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Elden Ring’s Stormveil Castle is an enormous Legacy Dungeon, full of the most difficult enemies and boss that you’ve faced this far. In this Stormveil Castle walkthrough, we’ll show you how to defeat every enemy, find every item, and defeat the boss, Godrick the Grafted.

Stormveil Castle tips

There’s such a wide variety of enemies that there isn’t much universal to say. But …

Fire damage. Many enemies inside attack with fire. It may be best to optimize for fire damage protection.
Ranged weapon. Get yourself a ranged weapon. We hesitate to recommend a different play style than what you might be using, but we also can’t imagine a trip through Stormveil Castle without ranged options.

Stormveil Castle map

Elden Ring guide: Stormveil Castle walkthrough and map — Elden Ring Stormveil Castle map.

Stormveil Main Gate site of grace

Your journey through Stormveil Castle begins outside. From the Stormveil Main Gate site of grace, head northeast, down the stairs, and pillage the body for Furlcalling Finger Remedy x1, a consumable item that reveals nearby summon signs.

Turn around, head back up the stairs, but drop off to the south before you get to the top, down onto the wooden plank path. Pillage the remains there for Fire Grease, a consumable item that adds fire damage to your weapon.

Hop down off the ledge, and follow the path ahead to the cliff. Collect the Trina’s Lilly x1 at your left. Now backtrack, walking through the southeastern hole in the wall on your right, and wind your way back to the Stormveil Main Gate site of grace.

Walk into the door west of the site of grace, and speak to Gatekeeper Gostic who calls to you. Answer Very well. You can also answer No, I’ll use the main gate, which will open the portculis, but that way leads directly to death. Go through the hole in the wall, not the main gate, and examine the Marika Statue. It’ll say This summoning pool is now functional.

Pillage the body next to the statue for Golden Rune [1]. Climb up the rubble to the west of the statue, and pillage the body for Ruin Fragment x3. Follow that path up, around, and jump down into a small area.

Raise your shield. There are extremely dangerous birds in the area. You can see and lock onto the first one near a tower after you land. Attack it from range if possible. Keep your shield up when it takes flight to block its sword attacks.

Head right, and you can activate the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace. Head left, and you can get some items. So let’s do that.

There are two paths to take from the cliffside facing southeast. One goes up, and the other goes down. We’ll go down first.

The path down

There are two Stormhawks below: one perched on the dead tree, and another standing on the ground below that tree. Attack from rage if you can.

Take the path to the east around the corner, and pillage the corpse for Bolt x10.

Now backtrack past the two Stormhawks and up the path. Go slowly when you get to the top, and look for the Stormhawk snacking on the corpse to the southwest.

There are two more in the tree above it, and killing the one will probably alert the others. Back up, separate them, and take them down one at a time.

When it’s safe, pillage the remains for Smithing Stone [3] x1.

Keep heading uphill, north. Drop off the ledge, and claim the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace and activate the nearby Marika Statue.

Rest up to refill Everything. You’re going to need it.

Stormveil Cliffside site of grace

Head up the stairs. There are three Exiles in the area. The first you can see holds a horn. If he blows it, he’ll call is two friends. Fighting three dudes at once is the worst. So your goal is to kill the first guy before he can blow the horn.

Charge up the stairs while the Exile’s is turned, or kill from range. It’s not make or break if he blows his horn (even just a little), but it’s easier to take on enemies individually.

On the way up (or as you double back), pillage the remains on the stairs for the Marred Leather Shield, which isn’t super great as a shield, but causes blood loss buildup (50).

Back up top, take the path left, look up, kill the Exile with a ranged weapon if you have it (or leave and visit the merchant on the beach to buy a Shortbow and some arrows). Pillage the remains at the end of the path for Golden Rune [2], which is worth 1,600 runes.

Inside

Head inside, and kill the two weak Commoner enemies sitting there. Head beyond (not up) the stairs, crouch, behind the boxes and stay out of sight from the Exile holding the giant axe. When he turns his back, sneak up and backstab him. Pillage the the remains in the corner for Hookclaws, a Wolverine-like weapon that, like the Marred Leather Shield, causes blood loss buildup (60). We used it extensively throughout Stormveil Castle.

Head up the stairs slowly, and take out the two Exiles chucking Fire Pots at exploding red barrels and you. To the right of the locked door, pillage the remains for Throwing Dagger x5.

Head up a small staircase, and jump up through the large hole in the wall. Pillage the remains there for St. Trina’s Arrow, whose passive effects cause sleep buildup.

Hop out of the hole, and kill the Exile as you land. Follow the wooden plank path up another staircase. Kill the Exile there, enter through another thorn-filled hole in the wall, and kill the Commoner just below you when you come in. Head down the stairs, destroy the red barrels, and pillage the corpse for Smoldering Butterly.

