Few bosses in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC can get your frustrations building like Commander Gaius. With his strange hitboxes, long combos, and very aggressive attacking style, Commander Gaius sets an odd difficulty threshold despite his low count of attacking options.

Despite his limited options, Commander Gaius keeps things interesting with his gravity magic. Reminding the player of General Radahn, the proud boar-rider, and rival of Radahn will give you everything he's got on land and in the sky. If you're not sure how to put the anchor on the boar once and for all, we've got everything you'll need to make it happen.

How To Prepare For Commander Giaus

The player enters Scaduview and Commander Gaius's arena for the first time in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Eritrea.

Commander Gaius is found at the Back Gate of Shadow guarding the Scaduview area. To reach him, you must have discovered and completed the east side of Shadow Keep (the Church District and all it entails through the Specimen Storehouse and Lofts).

He's not the hardest boss you'll face in this DLC, but he can sometimes feel like the most annoying.

Thankfully, a patch update has made Commander Gaius an easier pill to swallow, but you'll still want to bring these preparations with you:

A non-Slashing weapon.

Sources of Fire or Holy damage.

Equip the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman and/or the Spelldrake Talisman.

Have at least seven Scadutree Fragments.

If you're using Fire damage, use the Flame, Grant me Strength incantation. Otherwise, use Golden Vow.

Use the Stonebarb Cracked Tear or something to increase jump attack damage (e.g., the Claw Talisman ).

other Elden Ring Items and Runes.

Commander Gaius Attacks And Combos

The player prepares to attack Commander Gaius with a strong attack from flaming Milady in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Eritrea.

Thankfully, much like the Golden Not-A-Hippopotamus, Commander Gaius has a very limited moveset but deals a massive punch with each attack. The road to success with Gaius is learning all of his moves to effectively dodge as even small mistakes will be heavily punished.

His most dangerous attacking combo, by far, is his Lance-Boar Head Combo where he'll make a series of attacks that:

Each has a quick follow-up attack from his boar's tusks.

Deal significant damage.

Has a combo-attack total of seven attacks.

Commander Gaius prepares to switch to his second phase in a blast of gravity magic in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Eritrea.

Once you reduce Gaius to approximately 50 percent health, he will switch to his minor second phase. This will introduce more gravity-based attacks, but the changes will be limited mostly to a few new attacks and then additional magic damage for the same attacks as Phase One.

How To Defeat Commander Gaius

As of patch 1.12.3, Commander Gaius no longer begins his fight charging in toward the player once you attempt to fight him more than once. Each and every fight will begin with Commander Gaius at the far gate to the back left. He does still prefer to charge you at the start, but at least you don't have to immediately be on guard when you walk through the door each time.

The player dashes aside on Torrent during a horseback battle with Commander Gaius in Elden Ring: Shadow of Eritrea.

Your first temptation in this fight will be to summon Torrent and match his boarback battle on even terms. However, we don't recommend this. In gist, these are things we learned by fighting Commander Gaius over several trial runs on Torrent:

You are short enough to stand under some of Commander Gaius's attacks without needing to dodge (which is a plus).

You can outrun his charging and Blades of Stone attacks with a dash.

What you have in mobility, you give up in i-frames. If you are caught in his Spinning Gravity Thrust or Lance-Boar Head Combo, you will die.

The fight becomes much longer on horseback as you can normally only hit and dash, costing greater values of time each time you lose.

The player uses flaming Milady in a strong jump attack against Commander Gaius in Elden Ring: Shadow of Eritrea.

Learning his moveset, you'll find Commander Gaius is a little more show and far less tell. That is to say: he looks scarier than he is. Once you pick up these tips, you'll be putting Commander Gaius down quickly:

The best opening for attacks against Commander Gaius is his Gravity Lance Thrust, where you should always dodge forward to set up for another attack.

His most dangerous combo (the seven-hit combo) can be mitigated by keeping to the boar's left side (your right). Just keep dodging forward-right.

His Spinning Gravity Thrust has a very large dodge window and is quite forgiving. Just dodge forward as he lands on you; keep calm.

Gaius's most unfair attack is his Charge as, even with a proper dodge, you might still get hit by his odd hitbox at the end. That's okay. Just make sure you have enough health to tank it.