You’ll need to head deep into Leyndell, Royal Capital, to face off against this iteration of Godfrey the First Elden Lord. Godfrey puts up one hell of a fight, and so we’d advise using some co-operation for the tough fight ahead, or even a a spirit ash summon to help you on your way to slaying the boss. On this page: Yes, what we’re dealing with here is a main story-focused boss in Elden Ring, but keep in mind that we’re specifically talking about the Golden Shade iteration of Godfrey throughout this page. Now that that’s out of the way, you’ll want to take a heavy weapon infused with Bleed damage for this fight. While Godfrey the First Elden Lord is unfortunately pretty resistant to Scarlet Rot, he’s pretty susceptible to Bleed damage, and so we’d recommend taking a weapon that has a special Bleed-focused ability, not one that builds up Bleed damage with each continuous hit. This boss fight, as they often are in FromSoftware games, is about holding your nerve and dodging at the last possible second through Godfrey the First Elden Lord’s massive swinging attacks with his axe, not automatically dodging as soon as the boss prepares to swing at you. A lot of this fight revolves around dodging through Godfrey’s massive swing attacks with his axe. The boss generally pulls off one, two, or three big swings in a row, and it’s important not to get greedy and run in for an attack, only to get caught out with a follow-up attack from the boss. A really good rule to stay by is that if Godfrey the First Elden Lord’s attack ends with his axe on the floor in front of him, he won’t chain together another strike. There’s an attack where the boss brings the head of his hammer down on the floor immediately in front of him, almost using it like a spear to reach at you, and this is just one instance where when the axe finishes in front of him on the ground, you should press the attack. Godfrey’s also fond of rising up into the air and throwing his axe down at you from above, followed by a large sweeping attack when he zooms in to grab the weapon. This is most commonly seen right at the beginning of the boss fight, and it’s a pretty simple one to avoid, if you dodge while the axe is careening towards you in the air. Other than this, one strike to watch out for is when Godfrey lifts up a leg. When his foot comes down to the floor, a wave of spikes will erupt from the ground in a small cone immediately in front of him, and this can be a little tricky to dodge if you’re caught in the blast. Try timing your dodge so that you’re rolling when the spikes burst up, and you stand a much better chance of avoiding the whole thing. Once you have settled on a starting class and starting Keepsake item, you should first work out how to level up, how to respec and use Ashes of War. Need some direction from there? Our Elden Ring walkthrough and Elden Ring boss order can help with where to go next, but we also recommend hunting down Golden Seeds, Sacred Tears, Crystal Tears, Talismans and some of our best weapon and best armor choices. If you are approaching the end game, we can help with the Volcano Manor quest and Rykard, Haligtree Secret Medallion locations, solving the Ordina, Liturgical Town puzzle, the Millicent quest, Commander Niall, Morgott, Godskin Duo, Maliketh and Malenia. You’ll also bag yourself a Talisman Pouch, which increases the number of Talisman slots. Godfrey the First Elden Lord might be down, but you’ve got the rest of Leyndell, Royal Capital to venture through. The climax of this entire area brings you face to face with one of the tougher bosses in the entire game: Morgott, the Omen King.
