Soldier of Godrick

Submission 27,850

Part of a series on Elden Ring. [View Related Entries]

About

Soldier of Godrick is an optional tutorial boss in the 2022 video game Elden Ring. Though the Soldier of Godrick later becomes a standard enemy and is often considered a pushover in comparison to some of the game's other bosses, he became the subject of jokes within the fandom upon release, with many joking that he was overpowered and one of the most difficult fights in the game.

Origin

In Elden Ring, released February 25th, 2022, players can opt in to a combat tutorial area that teaches the player the basics of the game. This area culminates in a boss fight with the Solder of Godrick, a generic enemy with a boss health bar (fight by YouTuber Axiom shown below).

Though he occasionally appeared in fan art in the month after the game's release,^[1] the Soldier of Godrick didn't begin seeing use in memes until an April 10th, 2022, video uploaded by YouTuber YungBreezyGawd^[2] that showed him repeatedly getting beat by Soldier of Godrick for over an hour until finally defeating him (shown below, left). The video was made, possibly as a joke, for a competition organized by YouTuber Amazing Chest to see who could kill the most bosses in one hour (shown below, right). YungBreezyGawd's performance was given a consolation prize by Amazing Chest in a video that gained over 427,000 views in three weeks.

Spread

After the videos were published, fans of Elden Ring on Reddit began crafting memes and jokes around how Soldier of Godrick was actually a very hard boss. For example, on April 14th, 2022, Redditor thatsmurfmikey0329 reported he would be leaving a Let Me Solo Her summon outside of the fight, while commenters went along with his joke and wished him luck in his "heroic" quest.^[3] On April 15th, Redditor YoshikageKira9 posted a joke claiming the infamous boss fight Malenia "paled in comparison" to Soldier of Godrick.^[4]

The jokes soon extended to YouTube. On April 13th, YouTuber SkumNut uploaded a satirical guide on how to beat the "hardest boss" in Elden Ring, referring to Soldier of Godrick, gaining over 394,000 views in three weeks (shown below). On April 30th, YouTuber ONGBAL uploaded a video in which he intentionally makes Soldier of Godrick look immensely difficult and adds sweeping music, gaining over 258,000 views in one week. On May 4th, Kotaku^[5] published an article about the developing meme around Soldier of Godrick.