This page offers a guide on how to beat Elden Lord Godrick the Grafted, who’s the second big boss of the main story in Elden Ring.

Where to Find Godrick in Stormveil Castle¶

Godrick is a Demi-God boss who’s found at Stormveil Castle. You’ll need to traverse a fog gate to reach the fight. The closest Site of Grace to the fog gate in question is Secluded Cell (see map below).

Stormveil Castle is a Legacy Dungeon accessible upon defeating Margit, the Fell Omen. Though the map shows the distance between Margit and Godrick to be pretty short, you’ll have to face many tough enemies to reach Godrick.

Godrick Attack Moves¶

Godrick wields two double-edged great axes and swings them around pretty frantically a lot of the time. In addition to standard axe swings, he’ll also perform a series of special/stronger attack moves, as listed below. Some of the attacks are only seen in the second phase of the fight. For the most part, his movements can feel quite unpredictable making his normal axe attacks feel hard to dodge. Luckily, his stronger attacks (listed below) are pretty easy to see coming - maybe doesn’t make it feel any easier but every little helps, right?

Heavy Axe Swing¶

The heavy axe swing comes in a few different forms. It’s pretty recognisable by the swooshing lines that accompany it. More often than not, he’ll do several of these in pretty quick succession, so you’ll need to ready to dodge and roll away from these swings.

Dragging Axe Attack¶

If you’re further away from Godrick, one of his more common moves to bridge the distance between you and him is to run at you (he’s not that fast), dragging his axe along the floor. When he reaches you, he’ll lift up his axe with quite a bit of force and knock you prone if you get caught in it. You might get caught out by this move a few times if you’re trying to disengage and pop a flask. Luckily, it is easy to spot, as his dragging axe will generate some sparks on the ground.

Roll¶

Occasionally, Godrick will ball up and roll around pretty chaotically. Even though it seems like a messy move, it’s quite easy to dodge and at the end of his rolling period he’ll jump and slam down (easy to dodge) and you’ll get a window of opportunity to hit him whilst he’s recovering.

Axe Ground Slam¶

This attack consists of Godrick slamming his axe into the ground, creating an area of impact around him that ripples the ground causing rocks to fly up. When he does the first ground slam, don’t think you’re save to roll back into the fight as he slams his axe deeper into the ground and increases the area of impact around him! Wait for the second ground slam and then you’ll be able to head back in and get a few free hits in whilst he’s a bit tired from the force of his own attacks.

Whirlwind¶

Godrick generates a whirlwind that does a bit of damage to you if you’re caught in it. It can also knock you back or stagger you a little so even though it isn’t a whole bunch of damage it can be followed up by a big axe attack.

Sometimes he’ll follow up his whirlwind attack by launching some mini tornadoes at you - these attacks hurt if you’re caught in them so make sure to sideways roll out of the way!

Then, in other cases, he’ll follow up his whirlwind attack with a jump up into the air - this seems to happen when you disengage quite far from him (whilst he’s whirlwinding) so just be on the look out for it.

Godrick Second Phase Attack Moves¶

During the second phase, the attacks differ pretty drastically because Godrick grafts a dragon’s head onto his left arm. This phase will consist of lots more chaotic axe swings and crazy fire breath attacks and flame tornadoes!
Below, you can find a brief run down of all the different things his new arm prosthetic can do.

Dragon Arm Fire Breath¶

This is your standard dragon fire breath move. He’ll use his dragon arm to breathe out a line of fire - it can have a really long range and will go as long as it needs to to try and reach you essentially! If you’re close to him when he starts the fire breath attack, however, you’ll be able to roll to his opposite side and smack him a few times whilst he’s busy fire breathing from his fancy new arm!

If you’re further away from him when you begin second phase, you’ll see a pretty huge fire attack straight out of the cutscene so be wary!

Dragon Arm Fire Breath Meteors¶

This attack consists of Godrick using his dragon arm to shoot up fire into the air which then makes it briefly rain fiery meteors onto the ground. The area of impact is surprisingly large so you’ll want to dodge and roll out of the way pretty quickly. If you get hit by a meteor, you’ll be knocked over leaving yourself vulnerable to more axe or fire breath attacks.