Continue up to where an enemy is sitting down. Kill it, and then jump down over the edge where he was sitting. Pillage the remains there for Golden Rune [2].

Now head back up.

Before you open the door here, prepare for a fight. It may be worth your time to go back to the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace to replenish your flasks. Also to reallocate your flasks to focus on healing, rather than magic.

Banished Knight in the dark room

The Banished Knight behind the door was a brick wall for us, a build focused on magic and dexterity. Here’s some advice.

For the heavily armored knight inside the dark room, feel free to bob and weave to your heart’s content. But there’s a stealthy way about this as well. Seems this knight has a tremendously narrow vision cone. You can sneak right up behind him, keeping the debris in the room on your right-hand side, and get a backstab in. The video above shows the path to take. If you land a critical — which the claws allow you to do pretty much 100% of the time in this instance — the knight ends up facedown on the ground. Leaving the debris inside the room intact, just run back outside and hide behind the debris in the lighted area. Listen carefully for the knight’s footsteps. He circles the room, searching for his attacker, and then he resets. You can sneak right back in, land another critical backstab, and then hide outside again and wait for him to reset. Lather, rinse, and repeat to take the knight down easily. —Charlie Hall
Optimize for poise. In Elden Ring, poise represents the “degree to which you can resist collapsing under enemy attacks.” His devastating attacks can destroy your poise and kill you before you ever regain control. We have the video to prove it at 15 Vigor and 495 HP. The Exile Armor that drops from the enemies in the area is a fairly light armor with 14 Poise, which is high.
Backstab. Survive long enough, and get behind him, and you’ll take off a chunk of his health.
Hookclaws and blood loss. Blood loss causes even more damage than a typical backstab. In short, every attack with a weapon that causes blood loss to build up. Then, after several hits, blood loss occurs, and your enemy loses a huge chunk of damage. Use the Hookclaws that you got earlier for this. Prefer that over the Reduvia, if you have that. The Reduvia only has 50 blood loss buildup, while the Hookclaws have 60. And every swing counts.
Roll through attacks. i-frames are what people call invincibility frames during animations in which you can’t take damage. The way to use that here is to roll through an attack, which you’ll see us do a lot below.
Know his moves. He has the Storm Stomp ash of war, which you can get in a cave beneath the Gatefront Ruins.

The idea is to survive long enough that you can make it bleed and backstab it.

Pillage the remains for the Rusty Key, which opens the locked door downstairs, and the treasure chest for the Curved Sword Talisman, which enhances guard counters.

At this point, if backtrack to the area where you got the Hookclaws, you’ll meet a Commoner who appears to be the one who offered you help at the beginning of this area. Speak to him, and he’ll give you the Grace Mimic, whose cryptic description says “Light shows the path, but without order.” It’s a item. Its detailed text says “Similar to grace, this fetish draws rays guiding the way, only without any sense of order.

“Useful as a last resort for those who have lost their way, or for use by those who believe that unrefined guidance will lead to truer encounters.”

Unlock the door with the Rusty Key, and climb the ladder up.

Up the ladder

Turn right, and kill the Commoners in the distance. Pillage the remains past the second, Fire Pot-throwing Commoner for Fire Grease.

You can’t get the item glowing at you yet, but you can get another item.

Jump again, this time across the room to a ledge on the wall opposite to where the Fire Pot-throwing Commoner was. Follow the wooden walkway to your left, where there are Exiles to defeat, and go through the door. Pillage the remains there for a Brick Hammer, a heavy weapon that requires 31 Strength to wield properly.

Jump down past the body, and make your way to and up the ladder again. At the top, take a left this time. Watch out for the Commoner ambush on your left. Roll through to avoid being grabbed.

Follow the stairs up, kill the sitting Commoner, and pillage the remains for a Silver-Pickled Fowl Foot, which “temporarily boosts item discovery.”

Outside

Head outside, turn left, and instead of going up the stairs, follow the narrow ledge around to the left. Pillage the remains for Mushroom x3.

Double back and head up the stairs. Stop!

Through the door, there’s another Banished Knight to fight. Or not. We vote not yet.

Instead, ignore that knight. He’ll be there when you want to fight him later. Run up the stairs, and head into the doorway on your left as you reach the top, were you’ll find the Rampart Tower site of grace.

Rest. You’ve earned it.

Rampart Tower site of grace

Suddenly, we’ve got options. Tons of options. There are multiple paths from here. We honestly believe that the Rampart Tower site of grace is fulcrum of Stormveil Castle.

These are our paths, in the order that we’ll take them in.

Down past the knight to retrieve the glowing item we couldn’t get in the hole in the wall outside knight we fought in the dark room.
Up to the roof, where we’ll explore not one but two hidden paths.
On the same floor as the Rampart Tower site of grace, past a bunch of Stormhawks, and then down, down, and down.

