Elden Ring: Beastman of Farum Azula (Groveside Cave) Boss Fight
Published: March 1, 2025 at 12:12:18 PM UTC
The Beastman of Farum Azula in Groveside Cave is in the lowest tier of bosses in Elden Ring, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the small Groveside Cave dungeon. As most of the lesser bosses in Elden Ring, he is an optional boss, but you will encounter him very early in the game and he can be useful for some practice in boss fights.
As you may know, bosses in Elden Ring are divided into three tiers. From lowest to highest: Field Bosses, Greater Enemy Bosses and finally Demigods and Legends.
The Beastman of Farum Azula in Groveside Cave is in the lowest tier, Field Bosses, and is the end boss of the small Groveside Cave dungeon. You can apparently also find another version of this boss in the Dragonbarrow Cave later in the game, I'll get back to that in another video when I get to him.
As most of the lesser bosses in Elden Ring, he is an optional boss, but you will encounter him very early in the game and he can be useful for some practice in boss fights. To me, at least, boss fights are the most fun parts of the game, so I wouldn't skip it anyway.
In fact, he was the very first boss I personally killed in Elden Ring, which is also why you'll see me messing around a bit at first. I did come straight from playing Dark Souls III, but at this point I wasn't used to my new character yet. In the last half or so of the fight, I do find the rhythm and make fairly short work of him.
I think the best melee strategy against this boss is to wait out his long attack chains, move in and lay some pain on him, and then back off again. He usually pauses for a second or two after each long combo, which is a golden opportunity to get some hits in yourself.
I didn't fight him ranged, but since he is fairly easy to stay away from, I imagine using a bow or some magic would make this fight easier than going melee.
I play as a melee/bow user and although I actually prefer ranged combat when feasible, the 20 runes per arrow was a bit too steep for me at this point. I hadn't figured out that you can craft arrows yourself yet, but even so, the time investment to farm the materials could also be spent on killing enemies that reward more runes that in turn could be used to buy arrows, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it really makes.
All in all a fairly easy boss, but if it's your first in the game, it may provide a reasonable challenge, just as it should.