How to beat Elden Ring Commander Niall boss fight? If you have reached Sol Fortress in the Giants Mountain Heights, you will encounter Commander Niall, who is very similar to O’Neil in Caelid before him. However, Commander Niall is a savage on a whole different level, an incredibly difficult foe with a reputation in the Elden Ring community as an almost unbreakable wall. Whether he’s summoning a pair of teleporting knights to help him, or getting a Tier 2 upgrade with lightning and frost powers, Niall is a far worse beast than any savagery you’ve ever fought. That’s why we’ve put together this guide on how to beat the Commander Niall boss fight in Elden Ring, which includes weaknesses, tips, tricks, strategy and a possible cheese method for you to use.
- The recommended level for Commander Niall is at least 100 with +20 or more weapons.
Here’s a basic strategy and some tips for beating the Commander Niall boss fight in Elden Ring:
- Use the shortcut to reach it and kill the lions
- Protect yourself against physical and Lightning damage
- Equip Piercing and Status effects if available
- Understand how phase 2 is triggered
- Kill the swordsman ghost knight first, not the shield knight
- Carefully outrun Niall with half health
- Roll continuously and hit fast in Stage 2
If you want to maximize your power, check out these Elden Ring best builds!
The ghost minions Niall summons are a nightmare to deal with, a shield knight and two-handed swordsman, a swordsman who can both teleport and launch long, health-shattering combos, which Niall cheerfully empowers, occasionally hitting you with a battle banner if you get too close. . Swordsman is particularly creepy, plays much more offensively and is definitely capable of killing the player himself.
Once you reach Stage 2, you won’t have to deal with the knight guards anymore, but things don’t get any better when Niall gets lightning bolts on his prosthetic leg and decides to kick the player to death, jumping in the arena. wide-ranging AOE attacks summon occasional ice storms with massive reach. It’s scary, but thankfully not impossible. Let’s start by reviewing the following basics:
To reach it, use the elevator shortcut at the Sol Castle entrance and kill the lions.
As a boss you will probably fight a lot, you want to reach him with the least fuss. There are two Grace Zones to choose from – the Castle Sol entrance or the entrance at Eclipse Church. The latter is closer, but also riskier – there are many enemies along the way.
Much better to get the input. When you open the elevator next to the arena entrance, after entering Sol Castle, turn left and you will reach the elevator and a straight road that leads to Niall. There are a pair of fierce scythe lions at the gate, but if you kill them they will not respawn! Get rid of them early and enjoy a fast track to Niall from then on.
Arm yourself against Frostbite as well as Physical and Lightning damage
Between Niall and his minions, they do pretty much any Physical damage except the Striker, so you’ll want to be well-protected against them. Niall also uses a lot of Lightning attacks in his second phase, so anything that keeps them weak is a good summon.
Finally, Niall likes to summon ice storms that cause the Frostbite Status effect. While not as bad as Poison or Scarlet Rot, Frostbite deals a single stack of damage after it’s triggered, then causes the player to take slightly more damage and regain Stamina more slowly until it wears off. Neither is good, so any defense you can make against him will help you survive.
Equip Thr/Piercing and apply status effects to exploit his weaknesses
Niall has no real core weaknesses, nothing that could easily destroy him, but there are things he’s more vulnerable to than others. Piercing damage is a little more lethal than other weapons, but not by a large, but Commander Niall also has Bleed, Crimson Rot, Poison, etc. It has no special resistance to Status Effects such as It wouldn’t be a bad idea to hit him slowly, the damage-dumping effect early on.
Commander Niall’s stage 2 trigger and effects explained
Commander Niall’s stage 2 is completely different from stage 1. All surviving ghost knights vanish, and Niall receives a massive buff and a whole new set of moves, transforming from a more distant support foe to an incredibly aggressive foe.
Niall’s phase 2 is triggered by one of two things.: If his health is halved or both of his knights are killed, whichever comes first. This is important to remember because it should change your priorities when dealing with knights. Speaking of which…
Kill the double sword sword knight first, but leave the shield knight alone
Niall’s Stage 2 is so brutal that you want him to activate it as late as possible, but you also don’t want two ghost knights fighting you for years. So when the fight starts, strip to the right and try to get rid of the sword knight as quickly as possible as he is a much bigger threat than the shield knight. Stab him in the back, hit him with your best spells, do your best to eliminate him quickly before he teleports to you and begins his big, unpredictable combos. In fact, ghost knights seem somewhat vulnerable to magic damage – worth remembering for mages.
However, do not kill the shield knight! While this enemy is still dangerous, it’s much slower and doesn’t teleport that much. Simply put, Tier 1 Niall and the shield knight are easier to deal with than Tier 2 Niall and the shieldless knight.
Halve Commander Niall’s health while avoiding his protection
From this point on, your goal is to halve Niall’s health without killing his shield knight. Niall isn’t too bad in Phase 1, as his wide-ranging attacks are telegraphed pretty clearly and you’ll normally have time to back out. He also makes no real effort to get close, swinging slowly and occasionally creating a red circle of energy that strengthens his guards. Speaking of danger, the shield knight leaps to crush your skull, but it doesn’t combo like other knights and can usually be avoided with a simple, well-timed dodge. In fact, a nice tank spirit summons can help distract the knight (although there’s always the risk of killing them too soon). Always try to keep both enemies in sight and play carefully, not aggressively.
Play for constant evasion in Tier 2 and use quick hits while managing stamina
Assuming you followed the steps above and didn’t get caught by a terrible sneak attack (we empathize), eventually Niall will reach half health and enter stage 2, dispelling permanent ghost knights and completely changing his movement. He is now incredibly fast and aggressive, wielding a combination of splashing hits, AOE attacks, and wide-ranging ice storms.
The key here is to always have stamina in the tank to allow you to escape or even run to safety. Use single, quick attacks, don’t wear out, and do your best to avoid the Frostbite effect. Niall’s speed and range, combined with his power to break through shields, means that no matter how far away, you’ll have to duck for safety at once. It will be difficult and will probably take a few tries (or a very gentle over-level player being summoned to fire some super spells) but this is the legitimate method with the best chance of success. As an alternaive…
cant_beat_commander_niall_so_had_to_do_the from r/Eldenring
There is a popular method for Cheesing Commander Niall discovered by Reddit user H3NRY-56 in the article at the given link. The strategy is to equip yourself with as many arrows as you can and the strongest bow you can find, before heading to the railings of Sol Fortress, west of the boss arena (near the roaming dogs). By carefully lining up the hit, you can hit Niall through a gap in the wall and shred his health until he dies (some players like to enter the arena to personally deliver the final blow). Either way, a kill is a kill, and if FromSoftware isn’t going to be fair about it… well, why would we?
Commander Niall drops a few bounties, the main ones being Rune 90000, and the Veteran’s Prosthetic, Niall’s lightning leg, now adapted into an electric fist weapon. If you explore beyond the arena, you can also find the left half of the Haligtree Secret Medallion, an essential part of how to get to the Conecrated Snowfield in Elden Ring. Buying Niall’s Veteran armor set which is a very good set with solid weight/defense ratio.
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