How to defeat the Moonlight Butterfly in Dark Souls: Remastered

The Moonlight Butterfly is an optional boss in Dark Souls: Remastered. Although you don’t need to defeat it, the Butterfly does offer some handy Souls and guards one of several Embers – the Divine Ember – to allow for unique weapon upgrades. If you want to know how to get to the boss and how to defeat it, continue reading our guide right here.

How To Get To The Moonlight Butterfly

To reach the Moonlight Butterfly, you’ll want to start from the Undead Parish bonfire. Descend the stairs towards Andre and then take the opening directly opposite him. In the room beyond is a Titanite Demon that you can defeat for several Souls and some upgrade materials.

Run through the room and exit directly ahead, then take a left. You’ll be in Darkroot Garden now. Follow the path and defeat the two Tree enemies that rush at you. Continue ahead and the path should widen.

Far ahead is another Tree enemy, but between you and it is an enemy hiding the ground (Check the screenshot below) that will only spring up once you get close to it. To avoid having to fight both enemies, wait for the first to rush at you, and then move forward to trigger the second Tree.

Continue ahead until you see a large door with a glowing ball at its centre. Directly to its left is a brick illusionary wall. Hit it, and the illusion will dissipate to reveal a bonfire. Light it and rest and kindle it if needed.

Once you’re ready, leave the bonfire and wrap around the locked door. Follow the path downhill. Halfway down there will be an opening on your right to a clearing with an item. It’s an ambush.

Reaching the item will cause several Trees to jump up from the ground and attack, so take each Tree out – you can spot them by their light green bush-like appearance in the ground – by performing some sort of slam or heavy attack.

Back on the main path, continue downhill and you’ll reach a large opening. There are several items in this clearing, as well as several Stone Knights and hidden Tree enemies. Take your time while exploring this area; defeat the Stone Knights slowly and attack any Tree enemies hidden in the ground.

When you’re ready to fight the boss, from the entrance to the clearing, simply hug the wall on your left and follow it around. The illuminated flowers should highlight the path until you reach some rubble. Make your way through it and run past the Stone Knight into the building ahead.

Climb the staircase to the top to reach the Moonlight Butterfly’s fog door. Enter it to start the fight.

How To Defeat The Moonlight Butterfly

The Moonlight Butterfly is a relatively easy boss if you know how to avoid its magic-based attacks and can deal lots of damage quickly.

You’ll want to equip armour and a shield that has high magic protection, and you’ll want to be able to fast roll, so keep your equip load to under 25% of your total weight.

After stepping through the fog door, you’ll find yourself on a slim bridge. The Moonlight Butterfly will appear overhead and slowly descend to face you. It’ll float along the bridge and occasionally fly over you to swap sides.

Regardless of which side the Butterfly is on, the fight will play out in the same way. You’ll need to avoid its constant attacks until the Butterfly floats down to the yellow flowers scattered across the bridge, where it will feed off to restore its health.

You’ll have a small window to attack the Butterfly during this time and inflict as much damage as possible. Eventually, the Butterfly will begin to charge a large explosion attack with a large radius that can kill you if you’re stuck within it. You can avoid the explosion by backing away once you see the green orb charge appear.

Now, the attacks you’ll need to avoid while waiting for the Butterfly to feed include:

• Magic shots: The Butterfly will fire several consecutive shards of fast-moving magic that shoot in different directions. You’ll want to block or dodge through them
• Seeking missile: The Butterfly will shoot three shards of magic that slowly follow you. You’ll want to wait for the shards to get close and then roll through them
• Beam: The Butterfly may charge and shoot a beam of magic along the bridge. The only way to avoid it is by rolling through the beam

It can be easier to roll through the Butterfly’s attacks if you lock onto the boss and then roll to your sides. If you’re having trouble, you can also summon Witch Beatrice at the foot of the staircase leading to the Butterfly’s fog door for some support.

The boss fight against the Moonlight Butterfly isn’t hard, but it’s very long and you’ll need a lot of patience. You can speed things up by facing the Butterfly with a powerful weapon and two-handing your weapon to boost your inflicted damage.

If you’re focusing on magic and pyromancy or have levelled Dexterity to use bows and arrows, you can safely attack the Butterfly between its attacks without having to wait for it reach the flowers, which can make the fight a little easier and faster.

Once the Butterfly has been defeated, you’ll earn some Souls, Humanity, and potentially some upgrade materials. Head on over the bridge to climb the nearby tower for the Divine Ember that can be given to Andre.