Elden Ring Commander Niall boss fight

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

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How to beat Commander Niall
Easy cheese method
Rewards

How to beat the Elden Ring Commander Niall boss fight? If you've made it to Castle Sol in the Mountaintops of the Giants, you'll be up against Commander Niall, a very similar figure to O'Neil in Caelid before him. However, Commander Niall is a brute on a whole other level, an incredibly difficult foe who's become infamous in the Elden Ring community as a nigh-unbreakable wall. Whether it's summoning a pair of teleporting knights to help him or getting a Phase 2 upgrade with lightning and frost powers, Niall is a monster somehow far worse than any of the atrocities you've fought so far. That's why we've put together this guide on how to beat the Commander Niall boss fight in Elden Ring, including weaknesses, tips, tricks, strategy and a potential cheese method for you to use.

The recommended level for Commander Niall is 100 at least, with weapons of +20 or more.

How to beat the Commander Niall boss fight in Elden Ring

To beat the Commander Niall boss fight in Elden Ring, here's a basic strategy and some tips:

Use the shortcut to reach him and kill the lions
Protect yourself against Physical and Lightning damage
Equip Piercing and Status effect attacks if you have them
Understand how his Phase 2 triggers
Kill the swordsman spectral knight first, not the shield knight
Carefully wear down Niall to half health
Roll constantly in Phase 2 and use quick strikes

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Niall's summoned ghostly minions are a nightmare to deal with, a shield knight and dual-wielding swordsman who can both teleport and launch into long, health-shredding combos while Niall cheerfully buffs them, occasionally hitting you with his battle standard if you get too close. The swordsman is especially gruesome, playing far more offensively and certainly capable of killing the player on their own.

Once he hits Phase 2 you won't have to deal with the knight bodyguards anymore, but things don't get better, as Niall summons lightning into his prosthetic leg and decides he's going to kick the player to death, leaping across the arena with wide-reaching AOE attacks, occasionally summoning ice storms with massive reaches. It's horrible, but thankfully, not impossible. Let's start going over the basics below:

Use the elevator shortcut from the Castle Sol entrance to reach him, and kill the lions

As a boss you'll probably be fighting a lot, you want to get to him with minimal fuss. There's two Sites of Grace to choose from - the Castle Sol entrance, or the one in the Church of the Eclipse. The second is closer, but it's also riskier - there's a lot of enemies along the way.

Far better to take the entrance one. Once you've turned on the elevator by the arena entrance, turning left once you enter Castle Sol will take you on a straight path to the lift and up to Niall. There are a pair of tough scythe lions at the door, but if you kill them, they don't respawn! Get rid of them early and enjoy a quick route to Niall from then on.

Armor yourself against Physical and Lightning damage, as well as Frostbite

Between Niall and his minions, they do pretty much every kind of Physical damage except Striking, so you'll want to be well-defended against those. Niall also uses a lot of Lightning attacks in his second phase, so anything that keeps those weak is a good call.

Finally, Niall likes to summon ice storms that inflict the Frostbite Status effect. Though not quite as bad as Poison or Scarlet Rot, Frostbite inflicts a single chunk of damage upon being triggered, then ensures the player takes a bit more damage and recovers Stamina more slowly until it wears off. Neither is good, so any defence you can make against it will help keep you alive.

Equip Thr/Piercing and inflict status effects to exploit his weaknesses

Niall doesn't have a true key weakness, nothing that'll devastate him easily, but there are things he's more vulnerable to than others. Piercing damage is a little more lethal than other weapons, though not to a huge degree, but Commander Niall also doesn't have any particular resilience to Status Effects like Bleed, Scarlet Rot, Poison, etc, etc. Hitting him with a slow, damage-draining effect early on would not be a bad idea.

Commander Niall's phase 2 trigger and effects explained

Commander Niall's phase 2 is totally different from his phase 1. Any surviving ghost knights vanish, and Niall gets a massive buff and a whole new set of moves, changing from a more distant support enemy to an incredibly aggressive one.

Niall's phase 2 is triggered by one of two things: it'll occur if he hits half health, or if both his knights are killed, whichever happens first. This is important to remember because it should change your priorities when dealing with the knights themselves. Speaking of which…

Kill the dual-wielding sword knight first, but leave the shield knight alone

Niall's Phase 2 is brutal enough that you want him to activate it as late as possible, but you also don't want the two spectral knights fighting you for ages. That's why when the fight begins, peel off to the right and try to get rid of the sword knight as fast as possible, as he's a far greater threat than the shield knight. Backstab him, hit him with your best spells, do what you can to remove him quickly before he teleports to you and launches into his big, unpredictable combos. In fact, the spectral knights seem a little vulnerable to magic damage - worth remembering for spellcasters.

However, don't kill the shield knight! Though this foe is still dangerous, he's a lot slower and doesn't teleport as much. Put simply, dealing with Phase 1 Niall and the shield knight is easier than Phase 2 Niall and no shield knight.

Wear Commander Niall down to half health while avoiding his bodyguard

From this point on, your objective is to get Niall to half health without killing the shield knight. Niall's not too bad in Phase 1, as his wide-reaching attacks are telegraphed fairly clearly and you'll normally have time to back away. He also doesn't make any real effort to get in close, waddling about slowly and occasionally generating a red circle of energy that buffs his bodyguards. Speaking of which, the danger is the shield knight leaping in to bash your skull, but he doesn't combo like the other knight, and can usually be avoided with a simple, well-timed dodge. In fact, a nice tanky spirit summon can help distract the knight (though there's always the risk they kill them too soon). Just try to keep both foes in your eyeline at all times and play with care, not aggression.

Play for constant evasion in Phase 2 and use quick strikes while managing stamina

Assuming you've been following the steps above and haven't been caught by some horrible sneak attack (we empathise), eventually Niall will reach half health and enter phase 2, dispelling any lasting spectral knights and changing his moveset entirely. Now he's incredibly fast and aggressive, using a combination of leaping strikes, AOE attacks, and wide-reaching ice storms.

The key here is always having stamina in the tank to allow yourself to dodge or even sprint to safety. Use single, quick attacks, don't wear yourself out, and do whatever you can to avoid the Frostbite effect. Niall's speed and reach, combined with his power to break through shields, means you'll need to duck for safety at a moment's notice, no matter how far away he is. It's rough and will probably take you a few attempts (or a very kind overleveled player summoned in to fire off some super-spells), but this is the legitimate method with the best chance of success. Alternatively…

Commander Niall cheese easy method

couldnt_beat_commander_niall_so_had_to_do_the from r/Eldenring

There is one popular method for cheesing Commander Niall, discovered by reddit user H3NRY-56 in the news story at the link provided. The strategy is to equip yourself with as many arrows as you can and the most powerful bow you can find, before heading to the parapets of Castle Sol to the West of the boss arena (near the wandering dogs). By carefully lining up the shot, you can hit Niall through a gap in the wall and chip away his health until he dies (some players like to run into the arena to land the final blow in person). Either way, a kill's a kill, and if FromSoftware won't play fair on this one… well, why should we?

Commander Niall rewards

Commander Niall drops a few rewards, the main ones being 90000 Runes and the Veteran's Prosthesis, 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, a key part of how to get to the Consecrated Snowfield in Elden Ring, and if you head back to the Roundtable Hold, you'll now be able to buy Niall's Veteran armor set, a very good set with a solid weight/defence ratio.