FromSoftware’s hit action RPG Elden Ring is renowned for its difficulty, with notorious bosses like Margit the Fell Omen, Starscourge Radahn, and Maliketh the Black Blade acting as unwavering roadblocks in the paths of most players. However, one optional boss that's known for a lack of difficulty is Soldier of Godrick. In fact, the foe has gone down as one of the simplest bosses in Elden Ring. Still, one Redditor hopes to do him justice by adding a new introductory cutscene to the fight.
After the player traverses the fog gate, the camera pans across the desolate arena, eventually falling upon the form of the Soldier of Godrick. He quips that he’s “given thee courtesy enough”—a line lifted from the late-game fight against Godfrey, the First Elden Lord—before charging. Soldier of Godrick has become something of a meme among the Elden Ring community, with Redditor u/Prsy0220 semi-jokingly listing him as "unbreakable" in their comprehensive Elden Ring boss tier list.
Memes aside, even for a tutorial boss encounter, Soldier of Godrick is underwhelming, and many agree that the battle lacks the gravitas of Demon’s Souls’ Vanguard Demon or the original Dark Souls’ Asylum Demon. To that end, u/Jaown9’s efforts help to spice up an otherwise uninteresting duel, and the addition adds a sense of levity that’s almost entirely absent in Elden Ring. Some consider Margit to be Elden Ring’s true tutorial boss, and, while this cutscene doesn’t quite match that boss’ iconic entrance, it helps to close the wide gap in quality between the two introductory encounters.
Some fans make the case that Soldier of Godrick should have been replaced with something a bit more threatening. The Erdtree Burial Watchdog, for instance, has a much more intense aura, though it isn’t fantastically more difficult relative to some of the game’s later challenges. Others argue that the Grafted Scion could have been adjusted to play Soldier of Godrick’s role, though it's easily one of Elden Ring’s creepiest enemies and may have put some new players off of the experience.
Of course, Soldier of Godrick is far from the first comically easy boss opponent in Souls history; Dark Souls 2’s Covetous Demon became the butt of many jokes when the game debuted in 2014, and Dark Souls 3’s Deacons of the Deep suffered similar treatment when the trilogy’s capstone installment dropped in 2016. Still, Soldier of Godrick is arguably most comparable to Dark Souls’ infamous Pinwheel boss, a foe so easily felled that he, much like Solider of Godrick, scarcely stands out among the hordes of standard enemies.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
