The boss fights in Elden Ring are wildly challenging, and one of the most troublesome is Godrick the Grafted. This boss is typically encountered just after Margit, the Fell Omen, and is arguably as tough. Godrick has many attacks that can take out most of your health in one swipe, so you’ll want to come prepared with the right gear and strategy to defeat him. In this guide, we’ll walk you through beating Godrick by using a standard melee method, along with a cheese strategy that makes the battle easy.

How to prepare for the Godrick the Grafted boss fight

Thankfully, there are several strategies for taking down Godrick in Elden Ring, from utilizing an aggressive approach to summoning help, and even a cheese method if all else fails. Whichever method you choose, you’ll want to come prepared with as many healing flasks as possible, along with upgraded weapons, and other useful items such as buffs, Talismans, and armor.

Of course, high damage weapons are often recommended, but we also advise using lightweight swords that can be utilized rapidly. That’s because stamina preservation is extremely important in this fight. The lightweight melee weapons require less stamina for each swing, meaning you’re less likely to run out of stamina at any given point.

Aside from that, we advise bringing armor that won’t weigh you down too much, since you’ll need to move a lot during this fight. It’s easy to gravitate towards high defense gear, but doing so will likely make you overburdened and cause you to run out of stamina faster. Playing it safe is the way to go.

It’s recommended to bring an Ash summon, as well, such as the Spirit Jellyfish Ashes or the Rotten Stray Ashes. These sentient creatures will not only deal damage to the boss but will also distract them so you can dish out more attacks.

Godrick the Grafted Phase One

You can choose to summon the Nepheli Loux NPC whose summon sign is just outside the boss door. It’s worth noting that summoning other players or NPCs does increase the boss’ health, so it’s not always recommended to fight as a team. But in this case, having the distraction can be a huge help.

Either way, you’ll want to always stay behind Godrick during the first phase. You can pretty much roll through all of his attacks to deal with quick follow-up strikes, but doing so is risky. Instead, we advise only attacking after certain moves. The easiest one to dodge is the ridiculous rolling maneuver that occurs after Godrick swings his axe to create a tornado around himself. He’ll roll around and then go up into the air before slamming down. Roll through the slam at the end to get a few attacks in and then back away after he regains his composure.

There are a number of other attacks that you can roll through, but one we recommend avoiding altogether is his massive area of effect (AoE) slam. He telegraphs this move by grabbing his axe with both hands and charging it right in front of his face before smashing it into the ground. As soon as you see this, back away to avoid it. Keep in mind, there are two slams, so don’t approach until after the second one has ended.

You can also stagger Godrick to dish out a critical blow from the front, so make sure to listen for the audio cue as he goes down to his knees. Critical attacks deal high damage so you’ll want to use them whenever possible.

To play it as safely as possible, try to attack only when you have a larger opening, rather than striking often because you’ll likely get caught by his devastating strikes. The easiest moves to roll through are ones that involve an aerial slam since they’re telegraphed so clearly. In addition, having a spirit summon with you can push you towards victory, so make sure to use one if you have it.

Once you get him down to half health, he’ll be temporarily stunned, so use this as an opportunity to wail on him as much as you can to deal massive amounts of damage before the second phase starts.

Godrick the Grafted Phase Two

Phase two is absolutely epic, so we won’t spoil what happens (just don’t skip the cutscene that plays after phase one ends). Let’s just say he undergoes one of the coolest transformations we’ve seen in a video game.

As soon as phase two begins, Godrick will start shooting a stream of fire at you from afar, so your goal is to run directly at him to get behind ASAP. While he’s using the flame move, his back is completely exposed, giving you plenty of time to pummel him. If you’re lucky, you can even stagger him as we did in the video above.

During this phase, he adds a few more moves to his arsenal. Aside from the initial flame attack that follows a steady pattern, Godrick also has a more sporadic version that sends flames to random locations in front of him. Make sure you just back away from these since they can be hard to roll through. In addition, he can grab you with his brand new arm, which can be absolutely devastating if you don’t have enough poured into your Vitality stat. Thankfully, this move is telegraphed by a loud roar, so be on the lookout for that and try your best to dodge to either side.

Hopefully, if you’re using an NPC, they’re still alive at this point, allowing you to stay behind him to attack safely. To stay as safe as possible, you can only strike when he begins his flaming stream attack, just as he does at the start of phase two. Though, you’ll want to be familiar with rolling through some of his other attacks so you can deal damage more consistently.

How to beat the Godrick the Grafted with a cheat

If all else fails, there is a bit of a cheat you can use to take down Godrick, but it requires a little more preparation. We’ve mentioned how useful the Ashes are, and there’s one in particular that makes this fight easy. The Rotten Stray Ashes have the potential to deal poisonous rot, which causes damage over time. For whatever reason, the damage continues throughout the duration of the Godrick fight, even after the Rotten Stray dies. It’s unclear if this is a bug, but it’s possible it will get patched so keep that in mind.

To make your life easier, you should upgrade your Rotten Stray Ashes by completing the Roderika questline. This NPC will appear in the Roundtable Hold and after you speak with her and the Blacksmith several times, she’ll be able to enhance your spirits. Try upgrading your Rotten Stray Ashes to at least +4 if possible for the Godrick fight.

Once you’re ready to begin the fight, summon the Rotten Stray Ashes and wait for them to deal poison damage to the boss. It might take a little while, but once you notice his health continuously drop, you’ll know he’s poisoned. At this point, you’ll just need to run around the arena avoiding his attacks while his health drains. Try to use the large graves and objects around you as cover, and he’ll eventually go down.

If you get impatient or simply don’t love the idea of using this cheap method, you can combine the poison with the standard strategy described above for maximum effectiveness.