Elden Ring is hard, but not too hard. With all the mechanics they’ve implemented in the game, you’ve got a lot of choices as to how you approach tough fights. While you can certainly rush in and spam your favorite attack, sometimes you get the opportunity to stealthily eliminate a boss in Elden Ring.
I say sometimes, because, well.. It’s exceptionally limited. Disregard the Darkness incantation for now: It’s going to be of limited use against most bosses just because of how fast they move, and we’ll discuss it more in a later guide anyway.
No, in this case, you’ll be taking out bosses with stealth when they don’t have a patrol path, aren’t spawned right in front of you (like most major bosses), and don’t have the perception of a dog in a clean room while you’re covered in bacon perfume.
And it all hinges on a single incantation.
Poison Mist: Elden Ring’s Stealthy Offensive Incantation
Requiring only 12 faith, Poison Mist is a fairly easy incantation to cast.. You can put points into faith, or utilize talismans that boost your faith up to 12.
Then, just creep up behind your target (like any of the tree sentinels guarding the capital), getting very, very close, and cast your Poison Mist. Seriously, you need to almost be touching them here.
While it’s great in that you can cast it while crouched, it is also exceptionally slow to work. In the case of any foe I tried it on, it would end up doing approximately 1000 damage (plus or minus depending on resistances of the foe) in total over a limited time. You’ll be recasting this on bosses about 5-6 times typically, and some of these re-casts won’t actually “hit” (every other casting in my experience) unless you wait for the invisible cooldown (approximately 1.5 times the duration the mist itself sticks around).
Still, it DOES work, and it IS a way to stealthily eliminate foes. As long as you’re crouched and don’t get spotted by anybody, you can keep casting this and won’t trigger an enemy’s awareness. They’ll die completely oblivious to your poison.
This may be considered a “cheese” method, but given the limited avenues for stealth-focused players, I call this one a perfectly valid option (that more importantly doesn’t exploit any bugs with the game).
Note that this strategy will NOT work on bosses where you enter through the boss-fog door (the greenish mist in front of doorways to bosses), as their aggro is triggered upon entry in nearly all cases, and they have special awareness that makes attaining true stealth without exploiting glitches pretty much impossible.