Elden Ring Stormveil Castle walkthrough

Looking for an Elden Ring Stormveil Castle walkthrough? Stormveil Castle is an extremely dangerous stronghold, with many hidden enemies, confusing corridors, and unexpected shortcuts. It's one of the first major castles you'll come across during your Elden Ring playthrough.

This Elden Ring Stormveil Castle walkthrough will help you survive this intimidating stronghold and find the Stormveil Castle boss: Godrick the Grafted.

Stormveil Castle location

Stormveil Castle stands on the border between Limgrave and Liurnia. Although you can initially skip the castle, this 'main route' to Liurnia offers a lot of loot as well as a chance to obtain a Great Rune from Godrick the Grafted. Since you'll need two Great Runes to access Leyndell, the Royal Capital, clearing Stormveil Castle is a great place to start.

Stormveil Castle is a dangerous place, so it's wise to explore Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula first in the Elden Ring area order. Once you're at least level 30, you should be ready to enter Stormveil.

Stormveil Castle walkthrough

To enter Stormveil Castle, ride past Stormhill Shack and through Castleward Tunnel, where you must defeat Margit, the Fell Omen. When Margit is down, you can walk up to the main gate.

As the gates are shut, you must enter the room to your left, where you'll find an NPC named Gostoc. He'll give you a choice: enter Stormveil Castle through the main gate or take the secret path to the left. Although it's possible to clear Stormveil Castle by taking the main entrance, it's typically wiser to follow Gostoc's advice and go for the alternative route, as the main entrance is heavily guarded.

This Elden Ring Stormveil Castle walkthrough will follow the easiest path, so we'll leave Gostoc's room through the large gap in the wall, turn right, and jump to the higher ledge. If you want, you can go back to Stormveil Castle's main gate first to collect some items (when standing in front of the gate, take the narrow path to the right).

Once you reach the highest part of the wall, go to your right to find a ledge with a Smithing Stone [2]. Carefully drop down into the courtyard and be prepared to fight some bladed birds, a.k.a. Warhawks. On the other side of the courtyard, you'll find the Stormveil Cliffside Site of Grace. You may collect some items around the cliffside (a smithing stone, crossbow bolts, and herba plants), but to proceed with your Stormveil Castle run, take the staircase to the north.

Enter the tower and take the path to your right, which leads to a large storehouse full of wooden barrels, boxes, and - unfortunately - many soldiers. You may grab the Hookclaws weapon underneath the platforms (continue straight ahead after entering the storehouse), but to proceed with this Stormveil Castle walkthrough, follow the path upwards.

Be very careful while approaching the first wooden staircase, as one of the soldiers will make the barrels at the top explode. It's best to alert the soldier but immediately dodge backwards, then proceed when the barrels are destroyed.

When you've reached the highest platform, go through the door and defeat the Banished Knight in the room behind it; you can get the upper hand by sneaking in and unleashing ranged magical attacks, or by sneaking behind him and using your strongest physical attacks (the Banished Knight is waiting on the left side of the room). The door will be locked after you enter.

If you've died inside this room, you get the option to skip the fight against the Banished Knight (as the door will no longer be shut), but you must ensure you've collected the Rusty Key before leaving (it's on the dead body). It's best to lure the Banished Knight away from the body before grabbing the key. Don't miss out on the Curved Sword Talisman either; it's inside the wooden chest.

Once you've got the Rusty Key, leave the room with the Banished Knight and drop down to the lower floor, where you can use the key to open a door.

After climbing the ladder, you'll find that the path splits in two; if you go right, you can collect some extra items (fire grease and the Brick Hammer weapon), which will eventually take you back to the storehouse. You can skip this by immediately going left.

Keep following the path until you reach the large room at the top of the stone tower outside. Don't rush in; it's guarded by a Banished Knight. If you'd rather avoid the fight, dash past him when he turns his back and run upstairs. At the first opportunity, go right and then left; there's a Site of Grace in this room.

If you want, you can return to the large staircase, head to the top, and collect some items in this area, including a Golden Rune [2]. You can also drop down onto the Stormveil Castle rooftops from here - this may get you a Stonesword Key and Smithing Stone [2]. Return to the Rampart Tower Site of Grace once you're done.

If you don't want to take a detour, you can take the northern exit and follow the path across the castle walls, past the warhawk enemies. Trigger the explosive barrels next to the tower on the left; this will instantly kill a hidden warhawk and allow you to collect a smithing stone [2]. Next, take the stairs leading slightly downwards onto the roof and into a large tower with a hole in the floor; drop down to meet the sorcerer Rogier.

Leave through the southern exit and dash past the powerful knight patrolling the road. Run inside the building on the other end of the path and keep going until you enter a church with a Grafted Scion below. It's best not to jump head-first into this fight, but when the mini-boss is on the other end of the room, you can drop down the ledge on the right side and immediately run through the doorway in the southwest. The elevator will take you back to the last Site of Grace - from now on, you can use this shortcut.

Once you've rested, take the elevator again. You can loot the rooms to your left and right (there's a Crimson Hood on the pile of corpses to the right, as well as a chest with a Mimic Veil in the dining room upstairs), but you'll need to take the door on the far left of this area to proceed towards the Stormveil Castle courtyard. You may dash past the Grafted Scion, but you can also fight this mini-boss from the relative safety of the elevator room.

Don't rush into the courtyard; it's safer to use the doorway on the left, take out the soldier on the higher platform, and carefully reveal your presence to the soldiers outside. It's much easier to lure small groups of enemies into this room rather than fighting them all at once.

When you've taken care of the patrolling soldiers, head into to courtyard and stick to the wall on your left. Take out the enemies surrounding the wooden rampart one-by-one.

Although it's quite easy to take down the soldiers manning the crossbows as well (and clear the second wooden rampart to top it off), there's no reason to do this unless you want the extra Runes. You can stick to the left side of the courtyard and run past the ogre - upstairs, to the left, and straight into a building with the Site of Grace.

After taking a rest, you can take one of two paths: use the elevator or head outside again and take the stairs ahead of you. Both routes lead to Godrick the Grafted, but the elevator is much easier; go up, walk through the broken flooring with the walking pots (defeat the scarab to obtain the Stormcaller Ash of War), and activate the Site of Grace ahead of you. Godrick's arena is on your left.

Before you visit Godrick, however, it's wise to defeat the massive ogre on the staircase outside; you can easily defeat him with ranged attacks from inside this building. Fight your way to the courtyard below and grab the Golden Seed in front of the small golden tree. Make sure you visit the NPC called Nepheli as well; she's behind the doorway on the right. After speaking with her, you'll be able to summon Nepheli during the Godrick boss fight.

Godrick isn't going to give you an easy win, so take a look at our guide on how to beat Godrick the Grafted for some tips!

And that concludes this Elden Ring Stormveil Castle walkthrough. 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.