There are plenty of black knights in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, and it is possible that this is the first one you encounter: in the bowels of Fog Rift Fort. They aren’t the hardest enemies, especially if you know their biggest weakness, but Garrew has a special move that might catch you off guard.
General Tips
Watch out for his tongue attack, which will grab and stagger you — leaving you vulnerable to his melee attacks.
Stay close to the knight, and keep rotating around his side. By just walking around him, you’ll dodge most of his slow attacks.
Backstabbing this boss is the easiest way to bring him down quickly. His slower attacks make flanking around behind him a breeze.
Many of his moves have a delay to them, so don’t dodge too early.
Strategy
These bosses that are in the forts are different from normal bosses. For example, there isn’t a boss room, which can make cheesing this boss easy if you want to just use range. Honestly, though, you won’t need to cheese this boss because he’s not very difficult. As soon as you cross the sky-bridge at the fort, he will mosey out of the tower.
The area to fight him isn’t very large, but that’s okay because you’re going to want to be very close to him during the fight. While you’re closing the gap to get close, he might use his unique ability, which is when he shoots a long tongue out at you. When the mouth appears, you’ll know that it’s time to dodge left or right to avoid it. If you get hit by the tongue, it only does a little damage and staggers you for a moment. Be sure to dodge away immediately after before he hits you with another attack.
Most of his moves are powerful swings that have long recovery times. They also usually have a delayed swing, which is meant to trick you to dodge early. If you’re standing in front of him, he will combo these attacks, making them hard to dodge, and they can do quite a bit of damage. The easiest strategy to avoid his attacks is to get as close as possible to the boss and walk around him to the left. He will start one of these powerful attacks, but by the time he swings, you’ll be behind him.
After he’s swung, you can backstab him for big damage. He does have a couple of moves that are more mobile, so you might have to dodge to his left for those. However, He loves doing the overhead swing to slam the ground, and this will always miss while walking to his left. Because of his affinity for that one move, you should get a lot of opportunities for backstabs. You can also get an attack on him while he is getting up from being backstabbed.
If he’s being difficult, or you’re having trouble backstabbing him, you can always summon a spirit ash to help you. If you do go this route, then going for backstabs will be harder, and you should just go for attacking him in between attacks like a normal boss.
Moveset
Shield Bash – Garrew bashes you with his shield. He will usually follow up this attack with an overhead smash. Dodge to his left, then walk around him to avoid the over head smash so you can backstab him.
Overhead Smash – He lifts his hammer high over his head, then smashes it down into the ground. This is actually one of his faster moves (which still isn’t that fast), and he will sometimes follow it up with another overhead smash if you’re in front of him. You will want to dodge to the left for this attack, or if you’re close enough to him, just simply walk to the left to avoid it, then backstab him.
Tongue Joust – Garrew’s special attack, a mouth will appear on his chest and he’ll shoot out a large tongue at you. This attack doesn’t do much damage, but it will stagger you. When you see the mouth appear, you’ll know that you have a moment before dodging sideways to avoid the lick.
Golden Hammer Slam – The knight will hold his hammer behind him, and it will start glowing gold. He will take a long wind up, then slam it down on the ground in front of him, making a big area-of-effect attack that branches out along the ground. If you’re close, then you can dodge the hammer swing, but if you’re outside the physical hammer’s range, you’ll want to dodge the gold energy from the hammer’s smash. While he’s winding up the attack, you can also get in one quick attack before dodging.
Shield Slam – The boss lifts his shield and slams it on the ground, creating a small shockwave. It’s best to dodge towards the boss and to the left. It is a good attack to counter with a quick attack, or backstab.
Hammer Swing – The Knight swings his massive hammer horizontally. This attack can catch you if you’re trying to circle to the left, so be prepared to dodge it (to the left) if he winds up. This isn’t a good attack to counter as he usually does another attack immediately after.
Shield Blitz – The boss puts his shield in front him, then charges at you. He typically follows this attack up with a shield slam. Dodge backwards or to the side, and be prepared for the subsequent attack.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
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