After defeating Gideon, you’ll run into yet another person who decided to show up after you did all the hard work. This time it’s Godfrey, First Elden Lord, the second-to-last boss in the game. The first phase is a fairly straightforward boss fight, but in phase 2 Godfrey turns into the grappling, fast-moving Hoarah Loux. If you’re tired of getting slam-dunked around the boss arena, read on!
General Tips
You should roll towards and past the boss if you want to counter attack as a melee character, but you can roll backwards to make space and heal.
Blocking is only marginally effective in phase 1, and very dangerous in phase 2 (since most of his attacks are grabs).
Since Phase 2 is so much harder, consider waiting to summon your spirit ash until you’re almost done with phase 1.
Godfrey does purely physical damage, so the Dragoncest Greatshield Talisman and heavier armor can help you mitigate a lot of damage.
Strategy
This boss is slow and hard-hitting, and has many huge AOE abilities; players who don’t have at least ~1800 HP are going to find themselves getting killed frequently. It’s a very, very good idea to go respec at Rennala and get 60 vigor if you find yourself constantly getting killed in one or two hits while fighting Godfrey. You’ll also want the Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche upgraded to +10 — both are excellent options that make this fight much easier.
This fight has two distinct phases — the boss’s name even changes — and the strategies and tactics for each phase are very different. Note that the strategies below will mainly discuss doing damage and general tactics, so for info on avoiding damage, see the Moveset section below.
Phase 1 (Godfrey, First Elden Lord)
You have a choice when you enter this phase: you can summon your spirit ash now, or you can wait until phase 2. Try it a few times with your summon in phase 1, and if you find that your summon dies in or before phase 2, consider waiting until just before 2 to summon (when the boss is just above 50% HP).
The strategies below are for when the boss is targeting you, and for if your summon dies — when the boss is focused on your summon, you can just attack his back and then roll/run away. However, you should still wait for a combo to end before attacking, unless you’re certain none of his attacks are going to be wide arcs (that reach behind him) or AOE attacks.
Note that once Godfrey is at about 60% HP, he’ll do a very slow stomp with his axe held high — once he finally stomps, it will do an arena-wide AOE (you can jump it or roll through it, just like his regular stomp). For the rest of the phase, all of his stomps will be empowered and cover the whole arena. You can get a lot of damage in while he charges up this initial stomp, but you’ll need to use i-frames to roll through the damage when he does stomp — if you do so, you can get even more damage in after the empowering stomp.
Melee
Melee characters can use a greatshield to learn the boss’s moveset. However, you won’t have enough stamina left after blocking a full combo to attack, so do this only while familiarizing yourself with Godfrey’s attack patterns.
If you get to about the stone circle in the boss arena and then wait, Godfrey will almost always start the fight by jumping in the air and throwing his axe at you, then jumping towards you. If you just walk or roll forwards, his axe will miss you, and you can then turn around and get some free damage on him once he jumps to his axe.
For the rest of this phase, you’ll want to roll towards the boss’s right side to avoid his attacks, and then punish the end of his combo with a jumping attack. You can also attack in the middle of his slower combos with a rolling light attack, and if you’re ever uncertain about whether or not a combo is actually over, just do a rolling light attack instead of a jumping heavy. Additionally, you can get a light attack off if the boss is idle (not beginning a combo), since his windups are fairly slow.
You’ll get low on stamina after a few sequences like this — once you’re low on stamina, dodge backwards/away from the boss, make some distance, and wait for your stamina to recover.
Ranged
Godfrey has a very consistent response to ranged attacks — he dashes forwards and does his stomp attack. What this means is that you can run away to make some distance, use a ranged attack, and then start running away again. When he does his stomp attack, just jump and keep running until you’re a safe distance, and then you can attack again.
