One of the few direct instructions Elden Ring will give to the player is that they must collect Great Runes from powerful bosses to become Elden Lord. Elden Ring has seven of these Great Runes to collect, although only two are required to complete the main story. Finding some of these Shardbearer bosses will be quite straightforward, as the game’s progression will naturally guide the player towards them. Others, however, are more difficult to discover.
One of the more difficult Great Rune holder bosses to find without a guide is Rykard, who resides in Elden Ring's Volcano Manor at Mt. Gelmir. This is a location players will only discover later in the game and presents the player with an invasion side quest to complete before they are considered worthy enough to see Rykard.
Upon completing this side quest, players are reminded that the only piece of Rykard they’ve seen in the game so far was him being eaten by a snake in the game's opening cutscene, as the first phase of Elden Ring's Rykard boss fight is against the God-Devouring Serpent, which Rykard is controlling from the inside. During the boss fight, Rykard will mention consuming the player character to grow in power, and a fan on Reddit has discovered a secret animation revealing that this isn't empty threat.
The God-Devouring Serpent phase of the Rykard boss fight suitably utilizes a lot of striking attacks with the snake’s huge mouth. A lot of these attacks can end up being devastating grab attacks if the player is caught in the wrong place. Reddit user Dallolz has shared a clip revealing that if one of these grab attacks kills the player, the giant serpent will swallow them. In one of the many strangely funny moments in Elden Ring, the snake will fling the player up in the air before snapping its jaw closed like Captain Hook being swallowed by the crocodile in Peter Pan.
As an added bit of detail, the camera will then track down the serpent’s body as if still following the player’s location. FromSoftware is known for adding tiny visual details to its games that players may completely miss. The Rykard Boss fight is full of FromSoftware visual flair, from the arena to the unique boss design, but some players think that it falls down slightly in one area.
Rykard’s Boss fight has been compared to Yhorm the Giant’s fight from Dark Souls 3, in that the player can use a specific weapon found in the boss arena to do massive damage to the boss. FromSoftware games are famous for difficult boss fights which challenge the player and their choice of play style. These specific boss-killing weapons are often seen by some players as trivializing what could have been a much harder and more rewarding fight.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.