The God-Devouring Serpent or Rykard is a huge boss and when the game came out there was a pretty easy cheese to defeat him but that has since been patched. No worries though, since there is another cheese you can use to easy beat the boss. In this Elden Ring guide, we go over how you can cheese the God-Devouring Serpent or Rykard boss and kill it easily.
Build For God-Devouring Serpent (Rykard)
| Shield | Perfumer’s Shield |
| Incantation | Rotten Breath |
| Weapon | Serpent-Hunter Great Spear |
Recommended Weapon, Shield, And Incantation
We recommend using the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear which you get inside the boss arena. This weapon has a lot of reach and is going to come in handy to cheese Rykard. We also recommend the Rotten Breath incantation which applies the rot effect and deals damage over time to the boss. Lastly, we recommend the Perfumer’s Shield for protection against the poison attacks that God-Devouring Serpent can use.
How To Cheese God-Devouring Serpent (Rykard) In Elden Ring
Once you have entered the boss arena and have picked up the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear, head right to the rock shown in the image below:
You must climb up and get to the rocky area above. The jump is challenging and can take a while to traverse the stone. So take your time and practice this before taking on the boss.
Once you have made your way to the top, you can position yourself over the rocks and will be able to move freely between the two giant pillars.
Note that you can go out of bounds in this area so we recommend not going too far toward the outer edge and sticking to the inner side.
While you are on top, most of the boss’s attacks cannot harm you. It can use its poison attacks in the first phase but you can move out of the poisoned area since you have a lot of room to run around. The Perfumer’s Shield should also help.
Use the Rotten Breath attack to inflict the boss with rot and get that damage over time effect. You can then use the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear to deal damage to the boss.
While you are on the higher ground, the boss will not do much and will stay there and take a beating. Once the health bar drops to zero, the second phase of the boss encounter is going to start.
Once this happens you can summon your spirit to cause a distraction, allowing you to make that tricky jump onto the rock again.
During the second phase of the encounter, the boss uses a hellfire attack that can damage you. You can run between the two pillars in order to avoid taking damage since you do have plenty of room. Once the hell fire attack is over, the boss is going to sit there and you can use the Rotten Breath to deal damage over time.
You should use the incantation and not the spear in this phase of the fight since the spear does trigger additional hellfire attacks and you do not want to deal with them.
You can also use other breath attacks, poison pots, and rot pots to deal damage. If the boss is low on health then you can land some final blows with the Serpent-Hunter Great Spear.
This is how you can cheese and easily beat God-Devouring Serpent or Rykard in Elden Ring. You can also check out our guide on how you can cheese Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. For more content, check out our Elden Ring guides hub.
