Elden Ring Leyndell walkthrough

Looking for an Elden Ring Leyndell walkthrough? Leyndell is the Royal Capital of the Lands Between and home to the first Elden Lord: Godfrey. Although you'll be treated to magnificent views of epic statues and golden towers, Leyndell is full of sad commoners, creepy trumpeters, and other unpleasant surprises.

This Elden Ring walkthrough will help you survive the Leyndell Royal Capital and find its boss.

How to reach Leyndell in Elden Ring

Leyndell is situated on the eastern side of the Altus Plateau, on the border with the Mountaintops of the Giants. In the Elden Ring area order, it follows the Mt. Gelmir, Lake of Rot, and Dragonbarrow areas. You should be around level 100 to explore Leyndell (relatively) comfortably.

Beware that you'll need at least two Great Runes to be granted access to Leyndell - without them, the entrance will be sealed. The easiest Great Runes to obtain are those dropped by Godrick the Grafted in Stormveil Castle and Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon in the Raya Lucaria Academy.

Although you may spot a main gate in Leyndell's inner walls (east of the local Finger Reader), it won't open. To enter Leyndell, ride through the Outer Wall Battlegrounds towards the northeast, past the Stake of Marika and the Minor Erdtree, until you see the massive Golem Archers in front of you. It's possible to sprint past the Golems with Torrent, but you do need to defeat the Draconic Tree Sentinel mini-boss behind them. Once the Sentinel is down, you may cross the bridge with the 'Capital Rampart' Site of Grace and enter Leyndell.

Leyndell walkthrough

Take the path to your left and follow it until you reach the 'East Capital Rampart' Site of Grace. None of the Commoners along the path will attack you. Continue downstairs, then go left; you can easily take out the musical enemies dressed in white by sneaking up on them or using ranged attacks.

There's a large fire-breathing enemy guarding the door at the end of this path. Luckily, he can't adjust the direction of his fire attack, so let him aim towards the left side of the path, then dash past him on the right side (and don't underestimate the range of this attack!).

Sneak up to the enemy inside the building, then go downstairs and take the elevator down (take the northern exit first if you'd like to defeat the remaining enemies). Follow the path ahead - you can ignore the common enemies sitting on the ground, but do watch out for the 'perfumer'. It's best to run up to him and use some quick slashing attacks before he has time to respond.

At the bottom of the staircase, you can make a U-turn to the left and collect a Smithing Stone [6] before leaving the building. There's a knight patrolling the exit, but you can wait until he turns his back and sneak past him. The alley ahead leads towards a broad 'main street' with a large wagon.

Either defeat the knight next to the wagon or run past him towards the southwest. If you want more loot, explore the area to the northeast first. When you're ready to go southwest though, beware that a massive Erdtree Avatar mini-boss will suddenly appear on the path.

As you haven't found a nearby Site of Grace yet, it's best to dash past this enemy and take the first door on your right; this leads to the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace.

Starting from the Avenue Balcony, you can either head back to the Erdtree Avatar and defeat him for a Lord's Rune (and perhaps explore the area some more), or carry on with the Leyndell walkthrough and take the stairs to the northwest.

The next part is tricky because of the many archers guarding this area. It's best to take the path to the left or right, and lure the knights one-by-one, taking them down before the next one notices your presence. You can try to sprint past them, but it's risky as you'll be exposed to their arrows for a few seconds.

Once you've made it past the archers, climb the enormous dragon fossil on your left. It will lead you to a passageway with a ladder. Climb it, then sneak past the knight at the top of the staircase, and beware of the common soldier trying to ambush you from the left when you reach the next building. Activate the 'West Capital Rampart' Site of Grace.

Take the southeastern exit. You can go downstairs for additional exploring or go straight ahead, following the shortest route to Godfrey. Beware of the massive gargoyle mini-boss ahead; you can either run past him or defeat him to obtain the Gargoyle's Halberd. Be sure to grab the Golden Seed next to the small golden tree (left side of the road) too.

One of the Erdtree roots has pierced the path right behind the gargoyle; use this to walk up. You'll have to defeat some tree guards along the way, but they're fairly easy to defeat; just sneak up to them and take them down one-by-one. At the top of the tree, inside the building, you'll find Godfrey, the First Elden Lord.

Wielding a massive two-handed axe himself, Godfrey is quite weak to physical and lightning damage - just don't try to use holy damage against him. He's also quite slow, making this fight relatively easy once you've studied his attack patterns. When Godfrey is brought down to 50% HP, he'll discard his axe and use stomping attacks and grabbing attacks instead. It'll be a bit harder to dodge during the second phase.

After defeating Godfrey and unlocking the Erdtree Sanctuary Site of Grace, take the eastern exit, head left, and climb the roots. The path will lead you outside again and straight to the Queen's Bedchamber Site of Grace. Beware that the Site of Grace is guarded by a Black Knife Assassin.

Take the stairs to the southeast to find Morgott, the Omen King. This is another major boss whom you must defeat to clear Leyndell and access the Mountaintops of the Giants region. Morgott is also weak to physical and lightning damage but strong against holy damage. For more info, take a look at our guide on how to defeat Morgott in Elden Ring.

And that concludes this Elden Ring Leyndell walkthrough. You may access the Mountaintops of the Giants region, or take a look at our full Elden Ring walkthrough to find your next destination in The Lands Between. We can also point you to the Elden Ring boss locations, but you might want to get the best builds and best armor sets first.