Dark Waves (you can tell by the characteristic spheres of energy in his paws and flying vertically upwards), you should run away immediately. Being near the boss, dodging (at least with a normal dodge) this attack is extremely difficult because of the successive departing waves in a fairly wide radius, which appear faster than the character performs a somersault. Once the attack is over, you can return to your head and attack. There is a rare variation of Dark Waves – Astel ignites spheres of energy in all his paws, flies up and lands where he was, accompanied by the same waves of energy. Despite the long animation, the radius of the attack is not very large – just run away.

When the boss’ health drops to about 4/5, Astel starts to use his most insidious attack, Grab. The animation of this attack is no different from the usual teleportation, so the probability of avoiding it depends on your reaction. First of all, you should pay attention to your health bar and get ready for the next teleportation of the boss to go to Grapple when it approaches 4/5. Often, Astel uses it if the character is at a relatively close distance to him – as soon as Astel disappeared, you should immediately turn the camera up and around to see as quickly as possible where Astel is. When detecting movement above – get ready to make a dodge strictly under the boss’s head when he’s very close, or from it. Under no circumstances should you dodge sideways – because of the attack hitboxes, the character will move into Astelu’s hands. The attack is fatal for the average character.

If it was just a teleport to break the distance, then a second after the boss disappeared there will be no movement at the top – in that case you should get ready for the Furious volley.

Around this point it is recommended to use the tactic of raiding Astel and small retreats. The thing is that Capture is used by the boss when the character is close by – if you occasionally go to a middle distance, the boss will simply forget about the existence of Capture and will either shoot a Furious salvo, or raid with Charges, or hit with the tail. These attacks are not as dangerous as Capture.

Combat Tactics When Going Into the Second Phrase

When the boss’ health drops to about half, Astel will break the distance and apply Astel Meteorites. The area of effect of the attack is a huge distance within a half sphere radius in front of him, and 3-4 meteors will fly directly at the character. The animation and special effects can be confusing at first, but you really just have to dodge or run left/right. The series of Explosions of Charms will add new combinations, but in general – they will not pose a threat anymore – a small retreat from the cloud left after the hand is enough, and then you can go back to the boss. He will still use the attacks of the first phase, on which you need to catch him. The main thing is to keep in mind the periodic mid-range retreats and getting out from under his belly. This way there’s less chance to get in range of the Dark Waves, and less chance to provoke Astel into a Grab (the technique of dodging is the same: as soon as Astel disappears, quickly look up and get ready to dodge under/from his head at the very last moment). Otherwise, the combat tactics are almost the same as in the first phase – keep hitting in the head to stay in front of her (so he is provoked by the chews, after which there is a window for an attack), periodically break the distance and come back – the fight will be longer, but this way you can avoid the most dangerous attacks. Besides, there’s a chance that Astel will try to use stinger blows while getting closer – if the character is at the boss’s face, you don’t even have to dodge the stinger – the attack won’t hurt.

If it happens that the distance between the character and the boss is very small, and he starts preparing Astel Meteorites, you need to run away from him before the meteors fly, and then to the left/right. In the most extreme case to block with the shield – the damage from one hit will pass insignificant.

Notes

  • This boss features cooperative mode and summoning creatures with ashes.
  • In some locations you may encounter special opponents, Star Spawns, which are very similar to this boss.
  • Has high resistance to bleeding, red rot and poison. Takes 30% less damage from Bleed.
  • Immune to attacks that inflict frostbite, sleep, insanity, and instant death.
  • It is recommended to use long weapons that can hit the target (spears, pikes, big rapiers) or weapons with vertical blows.
  • Boss is a “Gravity Enemy” and takes more damage from the following weapons listed: Two-handed Scourge of the Stars, Bastard Stars, Wing of Astel, Sword of the Alabaster lord, Two-handed Onyx lord, Sword of Meteorite Ore, Bastard Stars, Jaw of the Falling Star Beast, Spear of Radan.
  • Can knocked off balance and deal a critical hit. The strike is made in the “eye” on the boss’s head.