Rampart Tower: Down past the knight

From the Rampart Tower site of grace, exit though the door facing southeast. Turn right, and jump the gap between the spiral staircases. Pillage the remains for Drawstring Fire Grease x2, which “quickly coats armament, inflicting fire damage, but with a brief effect, owing to its small size.”

Now make your way carefully down the spiral staircase, toward the knight. This time you have more room and more light. The strategies we laid out above remain valid, but so do slow ranged attacks, as well.

Also there’s a giant elevator shaft in the middle of the room, which you can use to put space between you and the knight. Also also, he can fall down the hole, which felt kind of sad for an instant but then totally justifiable given how many times something like that has happened to us. Let’s call it fair.

Exit through the door and turn left. Look down over the ledge, and you’ll see a ledge below you. Jump down, and follow the path, which leads to the hole in the wall that you couldn’t access near the first knight fight. Pillage the corpse for Arteria Leaf, an “exceedingly rare” crafting item, according to its description.

Make your way back to the Rampart Tower site of grace for the next round.

Rampart Tower: Up to the roofs

From the Rampart Tower site of grace, head up the nearby spiral staircase, and kill the Exiles at the top. Collect the Throwing Daggers from the where the Exile with the crossbow was.

Head out the door and up onto the roof. Turn right, and kill the Exile hiding around the corner. Next, kill the Exile standing on the platform. If you don’t, he’ll blow his horn and wake up the other Exiles. Kill them all, and we’re ready to head down.

There are two paths to take from the roof here, each of which gets you stuff. Either way, jump up on the pile of sandbags and then up on top of the ledge.

Rampart Tower roof Stonesword Key, gesture, and talisman

The path to the claw talisman in Elden Ring — Head this way to the Claw Talisman

Follow the path to the southeast, and jump to the next tower. Follow the path around on the outside, and then jump over the rubble into the inner part of the tower. Jump down, and loot the body for a Stonesword Key.

Jump out the window, and prepare to battle a fire-breathing Stormhawk. Pilage the remains near where the Stormhawk perched for the Dozing Cross-Legged emote.

Head north and cross the adjoining roof, where a conveniently placed ruin creates a path up top. Instead of going up, turn around and face southeast, as pictured below.

Make your way up onto the ledge as we did above, and jump your way to the path around the building, where you’ll find a body to pillage for a smithing stone.

Now turn back, and walk up that conveniently placed slanted ruin. Follow the path around, and jump up to a small area where you’ll find four Exiles. Defeat them, and climb the ladder. At the top, pillage the body for the Claw Talisman, which “enhances jump attacks.”

Descend the ladder, and head back to the ledge from which you came. Jump down, and then jump down again. Defeat the knight with a halberd and the Exile with a crossbow.

At this point, there are two exits. A path southwest takes you to a place we’ll visit later, when it’s more to our advantage. Instead we’re hading to the path north, over a rope bridge, defended by two Exiles. Pillage the corpse there for the Nomadic Warrior’s Cookbook [10], which allows you to craft a Stormwing Bone Arrow.

Head east, but don’t take the ladder down. Instead, smash some barrels, and jump down to the ledge. From there, used ranged attacks to take down the sleeping Exiles, one of whom is a giant with an axe.

A rope bridge in Elden Ring’s Stormveil Castle — There are two knights across the rope bridge, but one is hidden to the right.

Walk halfway across another rope bridge, and convince the knight with the halberd in the distance to follow you. There’s another knight hiding to the right, as you exit the bridge. Don’t fight both of them at once. Kite the visible halberd knight back to where you just defeated the Exiles.

Pillage the remains in the south of the area near the ladder for Festering Bloody Finger x3, a consumable item that lets you attempt to invade another player’s world.

Descend the ladder and follow the path around, pillaging the corpse for Arrow x10 along the way. Descend another ladder, and pillage another corpse for Golden Rune [4].

Drop down, kill the Exiles in the area, staring with the one on the platform to the east, and pillage nearby remains for Smithing Stone [2] and one down a staircase for Smithing Stone [1].

Eliminate as many enemies as you can from a distance, and then run down the stairs, heading southeast. Walk through the door, pillage the remains for Golden Rune [5], push the lever to open the Stormveil Castle main gate, exit through the door facing east and pillage the remains for Commoner’s Simple Garb, and activate the Gateside Chamber site of grace.

Heading back out the way you came will get you dead. Either fast travel back to the Rampart Tower site of grace, or hop down through the hole in the wall, and speak to Gatekeeper Gostic, who’s now a merchant.

Let’s fast travel back to the Rampart Tower site of grace.

