Godrick is the first Great Rune holder you’ll meet, and defeating him is a big step on your path to becoming Elden Lord. He can be intimidating, but even all his arms won’t save him from you (and your summons). In this guide, we’ll give both general tips as well as specific strategies for taking down Godrick the Grafted.
If you followed our Stormveil Guide, you should have met Nepheli Loux and exhausted her dialog, in which case she’ll be avilable as a summon in front of the fog wall to Godrick. Not only is she very tanky, but she also does decent damage, and helps stagger the boss if you’re using a melee strategy.
Taking damage delays Godricks attacks — if you’re full health, you can risk being more agressive and stick around damaging him while he starts his combo (you’ll just eat some return damage if it’s one of his AOE attacks).
Ranged attacks are especially useful against Godrick, since he has multiple long, short-ranged AOE attacks that you can fling spells during.
Phase 2 makes most of his attacks do more damage, so it’s best to err on the side of caution once he gets his dragon-hand.
Melee Strategy
Godrick’s attacks can be categorized as either AOE or non-AOE. The AOE attacks always begin with him raising his axe straight up in one arm, or in front of him in two arms — when you see this, start rolling directly away from him. If he’s doing a non-AOE attack, you should try to roll towards him while dodging his strikes, with the goal of ending up behind him. After the final attack in his combo, use jumping/heavy attacks to punish. Note that the attacks that involve him leaping always offer large punish windows.
Be ready to roll away from Godrick in between combos, since he has a number of AOE attacks that are impossible to avoid if you’re standing near him when he begins them. This can make it challenging to damage him; you can either choose to run away after a single light attack during punishes (and have the fight last a lot longer) or risk taking some damage as a melee user.
By rolling behind Godrick, you can avoid some attacks even if you miss the timing your dodge
Melee is definitely the more difficult of the two strategies, as Godrick has a lot of AOE, and can be hard to hang out near. Still, any melee build should have some points into Vitality, so as long as you don’t greed while punishing, you should do OK. If you’re using summons, it obviously gets easier, and he’ll likely stagger a few times, allowing you to get a critical hit in.
Ranged Strategy
Ideally, you’ll summon Nepheli Loux as well as utilize Spirit Ashes during this fight. The Skeletal Militiamen are a particularly good choice, because their ability to revive makes them last much longer than other Spirit Summons in this fight. With summons, the fight is straightforward — stay out of Godrick’s way and cast spells at him. Try to only cast spells when he’s just finished a combo, or when he’s using one of his AOE attacks. Otherwise, you risk wasting FP if he dodges your spells.
He’s got a decently large health pool, so it’s a good idea to devote most (or even all) of your flasks to FP for this fight.
This strategy is still viable without summons — you’ll mostly want to wait for him to use one of his AOE attacks, make sure you’re out of range, and then cast spells at him while he completes it (since he doesn’t move during those combos). The cooldown from his leaping attacks is also a viable window to attack him, depending on the spell’s cast time.
Moveset
Phase 1
Whirlwind – Godrick will raise his axes into the air and swirl them, creating three consecutive wind attacks in a circle around him. Then get larger, so continue to back off as he does this move. This move has two followups:
Sometimes, this is followed up with him rolling towards a target and then doing a leaping attack — if he does this part of the move, he’ll have a long recovery period you can punish.
Other times, he’ll do a ranged wind attack, which can be avoided by moving horizontally or rolling.
Double Slice – Godrick swings his axes right to left, then left to right. There’s a significant delay between attacks, but he frequently chains this into other attacks, so don’t try punishing.
Ground Pound – Often follows the Double Slice, and consists of Godrick using his non-axes arm(s) to hit the ground. Relatively quick and hard to dodge, but doesn’t hit as hard as his axes.
Leaping Backhand – Godrick will pull his axes back past his left arm, then jump towards his target and swing. If you’re standing on the stairs and he’s below you before jumping, you can actually walk under this attack, otherwise roll.
Ground Slam – Godrick puts “both” of his arms on his axe and aims it towards the ground and sometimes also laughs (“ah-hah!”). Roll away from the front of him to dodge the initial slam, then put more distance between you and him — there’s a follow-up ruption in a fairly large circle around him.
Slash and Punch – Godrick pulls his axes over his left shoulder and holds them there for a moment, then swings it down, and rapidly follows it with an attack in the same direction from his other hand, and then a backhand from the same hand.
Dragging Slice – Godrick drags his axe on the ground and moves towards his target. After a decent delay, he swings it upwards. If you manage to roll through this attack, it can be punished with at least a light attack.
Leaping Slam – Godrick leaps into the air while holding his axes horizontally, and slams his weapon on the ground. Fairly easy to dodge, and gives a big punish window.
Extended Combo – Godrick cries out and hefts his axes with both arms, then begins a series of five attacks. As is generally the case with bosses, the final attack comes after a significant delay. Has a punishable recovery.
Rolling Attack – Godrick rolls away from and then towards his target, coming to a rest and attacking twice with his fists. Can be blocked, but rolling is better.
Phase 2
Phase 2 is impossible to miss, since it follows a cutscene. He retains only some of his Phase 1 moves, most of which become improved and/or more fiery versions.
Flame Sweep – This begins phase 2 — Godrick raises his dragon-arm in the air, then sweeps fire across the arena towards his target. If you can’t get behind him quickly, run away as fast as you can. If you can get behind him, you can get some good damage in.
Flame Step – Godrick rears his his dragon hand back and fire apears in its mouth, then he walks forward while spraying fire in a relatively narrow area towards his target. If you get behind him, you can attack him through the duration of this attack.
Leaping Axe Attack – A gap-closer in which he leaps at a target and stabs with his axes. Can be rolled through and gives a punish window.
Triple Ground Slam – Similar to the Phase 1, but instead of 1 slam and then an AOE, there are three slams, in a larger area each time, with the final one being a large AOE. He still does a small AOE around him with each slam. Long delay after the end of this combo, if you were behind or to his side and just out of range of the final move you can run in and get a jumping attack off.
Dragon Chomp – A variation of a phase 1 attack in which Godrick swings his axe at you top-first, then butt first; he then does his weird roll-away and roll-back-towards-you, but instead of a leaping attack, his dragon hand chomps at his target. Very telegraphed, and you can either roll through it or simply make distance.
Flaming Uppercut – Godrick slams his dragon-hand into the ground, it spouts flame, and he drags it in a half-circle towards his target, finishing with an uppercut. You can roll away from him, towards his axes, and make distance rather than trying to time your dodges, but be careful of the random fire that will land around him.
Dragon Grab – Godrick crosses his dragon-hand far across his body, then brings it down in a wise sweeping attack. He then brings his hand back in front of him and attempts to grab his target. Roll towards his left side to avoid the initial attack, and then make distance. If he grabs a summon, he’ll slam them on the ground and shoot flames on them, so don’t try to punish him while he’s grabbing as you’ll take some AOE.
Where to Go After Godrick
By leaving the boss arena through the door to the northwest, you’ll be able to reach Liurnia of the Lakes, which is the best area to do next (assuming you haven’t already cleared the Weeping Peninsula).
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
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