Elden Ring: How To Beat Godrick The Grafted

After navigating through the first Legacy Dungeon, Stormveil Castle in Limgrave, you’ll come face to face with one of the most iconic bosses of the game: Godrick the Grafted. A grotesque monstrosity, he is nonetheless one of the Shardbearers found in the game, having kept hold of a shard of the Elden Ring due to his lineage.

Being the first Legacy Dungeon boss, Godrick can pose quite the challenge to new players, combining both an intimidating presence and surprisingly quick movements. Check out this guide for a breakdown of some of his most devastating moves, when it’s safe to attack, and when you should keep your distance.

Prepare For Battle

Godrick is a major challenge at the end of Stormveil, so if you’ve already made some attempts and need some upgrades, there are a few things you can do to prepare:

• Make sure to collect all the Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears found in Limgrave. Having more Crimson Flasks—and having them heal more with each use—can make a huge difference in a challenging encounter.
• If you haven’t already, consider finishing Roderika’s questline, starting at the Stormhill Shack site of grace. Once completed, Roderika will be able to upgrade your Spirit Ash with Grave Glovewort or Ghost Glovewort. These can be found in catacombs and tombs found out in the world (minor dungeons).
• Upgrade your weapon of choice as much as possible with any Smithing Stones you’ve found so far on your journey.
• If you’re interested in having a summon to join you in battle, make sure to speak with Nepheli Loux before the Troll on the stairs. She’s in a side room in that courtyard standing over a dead knight. Exhaust all of her dialogue until she mentions she’s idled long enough. She should show up as a gold summons just outside of Godrick’s boss fog.

Godrick The Grafted: Phase One

Godrick alternates between slow, lumbering movements into some wild and quick strikes, so you always want to be on your toes. In this fight, it’s often best to keep to a middle distance from Godrick in between his attacks. This will allow you to recognize his tells a little more clearly, and it’ll allow you to retreat from his moves of his that benefit from some extra distance. Many of his attacks have clear windows during which you can strike, but for many, it’s best to simply let them play out and wait for a better opening.

Phase One: Moves To Avoid

Double-Step Strike

Godrick brings his axe back over his left shoulder, steps forward with his right foot, then his left, and then strikes with his axe and arm in quick succession. The timing on it is intentionally a little off, making it easy for him to catch you if you dodge too early. It feels like he should attack after the first step, but you want to wait for his second step forward before dodging. He usually only attacks twice here (axe and arm follow-up), but he’ll sometimes follow that up with another arm swipe back if you end up behind him.

Axe Slam Quake

This is one of his favorite moves; he holds his axe upside down while raising his right leg, and then slams it into the ground, creating a small shockwave. He then slams it down again a moment later with a much larger shockwave. If you’re feeling particularly confident in your dodge timing, you can dodge through each of these attacks and get some hits in during his recovery, but it’s safest to back out of range as soon as you recognize the move. You can run in and do a jumping or running attack if you want, but it can be risky.

Five-Strike Attack

This attack is probably his most devastating, so it’s important to be ready for it. He brings his axe in front of him, grabbing the hilt with both hands, then pulls it back over his right shoulder and lets out a short cry. He will then move into five vicious slashes with his axe. Recognizing this move is very important; if you get caught in this, it can easily take you out. Back away when you recognize this, but keep in mind that the fourth and fifth strikes in the sequence has a surprising range on them. Get in the habit of dodging the fourth and fifth attack even if you feel you’re at a safe distance. It could save your run.

Phase One: Moves To Punish

Due to Godrick’s size and surprising movement speed, he can feel a bit daunting, but he has a slightly less complex move set than Margit’s with quite a few pauses between attacks. The moves below all end in a nice pause, allowing you a safe window to attack.

Sparking Axe Drag

You’ll recognize this move when Godrick starts running toward you with his massive axe dragging beside him, sending up sparks in its wake. When he reaches you, he’ll swing the axe up once, then he’ll take a beat after the attack. This is a great window for you to attack since he pauses before readying for his next move.

