Planning Elden Ring Boss Fights With Systematic Methods

Most players don't have a structured approach when they pull up Margit, the Fell-Omen. They enter the arena, get hit once, and start mashing things. That works fine for casual runs, but if you're trying to speedrun or build a consistent strategy for every major boss, you end up wasting hours learning patterns that don't transfer between fights. I ran into this exact problem during my third playthrough around Malenia, where I had memorized four or five different boss sequences but couldn't recall which dodge timing applied to which move. I built a simple spreadsheet to track attack windows, and it changed how I approach these encounters permanently. A

Planner For Elden Ring Boss Modern

is just a reference document you create before engaging any major boss. It's not an official tool from FromSoftware. Nobody at the company made one. You make it yourself using whatever format is comfortable. Some people use bullet journals, some use Google Sheets, a few use actual index cards with pens. The format doesn't matter. What matters is that you capture the information before you need it, because you won't remember everything under pressure. Here's what goes into a working planner. Attack patterns come first, organized by phase. Phase one has its own sequence, phase two gets a different one, and anything after that gets listed separately. For each phase, I write down the most dangerous move in plain English, not game terminology. Something like "sweeps low left then lunges overhead" instead of whatever animation name exists. You won't need the animation name when your health bar is flashing red.

Dodge timing is the second entry. How many frames does the recovery last? Can you roll through it or do you need to wait? I learned this the hard way with Godrick the Grafted's wing grab attack. My initial planner said "roll on initiation" but the actual window was about six frames after he committed. Getting that wrong meant taking damage consistently even though I thought I was dodging correctly. The fix was to film the attack in the training zone using a mod or just pause-repeat, count the frames manually, and update the sheet. Next you need resource tracking. How many potions do you typically need? Does the boss have a stagger threshold? Some bosses break posture if you hit them enough times without getting interrupted. If yours does, note the approximate number of successful attacks required before the opening appears. This is where people waste the most time fighting blindly. A boss like Radahn has a clear stance break at roughly thirty charged hits or when you use specific skills. Without writing that down, you either learn it by accident or never learn it at all. I keep my current planner as a running file on my desktop. It starts with a table listing every major boss in the game, sorted by estimated difficulty rather than order. Then each boss page contains three sections: incoming patterns by phase, recommended gear and builds, and personal notes from past attempts. The notes section is the part most people skip. You should write things like "I failed here three times because I was holding my roll too late" or "this build worked better than expected because damage output matters more than defense against this enemy." Those notes are worth more than any guide you'll find online because they reflect your actual experience.

There are a few mistakes I see beginners make constantly. They plan for the perfect run instead of planning for what actually happens when they panic. Their planner reads like a video game strategy page from 2012 with numbered steps and bold text. That doesn't help you in a real fight. Your planner should be messy, incomplete, and focused on what you actually struggle with. If you consistently get hit by a certain type of attack, put that at the top. If you keep misjudging range, write down the measurement in simple terms. Another mistake is over-planning phases that rarely happen. Not every boss has multiple phases. Some only show a second phase at twenty percent health, and a lot of players never see it on their first run. Don't waste time documenting a phase you've only encountered once unless you're specifically training for a complete fight. Focus on what matters for the majority of attempts. There's also no download link for a proper planner tool because none exists that everyone agrees on. The community has scattered resources on Reddit and Discord, but nothing comprehensive. People share screenshots of their own notes occasionally. The closest you'll get to a ready-made system is a fan spreadsheet posted on GitHub, and those tend to go outdated after each patch. Building your own is faster and more accurate than hunting for someone else's version.

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Elden Ring Planner | Endigo Design
Elden Ring Planner | Endigo Design

If you want to try this yourself, start with one boss. Pick something moderately difficult that you've failed at a few times. Spend twenty minutes watching footage of it, either in-game or on YouTube, and write down what you see. Then test that information in the actual fight. Update the planner based on what you discovered. This process takes about fifteen minutes per boss and gives you a reference you can reuse forever. The main limitation of any manual planner is that it requires upfront investment of time and attention. Some players don't have patience for this approach and that's fine. The game works without one. But if you're someone who likes understanding systems deeply, or if you're playing on higher difficulties where small mistakes cost you everything, this method pays off quickly. Most people report cutting their completion time for challenging bosses from twenty or thirty attempts down to four or five after they write down the patterns they keep missing. I still use my planner today, three years into the game. I added entries for hidden bosses and late-game champions without much trouble because the format scales well. The same structure works whether you're preparing for a minor lieutenant or the final encounter. That's the main reason this approach stays useful past the initial learning curve.