Shadow Keep (Church District) Walkthrough

Shadow Keep (Church District) is one third of the Shadow Keep Legacy Dungeon in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. It is located on the east side of Shadow Keep, accessible from outside by taking the tunnel in Moorth Ruins. This page will contain walkthrough and guide information on how to reach the Church District, all the treasures and items that can be found inside, tips for navigating the dungeon and its enemies.

Check out our full Shadow Keep, Church District Walkthrough below.

Sections in this Page

• How to Reach Shadow Keep (Church District)
• Shadow Keep (Church District) Walkthrough
• Sunken Chapel
• Storehouse, Back Section
• Storehouse, Loft

How to Reach the Shadow Keep (Church District)

Start by making your way to the Moorth Ruins, located east and down the hill from the Highroad Cross site of grace.

In the center of these ruins you will find a giant hole in the ground. You need to carefully drop down into this hole, landing on the rocks jutting out from the side walls, until you reach the bottom.

Go into the cave at the bottom and you will find a tunnel that leads to a tall ladder. Ascend the ladder and you will pop out of a well in Bonny Village. Activate the village site of grace ahead.

Take a look at your map and you will see two bridges to the east that connect to a long road that cuts through the east side of Scadu Altus.

Cross those bridges and then follow that road east, then north until you reach this site of grace, Church District Highroad. The path splits here, you want to follow the road northeast towards Shadow Keep.

This leads you into a long tunnel that brings you directly to your destination, the Shadow Keep, Church District. Activate the site of grace at the gate before you begin exploring.

Shadow Keep (Church District) Walkthrough

Recommended Scadutree Blessing 6 - 8

Take a peek over the ledge ahead of you and you will see that the Church District is almost entirely flooded, with the roofs of the buildings below barely peeking out. Jump from the ledge onto the nearest exposed roof. There are no real enemies here, but there are three items, Crab Eggs x2, Thin Beast Bones x4, and Strip of White Flesh x2.

Near the final item you will see some logs sticking out of the water. Use them to cross over to the ring of pillars nearby, then use the logs in the middle to get across to the other side where there is one item to be grabbed, a Great Grave Glovewort.

Make your way back to the roof, then cross over to the adjacent building on the west side. This rooftop is covered in flaming zombie enemies who will run at you and explode. It isn’t really worth fighting them, so just avoid them, grab the Fireproof Pickled Liver from the corpse at the back, then climb the dilapidated wall in the corner to reach the ledge on the wall.

More fire zombies here, ignore them and jump to the roof near the end of the ledge. Here you will encounter a Messmer Fire Knight, buff up before you engage him if you think you need it. These guys are like Perfumers on steroids and hate fighting fair. They prefer to rapidly cast their delayed fireball and jump away whenever you approach. The good news is they have no shield, so as long as you stay on top of them you can usually combo them into a stagger with a couple big attacks.

Once the knight is dead grab the Furlcalling Finger Remedy off the nearby corpse, as well as the Slumbering Egg off the body behind the pillar near the back off the roof. From here you need to take a running jump to get onto this support beam that leads up to the roof of the church.

Ascend the roof and you will see this giant hole near the apex. Look down into the hole and you will see some arches you can drop down to just below. Once you are safely on the arches, carefully make your way over to this item, Stormhawk Feather x3.

Use the arch to get onto this cracked platform, then drop through the platform to get down to water level. On the north side of this floor you will see a door you can open using the Prayer Room Key (this item is dropped by Fire Knight Queelign the second time he invades you).

Decide the Fate of Queelign

It makes sense then thatFire Knight Queelignis exactly who you will find inside this room if you defeated him both in Belurat and the Church of the Crusade. He's not doing too well now, and desparately calling out for Marika to favor him with grace for all those he has killed in her name. If you've been following our guide, you have likely already found at least oneIris of GraceandIris of Occultation(another of each can both be found elsewhere in this area of Shadow Keep). Talking to Queelign, you can offer either Iris to him, which has different effects:Show SpoilersGive Fire Knight Queelign the Iris of Grace, and he'll at least rest in peace with this fleeting blessing. Doing so will allow you to claim theFire Knight Queelign Ashesto summon him to battle on your behalf. However, give him the Iris of Occultation and he'll despair in his final moment, unable to see any light at all. This will instead cause him to dropQueelign's Greatsword, a heavy thrusting sword with great power.

