Miquella’s Haligtree Elden Ring walkthrough

The hardest area in Elden Ring by far is Miquella’s Haligtree. Just getting there is a massive pain — we wrote a whole guide on it. But your troubles don’t end when you conjoin the two halves of the Secret Medallion. They’re just getting started.

The Haligtree’s branches are filled with deadly enemies and valuable items. Our Haligtree walkthrough will help you navigate the Haligtree’s Branches to Haligtree Town, point out every item and enemy along the way, and help you defeat Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree.

Haligtree General Tips

• Bring ranged weapons. You do not want to take on these enemies without ranged weapons. Particularly up in the highest branches, they’ll snipe you from far away while you’re still trying to figure out how to reach them. Pack your best long-range spells, incantations, or arrows.
• Use stealth. The Haligtree is filled with enemies that can two- or even one-shot you at range. Luckily, you just did a whole stealth mission in Ordina to get here. Wear the Black Knife Armor, use the Crepus’s Vial talisman, and keep the Unseen Form spell equipped.
• Say goodbye to your runes. You’re going to die here a lot. Don’t bother wasting Rune Arcs, and don’t try to hang on to a big pile of runes. Spend it all before you start exploring, and count on losing what you collect here until you’ve made it all the way through.
• Max out your flasks. You don’t want to be running around here without the maximum amount of healing and FP replenishment. Now that you have access to every or nearly every area of the map, go collect all the Sacred Tears and Golden Seeds you need to max out your flasks.
• Don’t trust strangers. If you’re playing in online mode, you’ll find that the Haligtree branches are plastered with messages instructing you to jump into the abyss with promises of “precious item ahead” everywhere. Don’t believe them, though, because they’re trying to get you killed.

Chapter 1: Envoys from Hell

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When you arrive on the Haligtree branches, you’ll immediately notice an item directly behind you. Before you attempt to pick it up, walk carefully in the other direction and activate the Haligtree Canopy site of grace and the Summoning Pool near it. Then head back to the starting point and attempt to grab the Stonesword Key off the body hanging over the edge. It helps to jump to it rather than trying to slowly walk off the edge, which will get you killed as often as not.

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You can drop to a lower branch nearby and pick up a Sacramental Bud, a valuable crafting material used in the recipes for Preserving Bolus (scarlet rot cure) and Bewitching Branch. There’s one Oracle Envoy right next to the item, and another one patrolling on this path, whom you might want to take out from a distance. Continue around this path until you’re back at the site of grace, killing another Envoy on the way. The main path forward will take you past three Envoys who, thankfully, are too engrossed in gazing at their precious Haligtree to notice you sneaking up behind them.

Drop down from a mushroom to the branch below and sneak up on the Big Envoy ahead. Pillage the remains it was standing on for a Golden Rune [10]. Head back up to the spot where you just dropped down and look down further to spy an item on top of a cluster of shrooms. It’s the Prattling Pate “My Beloved” voice emitter. You can hop down from here to reach it, but first, find a vantage point from which to kill the Envoys below. If you jump down without taking them out first, they’ll melt you with bubbles as soon as you land.

From here, you could continue downward and reach the wide branch that makes up the main downward slope that will take you toward the next site of grace. However, there are more items to grab above you, so fast travel back to the Haligtree Canopy.

Continue once again on the main path past the three Envoys. Instead of jumping down, continue onto the narrow path beyond the Big Envoy. The main downward-sloping branch is below you, but we’re going to grab some more items first.

There are patrolling Envoys throughout this environment, so kill any that you see, preferably from as far away as possible. Don’t forget to cast Unseen Form now and then if you want help sneaking around.

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Straight ahead on this path, you’ll see three Envoys sitting side-by-side on a higher branch. It’s essential that you kill them from a distance, as they’ll make your life hell if you try to slip by them. They can hit you from shocking distances, so your longest-range options like the Loretta’s Greatbow spell or an actual greatbow are best here. Once they’re dead, continue on the path until you slip below the branch they were on, continuing to kill any Envoys you encounter along the way. At the end of the path, turn right and look upslope toward the two Envoys. Kill them before turning around and proceeding the other way.

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You’ll find yourself on that main branch. The ants here are shockingly deadly, but they’re quite susceptible to magic. Kill them from as far away as possible, and head upslope. Take the branching path on the left side toward the Miranda Flower. As with everything else here, it can kill you from a massive distance, so, once again, take it out from as far away as possible. Even then, it can hit you from basically any distance where you can hit it, so watch out for the motes of white light around you that indicate its magic attack is about to land, and move around as needed.

From there, head to the end of the branch and drop down to the next one.

(Alternatively, because that will take forever, simply run and leap across the gap toward the item you can see from there, which is another Stonesword Key. Unseen Form can help get you across without the flower noticing.)

