Elden Ring Godskin Duo boss guide

26.05.2022

The Long Sleep

Elden Ring player approaching the Godskin Duo boss fight standing next to the summon sign for Recusant Bernahl. — Recusant Bernahl summon sign.

It’s possible to take down the Godskin Duo in Crumbling Farum Azula by traditional means. You can use your favorite Spirit Ash, summon other players, or even enlist the help of Recusant Bernahl, whose NPC summon sign waits outside the boss room when you approach from the Dragon Temple Transept site of grace.

With other bodies besides yours in the mix, you can more easily focus on one boss at a time, then gang up on the other when one goes down.

Bloodhound’s Step can help you avoid their annoying attacks (you’ll get this Ash of War from the Night’s Cavalry near Lenne’s Rise in eastern Caelid).

They’re both weak to frost and bleed, so bust out that Hoarfrost Stomp and Rivers of Blood (from a scarab southeast of Caria Manor and the NPC invader at Church of Repose, respectively).

Heck, why not spam Night Maiden’s Mist (purchased from Gowry as part of Millicent’s Quest) at them? Don’t be shy about using even the cheapest of strategies against these obnoxious knuckleheads.

But there’s one strategy that’s so effective, it feels like it might have been what the designers wanted you to do all along: Sleep. Both bosses are so weak to sleep that a single well-aimed throwing pot can send them both to la-la-land, where they’ll remain for a shockingly long time. You can inflict sleep on one of them and have enough time to kill the other twice before the first awakens.

There are a number of different lullabies you can sing them:

Sleep Pots. This is the easiest method, as it only takes one or two pots. The recipe is in Fevor’s Cookbook [1], which can be found in a small graveyard south of the Summonwater Village Outskirts site of grace in Limgrave. Head southeast from the grace and platform down the horizontal stones jutting from the cliff’s edge.
Sleepbone Arrows. Similar to Sleep Pots, but the arrows can be shot from further away. The recipe is in Fevor’s Cookbook [2]. Take the road south from the Main Academy Gate site of grace at Raya Lucaria and buy it from the merchant there.
Soporific Grease. This purple grease allows you to inflict sleep with any weapon you choose, as long as it doesn’t already have an element. The recipe is in the same cookbook as the Sleepbone Arrows.

Each of the above three recipes requires St. Trina’s Lily, a somewhat rare crafting material. You likely have some in your inventory already, but if not, there are a few places to get them. You can buy a few from the previously mentioned Raya Lucaria merchant, as well as the one near Fort Haight in eastern Limgrave.

In addition, if you have access to the Consecrated Snowfield, the jellyfish outside the Apostate Derelict church have a small chance to drop them.

Alternatively, there are a couple of options for inflicting sleep that require no consumables:

Sword of St. Trina. Grab this from the Stonesword Key fog gate at the Forsaken Ruins, right next to the Rotview Balcony site of grace on the border between Limgrave and Caelid. The sword isn’t powerful, but it inflicts sleep build-up with every strike, and its L2 attack sprays sleep-inducing mist.
St. Trina’s Torch. This unique torch can be looted from one of the hearse carriages in the Consecrated Snowfield. Starting from the Consecrated Snowfield site of grace, follow the dotted lines on the map north until you encounter the caravan.

By the way, if you haven’t yet accessed the Consecrated Snowfield, check out our guide to reaching the Haligtree.

Learn the Godskin Duo boss fight

Normally, this is the part of the guide where we’d tell you to study the boss’s attacks, learning how to avoid or counter each one while memorizing where the openings for your own attacks might be. In this case, though, there’s really little point. These two aren’t meant to be fought like other bosses.

Instead, we’re just going to give you some general tips, best practices, and notes on a few attacks to look out for.

Sleep well and often. Whatever your method for putting the Godskins to sleep is, do it as soon as you enter the arena. Your goal is to put one of the bosses out of commission so you can focus on the other. When one starts napping, draw the other away from it so you don’t accidentally catch the sleeping one with an attack and wake it up. Repeat this process as many times as necessary until the bosses’ shared health bar is depleted.
Pick your fight wisely. Be deliberate about which one you put to sleep and which one you choose to battle. Some players find the Apostle (the skinny one) easier to fight on its own. If you’re having trouble with the Noble, we have a separate Godskin Noble boss fight guide just for that.

Use the pillars. The columns in this boss arena are there for you to use at your advantage. These bosses have highly tuned input recognition, meaning they chuck fireballs at you basically any time you try to heal. Never heal unless you’re behind cover. You can also use these pillars to pop off area magic like Hoarfrost Stomp and Night Maiden’s Mist.
Watch out for phase 2. Each boss has a second phase that it will enter when its individual health bar dips below 50%, regardless of where the collective health bar is. For both Godskins, phase 2 adds new attacks, most of which inflict you with black flame that saps your health for a short time after the attack lands. However, the Noble’s second phase is generally considered more dangerous than the Apostle’s, thanks to its rolling attack. You can try to use the pillars as cover from it, although they’ll usually break under the onslaught. You can also dodge toward the rolling boss just as it reaches you. The timing is tough, but it’s a valuable trick.

Use magic wisely. With one Godskin asleep, it’s easy to keep your distance from the other using sorceries and incantations — as long as you know what magic to use. Sorceries with “Night” in the name are harder for enemies to dodge, for example. In addition, the classic boss-melting combo of Terra Magica and Comet Azur works wonders here, if you can get both bosses to fall asleep at the same time.
Resurrection rules. The rules that dictate how and when the Godskins resurrect after being defeated are not terribly clear. When you kill one, the other can raise a hand over its head and summon a glyph that resurrects its partner. During the process, it’s vulnerable to attacks. However, the dead one will return after some time no matter what, even if the remaining Godskin never does the revive animation. Meanwhile, if you manage to kill them both at the same time, one or both will return after a brief respite, during which you can heal or cast buffs on yourself. Here’s one additional tip: you can keep attacking a boss’s dying body after its health is depleted, and the duo’s shared health bar will continue taking damage during their death animation.

Remember: The Godskin Duo are not fighting fair, so there’s no reason for you to. This isn’t an honorable duel between players; use the wide variety of tools that the designers have included in the game, and this boss becomes borderline manageable.

When defeated, they drop the Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing [4], which allows you to buy Smithing Stone [7] and [8], as well as Ruin Fragments, plus the Black Flame Tornado Ash of War and 127,500 runes.

Source: Polygon