Exit the prayer room and make your way around the water and to the other side of this floor. Grab the Lightning Proof Pickled Liver on your way past, then head to the doorway at the end. Be sure to look left into a room between two golden urns to find a small armory where a corpse holds a Rune of the Unsung Hero.

This leads to a circular hallway where a couple more Messmer Fire Knights are patrolling. It can be annoying to fight them in these close quarters, but it can help as well giving them less room to run away and their fireballs occasionally hit walls and surfaces.

About halfway around this hallway you will find a Furlcalling Finger Remedy, then on the other side you will encounter another Fire Knight.

At the very end of this hallway is an armory with nothing in it, but if you look in the inner chamber of the church you will see a statue with an item on top barely peeking out of the water. Jump (carefully!) onto the statue to collect the item, a Scadutree Fragment.

Church District Scadutree Fragment

Next, you probably noticed two doors leading outside the church as you made your way around the hallway. The second doorway, closer to the empty armory, leads to an elevator. Ride this elevator up and we will find ourselves back in the Specimen Storehouse, a section we were unable to reach before.

Kill the shadow standing at the ledge, and grab the Somber Smithing Stone 9 off the ground nearby. Go left and you will see a site of grace, Storehouse, Back Section. Activate it for now, then go back down the elevator. We will get back to this later.

Back in the Church District, go through the other door connected to the circular hallway which leads to a walkway along the inner wall of the keep. Follow this walkway all the way to its end (you will need to hop over some gaps along the way).

Keep an eye out for the bat enemies that patrol this area, and the gap in the wall where you will find a Hefty Beast Bone x3.

At the end of the path is a flooded tower. Go up the ladder to the right of the tower door to get on top where you will find a giant lever. If you happen to be familiar with a little area called New Londo Ruins you might know what's about to happen. Push the lever and all the water in the Church District will be released, exposing the ruins underneath.

Go down the ladder and into the tower. With the water gone you can now see a wooden platform you can use to safely drop down to ground level. At the bottom of the tower is an item, Rada Fruit x4.

Exit the tower and step out into the Church District, for real this time. Ahead is a ledge that overlooks the drained water, go right instead and you will see an item up ahead, Well-Pickled Turtle Neck.

Look right again and you will see a dilapidated church with a site of grace inside, Sunken Chapel.

Sunken Chapel

Exit through the back of the church and look left where you will see some crabs feasting on an item, a Rada Fruit x4. You might also notice the plaza to your left with the giant tree in the middle. We will come back to this later, instead walk forward a little ways and you will see another item, Crab Eggs x2. As you approach these a giant crab will emerge from the ground, so get ready to run past.

Run toward the staircase in the distance which leads up to a tower. Inside the tower is an elevator which will take you back up to the entrance of the Church District, creating a shortcut.

Go back down the elevator, then go to the right and explore the nearby buildings. There are a number of giant crabs in this area, and they are just as tough as the ones from the main game. I recommend just running past them as much as possible.

Inside the first building there are two giant crabs stalking around. The one in the center room is standing over an item, a Shadow Realm Rune 5. Grab it, then run out of the building and into the one next door.

Inside the second building are a couple of minor items, Kukri x6and Rada Fruit x4.

When you step out in front of this building an Ulcerated Tree Spirit will emerge from the ground. We have dealt with these guys many times but a quick refresher: you mostly want to hit it in its chest or in the side behind the arms. It mostly uses a variety of body and arm slams, which is heavily telegraphs by lifting its body up. Simply roll inward as the slam is about to hit to avoid it. When it jumps and dives at you, roll toward the Spirit just before impact to avoid. When it uses its fire breath attack, simply run toward it to get underneath the flame and attack the chest.