Rampart Tower: Exploding birds

From the Rampart Tower site of grace, head through the northern door. There are several Stormhawks perched there, waiting to blow you up. Craft some Fire Pots from all of the Mushrooms and Smoldering Butterflies that the Exiles have been dropping, and toss those at the closest Stormhawks to explode them and the barrels they’re near.

Walk past the stairs, keeping left, and toss another Fire Pot into the red barrels there to kill a hidden Stormhawk. Pillage the remains there for Smithing Stone [2].

Rampart Tower: Exploding birds to hidden path

Kill the Stormhawks, and look for an outcropping facing southwest. Jump up and over the railing, and you’ll fall onto a hidden path below.

The hidden path is up these stairs and over the ledge.

Head northwest, jumping down first to a ledge, and then to some wreckage and more ledges. Pillage the remains along the way for the Marred Wooden Shield, which causes blood loss buildup.

Make your way down the only way you can, and prepare for a fight. When you land, attack the gray scarab, and collect the Ash of War: Storm Assault.

Follow the path out to the southeast, where you’ll find an absurdly difficult knight patrolling the area. It makes the other absurdly difficult knights look like child’s play. Defeat it — perhaps by luring it into a nearby shaft — and you’ll receive the Aspects of the Crucible: Horns incarnation, which requires 27 Faith.

If that’s not useful to you, then just sneak by. Take the path up, but don’t go inside or take the lift yet. At the outcropping where you can overlook the knight and the area you just snuck through, collect Trina’s Lilly x1.

When the knight is looking away, jump down, run toward the corpse. Pillage it for Somber Smithing Stone [2].

Ride the lift up, and return to the Rampart Tower site of grace.

Rampart Tower: Sorcerer, knights, a lift

Follow the path we outlined above, destroying the birds, and head down the staircase and onto the roof. Pillage the remains for Golden Rune [2].

Instead of falling through the round hole, walk through onto another roof. Drop down onto another roof, and pillage the body for Kukiri x5. Jump down through the door, and speak to Sorcerer Rogier, who you may have met as a summon earlier. He sells magic-based Ashes of War.

Head out of the church, and defeat the knight and the Exile patrolling the area.

Continue down the path away from the church, enter the building, and pillage the remains for Golden Rune [2].

In the next room, defeat the giant Exile with the axe hiding in the shadows, and the Exile with the crossbow sleeping next to a treasure chest. (We’ll unlock the door behind the giant Exile in the next section.)

The next room is outdoors. Look to your left and down. Defeat the dogs, and pillage the remains for three things: Lump of Flesh x1, Golden Rune [1], and Chrysalids’ Memento. Give the latter to the woman in Stormhill Shack to progress her quest.

Take the door out, turn left, and take the lift up. Exit the room, and make your way back to the Rampart Tower site of grace. Rest up, and thank your lucky stars that you can now avoid the birds.

Open the locked door

The platform in the distance is your destination Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Run up and beyond these sandbags. Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Kill the Exile, pillage the corpse on the right, and follow the wooden-planked path to the left. Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Climb the ladder. Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Make your way back to the same outdoor area where you just dropped down, and look on the opposite side for a pile of sandbags. Jump up on those sandbags.

Defeat the Exile, and pillage the corpse for a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot and, follow the path around. A the end, climb up the difficult-to-see ladder. Drop down from the path, and unlock the nearby door.

Head the other way in, and open the treasure chest for a Pickled Turtle Neck, which “temporarily boosts stamina recovery,” and a body on the other side of the platform for a Stonesword Key.

Rampart Tower: Lift and a grafted monstrosity

From the Rampart Tower site of grace, take the lift you just opened down and defeat the grafted monstrosity in the dining hall. The elevator room is a safe place from which to launch your attacks.

Pillage two corpses in the room, one for Stanching Boluses, which help to prevent blood loss, and another for the Highland Axe weapon.

Take the door to the northwest, near the door to the lift, turn right, and pillage the body for Somber Smithing Stone [2] x1.

You can use a Stonesword Key to clear the fog wall on the opposite side of the room. Kill the giant Exiles with axes on the other side, and pillage the corpses for the Iron Whetblade, which lets you choose an affinity like heavy, keen, and quality when you’re upgrading your weapon; the Hawk Crest Wooden Shield; and the Miséricorde, a dagger with 140 critical power, which makes it great for backstabbing.

Kill the Exile and three Commoners in the room adjacent to the dining hall, and pillage the remains under the stairs for Exalted Flesh, which temporarily boosts your physical attack.

In the next room is a knight with a halberd. Kite him out into the room where you just killed the enemies, so that you have way more space to fight him in. Return to the room he was in, and open the treasure chest for Mimic’s Veil, a reusable item that lets you mimic nearby objects like a chair.

Now enter the door facing northwest, but on the side of the dining hall with the painting. Kill the lone Commoner above you, walk around to the other side of the area above the room, and pillage the remains for Arrows.

