Facing Everdark Gladius in Elden Ring Nightreign might actually be quite satisfying for many players after the nightmare that was Everdark Libra. That's because the new version of the fire doggo is wonderfully straightforward, a little similar to Everdark Caligo, so it's less about random gimmicks and more just a full-on brawl.
Gladius 2.0 hits a hell of a lot harder than the original version as its offensive capabilities are massively enhanced, so how you spend your Everdark Tricephalos expedition will actually be super important in terms of triumphing in the fight, so long as you learn the boss's new attack patterns. All that said, here are my tips for trouncing Everdark Gladius.
How to beat Everdark Gladius in Elden Ring Nightreign
First off, Everdark Gladius doesn't really feature a gimmick in comparison to others like Everdark Augur and Everdark Libra—he's essentially just really hard. The fight starts in his second phase (so he goes straight into three dog form) and this is much the same, but at around 75% HP, he'll recombine and the three heads will imbue his sword with fire, and this is where the real Everdark Gladius fight begins.
The key difference between this boss and the regular version is that Everdark Gladius has far deadlier attacks and AoEs and follows up its sword attacks with explosive after effects, a little similar to Heolstor the Nightlord.
Besides learning its new attack patterns, I suggest bringing holy damage so you can get some stuns and slow Gladius's aggression. It also applies an attack and defense debuff to the boss when you hit it with enough holy. You should also try to get as much damage negation, fire resistance, and health flasks as you can—similar to Heolstor, this fight is somewhat attritional.
In terms of straight-up damage, Everdark Gladius feels like one of the toughest Everdark Sovereigns so far—it's going to be a really tough fight if you're getting chipped by fire AoEs and sword swings, and you'll burn through your flasks extremely quickly.
As with the original, holy Ironeye is still pretty good for this fight. For once, I probably wouldn't recommend bringing Wylder, just because his optimal setup is somewhat reliant on fire damage, which isn't going to do much here, but you could still bring him without skill relics and just look for a couple of holy greatswords—his last chance mechanic (escaping an instance of deadly damage) could be useful against Gladius fast high damage attacks.
If you want to be really optimal, I'd suggest doing the Shifting Earth Noklateo event and grabbing the second chance by defeating Astel, since this will give you some margin for error in the fight if you don't find any Wending Graces.
Everdark Sovereign Gladius tips
A lot of Everdark Gladius's attacks are quite similar to the original, but here are some of the most dangerous to watch out for:
- Fiery shockwaves: Everdark Gladius slashes the earth with its sword, creating a series of eruptions that run across the ground, before raising its blade into the air. It then slams the sword down, creating fissures that explode after a short duration. This is extremely similar to one of Heolstor's big attacks and the key is dodging a little after the sword hits the ground and fissures run across it, before they explode. You also don't necessarily have to dodge it if you're outside of the fissures.
- Quick charging slashes: Gladius switches its sword to hold it sideways in its mouth, then dashes at you twice in quick succession. Not too hard to dodge, especially as it generally seems to come after Gladius's three heads breathe fire on the ground and it charges up.
- Fire breath: This is one of Gladius's original attacks, but it's easy to get caught out since it's so fast. Just look for Gladius building fire in its three mouths as the telltale sign.
- Sword explosion: This is another of Gladius's original attacks, as it stabs the sword into the ground and charges up before releasing a fiery AoE in front of it. The timing on the dodge can be slightly tricky, but you can escape the AoE before the attack occurs.
Besides this, watch out for the variations on some of Gladius's sword swings. Here are also some other tips for Everdark Gladius:
- Position well and watch out for AoEs
Since Gladius hits like an absolute truck, I'd recommend positioning a little bit away from your other Nightfarers, just because it's surprisingly easy for two to get caught in an AoE and downed, leaving the last player to try and revive while Gladius is attacking them without respite. This happened in my first run, and it's an annoying way for the fight to end.
- Maybe this isn't one for Wylder
As mentioned, maybe you don't want to bring Wylder for this; his skills and ultimate art DPS rely on fire damage. He's still a decent all-rounder anyway, but you might consider bringing a holy or poison Ironeye instead, since that'll get you some easy stuns or chip away the bosses' huge health bar.
- Get some damage negation and fire resistance
Everdark Gladius deals a hell of a lot of damage. Your best way to mitigate this will be stacking damage-negation effects on weapons, but also getting as much fire resistance through talismans like Flamedrake, or via resistance-based boss rewards.
- Bring holy, bleed, or scarlet rot
If you want to chunk down Everdark Gladius's health faster, I'd suggest bringing holy damage, bleed, or scarlet rot. Besides the bosses' innate weakness to holy and the fact that it gets you some little stuns and staggers, bleed and scarlet rot are the easiest to proc on him. You could also use poison, its advantage being that you could put it on Ironeye's bow or get a Serpent Bow, but it will be a bit harder to trigger.
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