Elden Ring: Putrid Grave Warden Duelist (Consecrated Snowfield Catacombs) Boss Fight

Published: October 25, 2025 at 4:20:04 PM UTC

Putrid Grave Warden Duelist is in the lowest tier of bosses in Elden Ring, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Consecrated Snowfield Catacombs dungeon in the Eastern part of the Consecrated Snowfield. Like most lesser bosses in the game, defeating this one is optional in the sense that it is not required in order to progress 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.

Putrid Grave Warden Duelist is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the Consecrated Snowfield Catacombs dungeon in the Eastern part of the Consecrated Snowfield. Like most lesser bosses in the game, defeating this one is optional in the sense that it is not required in order to progress the main story.

I’ve always found the Grave Warden Duelist boss type fun to fight. They are fast, aggressive and hit quite hard, but fighting them has always felt more like a good duel than being up against a ridiculously powerful boss.

This particular one is Putrid though, and you know what that means. Scarlet Rot. Why does it always have to be Scarlet Rot? They’ve taken one of my favorite boss types and combined it with one of my most hated mechanics in this game. Awesome it is not.

It’s not like regular poison was annoying enough, oh no, we have to make it a disease that kind of works like poison, but much faster and much deadlier. Antidote? Okay, but not the regular antidote, oh no, we need a special antidote that it is annoying to farm materials for. In fact, let’s make everything about this disease so annoying that people will wish they were dead if they get it. Literally, it should be easier to just die than attempt to cure it. With this line of thinking, I’m starting to believe I could work at FromSoft ;-)

The boss wields a very large axe that he will happily swing at whatever comes within range, which in this case is most likely going to be your head. He hits very, very hard and as if that wasn’t fun enough already, his hits also build up Scarlet Rot. Did I mention Scarlet Rot? I think I did. It’s highly annoying. In addition to simply infecting people by hitting them with a large axe, he will also sometimes do an area of effect attack that will build up the disease really fast, so stay alert for that.

As is the case with the regular Grave Warden Duelists, this one also has a long chain that he likes to use to catch people and drag them close, but if you think it’s for a comforting hug, you would be wrong. Well, unless you find a huge axe to the face comforting, but if so, you’re probably in the minority. Far be it from me to tell others what they should find comforting, of course.

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 Thunderbolt Ash of War. My shield is the Great Turtle Shell, which I mostly wear for the stamina recovery. I was level 152 when this video was recorded, which I think is a bit high for this content, but it was still a fun fight. 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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