Elden Ring Stormfoot Catacombs Guide: How to Beat the Stormfoot Erdtree Burial Watchdog

Time to face off with that terrifying cat-dog creature in Stormfoot Catacombs.

Guide by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer

Published on April 26, 2022

Of the vast amount of dungeons across Elden Ring, Stormfoot Catacombs is perhaps one that sticks out to many a player because of the annoying Imps, fiery traps, and creepy, recurring boss, an Erdtree Burial Watchdog.

This Limgrave dungeon is entirely optional, but if you're thinking about upgrading your Spirit Ashes early in The Lands Between, it's packed with Grave Glovewort.

This particular dungeon doesn't make it easy to grab everything though. In this guide, we explain how to make your way through Stormfoot Catacombs, slay every Imp, disarm each trap, and grab every last piece of loot.

Stormfoot Catacombs Items

Root Resin
Grave Violet
Grave Glovewort
Ghost Glovewort
Smoldering Butterfly
Prattling Pate "Hello"
Noble Sorcerer Ashes

How to get through Stormfoot Catacombs

Stormfoot Catacombs can be found in Limgrave, north west from the Church of Elleh Site of Grace.

Enter the catacombs, grab the Grace, and go straight ahead. Here, you can collect 1x Root Resin, but you'll also need to take care of the two incredibly agile Imps.

You'll find that the Imps here are often lurking on walls and around corners, so you can preemptively plot your attack, or simply take them out with ranged attacks.

After dealing with the first two Imps, go back to the Grace, and go right this time. On your right, there will be a Grave Glovewort (1), and a locked door. We'll return to this later.

Go left and prepare for more Imps - there will be some attacking from above at range. In the following room, you can grab Grave Glovewort (1) and 1x Grave Violet.

In the next corridor, there is a fire trap to the right. When the fire pauses for a moment, run ahead and past it to add the Prattling Pate "Hello" to your inventory. You can also disarm the fire trap by attacking it.

From where you collected the Prattling Pate, go left. There is another trap ahead that you can run past to collect a Smoldering Butterfly and Ghost Glovewort (1). Be wary though, there's a lot of Imps in here.

Once the horde of Imps is dealt with, go to the corridor with the fire trap again and up the ladder on the left.

There's Imps here again, and Grave Glovewort (1). If you go to the room at the end of the corridor, there are more Imps, but also Grave Glovewort (1) and Wandering Noble Spirit Ashes.

Go back towards the ladder and look down ahead. Jump to the platform below. Grab the Grave Glovewort (1) and pull the lever here, and then jump down to make your way back to the locked door again.

The door is unlocked, and you can now traverse the mist and face the Erdtree Burial Watchdog.

How to Beat the Stormfoot Catacombs Erdtree Burial Watchdog

If you haven't explored beyond Limgrave yet, this is likely the first Erdtree Burial Watchdog you've met. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's also four more of them located in the Wyndham Catacombs, Impaler's Catacombs, Cliffbottom Catacombs, and the Minor Erdtree Catacombs. Good luck!

The Erdtree Burial Watchdog takes the form of an unnerving statue. It looks straight out of a Tim Burton movie, if I'm being honest. The foe has incredibly stiff movement, but they are fast. They wield a sword, and can also breathe fire.

When it comes to their fiery power, I recommend just running away. They turn the floor that they breathe on into lava, and there's simply no need to be near it. Take this attack as an opportunity to heal.

Generally, you can easily dodge the Watchdog's swipes, as well as their jumping attack. However, you should take caution of the pillars around the room, as you do not want to run the risk of rolling into one of these at a critical moment.

On the other hand, you can try and coerce your opponent into getting stuck on the pillars instead, granting you a brilliant opportunity to deal some serious damage.

Also take caution of the spinning attack that the Watchdog uses here and there. Again, you'll simply need to dodge and run away from this one.

Your time to attack is whenever the Watchdog finishes an attack, from behind while they fire breath, or whenever you manage to catch them on a pillar. Stick to this, and you'll have chipped their HP bar down to zero soon enough.