You might think that by now you’ve learned that nothing good can come from hanging around the Shadow Keep’s backyard, and yet here you are, once again, being stepped on by an armored soldier riding an even more armored giant boar. Commander Gaius isn’t the worst thing blocking your path in the Keep, especially since he’s an optional boss, but he’s capable of dealing a disgusting amount of damage if you make a mistake. Luckily, we’ve provided you with the information you need to turn this pig into a hog.
Commander Gaius’s Skills
Right off the bat, Gaius’ first move will be to back away and try to knock you off your feet. Once he gets close enough, Gaius’ famous pig will start trying to gore you with his tusks, stomp on you with his feet, or suddenly kick you if you’re behind him. If he doesn’t kick you while you’re behind him, he’ll stand up on his hind legs and drop his entire body on top of you, with a slight shockwave. On top of that, there’s the man riding the pig beast, who will frequently strike you with his spear. And then, sometimes, all of this will combine into a chain of headbutts and spear thrusts. Ouch. And it’s not going to get any better.
At 50% health, Gaius will enchant his normal spear attacks with purple lightning. While your first instinct might be to use every anti-lightning item you have, don’t worry. This is actually gravity magic, meaning his attacks now have the ability to ruin your life in one or two hits. This is on top of his two new tricks: a 30-meter dive bomb attack that launches damaging debris, and a miniature black hole that pulls you closer in four gravitational pushes. If you’re at a long distance, the boar will also fire gravitational blasts directly at you. What a pain. But it’s totally doable.
Defeat Commander Gaius – Stage One
Believe it or not, this fight isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Previously, the first thing you’d want to do was get out of the way, as the boar would come straight at you the moment you stepped foot into the arena. However, In one of FromSoft’s rare acts of mercy, patch 1.12.3 locks Gaius out for a few seconds when you enter. So, yes, you’ll have plenty of time to call down a Spirit Ash, and once you do, Gaius is actually pretty easy to defeat. No, really!
The main problem with the first half is that Gaius, like most enemies in the DLC, hits like a Mac truck. His moveset is based around his ability to slash or slice enemies at high speed and from a distance. This means that once you dodge his initial charge, melee users can absolutely follow him by staying on his flanks, especially if you can keep your Spirit Ash double-teamed on the opposite side. The easiest thing here is to just let Gaius make the first moves and punish all of his attacks, especially with counterattacks, which can break his position quite easily. Don’t try this on his hind leg kick, though; he usually runs away 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 there, a good shield can take the next hit. Finally, Gaius is extremely vulnerable to bleeds. Bring a weapon capable of inflicting blood loss and you’ll reduce this guy’s life bar to nothing in no time.
Magic users can adopt a similar strategy up close, but it’s much more important to read his attacks and know when to cast them. You can land simple attacks, but for his big combo you’ll need to create some distance, which gives Gaius more opportunities to knock you down. You’ll probably rely a bit more on the distraction of Spirit Ash, but staying close means you can deal massive damage before the boar even turns its head in your direction.
Defeat Commander Gaius – Stage Two
At 50%, things change a bit. Melee fighters can still stay relatively close and attack him, but Gaius’ gravity attacks can usually do a lot of damage through shields, sometimes requiring you to move out of range to heal. Additionally, the leaping gravity attack can either go through a shield entirely, or deal so much stamina damage that it might as well. It can, however, be passed through when Gaius lands, but you just have to keep an eye on what he does as a follow-up.
For magic users, it’s now a good idea to keep a healthy distance, but the new gravity attacks and their area of effect can be a pain to avoid, especially since being charged is still a hazard. For those, play defensively, moving away from magic attacks before firing anything. For black hole attacks, you’ll need to create more distance to stay out of range, but if you’re cornered, you should stay on defense until the fourth pulse. However, if you keep dealing damage, Gaius will still be taken out in no time.
Your reward for beating him won’t be one of the worst hams in human history, but 230,000 runes and the Boar Rider’s Keepsake, which can be traded at the Fingers for Gaius’s Sword Lance or Stone Blades, Gaius’s area-of-effect magic. But wait, there’s more: after activating the new Grace Site, head into the valley beyond Gaius’s Field. If you’re a bow fan, there’s a hut on the left where you can kill a wolf-riding archer for Gaius’s Talisman of Shooting and Greaves, but if you follow the main road all the way, it’ll take you to the Chalice of Scadutree, where there are five (!) Scadutree Fragments lying on the ground. That’s quite a haul.
.