Elden Ring: Commander Gaius (Scaduview) Boss Fight (SOTE)

As you probably know, bosses in Elden Ring are divided into three tiers. From lowest to highest: Field Bosses, Greater Enemy Bosses and finally Demigods and Legends.

Commander Gaius is in the highest tier, Legendary bosses, and is found in the Scaduview area. He is an optional boss in the sense that he does not need to be defeated in order to progress the main story of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, but defeating him is very worthwhile as several Scadutree Fragments can be found in the area behind him.

As soon as you enter the area, the boss will start charging at you. He’s quite far away so it takes him a little while to get there, but since he’s riding a large boar, he covers ground quickly.

He really likes the charging people part, but he also shoots some sort of void magic balls at people, which I mostly tend to block with my head. Which in turn hurts a lot.

This was definitely the hardest boss in the DLC for me at this point and I spent a lot of attempts before I figured out an approach that worked quite well. What would often kill me was that it was difficult to see what was going on in melee due to the size of the boss, and being close to him made it very difficult to dodge his magic, so I ended up using the same approach that I use on other large bosses, particularly dragons.

I usually refer to the Bolt of Gransax as my favorite dragon attitude readjustment tool, but I suppose it could now just be called a boss attitude readjustment tool as it works quite well on other bosses too. But it does do extra damage to dragons, so it’s probably still really a dragon attitude readjustment tool. No matter, Gaius’ attitude was successfully readjusted as well.

By staying at range and focusing on dodging his attacks, I could better wait out opportunities to wind up the rather slow weapon art on the Bolt of Gransax and lay some pain on him from afar. It also helped to split aggro with my usual sidekick, Black Knife Tiche, although she’s a bit on the squishy side of things for this boss and can’t really tank him for long.

And now for the usual boring details about my character. I play as a mostly Dexterity build. My melee weapons are the Rivers of Blood and the Uchigatana with Keen affinity, but I mostly used the Bolt of Gransax in this fight. I was level 211 and Scadutree Blessing 13 when this video was recorded, which I think is reasonable for this boss. I’m always looking for the sweet spot where it’s not mind-numbing easy mode, but also not so difficult that I will be stuck on the same boss for hours ;-)

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Fan art inspired by this boss fight

Anime-style fan art of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Commander Gaius mounted on an armored boar in the ruins of Scaduview, moments before combat begins. Click or tap the image for more information.

Wide anime-style scene of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Commander Gaius mounted on an armored boar amid the ruined fortress of Scaduview before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Realistic fantasy scene of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Commander Gaius riding an armored boar amid ruined fortress walls before combat. Click or tap the image for more information.

Elevated isometric view of the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Commander Gaius mounted on an armored boar within the ruins of Scaduview before battle. Click or tap the image for more information.

Isometric view from behind the Tarnished in Black Knife armor facing Commander Gaius mounted on an armored boar in the ruins of Scaduview before combat. Click or tap the image for more information.

Further Reading

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• Elden Ring: Commander O'Neil (Swamp of Aeonia) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Misbegotten Crusader (Cave of the Forlorn) Boss Fight
• Elden Ring: Nox Swordstress and Nox Monk (Sellia, Town of Sorcery) Boss Fight