Elden Ring – How To Beat Godfrey, First Elden Lord

With Sir Gideon, The All-Knowing slain, it’s time to make the final ascent to the Erdtree and claim the throne. Only one thing stands in your way: Godfrey, the first husband of Marika and original Elden Lord.

This fight hearkens back to some of those most iconic boss fights in FromSoftware history — think Slave Knight Gael, or Knight Artorias. You can’t cheese him out, and there’s no safety to be found behind a pillar or by “hugging the butt.” Godfrey will force you to stay patient, time your dodges perfectly, and only attack in the tiny windows when it’s safe to do so. It’s a true test of skill, but memorizing his moveset will lead you to victory.

Preparing for the fight

Fortunately, this is a fairly straightforward fight. Godfrey only deals Physical damage, so no need to worry about Dried Livers or other types of Elemental protection. Just throw on whatever armor gives you the highest Physical damage resistance and you’ll be good to go.

Melee builds should equip whatever weapon dishes out the most damage in the shortest amount of time. Again, the window to attack is quite brief, so avoid anything with a long windup. For Sorcerers, any spell you can quickly rapid-fire is a good choice, Glintstone Icecrag being one of the best options. Also consider a Magic sword (Adula’s Moonblade, for example) to punish Godfrey when he gets too close. He is susceptible to Scarlet Rot, so Faith builds should definitely come equipped with either Rotten Breath or Ekzyke’s Decay; this is a great way to whittle away at his HP and shorten the duration of the fight.

Godfrey stays in your face and can close the gap extremely quickly throughout both phases, so long-range builds will struggle without the help of another player to distract him. Black Knife Tiche is the best Spirit Summon for the fight; she will stay aggressive up close, giving you plenty of time to set up your own attack. In addition, both Nepheli Loux and Shabriri are available as NPC summons to aid you in the fight. Just make sure you’ve completed Nepheli’s questline and encountered the Three Fingers at the Frenzied Flame Proscription.

How to beat Godfrey, First Elden Lord

Godfrey hits extremely hard, but his attacks are relatively easy to avoid when you know what to look out for. While it’s possible to use a shield (during the first phase at least), blocking his axe will decimate your stamina in just a couple hits. You’ll be best served dodge-rolling through the majority of his attacks. The timing can be a bit tricky–the windup on many of his moves takes longer than you might expect–but practice will get you there.

Here are all the moves to look out for during phase one:

First phase (Godfrey, First Elden Lord)

• Axe throw. Godfrey will almost always start the fight with this move. He will jump high in the air, throw his Axe down the ground, and then come crashing down after it a moment later. Dodge any direction out of the way of the axe, and stay out of the way to avoid his crash down. Get in an attack or two as he recovers from this move.
• Axe drag. He will run at you, dragging his axe behind him, and then pull it out of the ground in an upward slash. Dodge through it.
• Axe jab. He will jab his Axe at you. This move can connect from farther away than you might guess, and is often combo’d with other axe swings. Dodge to the side to avoid.
• Fissure. Godfrey will swing his axe overheard a few times before slamming it into the ground. A couple seconds later, he will stomp the axe further into the ground, creative a massive fissure in the ground spanning the whole arena. A moment after, the fissure will erupt in an AOE blast. Dodge-roll as soon as he stomps the axe into the ground to avoid taking damage from the fissure’s formation. Run to the side to get out of range of the followup AOE. He will likely immediately come at you with a followup attack, so be prepared.
• Stomp. Throughout the fight, Godfrey will stomp toward you, sending rocks spiking out of the ground in a cone formation. This move is often combo’d with other attacks. Resist the urge to dodge-roll; doing so does not prevent damage from the AOE. Instead, jump as soon as his foot hits the ground. Jump toward him to punish this move with a jump attack.
• Super stomp. Around halfway through phase one (at about 75% health), Godfrey will charge up a huge stomp that will send a shockwave across the whole arena. Jump over the shockwave to avoid damage. Both the windup and recovery time for this move are substantial, so take advantage and get in as much damage as possible. After this move–for as long as the white aura is above his head–his stomps will create a shockwave, rather than the rock black AOE. This is both a blessing and a curse: His stomps’ shockwave AOE will now all span the entire arena; however, unlike the previous stomp, this move can be rolled through.

At about 50% health, Godfrey will brutally slay his companion, Serosh, and reveal his true form as Hoarah Loux, Warrior. You won’t have to worry about his axe any more, but he will now employ an array of even deadlier grab attacks. These moves can’t be blocked, and can potentially one-shot you if they connect, so be ready to roll!

Phase two (Hoarah Loux, Warrior)

• Grab attack. Hoarah Loux will always start phase two with this move. He will run toward you, slowly extending his arms, before finally attempting a grab. (Later in the fight, he will sometimes begin this move by jumping at you from afar rather than running). If he connects, he will throw you in the air, and slam you back into the ground. Dodge to the side to avoid the grab.
• He will perform a second, deadlier grab attack as well. In this one, he’ll run at you with his arms crossed, sending you flying across the arena and slamming you back into the ground if he connects. Dodge through it at the last possible second.
• Choke slam. He will wind his arm back and attempt to grab you by the throat, lifting you in the air and throwing you into the ground. Dodge to the side to avoid.
• Claw attack. He will swipe at you twice with his claws, pause for a moment, and then follow up with a deadly barrage of seven more claw swipes. These second series of swipes happen very fast and are extremely tough to dodge, so try to run away after dodging the first two swipes.
• Hoarah Loux’s Earthshaker. He will let out a roar (which can knock you over but doesn’t deal damage), jump in the air, and come crashing down at you. A second after, he will slam both hands in the ground, creating an AOE blast and covering the ground in craters that will erupt a moment later. Dodge through the AOE and run out of range of the craters before they erupt.
• Stomp. Just like in phase one, he will stomp toward you, sending rock shards shooting out of the ground. Again, jump over them. He will also perform the super stomp at about 25% health, this time stomping twice rather than once. Jump over both.

The timing can be a bit tricky during both phases of the fight, but all of his attacks are very well telegraphed. Take note of his windup animations so you know which attack is coming, and be patient with your dodges; spamming the roll button is a death sentence in this fight. Don’t get greedy with your attacks and you’ll come out victorious in no time. When you do, you’ll be rewarded with 300,000 Runes and Remembrance of Hoarah Loux, which grants you access to the Axe of Godfrey or the Hoarah Loux’s Earthshaker Ash of War. With Godfrey dead, it’s time to enter the Erdtree and take on Radagon and the Elden Beast.