Elden Ring: Mad Pumpkin Head – How to Beat

Mad Pumpkin Head is a boss with well… a pumpkin-shaped looking helm in Elden Ring. This boss wields a flail, a weapon with a handle connected by a metal chain to a spiked head. It could be found in two (2) locations: (1) Waypoint Ruins and (2) Caelem Ruins in Caelid (dual mad pumpkin heads).

This guide will be focusing on the Mad Pumpkin Head located in Waypoint Ruins. Mad pumpkin heads are optional bosses although it is important, especially for those who are INT-based magic users. More on this later.

Map showing the location of the Mad Pumpkin Head.

Screen Grab from Elden Ring Wiki Interactive Map

Note: You have to enter waypoint ruins and go inside the portal to face the boss.

Boss Attacks

The Mad Pumpkin Head Boss mainly uses its flail held by his right hand although it also swipes the $*!T out of you with its left claws. It uses its head… literally… and headbutts the ground to perform an AOE attack. It is relatively a slow-moving boss with six (6) sets of attacks. The boss has a hemorrhage effect (bleeding effect) that inflicts damage based on your max HP.

Image Courtesy via eldenring.wiki
  • Swingy-swingy – whips its flail from with 2x swings from left to right and right to left
  • Wind-up Flail Ground Smash – spins its flail 2x as a wind-up and smashes it to the ground with an AOE frontal effect
  • Left Hand Claw Swipe – swipes using its left claws and occasionally uses the attack to combo with other attacks
  • Flail Uppercut + Flail Ground Smash – swings its flail upwards and smashes it to the ground for a 2x hit combo
  • Single Flail Strike – Long-delayed wind-up single swipe
  • Pumpkin Headbutt – elongates its neck and slams the ground with it 2x

How to Beat

  • Move in Circles – move around the boss while maintaining a safe distance, dodge (git gud!) when needed
  • Patience and Timing – once you get hang of its wind-ups and attack queues, you will naturally get the window for your attacks (greed is NOT good)
  • Avoid head attacks – causes little damage
  • Spirit Ashes – while some classes might not be able to, using Spirit Ashes will help you defeat this boss, Spirit Ashes will distract the boss which is your window for attacking
  • Maximize Weakness – this boss is weak against physical slash, lightning, hemorrhage, and frostbite

Boss Rewards

Mad Pumpkin Head Boss does not drop items although it gives you 1,100 Runes and 5,500 Runes on NG+ (New Game Plus – when you beat the game for the first time and start over).

Moreover, it was described earlier that INT Based Magic-Users will benefit from unlocking the Site of Grace. This comes in handy since Sorceress Sellen located within the crypt accepts Royal Scroll for new Sorceries to be purchased. (If you want to know more about this, please comment down below!)

That’s it for now and keep dodging!


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