The optional Grave Guardian is beneath the cemetery beside Deimpo Mausoleum. Find the small stone structure with a skeleton inside, enter around its back and pull the lever near the door to reveal a hidden staircase. This is a different encounter from the Shrine Guardian that unlocks Endu.
Find the cemetery structure
The Steam bestiary guide identifies the structure by its position near the side of Deimpo Mausoleum and the single skeleton within it. The useful search target is that small building, not the Mausoleum’s sealed main entrance.
Approach around the back to gain access. Once inside, check near the door for the lever. Activating it exposes the downward route to the encounter. Merely finding the building from the front does not show the complete descent.
Save at an accessible monument before entering. The cemetery is above the opening region, but proximity to the starting area is not a guarantee that every hidden enemy there matches the first boss’s difficulty.
Prepare for an optional fight
Bring healing and more than one damage type so you can compare attacks if your usual weapon performs poorly. Read the in-game enemy entry when available; the location sources used here do not independently establish a complete resistance table.
The early weapons guide offers a Club route if you need an Impact alternative. Read the in-game bestiary entry when available rather than importing the Shrine Guardian’s attack pattern into this encounter. A similarly named enemy does not establish identical timings or a guaranteed safe combo.
Use the first attempt to observe how much room the arena gives you and where you can retreat. Make short counterattacks after an enemy commits, allow the Power Meter to recover and avoid emptying your healing supply just to force an optional win. These are preparation principles, not a claimed frame-by-frame boss script.
Rusted Longhammer and the cemetery detour
The boss-order reference places the Rusted Longhammer in the chest beyond the guardian. ShowGamer’s weapon list separately locates that weapon in a secret room beneath the cemetery. Together, those references connect the optional encounter with the hidden weapon route.
After winning, check the chest rather than assuming the weapon automatically entered your inventory as a boss drop. Return to a monument and save the pickup before making another exposed cliff descent.
Published weapon guides identify the Longhammer’s developed form as Sipeha’s Void Maul. See the weapon evolution page for the distinction between a documented transformation and a universal rule for all weapons. The Rusted Longhammer and the similarly named Rusted Spear have different forms.
Nearby book cave is a separate search
The cliff below the cemetery also appears in the route for The Great Work IV – Rubedo, one of the Tower’s six missing books. That does not mean the book lies in the guardian’s reward chest. The library book guide describes the cave’s egg and central throwing-item pedestal landmarks.
If you are collecting both items, record which entrance you used and preserve each pickup. Taking a lower cave route for a book is not the same as finding the lever in the cemetery structure.
Sources and scope
The concealed staircase is described in PovKetz’s Steam bestiary guide and TreyexGaming’s location reference. The chest reward is cross-checked with the boss-order reference and ShowGamer’s weapon locations. Reviewed November 5, 2026; no exact HP or invented moveset is supplied.