At half health the Tree Spirit will release a big explosion, then resume its normal attacks. Keep up the onslaught of attacks and you can usually get one or two staggers in a single battle. Defeat the Tree Spirit and it will drop an Iris of Occultation (which you can give to Queelign if you were missing it earlier, or save it for someone else). You can also freely grab the two items out front of the building, String x6and Rada Fruit x4.

Return to the plaza by the Sunken Chapel site of grace. As you step into the plaza another Ulcerated Tree Spirit will emerge. Deal with it in the same manner as the first one, it drops the Mantle of Thorns spell.

Then you can grab the Somber Smithing Stone 5 from the base of the tree.

Once the plaza is clear, you can enter the main church through the front door. We have already explored the upper level of this building but now we can loot the main floor as well. There are more of those fire zombie enemies in this area, as well as special elder Messmer Fire Knight named Wego.

He can summon more at will and make them run to you and explode, all while tossing his own flames at you. This can make the fight tricky, but you'll need to dodge around the fire zombies while engaging him. Defeat Wego, and he'll drop his special Death Mask Helm, and should cause most of the Fire Zombies to disappear.

To the left of the front door, you can find a Shadow Sunflower x3, and to the right is an elevator that will lift you to the second floor armory.

In the back room of the church is a giant statue, the one we jumped on earlier. Check behind it to find the Fire Knight’s Seal, a Sacred Seal which raises the power of Messmer incantations.

Exit the statue room and go left, which leads to another large chamber with a balcony hanging over the back side.

Start by running up the balcony and grabbing the item hanging off the railing, Battlefield Priest's Cookbook 1.

Drop back down to ground level and go through the door under the balcony. This leads to an elevator that will take you way way down, below the Shadow Keep. Step off the elevator and activate the site of grace, Tree-Worship Passage. Go down the tunnel behind the site of grace which leads to a long wooden bridge.

Cross the bridge to reach a church with another statue which has an Iris of Grace at its base (which again can be given to Queelign if you haven't found the other one, or saved for someone else).

Go down the stairs behind the statue to find another site of grace, Tree Worship Sanctum, and a legendary item, Marika's Rune. Nearby is a large doorway leading to a large glowing arena. This is where you will encounter the optional boss, Scadutree Avatar. Read on for the boss guide, or skip over to the other part of the Specimen Storehouse we unlocked access to.

Scadutree Avatar Boss Guide

Recommended Scadutree Blessing 8 - 10

Scadutree Avatar is a giant angry sunflower with three increasingly difficult phases. It is weak to fire, but even weaker to attacks to its “face”, whereas its body takes significantly less damage. Because we spend a lot of this battle waiting for the right attack to come out, a shield and high stamina are incredibly helpful in this battle.

Although attacking the Avatar at its roots deals way less damage, you are often safe from the Avatar’s melee attacks while standing at the base, so if you are having trouble avoiding one of the Avatar’s sweeps or melee combos try dodging toward the roots!

Additional recommendations before starting this battle:

• Bring along a buff such as Golden Vow or Flame Grant Me Strength. You will have ample time to use them between phases.
• Consider bringing a fire weapon or crafting some Fire Grease if your weapon can use it. Don't forget the powerful new Messmerfire Grease.
• Equip the Opaline Bubbletear to your Wondrous Physick to deal with the burst damage in phase three.

When you enter the arena the Avatar will almost always open with its long range thorn attack. It will swing its arm, sending a long line of damaging thorns along the ground toward you. You need to dodge through the thorns as they are about to reach you. It will do this two times.

Once you are in melee range it is time to wait out melee attacks and wait for our opening. When the Avatar winds up its body, arms raised up, it is about to spin in a circle two times, lashing out with its arms. Dodge toward the Avatar’s base where you are safe from damage. After the second spin the Avatar will come to a stop with its face down, giving you a chance to run at it and get an attack in.

The Avatar has a few different arm slam attacks. The first consists of just a single slam, which then summons more damaging thorns from the ground. You can see and hear the roots, thanks to the sound effect and glowing ground. Block or dodge the slam, and you can get a quick jump attack on the face.