Whirlwind Leap

Another of Godrick’s favorite attacks, he swings his axe around overhead, creating a small whirlwind around his body. This attack involves him swinging his axe around his body twice, stomping his foot, then rolling in a semicircle toward you, leaping high into the air, and coming down hard with his axe. While this attack looks intimidating, it’s pretty easy to dodge and punish. Even though the leap looks like he could hit you several times with his flailing limbs, he’ll only hit you on the slam down with his axe, so be ready to dodge as he lands, and you’ll have a great window during which to attack.

Note: There is a variant of this he will use occasionally. After the three whirlwinds, he will instead hurl two blasts of wind at you in quick succession. He doesn’t use this move very much, so it has a good chance to catch you off guard. Be careful.

Leaping Slam

This is a fairly simple attack and one which might look familiar from the Margit fight at the start of Stormveil Castle. Godrick leaps into the air, gripping his axe handle and axe head, and slams it down on you with a single attack. Dodge as he’s coming down, and you’ve got a nice window to punish him.

Ground Roll Three-Strike

This attack begins when Godrick raises his left arm into the air, and then rolls in a semicircle around you. When he comes up, he will punch you with his left arm, then he’ll backhand you with the same arm, and finally finish by slamming his fist down into the ground. There’s a slight delay between each of these attacks, so you might be tempted to attack, but it’s a trap; they come a little too quickly to attack in between. Simply dodge each of these attacks—once he’s finished, you have a window to attack.

Godrick The Grafted: Phase Two

Phase one ends with Godrick chopping off his left arm and transitions into a grotesque cutscene wherein Godrick chops off a dead dragon’s head, attaches it to his left arm, and raises it high into the air as it breathes fire. The addition of the dragon arm adds some new moves to the mix, in addition to remixing some of his phase one moves, but once you understand how they work, his phase two can feel a little more manageable. Try to keep the fight in the center of the arena so you have to move to retreat when you need to.

Phase Two: Moves to Avoid

Dragon Breath Advance

Godrick holds his dragon head arm ahead of him and begins spraying fire as he walks slowly forward. This move is pretty difficult to avoid outside of simply running away. This is why you want to try to fight him in the center of the arena—when he does this move, simply run backwards until he’s finished with this attack. If you can put enough space between you, this is a great window to heal, buff up, or pepper him with spells.

Note: if you’re directly in front of him when he begins this attack, you can roll around him and potentially be in a great position to attack him while he’s moving forward with this attack, but you have to recognize the move right away and be right in his face to pull this off. usually best to simply retreat.

Axe Slam Quake (Upgrade)

This attack is very similar to his phase one Axe Slam Quake attack, except it now includes an even larger third slam into the attack chain. Just like in phase one, your safest bet is to put some distance between you and Godrick while this attack plays out. This is another good window during which you can heal, buff yourself, or sling spells in his direction.

Phase Two: Moves to Punish

Dragon Breath Sweep

Godrick always starts phase two with this move, and while it’s quite the spectacle, it’s easily punished. He starts phase two with the dragon head arm breathing fire straight up, then he brings his arm to his right side and slowly sweeps it around his body, right to left. As soon as he sticks his dragon head arm into the air, immediately sprint toward him, running to his left (your right). You can get to his side or behind him, ahead of the dragon breath, and have a big window during which you can really lay into him. As soon as he stops laughing, be prepared for him to transition into his next attack.

You can also dodge through the fire as it sweeps past you—this is sometimes your best option when he uses this move again later on in the battle.

Dragon Head Slam

Godrick slams his dragon head arm into the ground, spins around to his right, then hurls a shower of fiery debris into the air in front of him. As soon as he slams his dragon head arm into the ground, run at him and stay close. This attack is meant to punish players who are at a distance in front of him, so if you get behind him or get in his face, he’ll be vulnerable to your attacks.

Understanding the different moves that Godrick will employ during the battle—and knowing when it’s safe to attack—will be your key to victory. Upon defeating him, you will be rewarded with 20,000 Runes, Godrick’s Great Rune, and his Remembrance of the Grafted.