*: Enhanced Edition Values
The Tree of Men is a Boss in Salt and Sanctuary
A corporeal manifestation of tools of torture. No inanimate object should be capable of malice, but in a world of vengeful spirits and arcane magic, anything is possible."
Location
- Red Hall of Cages: At the very bottom left of the area.
- Coordinates: {X:41469.28 Y:28467.85}
- Boss Flags: Make sure to talk to Masterless Knight and Despondent Thief before this fight. / Merchant progress
Combat Information
- Attack Types: Fire traps in the area, physical damage, knockback.
- Weak vs: All Elements
- Strong vs: Slash attacks
Phase 1
- You must attack the Chained Men that comprise the tree to weaken it. Use the platforms left and right of the boss to get high up and reach the enemies, but be mindful of the fire-spitting traps that are set up
- If you stay on the lower portion, the knockback from his stomps will likely push you down to your death: jump right before or roll right as the stomp happens to avoid it
- Try to stay on the 2nd and 3rd level platforms (the first two non-destructable ones) on either side. This gives you the best access to the men that compose the tree and also helps prevent getting knocked off by the tree's feet.
- If you die from knockback, your Salt will be in a Salt Bat who you can defeat easily when you come back.
- The damage comes mainly from the Chained Men and the Fire Traps scattered through the platforms, while the shockwave from it's stomps can knockup the player (and if blocked, consume large amounts of stamina). If you can trivialize the fire with a shield or by having high fire resist, then the player only needs to worry about changing platforms to kill the chained men.
Phase 2
- After all Chained Men are dead, the only weak spot left is the head. Go up the LEFT side of the platform and attack the head once or twice, then drop down to avoid the fire trap. This is easier done when he tries to slam you with it's arm.
- The boss will also run his arm across one of the top two platforms based on where you are standing. Bait him into attacking then leap up (or down) to avoid it and the flame trap. This will also move it's head accordingly, thus it's recommended to bait this attack on the lower platforms to punish the boss.
- Once his health reaches about 30% HP, he gains a fire-spewing attack that covers a wide range (from top to bottom) and does a fair bit of damage. Use a fire resistant shield such as the Phoenix Rondache or the Raider's Targe to nullify the fire damage. Following this spray, its head will bow down, allowing its vulnerable spot to be hit.
- You can alternatively switch to the other side of the platforms you're currently standing in (e.g: If you're on the platforms of the left side, drop down and go to the platforms of the right side).
- Be mindful that this fire attack can and will reach the ground. If you're not sure you're going to make it to the other side, stay on one of the platforms and try blocking.
- If the player does not switch platforms, he will proceed to slam them with their arm once, then do the fire attack again. This repeats itself until defeated.
- There is a way Phase 2 can be cheesed. Stand on the top left platform at the edge facing The Tree of Men. Using a fire resistant shield, block every time the fire of jet behind you goes off, as well as when the Tree uses his fire-spewing attack during the final phase (remember blocking works even if you're facing the other way and stamina will gradually recover even while blocking). The Tree will launch melee attacks in a predictable pattern. Jump before each attack, and counter-attack once you land (be careful not to move forward or you'll fall off the platform). If the timing is such that jumping will lead to you getting hit by fire from behind, block both the Tree's melee attack and the jet of fire from behind then recover stamina waiting for the next round.
Melee Strategy Video
Player Notes
- Use the drops to make: Mountain Breaker
- A shield that resists fire helps a lot during this fight. Phoenix Rondache is a perfect fit for this, as the pure fire damage doesn't consume a lot of stamina.
- If using melee, Impen's Charm from the Castle of Storm is effective for all phases.
- Ray of Searing prayer makes phase 1 easier if the player finds the right moment to strike.
- Boss cannot be spell parried, and it's melee attacks cannot be parried.
AnonymousNgl its the easiest boss for mages due to its resistances and no need to go close to his head for some damage. but on my current hunter playthrough, i do understand all other people here. its just too hard to hit it imo.
- Anonymous
Struggled too with the boss at first the but if you understand his pattern and what you need to do he is managable. 200 Fire Protection and light armour helps here. Plus I recommend staying on the left top side. Just jump over his attack and avoid the fire beams.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
my god i hate this boss i never encountered a more annoying boss in my time playing souls like games
- Anonymous
How to fix this boss fight and make it fair:
1) Fire the guy who thought the boss's design was a good idea and get him completely blacklisted from the game industry.
2) Implement a patch that removes the holes in the arena, because unlike the person who designed this boss, you're not a psychopath that takes delight in the suffering of others.
- Anonymous
while the boss fight is a load of ****, the design for this boss is actually pretty cool, you have to admit, well.... maybe you don't HAVE to admit, but I like to think so
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
this doesnt even deserve a second phase… do they even test their own games
- Anonymous
Wow..so apparently people are not a fan of this boss....at all. I actually like it. It's something different and a nice change a pace. Instead of the usual skills required, it tests your ability to focus on many things at once and juggle it all. The issue is the how easy it is to fall off. It's not particularly tough to dodge the fire jets, and if you have the Blacksmith's Armor, Impen's Crest Ring and Impen's Charm, the boss itself is a cakewalk. But the decision to allow the player to get knocked off the platform to their death was a horrible one. I died to this boss 4 times....every single time was because I accidentally jumped/rolled off, or got hit by a stomp and rocketed off the side to my death. That makes it frustrating.
