As an avid Elden Ring player with over 800 hours logged, I‘ve experimented with all kinds of builds and spells across my multiple playthroughs. And without a doubt, some of the most powerful abilities come from Dragon Incantations.
Channeling the ancient dragons through these incantations allows you to unleash devastating elemental attacks, gain huge damage buffs, and even transform into a dragon yourself!
In this guide, I‘ll be breaking down the 15 best dragon incantations available in Elden Ring. For each entry, I‘ll cover:
- What the incantation does
- Its FP cost and stat requirements
- How to obtain it
- Why it‘s so effective
I‘ve organized them roughly in order from low to high level, but feel free to jump around to the ones that catch your eye.
Whether you‘re running a standard Faith build or an Arcane-focused dragon cultist, you‘re sure to find some new tools of destruction here. Now let‘s get started!
1. Rotten Breath
What It Does: Spews scarlet rot clouds from your mouth, rapidly building up scarlet rot status on enemies.
Cost: 36 FP
Requirements: 15 Faith, 12 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 1 Dragon Heart with Dragon Communion altar
Rotten Breath is one of the most accessible and powerful dragon incantations in the early game. At only 36 FP per cast, you can melt bosses and tough enemies quickly by afflicting them with scarlet rot.
Since the damage ticks from scarlet rot are percentage-based, Rotten Breath stays useful even in the late game. The wide area of effect allows you to punish groups as well.
Every Faith build should grab this – it‘s cheap, easy to obtain, and dishes out tremendous damage over time.
2. Dragonice
What It Does: Transforms your head into a frost-breathing dragon that bites nearby enemies.
Cost: 36 FP
Requirements: 15 Faith, 12 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 1 Dragon Heart with Dragon Communion altar
Dragonice serves as an excellent supplementary ranged attack for melee builds, giving you a powerful frost breath attack to compliment your main weapons.
It costs little FP, has the same low requirements as Rotten Breath, and the frost buildup can help you trigger the devastating frostbite status. Plus it just looks incredibly badass!
3. Glintstone Breath
What It Does: Unleashes a magical glintstone breath, dealing heavy magic damage.
Cost: 36 FP
Requirements: 15 Faith, 12 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 1 Dragon Heart with Dragon Communion altar
Glintstone Breath offers magic damage instead of scarlet rot or frost, making it a great situational tool against enemies resistant to those damage types.
With the same low requirements as Rotten Breath and Dragonice, anyone can take advantage of this incantation. It can carry you through areas with magic-weak enemies.
And importantly, it costs barely any FP, allowing you to use it frequently.
4. Dragonclaw
What It Does: Manifests a large spectral dragon claw for heavy physical damage.
Cost: 24 FP
Requirements: 17 Faith, 13 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 1 Dragon Heart with Dragon Communion altar
Dragonclaw has slightly higher requirements than the previous incantations, but offers incredibly high damage and poise-breaking potential.
It can stagger even formidable enemies, leaving them vulnerable for a painful critical strike with your weapon.
This spell is easy to land at close range and works nicely as your only dragon incantation for melee builds.
5. Ekzykes‘s Decay
What It Does: Calls down waves of scarlet rot from above.
Cost: 48 FP
Requirements: 23 Faith, 15 Arcane
Where to Get It: Defeat Dragonkin Soldier in Lake of Rot, trade his Remembrance
Ekzykes‘s Decay massively expands upon Rotten Breath, spewing out waves of ranged scarlet rot for extended durations.
Although it has higher requirements and costs more FP, it can absolutely melt bosses when used properly. You‘ll need enough Mind to sustain casting it too.
If you want to focus fully on scarlet rot damage, grab this upgrade after Rotten Breath.
6. Agheel‘s Flame
What It Does: Breathes a torrent of fire with extremely long range.
Cost: 36 FP
Requirements: 23 Faith, 15 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 2 Dragon Hearts with Dragon Communion altar after defeating Flying Dragon Agheel
Agheel‘s Flame launches a ridiculously long-range jet of fire that can strike enemies over 100 feet away.
The long range gives you safety while bombarding foes with fiery damage. And you can angle the attack up or down as needed, giving it great versatility.
As one of the few ranged dragon incantations without projectiles, it‘s fantastic for PvP as well.
7. Borealis‘s Mist
What It Does: Unleashes waves of chilling frost mist.
Cost: 48 FP
Requirements: 23 Faith, 15 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade Dragon Heart after defeating Borealis, Freezing Fog in Mountaintops of the Giants
If you want an frosty upgrade over Dragonice, Borealis‘s Mist is the answer. It fills a huge area with waves of freezing cold fog.
The frost buildup inflicted is devastating, quickly leading to the frozen status that immobilizes foes. And with proper timing, you can trap other players in it during PvP too.
While the FP cost is substantial, you can sustain it with the right flask allocation. It‘s extremely deadly in the right circumstances.
8. Theodorix‘s Magma
What It Does: Spews magma that ignites enemies for fire damage over time.
Cost: 45 FP
Requirements: 21 Faith, 14 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 2 Dragon Hearts after defeating Magma Wyrm Makar in Mountaintops of the Giants
This incantation unleashes a unique substance – dragon magma – that‘ll stick to enemies and melt away their health.
