Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree – How To Beat Furnace Golem (Boss Guide & Tips)

One of the most iconic Shadow of the Erdtree enemies that players have wanted to know more about since the DLC was first revealed is the Furnace Golem. An enormous, Fire Giant-sized construct, the Furnace Golems Shadow of the Erdtree players can encounter dot the Realm of Shadow, and are hard to miss as their emblazoned baskets light up the horizon from an enormous distance.

These bosses are incredibly challenging to fight at first, and it’s not recommended to go straight for the Furnace Golem in the Gravesite Plain without knowing what you’re doing, or without leveling up & gaining Scadutree Blessings. But once you’ve gained some new weapons, some new crafting recipes, and have empowered yourself in the Realm of Shadow, taking on Furnace Golems can be less terrifying than it might seem.

What Are Furnace Golems?

Furnace Golems are the gigantic, body-filled, engulfed Wicker Man-like constructs that slowly wander around various open-world areas within Shadow of the Erdtree‘s areas. There are a handful of these across the DLC, but you will find the first one almost as soon as you enter the Realm of Shadow.

There are at least two types of Furnace Golems – one has legs wrapped in rope that you can easily attack and break the Poise on, eventually staggering the Furnace Golem for a Critical Hit. The other’s feet cannot be attacked because of spiked armor, and must be attacked in other ways – like by attacking the face or basket.

According to the item description of the Furnace Visage, a crafting material dropped by Furnace Golems upon defeat, “the face upon the basket represents the Fell God of Fire that haunts the sagas of the hornsent”.

Elden Ring‘s lore is enigmatic, but going off of this one item description, one can assume these Furnace Golems were used by Messmer’s crusade to burn the bodies of the Hornsent en masse, while instilling fear into all who saw this construct coming their way.

It also perhaps implies that Messmer’s flame is drawn from the Fell God, though more lore may have to be uncovered to cement this connection between the two so directly.

Furnace Golem Boss Walkthrough

Weaknesses, Strategies, Moveset, & More

Furnace Golem Weaknesses

• Furnace Golems deal a ridiculous amount of damage in an enormous area, but because you can ride Torrent, the majority of their attacks can be dodged just by jumping over them or sprinting behind the boss.
• Because of its immense HP bar and high status resistances, it’s not a good idea to bring in Status Effect-based builds like Bleed, Poison, Frost, or otherwise.
• Dealing damage to the Furnace Golem’s face deals much more damage, and much more Poise damage, than attacking the legs. Take advantage of this with spells or ranged weapons, like the new Smithscript weapons.

Furnace Golem Moveset & Counters

Strategies To Beat Furnace Golem

General Furnace Golem Boss Tips

• Hefty Fire Pots and Hefty Furnace Pots deal an absolutely enormous amount of damage to Furnace Golems when thrown into their burning body basket. You can’t do this for every Furnace Golem, but Furnace Golems on a lower ledge can be utterly devastated with enough of these.
  • If you can knock down the Furnace Golem, too, it will lie on its side and you can throw a Hefty Furnace Pot into the basket to trigger this special interaction, too.
• Do not worry about getting lots of attacks in quickly to kill the boss fast. It will take a few minutes to slowly whittle down its HP, get critical hits from staggering it, and keenly avoid its ridiculously powerful explosive blast attacks.
• Stay on Torrent the entire time, and charge up your Heavy attack in your main hand weapon to deal more damage and Poise damage to the boss’ legs, if you are going that route.

If you are having trouble with any boss in
Elden Ring
, you can always go out to explore other areas to get stronger before returning to try again. This is ultimately the most effective strategy to overcome any boss in the game.

Melee Furnace Golem Strategies

• The Furnace Golems that do not have spiked armor on their legs can be knocked down with enough heavy attacks.
• Use a high-Poise weapon (like the Ruined Forge Lava Intake hammer) to break its legs and crack its face open with a Critical Hit when it falls to the ground. It appears that the best way to stun the boss and knock down a Furnace Golem is to break its Poise on each leg as fast as possible, one after the other.
• Do not take on the Furnace Golem on foot, or with fast or status-effect generating weapons. Stay on Torrent no matter what and use a big, heavy weapon.
• Be prepared to re-summon Torrent with a charge of your Flask of Crimson Tears a few times over this fight.

Spellcaster Furnace Golem Strategies

• Use long-range spells like Comet and the like to deal damage directly to the Furnace Golem’s face as often as possible. You will deal much more damage and knock it down much faster than hitting its legs with spells.
• Because of the boss’ dual hitboxes, and enormous hitboxes at that, you can use spells like Black Flame Ritual to deal a huge burst of damage. The problem is, this spell takes a long time to charge up and cast, and you may not have time to dodge an incoming explosive blast. You can also use spells like Shard Spiral to deal damage to both hitboxes as it travels forward.
• Focus on dodging the ranged AoE explosive blasts and especially its swipe attacks. As you will be targeting the face more than the legs, you will be more likely to get hit by some of these cleave moves at a distance.

Furnace Golem Boss Rewards

Every Furnace Golem in Shadow of the Erdtree drops the same two items: a Furnace Visage, and an Elden Ring DLC exclusive Crystal Tear. The Furnace Visage is a crafting material used for extremely valuable crafting recipes, and if you look at it in your inventory, you realize that it is quite literally the metal plate face of one of these terrifying, flaming colossi.

Shadow of the Erdtree introduces a number of new Crystal Tears, many of which can be found across the Realm of Shadow tucked away in secret and out-of-the-way locations. However, every Furnace Golem also drops one Crystal Tear. These can vary wildly, but generally introduce new ways to experience Elden Ring‘s combat by enhancing your Physick Flask with brand-new abilities.

For example, by defeating the Furnace Golem in the Gravesite Plain main area, you will get the Deflecting Hardtear. This Crystal Tear enables the Spontaneous Guard mechanic for three minutes upon consumption. Spontaneous Guard completely negates all damage and allows for stronger retaliation when you perfectly block any incoming attack, just like the combat system present in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

All Furnace Golems drop Crystal Tears like this, so it’s worth spending some time to figure out how to beat Furnace Golems in the DLC to collect and experiment with all of these new buffs.