Godrick the Grafted boss guide – How to defeat in Elden Ring

In terms of difficulty, Godrick the Grafted of Stormveil Castle is one of the most challenging bosses in Elden Ring. While there are certainly more difficult bosses later on in the game, most players will struggle facing off against the many-armed boss. He has painstakingly slow attacks that transition into lightning-fast moves and area of effect attacks that make it seem impossible to defeat him.

If you’re playing solo against Godrick, you won’t have any external help, as you had against Margit. Sorcerer Rogier isn’t here this time. You have this boss all to yourself. If you’re looking for the best way to take Godrick down in Elden Ring, keep reading below.

Defeating Godrick the Grafted in Elden Ring

The first phase of Godrick’s fight is relatively straightforward, once you see his attacks. He has a few different combinations of moves that are difficult to avoid, but there are opportunities to deal heavy damage.

The first set of attacks you’ll likely see from Godrick are five swings with his giant battle-axe. He starts by swinging his axe in one direction and then quickly in the other. He repeats this three more times, each swing getting further and further out, so make sure to dodge accordingly. If you try to block these attacks with a shield, you’ll be knocked back due to the force. You’ll therefore be unable to counterattack with any great effect.

Once his five-swinging attack is over, he will usually pick his next attack depending on where you are. If you’re up close, he will do his ground-stomp. This attack has two phases, one with a short-range and then one right after with a larger range. If you see him pull his axe up to his chest, start running in the opposite direction. If you get caught in the midst of his ground-stomp, it will inflict huge damage. You can dodge if you time the stomp correctly but this is difficult and running in the opposite direction worked out better for us.

His final chain of attacks in his first phase uses an Ash of War. This ash starts up a wind storm in a small area around him that can culminate with two things: the first is that he keeps the wind around him and throws two wind storm attacks at you. You can either dodge or put your shield up for these. The other attack is that he rolls in a half-circle and jumps up to attack you from above.

This is one of the only chances to truly attack Godrick. As he’s close to coming down from the air, dodge and then start attacking. You can get two or three hits off if you’re fast enough. Of course, this moreso applies to a melee character. If you’re a mage character, then you can fire spells when Godrick is slowly moving towards you. He tends to stay back for the most part, so mage characters have that advantage going for them.

After you’ve dealt around half of Godrick’s health, he will kneel down. This triggers the second phase of the fight but, while he is kneeling, you can go up to him and start attacking. Just be careful of his battle-axe. It comes down to cut off his arm, which can hurt you.

The second phase of the fight involves Godrick using a dragon head for an arm and spewing fire all across the battlefield. As soon as the fight starts back up, sprint to the right side of the battlefield. You should be able to avoid the flames from the dragon and get behind Godrick to deal some easy damage.

Beyond this, you just have to pick your times when to attack. Getting up close to the boss is important in this phase, as his fire attacks are mainly meant to deal damage at a distance. If you’re up close, though, just watch out for any quick stomp attacks from the boss.

If you’ve thought about summoning any Spirit Ashes for this fight, it’s probably only best to call them in during the second phase. In the first phase, Godrick will decimate any summons within a matter of seconds. During the second phase, though, summons can have a bit better luck, especially if they’re of the aggressive variety.

If you’ve chosen not to call in any summons, just follow the previous advice. Pick your times to get close to Godrick when he’s doing any kind of fire attack or keep hitting him with spells or other ranged attacks from a distance during his cooldown times. While his cooldown times are short, you can get a couple of attacks in.

Expect a long and drawn-out fight with Godrick. You won’t be able to do much damage at a given time unless you can successfully use an Ash of War during one of the rare opportunities that he’s standing still. Ashes of War can deal huge chunks of damage to Godrick but they leave you vulnerable to one of his random quick attacks.

If you’re not a mage or ranged character, craft some Bone Darts or Throwing Daggers to deal damage to Godrick at a distance. These won’t deal a ton of damage but any points taken from the boss’ HP bar is a win. These also give you something to do while you’re waiting for Godrick to attack. If you charge at Godrick expecting to get a quick attack off and then dodge away, you might want to reconsider. He’s extremely fast when he wants to be but can bait you into dodging too soon with his slower axe attacks.

Godrick the Grafted will take players a fair few fights to defeat in Elden Ring. However, there’s perhaps no better-feeling win in the game unless you struggled even more with Margit.