Every Souls game starts off more or less the same way: You make your character, pick a class, and go through a short tutorial zone where you are given the most basic explanation for how the game works. You might get a couple of items, but nothing substantial. Rather than end with any sense of empowerment, like most games tend to do in their opening, Souls games like to cap off their tutorial with a boss encounter you’re not supposed to be able to win. These tutorial bosses have only gotten more difficult from game to game as players have gotten more accustomed to the Souls-style combat, but even people who have played every game since Demon’s Souls will find Elden Ring’s tutorial boss, Grafted Scion, nearly impossible to take down on the first try.
While each tutorial boss is meant to slap you around at least the first time around, there’s always a little something special for those who can overcome the challenge and defeat those bosses. They usually don’t change the game much, but are a nice reward for beating a challenging foe with basically no tools at your disposal. What makes Elden Ring‘s tutorial boss a bit more difficult, aside from the boss itself, is it isn’t a terribly quick boss to attempt. You will need to start the entire game over again, with multiple minutes between runs that can easily end in defeat in mere seconds. If you’re wondering if it’s even possible to beat the tutorial boss in Elden Ring, we’ve grinded it out and come up with the answer.
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Can you beat Grafted Scion?
FromSoftware has only really had one instance of you entering a boss battle that you have absolutely no chance of winning, which was the first Seath encounter in Dark Souls. Outside of that, any time a boss appears with a name and a health bar, you have the ability to kill it. It might take a long time, and require near-perfect levels of play, but it can be done. The same is true for Grafted Scion. Even though you’re coming at this aggressive boss with only basic starting gear and no healing items or flask, victory can be achieved.
How to beat Grafted Scion
If you’re dead set on beating this first boss to see what rewards await you, there are a few tips you can learn to help you out. That being said, there’s not much you can really do aside from getting your timing down and being patient. Outside of your class, there’s basically no preparation you can do for this fight otherwise.
In terms of classes, the Samurai is probably the best one for this fight. It comes with a nice katana, plus a combined total of 30 arrows to do some ranged attacks. For attacks, this multi-limbed monster is very hard to read. It will make wild swings at you with its twin blades, but watch for the final thrust after some swipes. Depending on your position, it could choose to swipe some more, or back off.
If you’re at range, the Scion may leap high in the air for a downward thrust. This is a good opportunity to dodge the impact and get a single counter hit in before it recovers. It can also do a ground slam attack without jumping, which is harder to read but also leaves it open for a moment.
Again, you have no healing at all in this fight, so you can realistically make one or maybe two mistakes total. The best advice we can give if you really want to do this is to play very patiently, only attack when you know for sure it is safe, and be ready for a ton of restarts.
What do you get for beating Grafted Scion?
So, what awaits you after finally beating the toughest tutorial boss in any Souls game yet? A few things, thankfully, but they may not be as great as you would hope. The first is a Golden Beast Crest Shield. This is a greatshield that is a beast, giving a full 100% physical damage reduction and 50% magical, but is super heavy and requires 24 Strength to wield. That makes it quite useless for the first few hours of the game, no matter what class you start as.
You will also get the Ornamental Straight Sword, which you might actually be able to take advantage of much faster. It only requires 10 Strength and 14 Dexterity to use, scaling with Dexterity for damage, so it would be perfect for a Samurai class.
Once you win, you will progress just a little farther into the zone until you hit a cliff where a cutscene plays and you are forced to fall to your death so the game can continue, similar to how in Demon’s Souls you were killed by the Dragon God if you beat the Vanguard Demon.
If you’re interested in this gear, but not in the insane challenge of beating the tutorial boss, you can get both pieces of gear later on much easier as well. Without spoiling as much as possible, a later area of the game will have a Site of Grace you can rest at that’s called Four Belfries. If you go here and find a statue you can use an Imbued Sword Key item on to open, you can enter and be transported to an arena where you will fight this boss again. The obvious advantage now is that, well, you’ve leveled up, learned how to really play, can heal, and have more than one attempt without having to start the entire game over. As long as you have one of these keys on you, you can rest easy knowing you will have your shot at sweet revenge against this tormenting tutorial boss.
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