Elden Ring: Grave Warden Duelist (Auriza Side Tomb) Boss Fight

Published: September 22, 2025 at 9:07:57 PM UTC

Grave Warden Duelist is in the lowest tier of bosses in Elden Ring, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Auriza Side Tomb dungeon located in the Capital Outskirts in Elden Ring. Like most lesser bosses in the game, this one is optional in the sense that you do not need to defeat it in order to advance the main story.

As you probably know, bosses in Elden Ring are divided into three tiers. From lowest to highest: Field Bosses, Greater Enemy Bosses and finally Demigods and Legends.

Grave Warden Duelist is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Auriza Side Tomb dungeon located in the Capital Outskirts in Elden Ring. Like most lesser bosses in the game, this one is optional in the sense that you do not need to defeat it in order to advance the main story.

Getting to this boss felt like more of a struggle than defeating the boss itself. This was by far the most confusing dungeon I have been in yet, with several areas looking identical and teleporters all over the place. In the end, I think the best approach is to just continue on and never assume that you have been teleported back to somewhere, but just that you have been teleported to a new place that looks like the one you have just been in. That also means being constantly on alert for ambushing stone imps and don’t assume you have already cleared the area, because it’s probably not the same and those little bastards like to sneak up on you.

Anyway, this boss type is one of the more fun to fight in my opinion. He’s fast and aggressive, but there is a timing to his attacks that just makes it feel a lot like a duel and not so much like a huge boss stomping on you. I may have dragged it out a bit because I was actually having a good time and not feeling so stressed that I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible, like with many other bosses.

His most dangerous attack is the long chain swipe, but it’s not so long that it’s a huge problem to avoid if you stay alert and time it well. I found that keeping a bit of distance and then using running attacks to get back at him worked well.

I think I wasted more time than I had to on trying to kill off the living jars first. They don’t appear to be very aggressive as long as you don’t get too close to them, so they can probably be mostly ignored. That’s a nice change of pace; I usually default to full-on headless chicken mode when facing this many enemies at once.

And now for the usual boring details about my character. I play as a mostly Dexterity build. My melee weapon is the Guardian’s Swordspear with Keen affinity and Sacred Blade Ash of War. My ranged weapons are the Longbow and the Shortbow. My shield is the Great Turtle Shell, which I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 129 when this video was recorded. Apart from the confusing design, this dungeon felt somewhat on the easy side of things, so I think I’m somewhat over-leveled for this content. I’m always looking for the sweet spot where it’s not mind-numbing easy mode, but also not so difficult that I will be stuck on the same boss for hours ;-)

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