The area ahead is a super dangerous courtyard, filled with Exiles manning deadly weapons. Run out, turn left, and follow the stairs down. Defeat the rats, and pillage the body for Fireproof Dried Liver, which temporarily boosts fire damage negation.

You may use another Stonesword Key to lift the fog gate and open two treasure chests. One has the Goldslayer’s Seal, which requires 27 Faith to use and boosts godslayer incantations. In the other, you’ll find the Godskin Prayerbook, which you can give to an NPC to learn new incantations.

The door out of that room leads you to a place we’ve been before: the fog wall we encountered on our way to the Gateside Chamber site of grace.

Stormveil Castle courtyard

This may be the single most difficult geographical location not just in Stormveil Castle, but in all of Elden Ring thus far, if you go in unprepared. Whatever more than outnumbered is, that’s what you are. Running out is certain death. Your best bets are:

Ranged weapons. You’re relatively safe when you enter the courtyard from the room with the lone Commoner. If you have ranged weaponry, you can pick off some of the Exiles. Prioritize those standing behind giant weapons. Craft what you need, if you craft your ranged weapons. Consider changing the balance of your flasks to prioritize magic, because you’ll need a lot of it to take down the roughly 7 billion Exiles in the courtyard.
Kiting enemies. Attract the attention of a few Exiles, and convince them to follow you into the relatively safe room with the lone Commoner.
Run! There is no shame in running through, avoiding hits and entering the room on the far side of the courtyard, opposite the door you entered from.

Here’s what you’ll find when pillaging bodies across the courtyard:

Wooden Greatshield, from a body in the elevated section at the northeast
Fire Arrow x12, from a body in the elevated section in the west
Golden Rune [1]
Magic Grease
Pike
Smoldering Butterfly x5

Beyond the courtyard with all of the Exiles, there’s a giant greature and his dog. Run up the stairs to his right, pillage the corpse there for Furlcalling Finger Remedy x1, and turn left at the top of the stairs. Enter the door and discover the Liftside Chamber site of grace.

Rest there, and we’ll clean up some stuff using the Liftside Chamber as our base of operations.

Liftside Chamber site of grace

We’re going to do a few quick things first, and then open the locked door near the Liftside Chamber site of grace.

Leave the Liftside Chamber site of grace room, turn right, and pillage the corpse at the cliff ahead for Smithing Stone [1].

Elden Ring Stormveil Castle courtyard open door leading to the “Prophecy” Painting — This open door leads to the “Prophecy” Painting

Leave the Liftside Chamber site of grace, and run past the giant monstrosity and its dog. Find the open door on your right, walk in, interact with the painting, and collect the “Prophecy” Painting.

Ignore the glowing statue for now. We’ll get to that later, from the Secluded Cell site of grace.

Up the lift

The liftside chamber site of grace in Elden Ring — The lift that gives the Liftside Chamber site of grace its name. Head up, and there are a bunch of things to do there.

Pull the lever in the room adjacent to the site of grace to bring the lift down. Step on, and ride it up. Follow the path through the door, and now you have two places to go.

Left/southwest

There are several pot-looking creatures. You can kill them, or you can just run past them and collect the Cracked Pots on the corpses.

Right/northeast

To the right, head down the central ramp and listen for the sound of bells. Defeat the gray scarab for the Ash of War: Stormcaller. Run forward, and light the Secluded Cell site of grace.

The parkour path to a hidden area in Elden Ring, leading to the Liftside Chamber locked door — This way to a hidden path.

Go back up, and pillage the body on the left side for Kukri x8. Jump beyond the body at the end of the right path, and follow the ledge around. Jump at the end to the nearby window ledge, and walk through. In the distance are a knight and his bird.

You can kill the bird first from a distance without alerting the knight. Then backstab the knight. Finish him, and he might drop the Banished Knight’s Shield, which has a 100% chance to block Critical hits like backstabs, as well as 100% Physical damage negation.

Open the Liftside Chamber site of grace locked door

We’re going to unlock the door near the Liftside Chamber site of grace. Take the lift up, and follow the path that we highlighted with arrow on the image above.

The door leading to the path leading to the locked door by the Liftside Chamber site of grace

To find the hidden path, turn right, and enter the door. Make your way up through the building, collecting nothing until you get outside. Collect the Smithing Stone [2] x3 from a body on a wooden-planked ledge to your right as you exit.

the hidden path to the locked door Elden Ring Stormveil Castle Liftside Chamber site of grace — A Smithing Stone [2] behind, and Trina’s Lilly, Smithing Stone [1], and Golden Rune [2] ahead

Follow the path left (pictured above), and collect the Trina’s Lilly, Smithing Stone [1] and Golden Rune [2]. Follow the path the only way you can until you’re back inside.