- Anonymous
Je tiens à dire que si j'arrive à battre ce boss, je paye un resto à tt le monde.
To the brilliant mind who came up with the idea for this boss...
Never touch game design, ever again.
If this is your idea of a joke, then go back to clown college.
- Anonymous
Honestly I have lost a small amount of respect for the devs for implementing something so just...shoddily designed. Not only are the mechanics completely pointless in a souls-like, but the boss itself looks like they didn't even bother trying and just threw together some default enemies on a tree and called it good. Lazy and pointless.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This boss is VERY frustrating, yes its pretty simple once you get it but mechanically this is the worst boss IMO. Just bad design, the other bosses are WAY more fun.
- Anonymous
You know, I'm disappointed. Couldn't there have been lava in place of the pit, with fire sharks swimming it? Couldn't there be more flamethrowers coming in from the top and bottom ready to char my body and soul at the same time? How about some laser cannons and upside down volcanoes?
You wanna be even harder? Why even have the floor? Why not just start the boss battle falling down the pit?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Just beat it. Really unfortunate that something like this in the game. Not fun.
- Anonymous
Tree of Men is the least souls like and also the best boss in Salt and Sanctuary. Treat the fight as a platforming challenge, stick and move, and you'll never get hit. I've one or two shot him every time once I started treating it this way. Tree of men takes advantage of the 2d platforming in sns, making it unique and good.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Nearly every game has a boss whose arena is more dangerous than the boss itself. The Tree of Men is that boss.
- Anonymous
If you are a mage, literally just spam Lightning arc. Takes out the bodies in a but a few casts, then spam it some more on his head. Killed him in under 30 seconds. My magic was at 36, and i used a Rowan Crosier IV Staff.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
this thing is such a nightmare, It sure ain´t fun having to dance around the rafters practically chasing after it´s narrow weak spot
only to accidentally fall down and get knocked right off the battlefield
- Anonymous
Oh hey, Folks, I found an exploit. So climbing platforms gives you i-frames during the climb animation right? It's used so that you can climb up platforms where enemies are without dying instantly or deal with archers.
So yknow its phase 2 thing where it fires a huge sweeping flame across the arena?
YOu can i frame that by climbing through a platform. I accidentally discovered this. Made the fight a lot easier than it already was when I knew what I was doing >.>
- Anonymous
.. Do you know what? I actually thought this boss was really good. Actually kinda fun. Are the flamethrowers super RNG? He's attacks seem fairly obvious for the most part, all of his slam/punch attacks come with a noticable audio cue and dropping to a different platform avoids that hit (or jumping to a different platform)
The flamesweep in phase.. 3? 2? isn't that bad either. Super obvious wind up, just drop down the platforms and go to the opposite side of him. The flames cannot hit behind it, from my experience. I did this with relatively no difficulty with a melee build after realising "Oh, right. Use the platforms."
- Anonymous
You can kill this boss pretty easy if you are with the stone roots.
Get to the 2nd stage and just spam poison daggers at his head (you can get 25 daggers for free as a creed reward and it's plenty)
- Anonymous
Remember guys, this boss is optional/ skippable if you go through the Dome of the Forgotten, then climb over the Ziggurat and enter The Far Shore sanctuary. Going left from there takes you down some stairs and to a ledge where an elevator comes up to; if you jump off that ledge and lean your fall to the right you can catch another platform while falling, letting you climb down safely from there, which lets you activate the elevator and fight the Bloodless Prince, which gains you entry to the Ruined Temple from a direction where you do not need to go through any redshift walls, and from where onwards (iirc) there are no more redshift walls in the way
- Anonymous
A boss that has to rely upon environmental hazards to be difficult is a boss that should not be implemented
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Consider using the Pale Charm. It increases your reach. I was able to knock off a lot of the hanged fools in the first phase.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Why are people so obsessed with the Bed of Chaos concept..... First Rotted Greatwood, now this idiot. Trees are not interesting bosses, except maybe Exdeath
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I take it this annoying tree boss was a reference to annoying tree bosses in Souls, especially that one that keeps killing you with pit traps.
- Anonymous
I just have to point out how awesome the design of this boss is. I just find him god-damn awesome!
- Anonymous
In the fight that I defeated the tree we both had about one hit left in us, I had no potions left and it was just about to kill me with fire breath so I jumped out and hit it in the face to kill it. I finally managed to defeat it but fell to my death in the process and lost all the gold and his ashes that it dropped.
- Anonymous
If you're playing a Dex build, using a pistol in the second phase is really useful, just dont forget to quickly switch to a shield when it does the breath attack. Shock ammo works even better.