Either way, make your way upward. Near the flowers’ location you’ll find Fire Grease x3, a subtle hint that these irksome house plants are weak to flame damage. There’s an Aeonian Butterfly on another offshoot. Make your way to the branch that the three Envoys were perched on to pick up a Preserving Bolus, and grab that Stonesword Key if you took the long route here instead of leaping over the gap. Kill the Envoys below as you explore this clump of branches.

Once you’re done here, make your way back to that wide, main avenue branch — the one crawling with giant ants. Toward the very top, there are two paths uphill, both of which contain items. Be cautious concerning the ants, since they can patrol the entire length of this branch. Don’t get complacent, though, since you really don’t want to be fighting five of these things simultaneously.

Facing uphill, the left branch has a Golden Rune [10] on a corpse. At the end of this path, your first Giant Envoy awaits. These guys are a serious pain. They shoot clusters of bubbles that can snipe you from across town, and they have absurd amounts of health. It would probably be easier to fight it up close — if you weren’t balanced precariously on a branch the width of a mid-sized car. Luckily, they’re susceptible to statuses like poison and scarlet rot. You can also cast something like Night Maiden’s Mist toward them. Basically, anything that lets you damage them and then run away, repeating as many times as necessary, will prove helpful here. Once it’s finally dead, check the item it was guarding.

It’s the Envoy Crown, which increases the power of your bubble-based skills when worn. It’s a great choice to pair with any of the Envoy’s Horn weapons you’ve been picking up from these enemies.

Back on the main path, the other upslope route is patrolled by a Big Envoy. Kill it and pick up the Dappled Cured Meat, which temporarily boosts immunity, robustness, and focus. Don’t ignore the Envoys on the branch to your right, if you haven’t killed them yet — they’ll snipe you from their vantage point if you aren’t careful. Continuing uphill, another Envoy stands in your way. At the top, a Smithing Stone [8] waits on a body.

With that, you’ve grabbed every item on the upper part of the Haligtree Canopy, and once you reach the next site of grace, you’ll never have to return here again. Congratulations. Now, let’s get you there.

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Your next task will be to reach the Haligtree Town site of grace. You’re going to make a break for it, and then backtrack to explore the lower branches.

Starting near the top of the main downward branch, grab the Warming Stone x4 that you can see on a cluster of mushrooms, past the Envoy duo on your left (don’t worry, you won’t aggro them from here). Then, simply charge forward until you reach the bottom. Ignore the Miranda Flowers and the Giant Envoy blowing bubbles at you, dodging through them as needed (Unseen Form can help a lot here). You may get scarlet rot, but it’s OK since you’re about to rest. Ignore the items as well — we’ll get them later. You can even ignore the ants if you want.

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At the bottom of the long slope, descend the ladder on your left. Make note of the elevator lever, but you can’t do anything with it yet. Head into the next room and take a much-needed breather at the Haligtree Town site of grace. This checkpoint will help you explore those lower branches without needing to run the whole length of the canopy every time you slip up.

Ready?

Climb back up the ladder to find yourself directly underneath the Giant Envoy. Killing him won’t be easy.

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First, take out the nearby Miranda Flowers so you can target the Envoy without being infected with scarlet rot. Your main problem here is that anywhere you can see him, he can also see you. If you’re casting spells, try to find something with enough range to hit him from down here, but also a short enough cast time that you won’t get caught by his bubbles, which can easily one-shot most builds if all of them hit at once. Great Glintstone Shard works fine for this. You can also hit him with sleep arrows to make him chill out for a minute, though that’s only a temporary solution.

With the big dude finally dead, you can head upslope to collect the items you passed earlier, including a Numen’s Rune and Flaming Bolt x10. Kill the Miranda Flowers along the way to avoid scarlet rot.

Facing upslope, find the mushroom cluster from which you can hop down on your left. It’s a bit of a tricky jump, so be careful. Kill the Miranda Flowers ahead. Don’t worry too much about the Blue Teardrop Scarab, as killing it will only refill your magic flask charges, which is nice, but probably unnecessary. The Big Miranda Flower further down is guarding precisely nothing, so feel free to ignore it and continue uphill in the other direction. However, take a moment to peek off the edge to the northeast here and you’ll catch a glimpse of the next boss arena. Neat!

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Up the slope, a Golden Rune [13] waits on a corpse. Continue past it and you’ll reach the branch where the Giant Envoy was perched. If it dropped anything when you killed it, you can pick it up now. By the way, running straight here and killing it in close combat is an option, but it has a tendency to snipe you as you traverse the branches, making that choice even more dangerous than trading shots with it from below. If you’re really determined to go this route, it’s better to start at the top and cast Unseen Form on yourself so it doesn’t notice you as you jump down to the side path.

