In any other game, Erdtree's ShadowJagged Peak is the endgame shit. It's a corridor of increasingly difficult, feral dragons in an environment that borders Hell even if you're not burning yourself – but the dragons will happily take care of that for you. But at the top is Bayle, who legless old Igon has been screaming bloody murder about since the moment he met you.
And if you’ll allow me to go off on a redundant tangent here: this guy crawled from Castle Ensis a quarter of the way up Jagged Peak before YOU got there and cut off his own dying finger so someone could carry his spirit up the mountain and resurrect him just in time to curse and kill his enemy with a harpoon. He may have lost his legs, but you can trust Igon to take care of business until the job is done. All of this makes it even better when you finally reach the top of Jagged Peak and have to face his great nemesis. At least until Bayle fries your ass from the lower stratosphere in Kentucky. But don’t worry, we’ve got the info you need on how to tame your dragon.
Bayle's Abilities
Bayle will start in the middle of the arena, and unlike his lazy cousins, Bayle won’t wait for you to get in line of sight with Torrent; he’ll start things off by leaping at you with his claws to close the distance and then taking a swipe. If you stay on his face long enough, he’ll either try to get three small bites out of you in a combo, two big claw slashes, or one big bite and grab you while tossing you around like a chew toy.
Later in the fight, if you stray too far, he'll use his wings, hover for a second, and charge himself with lightning before dropping down on you like the world's biggest punching bag. If things get too tough too quickly, he'll turn and lunge wildly across the field, lashing out with his tail as he turns.
But of course there's fire breath to contend with here—but because Bayle is extra fancy, it's And Lightning in combination. If you're far away, he'll knock you around the arena, or if you're close, he'll blow you directly underneath him, where it'll gather and spread out. He can also charge up some lightning in one of his claws and slam you into the ground, creating an area-of-effect explosion, if you're not already worried about him getting you if you're not right in front of his disgusting face.
However, it turns out that this isn't even Bayle's final form. At the 50 percent mark, Bayle will go into full God Mode, sprouting a pair of celestial wings and flying into the stratosphere as lightning and fire rain down from the skies. After a flashy tour of the arena, Bayle will land right on your head. After that, he'll gain two deadly new abilities. First, he'll spit fire at you from the air in a straight line with a more concentrated burst. Second, Bayle will now levitate for a claw attack, charging it with even more lightning so that the initial impact deals downward damage, but not as much as the HUGE, ground-destroying area-of-effect explosion that follows about three seconds later.
Defeating Bayle The Dread – Stage One
If you've made it this far—and that's if you had to kill three dragons to get here, including the ones you killed in the base game—you already have most of the skills you need to take on Bayle, especially when it comes to dodging claw attacks, staying on one wing to deal damage, and continuing to dodge when he breathes fire at you. The camera is a problem, as it is with all dragons, so you'll need to try to keep Bayle's head tilted so you know what he's doing at all times. There are a few extra concerns to keep in mind now, as well as some new strategies to mitigate just how devastating all of Bayle's attacks are.
As mentioned, Bayle's spell attacks hit for both fire and lightning. Ideally, you should have a combination of protections for both elements. If you have Pickled Livers for these, knock yourself out. Our recommendation is to use a single talisman slot for Flamedrake or Boltdrake Talismans for one element, and use the Grease or Armor options for the other.
For weapons, like all dragons, Bayle is particularly vulnerable to piercing weapons. He doesn't have a specific status effect weakness, but he's still susceptible to all of them, so go with your favorite and plan your weapon/enhancement/spell/magic loadouts accordingly and build as fast as possible.
You to be able to be Summon a Spirit Ash when you enter Bayle's arena, but firstly, Bayle will jump on you the moment he sees you, which means you'll have to run away from him first, and secondly, no, there's only one guy who deserves to be by your side in this fight, and that's Igon. Of course, there are practical reasons. He actually draws aggression from Bayle quite often, he'll shoot at Bayle from afar while he's focused on you, he'll use a few dragon-specific Ash of War abilities during the fight, and best of all, summoning him doesn't raise Bayle's HP. But even if it's useless, summoning him is worth it just to hear this absolute brolic son of a bitch Go full throttle with Blood and Thunder throughout this fight. The only real problem is that it's one of the rare summons whose sigil is actually inside the boss area, and as mentioned, Bayle will usually drop on you a few seconds after you step inside. Igon's golden summon sign will shift slightly to the left as you enter. First, dodge Bayle's jump, then quickly move to Igon. Once you've summoned him, it's time to get to work, and the greatest advertiser in gaming history is behind you.
So, despite his reputation, Bayle has one major flaw that his peers don't: someone managed to grab Bayle's left leg at one point, forcing him to use his tail to stand upright. This creates two advantages. First, the stump leg is actually a legitimate weak point, so melee users can hang in there and just focus on that to get him to phase two. You still need to keep an eye on the front, though. When he's breathing down there, that fire arc can reach you there, and Bayle will try to get some space by moving away, which results in a tail attack.
Two, Bayle actually keeps his head lower than other dragons, meaning it’s a lot less trouble to consistently deal decent damage to him. That head is still breathing lightning fire and trying to gnaw at your tasty innards, but since he’s a mean dragon, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to whack him over the head with a rolled-up newspaper. Melee users can actually take smaller, quicker bites, and despite his massive size, Bayle can be knocked out of his stance pretty easily after just a few of those. Magic users can do their best to stay on Bayle’s right flank, raining down spells on him, but don’t go too far unless you want a hundred tons of pure muscle dragon to suddenly descend on you.
Defeating Bayle The Dread – Stage Two
Once you get Bayle down to 50 percent health and he stops moving and starts glowing, you need to create some distance immediately. The second phase starts with an explosion, and if you're too close, this explosion can easily take half your health. Once you're done admiring Bayle's glory and he's off the ground, continue running around the arena, avoiding the fireballs that Bayle shoots at you as he flies around. Rolling will get you shot – don't bother until Bayle lands. Once you've done that, your strategy doesn't change much.
There’s a lot more background noise and fanfare, but it’s mostly just for drama. The real thing to watch out for now, though, is Bayle’s new lightning attack. Ideally, when Bayle leaves the ground, that should be your cue to run, but for the second phase, you really need to run. If you’re not out of range of the first blast, you should at least be far enough away to roll and get out of range of the much more devastating second one. This means you’ll need to deal with one of Bayle’s long-range attacks next, so keep the camera pointed at him so you can react. Keep focusing on the damage and Bayle will fall. I hope Igon made it, because his triumphant roar will make you feel like you’re running through a wall and into the nearest volcano in a brick fight with your neighbor at midnight.
The immediate rewards for defeating Bayle are 400,000 Rune and Bayle's Blackened Heart, which you can turn in at the Dragon Communion Altar to receive Bayle's Flame Lightning (a lightning claw attack) or Bayle's Tyranny (a second-stage area-of-effect explosion). Also, the Dragon Communion Priestess will have been laid to rest when you get there, but she will leave you some goodies for your trouble. By default, you'll get the Flowerstone Gavel Hammer and the Priestess Heart, which will allow you to transform into a dragon and boost the spells you get from the altar. However, if you give the Priestess one of Thollier's Concoctions and put her to sleep, you'll find her Spirit Ash here.
Finally, head to the foot of Jagged Peak Site of Grace. Igon's body will be there. Pay your respects to the real one, then pick up a Bell Bearing that will allow you to buy the full armor set and some anti-dragon harpoon arrows from the Twin Maiden Husks in Roundtable Hold.
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