Elden Ring Stillwater Cave Guide: How to Beat the Cleanrot Knight
Ah, more rot.
Rot in Elden Ring is something that has landed many of us in precarious situations over and over again. You finish your business in Caelid and think you're safe from it, then all of a sudden, you find yourself in the Lake of Rot or some other unpleasant area packed with poison.
Simply put, Scarlet Rot and Poison is often annoying, but also unavoidable. One peek inside the Abandoned Cave in Caelid is enough to put you off stepping near rot whatsoever. Alas, the Tarnished must tackle it. If you're yet to venture to Caelid, Stillwater Cave in Liurnia is home to a few servants of rot and acts as a sample of what's to come.
It could be worse though. You could be coming face to face with bleed constantly (which you probably are if you're playing PvP).
In this guide, we explain how to make your way around Stillwater Cave, collect every piece of loot, and ultimately beat the Cleanrot Knight dungeon boss awaiting you at the end.
Stillwater Cave Items
- Golden Rune
- Cave Moss
- Crystal Cave Moss
- Miranda's Powder
- Poisonbloom
- Grave Violet
- Sage Armour Set
- Serpents Arrows
- Poison Grease
- Glowstone
- Winged Sword Insignia
How to tackle Stillwater Cave
Stillwater Cave can be found south of Liurnia of the Lakes and north of Stormveil Castle. From the Lake-Facing Cliffs Site of Grace, platform down the cliff using the stone tablets to the north to reach the cave. Two friendly jellyfish mark that the entrance is near.
Once in the cave, grab the Grace and head down into the cave. As you reach the Stake of Marika, there will be a corpse with a Golden Rune for you to loot from it. There's also plenty of Crystal Cave Moss lying around.
In the cavern, there is a large toxic flower surrounded by multiple smaller flowers. There's no important loot down here, but you can collect Miranda's Powder and Poisonbloom from the enemies if you fell them. There's also lots of Grave Violet down here.
If you continue to scale along the right side of the cavern, take caution of the various bats and mushroom sorcerers that'll be in your way. Eventually, you'll reach a small gap that you can jump over. Continue along the tunnel ahead.
At the end of the tunnel is another small room filled with toxic water and bats. Head in, clear the bats, and loot all the items from around the room. You'll retrieve the entirety of the Sage Set, which is a great starting set for mages, and x15 Serpent Arrows.
Go back up through the tunnel you just came from and keep left until you reach some bats. Clear them, and loot the Glowstone that is just up ahead.
To the right of where you killed the bats, jump over the cavern again - there will be a toxic flower below.
Head left and into the next tunnel, where you'll soon come to another room with a toxic lake and sorcerers. Continue straight ahead and drop down where needed. After the second drop, there is a corpse that you can loot Poison Grease from.
Now, just ahead of the corpse is the yellow misted gate that you'll need to traverse to fight with the Cleanrot Knight of Stillwater Cave.
How to beat the Cleanrot Knight in Stillwater Cave
Cleanrot Knights are never particularly fun to go up against, but they aren't the worst foe in all of The Lands Between. Fortunately, most of their attacks can be rather easy to dodge, so it's all about timing your attacks just right, or even keeping a distance if you're able to take them on at range.
This Cleanrot Knight in particular will sport a spear, which it'll regularly attempt to thrust into you from a mid-range distance. This is easily dodged if you can recognise when the knight is winding up for the thrust attack, and it's important that you do so, as this is perhaps the most hard-hitting of all the knights attacks.
What makes this fight a little trickier is the fact that the boss arena consists of a toxic lake. There a multiple safe platforms along the edges of the room, but you will likely need to spend some time in the poison to be most effective in this fight. With this in mind, craft and bring some Neutralising Boluses with you to dispel the poison.
It can also be incredibly tempting to side with greed and pummel the knight with multiple attacks whenever the opportunity is granted. How hard can it be? Maybe this was me getting ahead of myself, but the Cleanrot Knight can, in fact, bat you away from them with a single sweep. If you're attacking and they're able to do this, you'll stumble and then be vulnerable to them. So, stay patient and keep clear of them when you're not actively attacking.
While the Cleanrot Knight is strong, they move a tad slower than that of assassins. So, if you're running an Intelligence build or have some arrows to hand, it can be worth trying to chip away at the knight from range. Just don't get comfortable and keep moving, as the knight can often close distance pretty swiftly. Whenever they've launched an attack, be sure to run in and try land some melee hits where you can, even if attempting a ranged fight.
Last, but not least, if you're really struggling, your Spirit Ashes are there to help you. There's no particular summon that you should use here, so you can choose to summon whoever or whatever you want to help. Your summons should provide a distraction for the knight and take a little aggro, so you can spend some time studying their attack patterns and peppering away at them with arrows or backstabs.
Once the Cleanrot Knight is felled, they'll drop the Winged Sword Insignia talisman. This is a talisman that'll boost your attack power with each successive attack you perform, so, it's pretty good!
For more on Elden Ring and The Lands Between, take a look at our guides to Sage's Cave and Castle Morne. Failing that, we've got a full, comprehensive Elden Ring walkthrough!