Turn right and head further uphill, taking note of the Envoys in the distance. There are two small ones: one medium, and one giant. Take them out any way you can — we enjoyed sneaking uphill, casting Night Maiden’s Mist, then sprinting back down to snipe them with Loretta’s Greatbow while they took chip damage from the mist.

They guard the Oracle Envoy Ashes.

Back down the other side, you’ll find Lost Ashes of War on a body leaning against a plinth. This item lets you duplicate an Ash of War in your possession.

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Lastly, if you run up the nearby branch, you can target the Leonine Misbegotten enemy you’re going to face shortly and get some snipes in, although killing it here won’t do you any good if you plan to rest at the site of grace again before continuing.

Chapter 2: Haligtree Town

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As soon as you proceed past the Haligtree Town site of grace, you’ll be attacked by a Misbegotten enemy, while the Leonine Misbegotten above will usually drop down to attack you before long. He can be quite a pain, so fight carefully. Two more Misbegotten wait to the left of the short staircase, hands clasped in prayer. Show no mercy. Destroy them. Then pick up the Golden Rune [10] on the edge of the platform. There’s also a Scarlet Rot Zombie who will sometimes jump down on you from above. Watch out for its damaging grab attack.

Up the ladder, you’ll find Rot Grease x2. Jump across the gap to the other platform to the southeast. If the Leonine Misbegotten didn’t jump down and attack you earlier, you’ll find him waiting up here. Kill him and loot the Pearldrake Talisman +2, which “vastly boosts non-physical damage negation.”

There’s another path here, but we’re going to ignore it. Instead, descend the ladder and the stairs ahead, and fight your way through the pack of zombies and the lone Misbegotten. Enter the room ahead and turn immediately right so you don’t get ambushed by an axe-wielding Misbegotten. This guy has ridiculously long delays on his strikes, so make sure you don’t roll too early while fighting him. The item in here is a Smithing Stone [8].

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Look down the stairs and take out the Misbegotten ahead (from a distance, if you’re able). If you descend to fight it in close quarters, you’ll be ambushed by a second one. Once they’re both dead, head down and pick up the Hefty Beast Bone x6 from the body. These are useful for crafting Great Arrows.

Turn around and head outside to find a Golden Rune [13], and then return via the way you came. Descend the ladder ahead to find two Giant Miranda Flowers below you, along with some Aeonian Butterflies. Climb the ladder on the opposite side of this lower platform and you’ll find yourself behind a Misbegotten.

Kill it, and then jump in the window and head back out to the east, across the small wooden bridge, to find Fire Grease x5. Up the ladder from here, you can fight a whole horde of Scarlet Rot Zombies, but there’s nothing else up there.

Instead, return across the bridge and through the chamber toward the Leonine Misbegotten kneeling in the small round plaza ahead. Before you fight it, poke your head out the door and look left to get the attention of the other Misbegotten ahead. Draw it toward you and take it out without aggroing the big one to make your life significantly easier. Even alone, the Leonine Misbegotten can easily kill you in two or three hits, so don’t be shy about hitting it with fire or spells from the safety of the room’s interior — though it can also squeeze into the room with you sometimes. It’s a tough fight, but worth it, since the jerk is guarding an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone against the statue.

Enter the room ahead and look left to spy a Misbegotten on the balcony outside. If you charge out to backstab it, you’ll be ambushed by two zombies waiting to the left of the doorway. Either kill the zombies first, or use ranged attacks. Be careful; if you haven’t killed the Giant Flowers below on your current run, they can hit you with magic on this balcony.

Go back inside and continue across the long wooden bridge to find the Haligtree Town Plaza site of grace. Right next to it is a Golden Rune [12]. Activate the Summoning Pool statue here, then look over the platform’s east edge.

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There are a bunch of ants down below, but fighting them isn’t really worth it since all they guard is some Aeonian Butterflies. Instead, walk off the branch on the platform’s southeast side and pick up the Smithing Stone [6] from the roof below.

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From here forward you’ll be plagued by Spirit-Caller Snails that summon dangerous Crystalian enemies. Kill the snails and their minions die too. The first is just ahead, where you can snipe it from the rooftop.

Drop down and turn around to find another on the side of the building you’re on top of. Head inside and kill a trio of zombies to find a Somber Smithing Stone [9]. Return outside.

A third snail waits on the other side of the large fungus-covered branch ahead. Charge past the spear-wielding Crystalian it summons and kill the snail. A corpse nearby has a Golden Rune [10]. Jump across to the rooftop to the southeast and kill the zombies up here to loot a Smithing Stone [6] off the ground. You can drop down to the northwest to fight a single zombie, but it’s pointless, since the doors down there don’t actually open. Instead, drop down the other side.

You can head inside the building you were just on top of, but there isn’t much in there to loot. If you decide to anyway, beware the Misbegottens waiting to ambush you. There’s one in the dark room on your right, which also contains a Sacramental Bud. There’s another just inside the next doorway, with a Crimson Scarab that can refill your health flasks.