Next is a two hit combo, starting with an arm sweep followed by a slam with the other arm. Block or dodge both of these attacks and there is a large opening where you can strike the face after. Sometimes the second hit is massively delayed, so keep an eye on the movements of the arm and be ready for a sneaky follow up.

Finally, the four hit combo where the Avatar alternates arm slams, with the final slam summoning damaging thorns around it. For this one you simply want to dodge roll your way to the base of the Avatar where you can’t be hit, wait for the thorns to pop, then run up and hit the face from behind.

Next are the head slams. First is the simplest, the Avatar raises its head then drops it onto the ground. Step back when you see this coming, then rush in and attack the face when it hits the ground.

Be careful thought because the Avatar will occasionally chain this directly into its other head slam, the headbutt. For this one, the Avatar leans back then pushes its face into you. If you try to roll back you will get hit, do either block or roll forward, then strike the face from behind.

Third is the best one, but also the most damaging. The Avatar raises its head high, glowing bright gold. It then slams its head into the ground in front of it. If you get caught underneath you take massive damage, if you are too close you get hit with the holy blast. The best bet is to just back way up, lock on to the head and watch it, then run in and do a jump attack combo as the face hits the ground. This is one of the best openings in the fight.

Finally we have two different thorn attacks, where the Avatar inserts one or both of its arms into the ground, summoning thorns all in a wide area around itself. I the one arm version the thorns only cover the immediate area around the Avatar, whereas the double arm version covers a massive area around the boss. As soon as you see this attack, I found it best to just back off. If you get the dodge timing just right you can dodge the thorns though, then attack the face after.

The Avatar also has one more ranged attack, where it raises its head high into the sky then summons a three stage volley of holy bolts. These make a sound effect as they fly toward you. You need to wait until just before they hit you, then dodge left or right. The third set of bolts is double sized, so you need to dodge twice to avoid them.

If you manage to hit the face with good frequency you will notice how much damage it takes and burn through phase one relatively quickly. Make sure you execute the critical attack at the end of the phase! This deals an automatic 25% to phase two.

A short time after disappearing, the Avatar will burst from the ground nearby. Use this time to buff up as much as you can! We want to end these next two phases as fast as possible because the Avatar’s attacks only get more annoying from here on out.

After bursting from the ground in phase two the Avatar almost always does its new dash attack. It leans way back, then dashes across the entire arena. It will go toward you, then back, then toward you again. You can block this with a shield, or just roll through the avoid.

This face also introduces another new dash attack, where the Avatar backslides across the arena and executes an arm sweep at the same time. This one is really hard to see coming, it will reach its arm out and wiggle it like a tentacle for a moment before executing the backwards slide.

Do your best to stay in melee range and keep up the focused attack on the face. If you buffed up between phases you will now be dealing massive damage with each hit. If you get a couple of good attacks you can end this phase very quickly, and move on to phase three.

Once the Avatar goes down again, repeat your buff rotation again. Also, I highly recommend equipping Opaline Bubbletear to your Wondrous Physick and drinking it before phase three starts to get the Bubble effect. Don’t stand too close to the Avatar as it emerges or it will burst your bubble early.

When the Avatar emerges again, it will immediately use its new ultimate attack, a holy explosion. It will charge up with holy energy, then release it all across the battlefield dealing massive holy damage. Thankfully we just drank our Bubble Physick, so we take almost no damage. After the attack is over, the Avatar falls to the ground for 2-3 seconds, letting you unleash a barrage of attacks on the head.

This should let you nearly finish phase three all at once, but not quite. Keep up the same strategies detailed above, and keep an eye out for a repeat of the holy explosion attack. Without the Bubble this attack will actually deal deadly damage, so you need to run away and avoid being in the immediate vicinity. At the low health the Avatar will do an even more devastating, three blast version of this attack.

Finish phase three and you will officially defeat the Avatar, earning you the Remembrance of the Shadow Sunflower, Miquella’s Great Rune, and 260,000 runes. Though Miquella's Great Rune has been broken and can't bestow power like the Great Runes of other demigods, it still has an effect worth keeping in mind for later.