- Anonymous
This isn't a boss, it's a platforming challenge. It's a punishment to anyone who went with a weapon with short range. If you lose to it and your salt doesn't appear as the bat then unless you kill the boss you're not getting that salt back. The health bar is broken so even if you bring it below the threshold: it will keep that salt. Bring something with good reach or elemental damage or get ready to lose all your gold and salt.
I killed Bed Of Chaos in 2 tries, it was pretty *****ing easy and I don't know what the fuss was about. But THIS boss??? No. Just no. Whoever made this boss needs to be banished into the abyss.
- Anonymous
The biggest bull*****about him is that big ass stomp that makes you literally fly out of the arena. Fuc k this fake ass bed of chaos!
- Anonymous
F uck this boss and everything it stands for. Allocated weak points that have their own healthbars? Check. Unnecessary environmental hazards that don't do anything but make it harder? Check. Falling pits of death with easy access to them? Check. Bull*****AoE, DoT fire blasts with*****ty hitboxes? Check. It's not fun to fight this jerkass, it's just frustrating since it does too much damage too often with no chance to reciprocate.
- Anonymous
Why all the hate for this boss? I for one thoroughly enjoyed him. Something different than the usual "hit the thing until it's dead" type boss, for this guy you have to target specific weakpoints and be mindful of the traps in the surroundings as well. I do wish he telegraphed attacks a bit better, so I could tell when he's just moving vs when he's winding up.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This boss has a glitch that males you lose all your salt. Usually when you die by fire, those bombs thrown by the chained men or from the fall you'll get a bat to kill and recover your salt, but if you die to that huge punch the boss will become "salted". However, getting the boss HP to the "salt mark" by killing the caged men won't give your salt back!
Apparently, the game only recognizes the head and arms as the Tree Of Men, so when you get to hit that the "salt mark" will have passed and you lost your salt forever.
Actually, that happened to me but I died afterwards...don't know what happens if you actually kill the boss, if you get your salt back.
- Anonymous
Not sure if this is a bug but I found that when I placed enough stacks of Mossy Pessmud poison on the Tree of Men he stopped moving and died of poison.
- Anonymous
For some reason, in the second phase, he just stop his attacs and stays there, motionless. Tried quit/reload for a fair fight but he refuses to attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXaMmzzav3M&feature=youtu.be
- Anonymous
Now, im not sure on PC, but on ps4 version, if you are playing co-op, when you enter the fight, the player behind the person who triggered te fight, teleports behind the player, and dies instantaneously.
Just saying.
- Anonymous
You can use the few frames of invincibility during which you climb a platform to make the fight easier, you will have to time it right but once you have the timing you can dodge most of its attacks.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
But died plenty of times ro bloody gravity and flame throwers died 54 i died quote on quote to this boss WHY THE BLOODY AOE FEET BACK
- Anonymous
The range on these makes all the difference for swatting the weak spots. If you ever end on on the floor though for thr love of god keep an eye out for the foot stomp move...
- Anonymous
i beat him in two tries using lightning arc and spamming fireball/lightning bolt once in phase two
- Anonymous
It certainly seems like you are winning, but the show is not over. Not yet. Here, take some flamethrower in your face. I'll be waiting for your return.
- Anonymous
This is the worst boss design I've seen for a while. This isn't like Dark Souls difficulty, it's just unnecessarily stupid. Open floor, millions of projectiles, traps, falling platforms, allocated weak points. Try spending all money and salt before attempting this thing.
- Anonymous
Died at the exact same time as the boss and lost all salt. Sucks.
- Anonymous
Oh, ***** better not jump up there. Thank god I saw the fire before it spit out and I aborted the jump. Oh, the platform is gone. Oh, sorry the foot stomped right where you fall at the exact moment the platform vanishes. Oh, you got killed instantly. Man, why didn't you just jump into the fire and take a heck ton of damage?This boss doesn't make me feel like I am failing at defeating him. It feels like the boss fails at being fair.
- Anonymous
Took me three tries on my knight. More than 2hrs so far on my thief, no luck... Game is great, but bosses are so freaking unbalanced.
- Anonymous
I didn't get my salt back when I got him down to 2/3 health. Is this a glitch or do I have to actually kill him to get it back?
- Anonymous
I've died 82 times to this thing... Just tonight..3 hours of hell
As a mage for the first phase with the caged men, stand under him, dodge his feet and spam lightning storm, the move up left hand platforms, dodge his melee attacks and continue spamming lightning storm until you cant then just bait his melee atk to the middle platform jump up to the top and melee his eye till dead.As a cleric, stand under his feet, dodge the stomps and spam ray of searing until dead.
- Anonymous
Fighting this as a mage is madness. Cant magic with a shield. Any sugestive spells from mages that have beat this.
- Anonymous
It's a mix of Nito and Bed of Bull*****. Expect to be knocked of the platform to your death...a lot.
This boss was single-handedly the thing that almost pushed me to quit this game for good and dismiss it as garbage. Hands down, the Tree of Men is my pick for the worst one in the game; nobody else even comes close. Granted, there are other annoying bosses too, but at least they all have at least one positive thing I can say about them. Not so with this thing! I hate it. I don't like a single thing about it. Not its design, not its fight, not the gimmicks; absolutely nothing.
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