Commander Niall can be found above deep sun castle within tops of the mountains of the giants, one of the final areas in the Elden Ring. He poses a huge threat to lower level players, but the rewards for defeating him can be very significant.
By the time you get to Commander Niall, you should be well acquainted with both Spirit Ashes and the ghost summoning system. You’ll definitely want to recruit help for this fight, as this is one of the few bosses in the Elden Ring that summons powerful enemy reinforcements. Whether you decide to bring your best Spirit Ashes or summon a friend, make sure you come prepared for a tough fight.
preparing for battle
Before you jump into the fight, you’ll want to adjust your armor and defense stats according to the boss’s attacks. Aside from the fact that it hits like a truck, also uses a variety of powerful lightning-based moves to decimate your HP. The solution to this dilemma is significantly increase its resistance to lightning, as doing this will help you take some of Niall’s stronger attacks with ease. One of the easiest ways to do this is to equip the Boltdrake Talisman, a very useful accessory that you probably already picked up at Stormveil Castle near the start of your journey.
Next, you’ll want equip a solid set of armor that will allow you to absorb some physical damage without dying. Equipping heavy armor like Tree Sentinel Armor and Crucible Ax Armor is ideal, but you should always make sure that maintain a medium equipment load regardless of what you decide to use. Finally, bring your most enhanced spiritual ashes or your toughest friend, and you’re ready to go.
The fight
When you go through the fog gate and face the boss, Commander Niall will immediately begin summoning two Banished Knights to assist you. If you’re using Spirit Ashes for this fight, make sure to summon your helper as soon as you enter the boss arena because enemies will start attacking you right after they spawn. Ideally, you should allow your Spirit Ashes to distract one or both Banished Knights before attacking so you can start the fight more smoothly. If you have bewitching branches, you can enchant the two banished knights and have a much easier time fighting the boss, but this is not a necessity.
While fighting the knights, you can keep Commander Niall at a distance, and won’t pose any significant threat to you (yet). One of the banished knights wields dual swords, while the other has a sword and shield. The double sword knight is much more aggressive and dangerous, so killing him should be your top priority. After the first knight is dead, you can choose to let the shield knight live for a while, or kill him if he’s putting too much pressure on you. You may want to let the second gentleman live for a while because killing both knights results in Commander Niall immediately entering his second phase.
the second phase
In the second phase, the boss is much stronger and has a wider variety of AOE and close ranged attacks, so you will have to play it by ear and decide if it will make the fight easier for you by stopping its second phase. If you leave the knight alive for too long and the boss drops below 50% health, will enter the second phase regardless, and then you will be in serious trouble.
While Niall is in his first phase, the fight is pretty straightforward, just dodge his sweep attacks and try to roll behind him to take some easy hits. When he enters the second phase of him, you should start by staying as far away from him as possible because will perform a massive AOE attack. Even while keeping your distance be ready to dodge as soon as you finish swinging your banner because it will jump into the air and try to pounce on you with its electrified leg.
From now on, you will have to adapt to his new move set. He can take an unusual posture and start summoning icy energy around him, and if you see him doing this then you should run away because this attack will launch a massive AOE blast which is almost unavoidable. After the explosion, he’ll slide and swing his banner in wide motions, so it’s best to keep dodging if his Spirit Ashes haven’t distracted him.
RELATED: Here’s The Toughest Boss In The Elden Ring
dodge and roll behind him
One of his deadliest attacks is when he lifts his electrified leg and slams it into the ground, but thankfully he strongly telegraphs this move. Whenever you see him lifting his leg up in the air, get away from the boss as fast as you can. In the same way, you must create a serious distance between you and the boss whenever you see him, grab his banner with both hands and start winding up a big attack. Other than that, you should focus on rolling behind him and attacking.
He’ll try to hit you with some smaller, faster AOE attacks, but as long as you keep dodging and sneaking, you’ll be able to slow him down. If you have too much trouble with him, you should try to keep your distance and let him get closer to you. You can slip away a few easy hits when he runs at you, but then he’ll quickly resume his fast attack pattern. This fight is a test of patience and time, but once you get used to the rhythm of his attacks, you will find it easy to beat him. Once you have finally defeated him, you will be rewarded with a unique and powerful weapon, the Veteran Prosthesis.
