Elden Ring's Grafted Scion: A Tutorial Boss You Can Actually Beat
Elden Ring players get an interesting reward if they actually beat the "Grafted Scion," a tutorial boss players aren't supposed to beat. At the start of Elden Ring, player characters wake up in a windswept, cliff-perched complex called the Chapel of Anticipation, where they can roam around, get used to the game's movement controls, and get instantly mauled by a grotesque, many-armed creature called the Grafted Scion. In true Soulslike tradition, the first enemy encountered in Elden Ring is almost (but not quite) impossible to defeat, at least at the player's starting level. Those who do manage to beat the Grafted Scion on their first try will get the enemy boss's armaments as their well-earned reward: a weapon and a shield with interesting skills and intriguing lore in their item descriptions.
In both the original and remake versions of Demon's Souls, FromSoftware's first Soulslike RPG, players are dropped into a starting dungeon of soul-starved foot soldiers and blue-eyed demonic knights - easy-to-defeat foes that ease players into the game's combat system. Then, they receive a brutal wakeup call in the form of a boss called Vanguard, a giant, blobby, axe-wielding demon capable of killing fresh Demon's Souls PCs in a single strike. Subsequent Soulsborne RPGs, including Elden Ring, would also use lethal Tutorial Bosses as a way to shock players out of their complacency and encourage them to approach future enemies more mindfully.
The Grafted Scion's Lore
The Grafted Scion boss players encounter in the tutorial area of Elden Ring is actually a mini-boss encountered repeatedly later, most prominently in Stormveil Castle, one of the game's legacy dungeons. It's a deformed abomination created by grafting the limbs of dozens of Tarnished warriors onto a single human body. When player characters are defeated by this creature's multiple swords or damaging shriek attacks, they get thrown down a ravine, encounter Melina and the horned horse Torrent in a cutscene, then progress through a much more manageable tutorial level before entering the Limgrave area.
The Grafted Scions of Stormveil Castle swear fealty to Godrick the Grafted, a descendant of Marika and a Demigod. They were once able to wield some of Marika's power. But when Marika destroyed the Elden Ring and plunged the world into chaos, they longed for a brighter past. In doing so, they came to wield ornamental weapons that symbolically lauded their once-great status.
The Ornamental Straight Sword
Players who fell the many-armed, hard-to-beat Tutorial Boss in Elden Ring receive the Ornamental Straight Sword that the Grafted Scion wields. This one-handed blade with crescent guards and gilded hilt scales with Strength and Dexterity. It can be effectively used by any Elden Ring starting character with a Strength of 10 and Dexterity of 14. The Ornamental Straight Sword also comes with a special weapon skill called "Golden Tempering," which coats the blade in a golden magic and unlocks a new moveset of lightning-fast jabs.
The item description reads as such: "Slender straight sword patterned after an antique ornament. Superior swordsmen prefer to wield one in each hand. After falling from grace, the dregs of the golden lineage sought power and purpose in the past." The "dregs of the golden lineage" refers to the Grafted Scions, among other former members of that noble lineage, and the despair that blankets the Lands Between in the wake of the Shattering.
The Golden Beast Crest Shield
After slaying the tutorial boss, new players of Elden Ring also receive the Golden Beast Crest Shield wielded by the Grafted Scion. This is a greatshield with no weapon skill, which is actually a positive, as it lets players use their main weapon skills without grasping them in two hands. It requires a Strength score of 24 to wield effectively. This item description reads, "Shield of dull gold with a beast engraved as its crest. Lighter than most greatshields, and subsequently easier to wield. The beast depicted is Serosh, aged counselor who guides the golden lineage."
And there is indeed a beast engraved on this shield's face, a griffin strangely similar to the eagle-clawed lion creature seen in the official portrait of Godfrey, the first Elden Lord. As it turns out, Serosh, the creature often seen over Godfrey's shoulder, is the same Serosh from the shield's item description. This suggests he may well have been a sentient, talking animal - an architect of the Golden Order who looked after Godfrey and Marika's Demigod children, and despaired when they eventually turned on each other. However, he's never seen in this capacity in-game.
Returning To The Grafted Scion
But if the player does fail to defeat the Grafted Scion during their first encounter, it's possible to return to the Chapel of Anticipation and defeat Elden Ring's tutorial boss much later, when the Tarnished is better able to match its strength. In order to do so, players must first travel to the Four Belfries, a location marked by four similar bell towers standing in a rough square. They're located within Liurnia of the Lakes, northwest of Raya Lucaria, as seen on the map above.
Each of Elden Ring's Four Belfries contains or connects to a portal. At the top of the tallest one, there's a chest containing the Imbued Sword Key. Southeast of the tower, they'll find a portal called the Precipice of Anticipation. The key allows them to activate the portal, return to the Chapel of Anticipation, and challenge the Grafted Scion again for an easy smackdown - and the same exact set of rewards.
