How to easily beat Godrick the Grafted in ‘Elden Ring’

As one of the Elden Lords, Godrick the Grafted is a major obstacle in Elden Ring. He’s the final boss of the lethal gauntlet of Stormveil Castle, which is bristling with traps, powerful enemies, and useful items. He’s a ruthless opponent, going on the offensive with stamina-draining combo attacks, high maneuverability, and some very nasty magic. Worse, mid-way through the fight, he grows a dragon-arm and starts blasting fire everywhere.

Fortunately, he’s also very straightforward to cheese if you know one weird trick. If you’ve gotten as far as Godrick, you’ll likely know all too well how useful Spirit Ashes are. These summon helpers that attack and distract bosses, allowing you to sneak some hits in while they’re slashing away at your new ghost buddies. But there’s one summon that trivializes Godrick: the “Rotten Stray.”

This can be found in the land of Caelid, which you can quickly get to by using the teleport chest in Limgrave’s Dragonburnt ruins. Escape the mine and run along the shore of the poisonous swamp to pick it up. This spell summons a single Rotten Stray, whose bite inflicts the HP-draining “Scarlet Rot” status.

Then it’s simply a case of heading into Godrick’s boss arena, summoning the stray, and waiting for Godrick to get hit by the status effect. Once he’s afflicted, his health will steadily drain to zero, meaning that all you have to do is stay away from him and wait. You may have to heal if his homing wind projectile hits you, though you can use the terrain to block it. Here’s a video of someone using the same tactics:

“Scarlet Rot” even prevents him from changing form, making taking down your first Elden Lord into an absolute cakewalk. I’ve also heard that you can use the Jellyfish summon to similar effect, but haven’t personally tested it.

It’s possible that the “Rotten Stray” summon will be nerfed in future patches, though this works as of patch 1.02.1. Future bosses may also be susceptible to the same strategy, though we’ll know more as players untangle the many secrets and quirks of Elden Ring.