Dragon Arm Bite¶

During this attack, Godrick will swing his dragon arm around and try to bite you. If he catches you, this attack is quite devastating as you’ll be incapacitated for a long time whilst he rag dolls you around then slams you into the ground and breathes fire right on you! Definitely a move to avoid - see the gif below for an example of what you want to be avoiding!

Fire Whirlwind¶

Similar to the first phase whirlwind attack, Godrick will summon up a tornado-like wind around himself - but this time it’s fiery! This whirlwind will naturally damage you more than the normal wind tornado, so disengage from the fight to avoid being burned.

The fire whirlwind attack can also sometimes lead to him shooting out mini fire tornadoes towards you which you’ll be able to dodge if you time a good roll!

Strategy to Defeat Godrick¶

There are two phases in this boss fight, with the second phase being triggered at around half health - you’ll even get to watch a fun cut scene to mark the change in phase. During the first phase, Godrick will use his two axes. The best way to get in some easy damage is to wait for him to exhaust himself slightly, either via his crazy roll moves or when he’s tired himself out from lots of heavy axe swings. It is recommended that you save your summonning bell for the second phase - you’ll benefit more from being able to distract him with spirits in the second phase!

You could also try your hand at some jumping attacks in this phase. If he’s busy doing some of his rolling or ground slams you could run up the steps and jump down to attack him which does extra damage. This move, of course, relies on Godrick being near the steps when he’s performing one of his slower moves. We were able to stagger Godrick a few times by prioritising getting in heavier attacks with our two-handed weapon and jump attacking wherever possible (which, granted, isn’t that easy!). You can do this in the second phase too (see our gif to witness a ceremonious jump from the steps that deals a final blow), but it’s a lot harder to pull off with his new ranged attacks.

Second Phase¶

After the cutscene marking the second phase, be prepared for the fun/pain to begin! He now has even more attacks to use in addition to his first set, which may take a few tries to get used to. The good thing is that his defensive stats don’t change so he’ll take the same amount of damage as he did in the first phase - yay!

Now is the time to summon your Spirits using the summoning bell! The Skeletal Militiamen, obtained from defeating Tibia Mariner are great for prolonged distraction. They’re weak and will get one-shot but since they can get resurrected over and over, they’ll be useful in keeping Godrick’s attacks away from you. During this short period of time you’ll be able to get a bunch of free damage in. Just be careful to not be in the way of any big fire attacks - the fire breath meteors are pretty brutal for knocking you over and the area of impact is large so be sure to roll out of the way if needed.

Also the standard dragon-y fire breath attack is pretty hard to escape sometimes, especially if you’re trying to get away from it by running away - the range is so long that you’re better off trying to dodge to the side to get behind cover. Just be aware that if you’re hiding behind the various structures that they will be destroyed so the cover is a one-time use - don’t linger behind the same structure to hide from the flames! If you’re relatively close by to Godrick when his dragon arm begins breathing out fire, try to roll or move around him and hit his right side whilst he’s temporarily distracted by his big dragony arm. Be careful whilst doing this though, you don’t want to get caught out by him swinging his giant dragon arm around and grabbing you. Being grabbed by his dragon arm is a pretty brutal move that’ll result in you being incapacitated for quite a bit! If you do survive the dragon bite attack move, get up as quickly as you can and roll out of the way as he’ll be looking to slam his axe into you before you get up. Disengage quickly and heal up - he has a few moves that can reduce distance between you (like his roll and he occasionally jumps forward too), but he’s not that fast so you should be okay to back off and recover for a moment.

Of course, if you’re at a range from him, you’ll need to be prepared to dodge the huge reach of his dragon arm’s fire breath! In addition to his long range fire breath attacks, he seems to do a lot more spinning jumps in the second phase as well so you might find yourself not being able to as easily keep distance between Godrick and yourself.

Godrick Reward¶

Upon defeating Godrick, you’ll get 15,000 Runes, Godrick’s Great Rune and Remembrance of the Grafted.