Additional Options
Because Godfrey moves so slowly at the start of the fight, you can use dragon breath attacks on him after going through the fog gate — Ekzyke’s Decay is a particularly good choice. You can also use the dragon incantations that make you leap into the air to avoid the boss’s stomp attacks.
Similarly, Intelligence builds can use the Cerulean Hidden Tear (in the Flask of Wondrous Physick) + Terra Magicus + Comet Azur combo at the start of the fight to remove ~50% of the boss’s health. Run to the second large square after entering the arena and then flask, cast Terra Magicus, then hold Comet Azur — you should be able to start or almost start phase 2 before the boss can close the gap and damage you. It’s also not a bad idea to use the infinite FP from the hidden tear to summon high FP ashes like Tiche before casting Comet Azur.
Phase 2 (Hoarah Loux, Warrior)
When phase 2 begins, you’ll be in front of the boss — sprint away from him and his initial grab will miss. Congrats, you just learned the phase 2 strategy! If you run directly away from Hoarah Loux, almost all of his attacks will miss, and you can attack after he whiffs one of his own. Don’t forget to jump at the landing point of any attack where he leaps into the air.
Melee characters will need to roll once or twice (depending on his response) after attacking, and then start running again. Note that you can’t just buffer a roll, but will need to watch and see what he’s doing, and roll as a reaction.
Ranged characters can do basically the same thing as in Phase 1, although you’ll have much less time to attack and will need to manage your stamina better.
The only attack that can sometimes hit you while you’re running away is his Alley-Oop, and even then only sometimes. You can identify this attack by his crossed arms. If he seems too close when he starts it, you’ll want to roll, or else…
Just like in phase 1, once you’ve done enough damage, he’ll do a slow windup and then slam the ground, although this time it’s with his hands and he does it twice in a row. For the rest of the fight, his stomps will be empowered and cover the whole arena, as will the initial damage from his Leaping Eruption attack.
Moveset
Godfrey has a lot of combos, but the ones in phase 1 can all be dodged on reaction, and in phase 2 we’ll just be running away. With that in mind, in this section, we’re only going to cover his special attacks that require specific responses.
Phase 1
Don’t forget that the boss will empower itself (you can tell this is active by swirling mists around him) about halfway through this phase, starting with a very slow slam that hits the whole arena. While empowered, all ground slam attacks will hit the whole arena.
Stomp –The boss stomps on the ground, doing damage in a cone in front of him. If he is not in range, he’ll dash forward before stomping. You can jump or roll to avoid this attack.
Fissure –The boss stomps, does damage in an AOE around him, and opens up a fissure in the arena that spans the entire area. After a brief delay, the fissure erupts, damaging and knocking up anything on top of it. You’ll need to quickly run/roll off of the area of effect to avoid taking a ton of damage. This has a wider AOE than it looks like, so don’t stop rolling away from it until the spell activates.
Phase 2
Note that the boss retains almost none of his moves from Phase 1, and only the Stomp remains. As with phase 1, the boss will empower itself about halfway through this phase, starting with a very slow slam that hits the whole arena — this time there’s a second slam right after the first.
Ground Stomps – The boss has a wider variety of opening ground slams — they all involve him raising his foot, but come at different speeds and look somewhat different. As long as you jump when the boss brings his foot down, you shouldn’t take damage unless you’re very close to him (in which case you should try to time a roll instead).
Leaping Kick Slam –The boss leaps into the air and kicks upward, doing ground damage in an AOE upon landing (this hits the whole arena if he’s empowered). Like the other ground slams, you can jump or roll to avoid.
Leaping Eruption –The boss leaps into the air and slams down near his target, doing ground damage in an AOE (or the whole arena if it’s the second half of Phase 2) He then slams the ground again, doing another AOE and creating a circular fissure around him that explodes after a brief delay. As with the fissure, quickly get out of the area — it’s huge, so you need to sprint out of it instead of just rolling. Since the eruption area is a circle, you can run in any direction — as long as it’s directly away from the boss.
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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