Church Grim

The Church Grim is a boss in Elden Ring.

Description
The Church Grim is a large winged beasts with a skull mask. It wields a heavy wooden cross which it can use to summon spectral animals to attack the player such as dogs and ravens.

Location
'The Ruined Sanctum'.

Once called 'The Church of Yhmir', the sanctum now shelters the hundreds of revenants the Grim raised, including the Grim itself. It is plagued by the fowl stench of rotting corpses, soot falls from the blackened sky like snow and the ground is littered with bones, withered flora and mud. The walls of the sanctum are broken down, revealing the inner halls when one looks at it form the outside.

The fight begins when the player makes their way out through a giant hole near the apse, leading to a large field, filled with withered, black spider lilies and bones. In the centre of the field, awaits the Church Grim, staring at you with soulless, hollow eyes.

Lore
It is called a church grim. A sacrifice would be made by the townsfolk (usually an animal sacrifice) to protect the church from evil spirits, grave robbers, e.t.c. The animal in question would be a black dog, raven, ram or rooster. The monster would rise from the grave to defend the church for all eternity, guarding it from physical and metaphysical threats.

Due to the shattering of the Elden Ring, a rupture formed in the balance, making the Grim go rouge, killing every last member of the church, raising them from the dead to serve as its warriors. When the townsfolk heard of what happened, they summoned hunters, mages, even knights in hopes that they might kill the beast. What resulted next was a massacre. The creature turned its eyes to the town after killing its hunters, using the dead to burn the village to the ground. The Grim and its undead dragged the corpses of the fallen back to the church, resurrecting them to serve, for all eternity.

Strategies
His attacks are usually predictable. Watch his flight pattern. As soon as he takes off, notice the direction he's moving. If he flies a little bit back before swooping down, it means he's going for the ground pound. If he remains stationary while in the air and then comes down to get you, he's going in for a grab attack.

The A.O.E is best avoided by rolling. Sprint and roll out of the way as fast as you can. When he comes crashing down, land a few attacks on him, and get the hell out of there because he likes to follow up with a tail sweep soon after he realises he missed.

The rest of the fight is history.

Its attacks are as follows :

Default attacks (present in both phase 1 and 2) :- a. A dive down attack where it comes crashing down onto the player.
 * 1) Feral like beast attacks such as claw strikes, ground pounds and grab attacks that are unblockable
 * 2) Tail sweeps when the player is too far and bites when the player is too close.
 * 3) When Flying :

b. A diving grab attack that almost kills you in one blow.

Phase 1 attacks :-
 * 1) Vomiting the remains of dead animals around it, 360 degrees. If the attacks hits you then your terror/curse will build up along with some light damage.
 * 2) Raising the dead to attack the player (can only be used twice in this phase) The dead are slow moving and easy to kill, but will be a constant nuisance.

Phase 2 attacks :- a. Dogs that run at you and blow up even if you hit them.
 * 1) Terror scream. (Remember the ape? Yeah, same principle.)
 * 2) Uses the cross as a medium to channel magic and hit you from afar.
 * 3) Can summon animal spectres such as :

b. Ravens that take to the skies and dive bomb you. (Kind of like missiles in a sense)

4. Has greater strength and speed, making use of all four of its legs now.

Drops
When You’ve defeated the creature, You can loot its cross as a reward. The weapon is called “Cross of The Church Grim”. It is a magic item that allows the wielder to:

Another item called “Soul Of The Church Grim” will appear. Upon consuming it, your max health will increase.
 * 1) Channel attack, healing and defence magic at the cost of mana. (Mana regains over time. Think of it as the stamina bar in dark souls and blood borne.)
 * 2) Summon animal spectres (Dogs and Ravens) to fight for you.
 * 3) After you’ve killed an enemy, use the power of the cross to raise it from the dead to fight for you. This can only be used a limited amount of times before the power depletes. A special bar appears called the necromancy bar which shows how much power you have to use your necromancer like abilities. When it depletes, you can’t resurrect people anymore. Special items known as undead emblems can be collected to increase the gauge of the necromancy bar. You’ll start off resurrecting two enemies, then as your gauge increases to its max, you’ll be able to resurrect five enemies.

Trivia

 * Created by u/SvarturUlf