Best Methods To Beat Commander Gaius In Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree

Commander Gaius is an optional boss and poses a huge challenge due to his heavy-hitting attacks and extremely fast mobility in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The fight itself starts with an attack that is almost guaranteed to hit 90% of the time so you’re already at a disadvantage from the beginning. However, once you exploit Gaius’ weakness, it becomes pretty easy to stagger and defeat him.

Be sure to check out our video guide on reaching Commander Gaius if you’re having trouble finding him:

How To Beat Commander Gaius In Shadow Of The Erdtree

Here are some amazing builds that work wonders against Commander Gaius, and I’ve made sure to provide something for every type of play style:

• Exploiting The Fire Weakness: Commander Gaius is extremely weak to fire and weapons that deal elemental damage can quickly deplete his health bar. I recommend using a Blasphemous Blade with stats centered around strength and faith to not only destroy his health bar but also to stagger him during the fight.
• Lightning/Holy Damage: If your build is centered around faith, then you can also use holy weapons or infuse your armaments with lightning to deal massive damage in a small number of hits.
• Stagger Damage: Commander Gaius can be easily staggered by spamming jumping R2s using a Greatsword or an Ultra-Greatsword, and the best weapon that I recommend for this route is Maliketh’s Black Blade.
• Ranged Builds: Gaius’ fast mobility is a nightmare for mage builds, but if you do want to use the ranged route, then make sure to utilize the lightning and holy incantations instead, and don’t forget to summon the Mimic Tear so that you’ll have enough room to charge your incantations.
• Bleed/Frost Builds: Both of these strategies are viable as Gaius can be bled as well as frostbitten, but in my experience, getting that proc was always hard since his moveset didn’t allow me to efficiently build up the bleed or frost status effect.
• Using Summons: If the Commander is posing a lot of trouble for your build, you can always rely on the trust Mimic Tear or any other powerful spirit summon to get done with the fight easily.

In conclusion, a melee-focused faith build, which preferably deals fire, lightning, or holy damage, is going to have an easy time against Commander Gaius as compared to other builds.

Learning The Commander’s Moveset

The fight starts with an attack that is almost undodgeable 90% of the time, and that attack remains a risky move to dodge throughout the fight. Make sure to equip talismans that increase your damage negation, like the Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman, so you can tank hit. Bull Goat’s armor set is also recommended because you’ll be getting hit a lot by the follow-ups of the boar.

The Commander’s attacks can be easily dodged once you learn the pattern in the first, and his combos leave enough room for punishes. During the second phase transition and in the second phase itself, you’ll have to start relying on Torrent to dodge the huge AOE attack. Whenever you see the commander flying away and charging an attack infused with gravity, just run away using Torrent.

• Rewards: The Remembrance of Commander Gaius can be used to unlock either the Sword Lance heavy thrusting weapon or the Blades of Stone sorcery. 

Location Of Commander Gaius In Elden Ring

Commander Gaius is located in the Shadow Keep legacy dungeon but the path to his location is very well hidden. You won’t reach him through the main gate of Shadow Keep, instead, you’ll have to follow the path that I’ve marked in the image above. It’s a long detour but unlocks a completely new location within the Shadow Keep castle. 

Starting from the Moorth Ruins grace in Scadu Altus, head straight ahead and take a left after passing under the broken bridge. You’ll come across a small opening, jump inside, and keep following the path to arrive at Bonny Village. From here just trace the path in the image to arrive in the Church District of Shadowkeep. There’s an elevator in this district that will take you back inside the castle and towards the Commander’s boss room.

This concludes my guide on how you can easily beat Commander Gaius In Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. I have entailed multiple methods to make the fight easier so you can beat the boss with a build that suits your play style. The Commander’s location has also been mentioned. I hope that the guide helped you overcome another strong hurdle in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

You can also check out my review of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree to learn more about the pros and cons of the critically acclaimed DLC.

NEXT:

• Elden Ring: How To Defeat Midra
• Elden Ring: Best Quality Weapons
• Elden Ring: Best Dex Weapons
• Elden Ring: Best Strength Weapons