Scadutree Avatar

Storehouse, Back Section

From the site of grace, go west to explore the rest of this floor. You will immediately see an item, Glintslab Firefly x3, and encounter more shadows and a Messmer Fire Knight.

Luckily the knight is pretty oblivious, so you can kill all the shadows before ambushing him from behind. Once the knight is dead you can grab the item he was guarding, the Carian Thrusting Shield.

Carian Thrusting Shield

Walk back towards the site of grace and you will see this ladder. Climb up the ladder to reach a previously inaccessible area near the top floor. At the top of the ladder is a Fire Knight looking out over a ledge. Ambush him and push him off if you can.

Go up the stairs to the right of the ladder. At the top is, of course, another Messmer Fire Knight. Kill him, then grab the item behind him, Fire Coil x3. Continue forward past all the bookshelves, grabbing the Rada Fruit x4 from near the ledge.

At the end of this floor you will find the Fire Serpent spell on a dead end balcony.

Backtrack slightly and check behind the bookshelves to find a hole in the wall that leads to a wooden walkway outside the keep.

Make your way up the walkway, grabbing the Shadow Sunflower x6 and Blessed Bone Shard as you pass by. At the top of the walkway is another opening back into the keep, and a site of grace, Storehouse, Loft.

Storehouse, Loft

Use the nearby lift to get up to the rafters above the storehouse. This area is patrolled by bats, so be careful not to let them push you off. From the lift, go left, left, right to reach a ladder.

Grab the item behind the ladder, Thin Beast Bones x7, then go back and ascend the ladder. Go left of the ladder to find Smithing Stone 7 x4.

Keep going left and you will find yourself above the hanging cog with an item on it. Drop down and grab the item, the Wrath from Afar spell.

From this cog, jump to the nearest rafter. Go left and climb up the ladder to get back to the upper level. Straight ahead is a Messmer Fire Knight, he will shoot projectiles at you from afar if you do not deal with him now. Be extra careful battling him on this thin walkway.

Once he is defeated, make your way over to the nearby lifts. You will see an item overhead, so send the lift down but do not ride it. When the other lift comes up, do the same thing. As the lift on the left comes up, jump on top of it to reach the item above, the Fire Knight Hilde Spirit Ashes.

With the ashes in hand, drop down and get on the lift for real this time, which brings you to a lower platform with a Messmer Knight on it. Sneak up on the knight and kill him, then grab the item from the nearby ledge, Rune of an Unsung Hero. Go back up the lift.

Go left, right, left from the front of the lift then go down the ladder. There is a Rada Fruit x4 at the bottom. Go right from the base of the ladder, then drop down to the platform below you.

You will see a door on the outer wall leading outside. This door leads to a lift, which in turn leads to an elevator.

This elevator goes way down to the base of the keep. Step off and activate the site of grace at the bottom, Shadow Keep Back Gate.

To the right of the site of grace is a small room with a Scadutree Fragment.

Shadow Keep, Back Gate Site of Grace Scadutree Fragment

There is also a big secret hidden in this room. Use the "O Mother" Gesture (found near Bonny Village) in front of this statue and it will slide out of the way, letting you into a secret area of the Shadow Realm. See our How to Get to Scaduview (Northeast Region) guide page for more info.

Going out the back gate brings you to another optional boss, Commander Gaius.

After defeating Commander Gaius, you gain access to the small area behind Shadow Keep. Ride to the northernmost point and you will find the Scadutree Chalice, along with five Scadutree Fragments!

Scadutree Chalice Scadutree FragmentThat’s a wrap on the Church District and Specimen Storehouse. Check out our guides to the three areaBosses:Scadutree Avatar,Commander Gaius, andMessmer the Impaler.

Up Next: Scaduview (Hinterlands) - Essential Path Walkthrough

PreviousShadow Keep (Specimen Storehouse) WalkthroughNextScaduview (Hinterlands) - Essential Path Walkthrough

Top Guide Sections

• Walkthrough
• Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
• Side Quests - NPC Character Questlines
• Boss Guides

Was this guide helpful?

Leave feedback

In This Guide

Elden RingFromSoftware

Initial Release: Feb 25, 2022

Learn more

Go to comments