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Another two Misbegotten wait in the next building: one in the room ahead and another in the left-hand passage. Even more dangerous are the Battlemages patrolling the wooden bridges ahead. These guys hit extremely hard, no matter your level. If you head straight down the middle bridge, they’ll both attack you; instead, venture onto the branch sticking out from under your current building by jumping to it, either through the window or from the roof. From there, you can leap to the nearby side platform and fight one Battlemage without the other noticing. On that same platform, you’ll find a Hero’s Rune [4].

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Alternatively, make your way onto the roof of your current building and you can try to snipe the Battlemages, though they’ll hit back with ranged magic of their own.

There’s a Smithing Stone [7] and a Smithing Stone [8] on the main platforms connecting to all the bridges. Your next boss fight and its corresponding Summoning Pool statue are ahead, but first, take a detour across the smaller wooden bridge to the northeast to find the elevator that takes you all the way back up to the Haligtree Town site of grace.

Congratulations! You’ve now fully explored the Haligtree canopy, branches, and town. All that’s left is to fight the boss, Loretta, and continue on to the next zone.

Boss Fight: Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree

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The last obstacle between you and the next zone, Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, is actually a repeat boss. Loretta has beefed up their abilities a bit since the last time you fought them, in Caria Manor, but not as much as you have.

Prepare for the Haligtree Loretta fight

Loretta’s magic is more powerful this time, so you’ll definitely want to upgrade your magic defense. Faith characters can use Magic Fortification (purchased from Brother Corhyn) or Barrier of Gold (dropped by an invisible scarab in Leyndell down the elevator from the Godfrey’s Golden Shade boss fight). Meanwhile, everyone can equip the Spelldrake Talisman +2. It’s found after taking an elevator up in the Secret Path to the Haligtree dungeon, which you had to pass through to reach this point.

If you’re using a shield, the Scholar’s Shield spell (purchased from Sellen in Limgrave’s Waypoint Ruins) is just as useful here as it was in the first Loretta fight. However, it’s barely needed at all if you use the Silver Mirrorshield, which boasts an incredible 89% magic damage reduction along with 100% physical blocking. You can pick it up at the Apostate Derelict Church just northwest of Ordina, beyond the magic-artillery-spewing Walking Mausoleum.

Other than that, you should cycle through your armor collection to see what has the best magic defense. Loretta’s attacks are slow, but she can catch you off guard and do a massive amount of damage.

Offense wise, Loretta has no special resistances, so you should feel empowered to stack on the status effects. Whether you’re a faith caster and love using dragon incantations like Rotten Breath and Dragonice, a dex build power-stancing Rivers of Blood and a frosty katana, or a spellcaster who just wants to Sling rocks at Loretta, any loadout that you’ve used to reach this point should be sufficient.

Surprisingly, given the nightmare gauntlet you just went through to get here, Loretta is a straightforward and easy fight.

Learn the Loretta, Haligtree Knight fight

If you fought Loretta back at Caria Manor, you’re familiar with the fight already. She adds very few new tricks to the mix.

• Basic attacks: Loretta swings her weapon, usually chaining two to four attacks together.
• Horse stomp: The boss rears up on her horse and comes crashing down on you. The horse can also kick at you behind it.
• Magic swipes: Loretta can imbue her polearm with magic and swipe at you two or three times in quick succession. This is probably her most dangerous attack.

• Phalanx: Loretta summons swords that briefly hover around her shoulders, then hurtle toward her target. These get more numerous and deadly in phase 2.
• Magic missiles: In phase 1, Loretta casts basic Glintstone Pebbles at you. In phase 2, this gets replaced with a slightly more dangerous star-based missile attack that fires multiple projectiles instead of one. However, it’s still easily dodged.

• Loretta’s Greatbow: Unlike in your first encounter with her, Loretta whips out her signature greatbow spell from the start here. In phase 2, it becomes considerably more deadly, as she adds more arrows. Dodging it is the same, but if you slip up, it can one-shot you.

That’s a relatively limited kit for a boss this late in the game, and to top it off, Loretta’s animations leave her wide open for you to retaliate in between almost all of her attacks. You won’t be waiting for long stretches to get off a single swing in between 10- or 20-move combos — unlike some of the bosses coming up after this. Whether she’s in phase 1 or 2, all of Loretta’s moves can be fairly easily dodged or blocked, and you can almost always follow up with attacks of your own; particularly after her physical attack combos or her big Greatbow spells.

She also staggers fairly easily, though she doesn’t appear to have a weak point to strike — rather, the stagger gives you the opportunity to charge up a heavy attack or get in some heals.

Once defeated, Loretta drops the Loretta’s Mastery spell and Loretta’s War Sickle. Activate the Haligtree Promenade site of grace, and prepare to make your way to Elphael.