Elden Ring Deeproot Depths Walkthrough

Welcome to the Elden Ring Walkthrough for the Deeproot Depths region! This is an underground area located directly under the Erdtree on the map, with some unique ways to enter and exit if you progress through the game in a nonstandard way. Typically though the main purpose most players will have for coming here is to finish Fia’s sidequest (if you have progressed to the Altus Plateau so she moves here) and fight the Lichdragon Fortissax optional boss.

For all other regions refer to Elden Ring Walkthrough.

Deeproot Depths

Progression Order:

Great Waterfall Crest
Deeproot Depths
The Nameless Eternal City
Across the Roots
Prince of Death’s Throne
Lichdragon Fortissax

Great Waterfall Crest

Assuming you enter Deeproot Depths from the coffin by the Great Waterfall Basin point of grace in Siofra River (reached after defeating the Valiant Gargoyle boss) you appear at the top of a waterfall within Deeproot Depths. Head just ahead to the edge of the water to find the first site of grace in the area.

Continue to the west towards the tree roots. There is an Erdtree Avatar walking around here that you can fight or leave. It doesn’t count as a boss like others do, but does drop the Staff of the Avatar when defeated.

To continue further into the area you will need to walk across the roots stretching across the gap to the west.

The easy way to get across is taking the root going down towards the left side of the area, going directly across to the far cliff. You can take an alternate route to the right though, going into a cave in the cliff wall to the right.

Head through the cave, fighting or ignoring the ants, then on the far side where the next cave opening is you can find the Legendary Incantation Elden Stars on a body by the ledge.

You can then drop down to the ledge below, and follow the root to the area to the right to continue.

On the other side, you can continue to the west past a bunch of ants. Near the cliff edge overlooking the sunken city ahead you can find a Finger Reader Crone and the next site of grace.

Deeproot Depths

Continue north, through the roots of the tree towards the area covered in shallow water.

Follow the path between the trees towards the ruins, and by a gazebo you can pick up Map: Deeproot Depths, revealing the rest of the relatively small area.

To progress further, look to the west again where you can see some ghostly soldiers walking underneath a large root above. Continue under the root towards the buildings ahead.

Near the arch, on some dry land, you can find the next site of grace.

The Nameless Eternal City

Your goal now is to reach the top of the area, climbing up the roots to reach the northeast corner of the area where you can find Fia.

You can also note that there is a coffin on the western edge of the waterfall, like the one you might have Entered Deeproot Depths with. This takes you to Ainsel River and is how you can get there if you haven’t worked your way through Ranni’s questline to the point where you can use the portal in Renna’s Rise (they both take you to effectively the same spot so there’s no difference in which you use if you have access to the portal).

To continue up the roots, you can jump onto the sunken buildings near the site of grace, heading back towards the east.

There are a number of limbless Gargoyles in this area that will try to shoot perfumer dust at you when you go in front of them, though they are pretty easy to avoid because of how slow they are.

Continue up the roots, taking the path leading to the right to progress (you can take the path to the left to kill the Gargoyle on the top of the first building if you want).

You can then follow the roots up towards the tower ahead, then follow either part of the root past it towards the cliff.

On the edge of the cliff, you can find the next site of grace just to the right by the cliff edge.

Across the Roots

Head through the hole in the roots towards the giant corpse in the wall in the distance.

Once you are almost at the wall, you will be locked in the area by fog walls and an enemy, Fia’s Champion will appear.

You will need to fight some enemies here before you can meet with Fia. These are like invaders, but not overly strong so not a big deal. You can also summon Spirit Ashes once you are locked into the area, so you can use Mimic and make short work of them. The only major thing to note is that after the first two enemies, three will be summoned at once, so if you have any attacks that deal area of effect then they can be helpful here.

Once the group is defeated the fog walls around the area disappear, and you can interact with the new site of grace nearby.

Prince of Death’s Throne

You can now speak to Fia, who is sitting on a rock nearby. YOU MUST NOT KILL HER. If you kill her then you lock yourself out of being able to complete her side quest and fighting the boss, which means you would need to redo all of the steps in a new playthrough.

To be able to actually continue through all of her dialogue, you will first need to have obtained the Cursemark of Death item, which is found at the Divine Tower of Liurnia which is reached after using the Carian Inverted Statue at Carian Study Hall. You obtain this item when progressing through Ranni’s questline for the Age of Stars ending: Ending Guide (Step 4 is where you obtain the Carian Inverted Statue).

When you have it and are ready to continue, speak to Fia and choose the following dialogue options:

No, I want to be held
Talk in secret
Talk in secret
Give Cursemark of Death (you can do the prior 3 options before having the Cursemark, but this only appears after you obtain it)
Talk in secret
Exit

You now need to reload the area, either by warping somewhere else or quitting and reloading the game, then interact with Fia and choose “Talk in Secret” once more.

Reload the area one more time, then Fia will be lying against the wall, and there is now the interact option “Touch Fia” available instead of talking to her. This allows you to enter the Deathbed Dream, where you can now fight the boss.

Lichdragon Fortissax

Reward: 90,000 Runes, Remembrance of the Lichdragon

If you are running a magic build, then the easiest way to fight this boss is to use Mimic Tear to distract it, then consume Wondrous Flask with Cerulean Hidden Tear (infinite mana) and fire Comet Azur spell to kill it in one attack.

If you are using a melee build, then this boss is basically the same as most other dragons if you fought them on foot. If you leave this fight until right near the end of the game, then you will have basically seen the entire moveset of Lichdragon Fortissax from the dragons in Faram Azula. It attacks with normal stomps and fire attacks, then will also use the summoned lightning slashes and lightning strikes. The lightning strikes will leave clouds behind that slowly inflict death status, so make sure not to hang around in them for too long.

After defeating Fortissax you are automatically transported back to beside Fia. You can then pick up the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince from above Fia’s body. This is an optional item that is used to have a slightly different version of the Elden Lord ending (though isn’t required for trophies/achievements, using the mending runes is an entirely personal choice).

Note that if you had given the Twinned armor set to D’s brother, located just before the Valiant Gargoyle boss room, he will appear here beside Fia the next time you reload the area, and he has now killed her. He won’t appear here and kill her earlier so can’t lock you out of the boss if you gave him the armor earlier. Killing him now or reloading the area allows you to reobtain the Twinned set, along with the Inseparable Sword.

The nearby portal can be used as an alternate route to enter Leyndell, Royal Capital if you come here before killing two Shardbearers (or don’t want to kill the Draconic Tree Sentinel) but is inactive if you come here once the capital is covered in ash.

Deeproot Depths Sites of Grace

Root-Facing Cliffs (go through the sewers under Leyndell and defeat Mohg, the Omen, then go through the altar path behind him and drop down to the bottom where you’ll find the site of grace “Frenzied Flame Proscription“. From this site of grace roll into the wall in the south-east of the room to reveal an illusion wall, behind is a chest and another illusion wall that leads to this site of grace in Deeproot Depths)