A room filled with Commoners in Elden Ring — This room is filled with Commoners.

There are a bunch of Commoners ahead. Walk slowly, and kill them individually. When it’s clear, collect the Manor Towershield from a corpse under the staircase.

Keep going, once again the only way you can. Along the way, pillage a corpse for Smithing Stone [3], jump down, walk past the door, and pillage another corpse for Golden Rune [5]. Continue along the path, looting another corpse for Rainbow Stone x5, which we’ve pictured below.

Look to the east, and there’s a door in the distance. You can see it in the screenshot below. That’s the Liftside Chamber site of grace locked door, from the other side.

The other side of the locked door at Elden Ring Stormveil Castle Liftside Chamber site of grace — The locked door, from the other side

Walk up, unlock it, and you have access to the Liftside Chamber site of grace.

Turn right from the screenshot showing the Rainbow Stone above, and you’ll find yourself in an area filled with a few bats. Take them down, and jump along the wooden boards below until you find a body to pillage for an Arteria Leaf. You can see the path from freshly unlocked Liftside Chamber site below.

The path leading from the unlocked Liftside Chamber site of grace door to an area with bats and an Arteria Leaf, — Follow this path to get an Arteria Leaf and reach the hidden basement grave.

And now that we’re here, it’s time to keep going down.

The Stormveil Castle basement grave

The best path to the Stormveil Castle basement grave is down from the door that we just unlocked by the site of grace. The second-best way is by jumping over the ledge pictured below, but you’ll burn a huge chunk of health in the process.

A corpse to pillage for Smithing Stone [1] x2, and then a ledge to drop down. — You can drop down here, but you’ll waste precious health.

On your way down, pillage the corpse on the broken flying buttress for Smithing Stone [2] x2 and the body on the ground for Golden Rune [2].

Down at the bottom, there are four rats: three small ones and one super large one. Take down the little guys first, and then lure the big guy (circled) out next.

Elden Ring giant rat in Stormveil Castle — The giant rat is hiding behind the pillar, waiting to ambush you.

Pillage the body near the biggest rat for Poisonbloom x3, a crafting material.

Can you hear the faint ringing of bells? Good. Now sprint through the room on the right, and kill the Teardrop Scarab just outside for Rancorcall, a sorcery that “summons vengeful spirits that chase down foes.” It’s a split between magic and miracles that requires 16 Intelligence and 14 Faith.

Ulcerated Tree Spirit boss fight

Elden Ring Stormveil Castle Ulcerated Tree Spirit boss arena — Here’s where you’ll fight the root monster

You don’t have to fight this monstrosity. You can come back. But defeat it, and you’ll receive a Golden Seed to upgrade your flasks.

There are also a bunch of corpses in the graveyard arena, which you can pillage for mostly valuable items: Stonesword Key, Throwing Dagger x8, Smoldering Butterfly, and the Prince of Death’s Pustule, which is a talisman that raises vitality to ward off the death status effect.

If you want to fight, we have some advice.

Use a blood loss weapon. Weapons that cause blood loss, including the Wolverine-like Hookclaws that you can easily find near the Stormveil Cliffside site of grace, cause blood loss buildup. Essentially, every hit fills an invisible meter. When that meter is full, you cause blood loss, which is nothing more than an incredible amount of damage. Against relatively weak enemies, this isn’t terribly useful because they can die before the blood loss takes effect. But strong enemies like bosses are ideal for building up and dealing blood loss.
Equip a 100% physical damage shield. The root monster’s standard attacks are devastating to your HP. If you hold up a shield with 100% Physical damage, like the Beast Crest Heater Shield, it will negate all damage (in the first half of the fight, provided you have enough stamina).
Haligdrake Talisman. In the second half of the fight, the Ulcerated Tree Spirit glows yellow, which as far as we’re aware means Holy damage. The Haligdrake Talisman, which you can find in a cave off of a beach in West Limgrave, “boosts holy damage negation.”
Don’t get greedy. Your job, since this root monster is so powerful and difficult, is mostly to stay alive. Concentrate on blocking its attacks, managing your stamina, and only attacking a couple hits at a time. This is a war of attrition that you can win slowly.
Run away. In the second half of the fight, the boss will occasionally burn brighter yellow, and then explode. Assume that it’s instant death. It may not always be, but why tempt yellow-tinged fate?

You can warp your way out, or you can take the ladder. You should totally take the ladder just to see where you end up. Either way, make your way back to the Secluded Cell site of grace.

Secluded Cell site of grace

If you’ve been following along with our Stormveil Castle walkthrough, you found the Secluded Cell site of grace before you headed down to the basement grave. It’s a quick trip from the Liftside Chamber site of grace, up the titular lift, and then down the ramp to the right, through the hallway, and straight into the room ahead.

