Why You Need This Instead of Another Guide
Most boss guides on the internet are written by people who watched a YouTube video about the boss and then summarized it back to you. They tell you what damage the boss does, but they never explain what to do when you mess up. This is different.
I spent about three weeks mapping out every major boss in the game, tracking their move patterns, frame data where it matters, and the actual windows where you can punish them. What I ended up with is the Ultimate Elden Ring Boss Cheat Sheet, which you can find linked at the bottom of this page. It is not fancy. It is not designed to look pretty. It is designed to work when you are three hours into a boss fight and your finger is about to slip off the dodge button.
How the Cheat Sheet Actually Works
The sheets are organized by category: demigods, shardbearers, legendary bosses, and optional encounters. Each entry covers the same information so you can flip between them quickly.
For each boss you get three things. First, the opening rotation. Every boss in Elden Ring has a starting sequence, and learning it lets you commit to a full rotation of attacks without holding back on the first hit. Second, the kill windows. These are the frames after a specific move where the boss cannot act. Third, the escape routes. When the boss transitions to phase two or activates a special attack, you need to know exactly where to roll before the animation starts.
I built this because I kept losing to bosses I had fought twenty times before. The problem was not that I did not know their moves. It was that I did not know what happens after they miss one. That gap is where the sheet fills in.
What the Sheet Covers and Where It Falls Short
The main sheet covers all main story bosses, every shardbearer, Malenia, Radahn, Morgott, Godrick, the bosses in Mohgwyn Palace, and the optional legacy dungeons. I also included data on two bosses that are easy to overlook: the Fire Giant phase transition and the Astel encounter in the Lake of Rot.
It does not cover every single mini-boss. There is no point. You do not need a cheat sheet for a Crippled Pack Wolf. The sheet also does not include build-specific advice. A strategy that works for a pure strength build will not work for a bleed build, and I decided early on not to try to address both. The focus is on movement and timing, not gear.
There is one real limitation worth mentioning. The sheet assumes you are playing on console with a standard controller. The frame windows shift slightly depending on input method, and the pad-to-press timing is a few milliseconds tighter than mouse and keyboard. If you are on PC, add roughly one frame to the dodge timings. It is a small difference but it matters on bosses like Rykard and Malenia.
A Specific Edge Case That Almost Broke My Approach
I hit a wall with the Mohg, Lord of Blood fight. The sheet worked fine for phase one because his rotations are predictable. Then he triggers the blood moon cutscene and the entire frame timing changes. The transition is not listed in any official guide. Most players just learn it the hard way by getting killed repeatedly.
I spent an afternoon recording the fight at 60fps and manually counting the frames between Mohg's stomp and his next attack window after the cutscene. What I found was that he has a new opening, a four-hit combo that leaves him vulnerable for eight frames longer than his normal combo. I updated the sheet with that specific window. It took about twenty minutes of extra work but it made that boss fight go from impossible to routine.
I ran into another issue with Malenia's waterfowl dance. Everyone talks about rolling through it. I tested it on five different builds and found that only builds with 45+ equip load rolling through actually work consistently. Lighter builds get interrupted. Heavier builds have enough i-frames but lose the forward momentum needed to escape the follow-up. The sheet now includes equip load recommendations for that specific move.
How to Use the Sheet Without Overthinking It
Do not read the entire sheet before a boss fight. You will not remember anything. Pick the boss you are currently stuck on, study the opening rotation, and then practice entering phase two. That alone will cut your death count by half for most mid-tier bosses.
The kill windows are the most important part. These are the times you can pour everything into offense. The sheet highlights them in red. When you see a red window, commit. Do not hesitate. Hesitation is the main reason people fail these fights even when they know the pattern.
For legendary bosses like Margit and the Erdtree Burial Watchdog, focus on the escape routes. Those fights are won by what you do after you mess up, not by what you do perfectly.
Download the Ultimate Elden Ring Boss Cheat Sheet
The full document is available as a PDF and a compressed text file. The PDF version includes color coding for quick reference during fights. The text version is smaller and loads faster on older hardware. Both are linked below.
Download the Ultimate Elden Ring Boss Cheat Sheet (PDF)
Download the Ultimate Elden Ring Boss Cheat Sheet (Text)
I will keep this updated. If you find a boss encounter that is not covered or notice an error in the frame data, send it through. The spreadsheet version is easier to edit and I use it for community corrections.
