Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: How to beat Blackgaol Knight

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree's Blackgaol Knight boss is positioned as the first major challenge of the DLC, and it's proving to be quite the obstacle to overcome. Find out everything you need to beat it here!

Boss breakdown

When it comes to it, Blackgaol Knight is actually one of the simpler bosses in the DLC, having a rather limited moveset that isn't too hard to dodge. In practice though, its large health pool and devastating attacks can make mincemeat of seasoned players.

It only has a single phase, but mixes between ranged and melee attacks based on where you are in relation to the boss. It'll also pull out a devastating Ash of War attack every once in a while, so you'll definitely need to keep your eyes peeled for that.

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Finally, like all NPC invasion or Mausoleum bosses, the Blackgaol Knight can heal once. It'll typically do this at around half health, although you can interrupt it and remain aggressive enough to deny it entirely. Once it's healed it will try to (unsuccessfully) heal again though, leaving it open for an easy hit!

Strategy, tips & tricks

Blackgaol Knight always starts the fight with the crossbow flurry attack. While this can kill you at full health if you're not careful, it's actually super easy to dodge if you run either left or right around the boss. You'll also want to try and curve in towards the Knight towards the end of the attack so you can get a few hits in of your own.

Between both one-handed and two-handed phases it'll typically do a three-hit combo of standard attacks. The one-handed variant starts with side-swinging attacks, whereas the two-handed version starts with downward swings.

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One attack you'll definitely want to stay clear of is the jumping attack, as this gives the boss a significant amount of poise, and sometimes seems to have i-frames of its own. This means that you likely won't be able to stagger the boss out of an attack, leaving you vulnerable to huge damage of your own.

The Ash of War attack is the most dangerous of the lot though, and this is telegraphed when the Knight raises its sword up in the air with a white light surrounding the blade. This acts as a high-damage physical attack and a projectile, so you'll need to dodge this even if you're outside of melee range.

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Straight after this is another follow-up attack from the boss, so make sure that you're ready to dodge that too, especially if you've been hit by the initial strike.

I'd recommend using a heavier weapon for this boss fight, as you can thankfully stagger the Blackgaol Knight out of most attacks, although it doesn't seem like it can have its poise broken. Additionally, you'll want to equip physical negation Talismans wherever possible, and boost your health as much as you can.

Rewards

• 70,000 Runes
• Greatsword of Solitude
• Solitude Armour Set

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While the Runes might not be anything to shout home about, the Solitude Armour and Greatsword are some of the best in the DLC - especially in the early game.

If you can manage to conquer Blackgaol Knight in the first few hours, you'll have a great foundation to tackle many of the other bosses, including the dangerous Divine Beast Dancing Lion.