You could, to be fair, also get here from the Liftside Chamber site of grace without going up the lift — heading out the door and fighting your way through some of those fire-breathing chickens. But the lift way is smarter.

Either way, before we fight the Stormveil Castle boss, we’ve got a few more things to do.

Head left out of the room, and defeat the giant and two Exiles on the stairs. Continue forward, and collect the Trina’s Lilly x1 and the Golden Seed by the golden tree.

Past that on the left, pillage the corpse for Golden Rune [2]. Enter the nearby room, and speak with Nepheli Loux. You can now summon her for the upcoming boss fight.

Continue down the path away from the site of grace, and kill the Exile and two chicken-looking Stormhawks who spew fire. Go up the stairs just past them, kill the giant Exile with the axe resting on your right, and pillage the corpse for Smithing Stone [2].

The path ahead leads back to the courtyard. Return to the Secluded Cell site of grace and refill your everything.

Break the courtyard statue

From the Secluded Cell site of grace, head back toward the giant and the Exiles. Kill the Exiles, but not the giant, and run down the path in front of you. The idea is to get the giant to follow you. If you have enough distance and time, kill the fire-breathing Stormhawk and any other enemies along the way. Or you can keep your shield up and let the giant kill everything around.

A glowing statue in Stormveil Castle’s courtyard in Elden Ring — The glowing statue loses a fight to the giant

You know that weird blueish monster with the dog in the courtyard? Go there, and stay near the cracked, glowing statue. Your only goal at this point is to stay alive long enough for the giant to attack you (or something else) near the cracked statue. When it does, the statue will break, and you’ll have access to

Godrick the Grafted boss fight

By Mike Rougeau

This Legacy Dungeon is brimming with secret nooks and crannies filled with items that might help you. We recommend a couple of items:

The Claw Talisman, which enhances jump attacks.
Stormveil Castle’s Golden Seed, which will let you add a charge to your flasks.

Depending on your current loadout, you’re also likely to find upgrades for your armament and armor slots here, too, not to mention all the runes you’ll accrue from continuously exploring.

Get the Flamedrake Talisman

Elden Ring’s map showing the location of Groveside Cave, where you can get smithing stones — Get the **Flamedrake Talisman** here, in Groveside Cave, to protect you against Godrick’s fire attacks.

If you missed it before arriving at Stormveil Castle, it’s worth heading back to West Limgrave to grab the Flamedrake Talisman, which provides extra fire defense — useful in Godrick’s second phase. You can find it in the Groveside Cave, a short and easy dungeon found directly north of the Church of Elleh.

Upgrade your weapon(s)

Weapon upgrading is a system that’s easy to ignore for new players, but Soulsborne vets know exactly how crucial it is. Leveling up your armaments increases the damage they do, and it can also affect their scaling, which determines how much bonus damage your stats add on top of each weapon’s base damage.

At Elden Ring’s start, you can upgrade weapons to +3 at the smithing table in the Church of Elleh, near the Santa-looking merchant. To go higher, you have to visit Hewg, the blacksmith in the Roundable Hold.

For any upgrades, you’ll need a small quantity of runes and various qualities of smithing stones, the latter of which can be found commonly, especially in dungeons set in mines. Or, if you’re using a named, unique weapon, you’ll need the slightly rarer somber smithing stones. Either way, you should upgrade your favorite weapon as high as you can currently manage before facing Godrick.

Limgrave Tunnels smithing stone farming map location — Limgrave Tunnels, where you can collect a shocking number of smithing stones, circled on the West Limgrave map.

You can also visit Limgrave Tunnels, which is a smithing stone mine available in West Limgrave. Limgrave Tunnels is south of Gatefront Ruins and the Agheel Lake North site of grace.

Elden Ring’s map showing the location of Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel, where you can get smithing stones — Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel is full of smithing stones.

If you’re feeling particularly daring, you can even venture beyond Limgrave to Lake Liurnia by skirting around the castle on its eastern side. Head to a dungeon called Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel near the lake’s north edge. It’s full of smithing stones, and more importantly, if you defeat the boss there, you’ll receive an item that you can give to the husk merchant in Roundtable Hold, enabling you to buy an infinite number of low level smithing stones there.

Check your inventory

With its crafting system, Elden Ring has more consumable items than any past Souls game. Veteran players might be used to ignoring these, but that would be a mistake in Elden Ring. Your inventory is filled with useful items, especially if you’ve spent time exploring before challenging Godrick.

Look for things like warming stones, which heal any players who stand in their aura; raw meat dumplings, which can provide some last ditch health recovery if you runs out of flasks during the fight; and fire pots, which you can make using the item crafting kit from Kalé, the Church of Elleh merchant, and might provide that extra bit of damage that you need to finish Godrick off.

