One of the optional bosses in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, Commander Gaius, might remind you of the various Elden Ring horse bosses you’ve fought in the past. However, make no mistake, as Commander Gaius plays utterly differently from any horse bosses you’ve fought till now. So, how do you deal with Commander Gaius? What are the things to look out for? Let’s explore!
Commander Gaius Location in Elden Ring DLC
Commander Gaius resides in a secret area behind the Shadow Keep. You will first need to get to the Bonny Village from Moorth Ruins to reach there. Then, you cross Bonny Village and reach the Church District. From here, you have to parkour through the roofs and jump from a cracked portion of the roof to a location where two fire sorceress roam.
While you can stealth the first fire sorceress, go straight from the point where it comes and ignore the second one. The first left will take you to the lever that lowers the water in the Church District. Take the second left and ride the lift.
Now, you will arrive at the Speciment Storehouse back area. Take a ladder and take a right after going up the ladder. You’ll find a crack in the walls behind a shelf. Go through it to reach the next floor with ledges with bats flying around.
Follow the ledge path until you see an archway towards the bottom of the ledge. Jump down there and follow the stairs outside to take a lift, taking you to the boss.
Elden Ring Commander Gaius Weakness
Like other bosses, Commander Gaius in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree has some weaknesses that you can exploit. They are:
- Weak to bleed: Fortunately, Commander Gaius is weak to bleed damage like most bosses in Elden Ring. Hence, if you have something like Katana or weapons like Bloodhound’s Fangs, use them on him. Periodically, the bled will stack and result in bleed damage, dealing a lot of injury to the boss.
- Weak to physical: Commander Gaius takes a lot of damage from physical attacks. You’ll have a good time fighting with the boss if you have strength weapons.
- Weak to Fire: From what I’ve seen during one of my summoning boss fight experiences, this boss took hefty damage while getting burnt. So, use fire-based magic or weapons that deal with fire, as it will put some good damage on this boss.
- Weak to Freeze: Commander Gaius is weak against freeze damage, specifically from magic. So, if you have any freeze magic, now is the time to use and take advantage of it.
Commander Gaius: Boss Fight Tips and Tricks
Now that we know the weakness of Commander Gaius, it is time to tackle the boss. Here are some tips and things to remember while fighting the boss:
- Call in the assistance of Spirit Ash: Like most boss fights, you can summon a Spirit Ash to this fight. That way, Commander Gaius can get distracted fighting the Spirit Ash while you can take your time to fight and defeat the enemy simultaneously.
- Wear armor with physical protection: Commander Gaius deals a lot of physical damage per hit, including his Boar hitting and running toward you. So, wear yourself some armor that gives you physical protection. That will allow you to take less damage than intended.
- Roll forward during the charge: The boar of Commander Gaius has a great iFrame when it charges towards you. All you have to do is roll towards the boss at the final moment, and you’ll see yourself dodging the charge altogether.
- Look out for the combo: Commander Gaius and the Boar do this three-part combo of Lance attack, Boar swing attack, and ending it with Boar Slam. You dodge the lance attack by rolling in whatever direction, the boar swing attack by dodging sideways, and the Boar slam by dodging backward.
- Dodge the side run swing attack: Gaius sometimes uses this attack where he will run backward, circle you, and let the boar swing its head toward you. The best way to avoid this is to dodge into the boar sideways at the last moment of the swing.
- Look out for the gravity attacks: Gaius has various AoE gravity attacks. One of the first ones is this Gravity upward slash, where he does an upward slash while doing an AoE on the ground. You can dodge it by rolling forward. Similarly, Gaius summons rocks from the ground and hurls them towards you. You can dodge them in any direction.
- Careful of the Explosion Dive: Phase two of Commander Gaius’ boss fight happens after you remove 50% of his health. When that happens, Gaius jumps in the air with the Boar and does an AoE Gravity Dive, where he spins and slams the ground. The best way to ignore this is by dodging just few seconds before Gaius hits the ground.
- Look out for phase two gravity attacks: The moveset stays the same, except every attack now has gravity damage. However, two new moves were added. One is a flying thrust, where Gaius and his Boar float and thrust through the air to hit you. You can roll forward to ignore it.
Commander Gaius Rewards in Elden Ring
After you finish the grueling fight against Commander Gaius in Elden Ring, you stand to win some rewards. For starters, you get the Remembrance of the Wild Boar Rider. This is the Remembrance of Commander Gaius, which you get to exchange with Enia at the Roundtable Hold.
Exchanging the item gives you two choices. One of them is Commander Gaius’ weapon – the Sword Lance. It requires 21 Strengths and 11 Dexterity and has a base physical stat of 132.
Alternatively, you can exchange the remembrance for the sorcery Blades of Stone. It is a gravity-manipulating sorcery of Commander Gaius, where you can pull blades from the earth, causing AOE damage. So, depending on your choice, you can get either of these two. Finally, you also get 230,000 runes for your leveling purposes.
That is how you defeat this rather well-hidden optional boss in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. Let me know if you’ve managed to track down Commander Gaius in the comments below.