The magma bursts inflict both instant damage on impact and then fire damage over time after that.
It‘s costly, but against slow or stationary bosses, the damage racks up rapidly. Great for pure Faith builds.
9. Dragonmaw
What It Does: Transforms your head into an enormous dragon maw that bites enemies at close range.
Cost: 46 FP
Requirements: 24 Faith, 16 Arcane
Where to Get It: Trade 1 Dragon Heart with Dragon Communion altar
Dragonmaw turns you into a biting dragon head for such massive damage that it can one-shot some enemies. Few spectacles are as awe-inspiring as this in Elden Ring.
The main limitation is it only works at point blank range. But if you can safely get next to a boss and time this correctly, it‘s absolutely devastating.
And in PvP, it‘s excellent at punishing greedy or overly aggressive opponents.
10. Placidusax‘s Ruin
What It Does: Transforms you into Dragonlord Placidusax to rain lightning and flames from above.
Cost: 62 FP
Requirements: 36 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Remembrance of Dragonlord Placidusax with Enia after defeating Dragonlord Placidusax
This spell channels the power of ancient dragonlord Placidusax himself, smiting groups of enemies from long range with a triple combo of lightning strikes, explosions, and fire waves.
The sheer spectacle and power of Placidusax‘s Ruin is unmatched. It can wipe out swarms of enemies at once in PvE or PvP.
With proper timing, a well-placed cast will quickly swing any massive battle in your favor. But it‘s costly, so make it count!
11. Electrify Armament
What It Does: Imbues right-hand weapons with lightning.
Cost: 27 FP
Requirements: 15 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Dragon Cult Prayerbook with a merchant after defeating Knight Bernahl
This handy buff adds a strong dose of lightning damage to your melee weapon swings. It‘s perfect for weapon classes that lack innate elemental effects.
Slap this on something hard-hitting like colossal swords and watch enemies crumble before you. Combined with the Lightning Scorpion Charm, it gets even more devastating.
And best of all, the FP consumption is very low, so you can keep it active pretty much indefinitely.
12. Ancient Lightning Spear
What It Does: Hurls an exploding spear of lightning magic.
Cost: 18 FP
Requirements: 17 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Dragon Cult Prayerbook with a merchant after defeating Knight Bernahl
Sometimes you just need a simple ranged lightning attack, and Ancient Lightning Spear delivers. With low requirements, cheap FP cost, and high damage, it‘s nice and accessible.
Aim well and punish enemies from afar. The lightning explosion on impact deals heavy damage in both PvE and PvP, breaking poise and knocking human-sized foes to the ground.
You can rapidly chuck spears in succession too, so it‘s great for a pure caster build.
13. Fortissax‘s Lightning Spear
What It Does: Impales enemies with an exploding spear of ice lightning.
Cost: 24 FP
Requirements: 25 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Remembrance of the Lichdragon Fortissax with Finger Reader Enia after defeating Lichdragon Fortissax
This frozen lightning spear feels incredibly satisfying to cast, impaling victims from long range for colossal frost and lightning damage.
It‘s less spammable than Ancient Lightning Spear due to higher costs. But properly timed, a single spear can deal over 2,000 damage in the late game.
The visual appearance of giant icicle spears raining from the sky is also stunning. If you want raw power, this is it.
14. Death Lightning
What It Does: Calls down a barrage of red lightning bolts from the sky.
Cost: 45 FP
Requirements: 47 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Remembrance of the Lichdragon Fortissax with Finger Reader Enia after defeating Lichdragon Fortissax
Pulled from legend itself, this incantation invokes the fury of Fortissax the ancient lightning dragon in his prime.
A relentless torrent of blood red lightning will surge down, savaging anyone caught beneath the clouds. Each strike inflicts both physical lightning damage and rapidly builds death blight – leading to near insta-kill explosions if the meter fills.
It‘s costly and you NEED lots of Mind/Cerulean flasks to sustain it. But against bosses or groups that lack immunity to death blight, it massacres them swiftly. Visually spectacular too!
15. Greyoll‘s Roar
What It Does: Unleashes a roar of death-afflicting lightnings.
Cost: 40 FP
Requirements: 38 Faith
Where to Get It: Trade Remembrance of the Elden Beast with Finger Reader Enia after defeating Elden Beast
Containing the essense of Queen Greyoll, mother of all dragons, this roar spews waves of grey death lightning that causes rapid death blight buildup.
It‘s the ultimate dragon incantation for pure Faith builds – few enemies can survive more than a few seconds against Greyoll‘s Roar. The waves rapidly strike for physical, lightning, AND death blight damage simultaneously.
And with 38 Faith, only high level prophets can harness this apocalyptic force. But it‘s 100% worth it.
And those are my picks for the top 15 dragon incantations you should grab in Elden Ring!
With the sheer power that these iconic dragon spells offer, it‘s easy to feel like an unstoppable mystical beast yourself.
I recommend keeping a few different ones attuned based on the situation – low FP cost spells for general purpose, high damage ones for tough enemies & bosses, etc.
These also pair excellently with the Dragon Communion Seal for extra incantation boosting.
Let me know which of these dragon arts you plan on unleashing in the Lands Between! And may your victories be legendary.