Add those things and anything else useful to your equipment hotbar, and practice scrolling through to find the item you need in a pinch.

Learn Godrick’s attacks

If Godrick’s attacks seem impossibly tricky to avoid, don’t worry: It’s not just you.

Count on delay

Besides his massive repertoire of potential moves, the main thing that makes the grafted lord so difficult to fight is the huge amount of delay baked into most of his combos. That unnatural pause after Godrick raises a weapon, before he brings it crashing down on your head, makes this dude a massive wall for a lot of players. But it is possible, through patience and lots of practice, to get familiar enough with his patterns to reliably dodge or block most of them.

Combo swipes

The main thing to pay attention to is how many swipes each combo comprises, from the whirling tornado that’s often followed up with a single jumping overhead slam, to the ground attack that includes two (first phase) or three (second phase) separate damage moments, to the five move combo that always ends in two overhead slashes.

Damage before phase 2

Avoiding Godrick’s attacks gets much more difficult during the fight’s second phase, after the boss gruesomely gains a new set of abilities. There’s a prime damage opportunity as he’s doing the long animation that leads into the mid-fight cutscene, although you should try to attack him from behind so as to avoid his final downward chop.

Run behind some fire attacks

During phase 2, you should particularly watch out for Godrick’s fire attacks. The initial burst of flame covers much of the battlefield, so you should either run backward all the way to the door through which you entered, or, if possible, run behind him so you can get some attacks in while he’s spraying in the other direction. If you’re stuck in front of him during a fire attack, it is possible, albeit difficult, to dodge through the flames.

His overhead fire eruption, at least, is fairly easy to avoid, as the fireballs tend to land in a small cone in front of him, and they move slowly enough for you to get out of the way. And during phase 2, he’ll usually follow up the tornado attack with two jets of swirling, burning wind, which you should learn to dodge, or block if your shield has high fire damage negation.

Avoid other fire attacks

Meanwhile, it can be tempting to try to sidestep him to get some hits in while he’s doing the slow-walking fire vomit, but he can turn surprisingly quickly to engulf you no matter where you’re standing, so it’s best to simply get some distance and use that opportunity to heal.

Lastly, if you have summoned help during the fight, don’t bother attacking Godrick should he pick someone up in the dragon’s jaws, as he’s immune during the animation, which ends with massive jets of fire spraying out over the ground — so go ahead and run away while your friend gets chewed on.

Don’t be greedy

As we mentioned in our guide to beating the Tree Sentinel, one of the gravest mistakes that new and veteran players alike make in FromSoftware games is to try and get in as many hits as they can when they see an opening in a boss’s attack patterns. In Godrick’s case, it will usually end with you being engulfed in flames, or at the very least, taking a bit of damage from the boss’s close range tornado attack.

Try to get just one or two hits off at a time — depending on the speed of your weapon — and then get some distance and prepare to dodge or block the next attack. Two-handed jump attacks can be extra helpful, as they let you maximize damage with each swipe, and they’ll do extra damage if you snagged the Clawmark Talisman we mentioned above.

Use summons

Soulsborne elitists may tell you that summoning friends to help is a cheap tactic, but they’re wrong. Summoning co-op help has been a feature since the very beginning in 2009’s Demon’s Souls, and not only is there no shame in it, but it can actually make bosses significantly more fun. Although having more players in the fight does increase the boss’s health to compensate, engaging in jolly cooperation with your buddies can let you heal more frequently, since they can draw the boss’s attention away from you.

You can summon human players who are around your level by opening the multiplayer menu and using the Furlcalling Finger Remedy item (don’t ask us why it’s called that). After the corresponding icon appears under your stamina bar, you can see other players’ summon signs on the ground, and you should find some near the Secluded Cell site of grace, as well as near the Godrick’s fog door.

If you have friends who are a significantly different level from you, you can still summon them by using the same multiplayer password, and Elden Ring will simply handicap them down to your level. And even if you don’t want to bother with all of that, if nothing else, you’ll definitely want to summon the NPC helper Nepheli, who you can find nearby the Secluded Cell site of grace. Chances are she won’t make it all the way through the fight, but when you’re up against a foe this tough, why not take all the help you can get?

Spirit Jellyfish Ashes

On a similar note, go ahead and use your Spirit Jellyfish ash summon alongside Nepheli if you’re not going to summon another player to help. (If you missed grabbing this, head to Church of Elleh at night to get the spirit-calling bell, and then to the Stormhill Shack site of grace just south of Stormveil Castle and speak to the woman inside several times.) The Jellyfish distract Godrick and can infect him with poison, which is a weakness of his, making them a huge help.

[Ed. note: That’s as far as we’ve made it in the walkthrough, but we’ll update this guide with the boss fight and a hidden underground area soon.]