You’d think by now you might’ve learned that nothing good can come of trying to hang out in the Shadow Keep’s backyard, and yet here you are, once again, getting walked down by an armored soldier riding an even more armored giant boar. Commander Gaius isn’t the worst thing blocking your way in the Keep, especially since he’s an optional boss, but he’s capable of doing a disgusting amount of damage if you slip up. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with the info you need to turn that pig into pork.
Commander Gaius’ Abilities
Right off the bat, Gaius’ first move will be to rear back, and try to run you over from clear across the field. Once it’s close enough, Gaius’ Famous Pig will start trying to gore you with his tusks, stomp you with his trotters, or suddenly kick you if you’re at his rear. If it’s not kicking you while you’re behind it, it will raise up on its hind legs, and drop its whole body down on you, with a mild shockwave. On top of that, there’s the man riding the porcine beast, who’ll take frequent swipes at you with his lance. And then, sometimes, all of these will coalesce into one brutal combo chain of headbutts and lance swipes. Ye-ouch. And it’s about to get worse.
At 50 percent health, Gaius will enchant his normal spear attacks with purple lightning. While your first instinct might be to throw on all the lightning negation items you’ve got, hold your horses. It’s actually gravity magic, which means his attacks now have the ability to ruin your life in one or two hits. That’s all on top of his two new tricks: a dive bomb attack from 100 feet in the air that launches damaging debris, and a miniature black hole which pulls you closer over four gravity surges. If you’re at long range, the boar will also shoot gravity blasts at you directly. What a pain in the ass. But this is very doable.
Defeating Commander Gaius – First Stage
Believe it or not, this fight isn’t as tough as it once was. Previously, the first thing on the agenda was to dodge the hell out of the way because the boar would be coming right for you the second you stepped foot in the arena. However, in one of FromSoft’s rare acts of mercy, patch 1.12.3 actually stalls Gaius for a few seconds when you get inside. So, yes, you’ll have ample time to call in a Spirit Ash, and once you do, Gaius is actually kind of a pushover. No, really!
The main issue for the first half is that Gaius, like most of the enemies in the DLC, hits like a Mac truck. His whole moveset is predicated on being able to gore or slash at enemies at high speeds from a distance. That means, once you’ve dodged out of the way of his initial charge, melee users can absolutely dog-walk this guy by staying at his flanks, especially if you can keep your Spirit Ash double-teaming him on the opposite side. The easiest thing here is simply to let Gaius make the first moves, and punish all of his attacks—especially with guard counters—which can break his stance fairly easily. Don’t try that on the kick from his hind legs, however; he typically takes off running after that, which can leave you wide open. Tanks can absorb anything he tries, with the only real danger being his five-hit boar/spear combo. Even then, if you take a hit in there, a good shield can eat the next hit. Lastly, Gaius is severely weak to bleeding. Bring a weapon that can inflict blood loss, and you’ll be stripping this dude’s life bar down to a nub in no time.
Magic users can adopt a similar strategy up close, however reading his attacks and roll timing becomes way more crucial. You can roll through single strikes, but for his big combo you’ll need to create some distance, which gives Gaius more opportunities to run you over. You’ll likely be relying on the distraction from the Spirit Ash a bit more, but staying close means you can inflict huge damage before the boar even turns his head in your direction.
Defeating Commander Gaius – Second Stage
At the 50 percent mark, the situation flips a bit. Melee folks can still stay relatively close and whale away at him, but Gaius’ gravity attacks can typically do a chunk of damage through shields, which requires the occasional need to roll out of range to heal. Also, the leaping gravity attack can either break through a shield entirely, or do so much stamina damage that it might as well. It can be rolled through on Gaius’ landing, though, you just want to keep an eye out on what he does as a follow-up.
For magic users, now keeping a healthy distance is good, but the new gravity attacks and their area of effect can be a pain to work around, especially since being charged at is still a danger. For those, play defensively, roll out of the way of the magic attacks before firing anything off. For the black hole attacks, you’ll need to create more distance to stay out of its range, but if you get stuck you need to stay on defense until the fourth pulse. If you’re persistent about damage, however, Gaius will still be done for in no time.
Your reward for beating him is not some of the worst ham in human history, but 230,000 Runes and the Remembrance of the Boar Rider, which can be turned in at the Fingers either for Gaius’ Sword Lance, or Blades of Stone, Gaius’ area-of-effect magic. But, wait, there’s more: After activating the new Site of Grace, head to the valley beyond Gaius’ field. If you’re a fan of bows, there’s a shack off to the left where you can kill an archer riding a wolf for the Sharpshot Talisman and Gaius’ Greaves, but if you follow the main road all the way to the end, it’ll lead to the Scadutree Chalice, where there’s five (!) Scadutree Fragments lying on the ground. That’s a hell of a haul.
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