ELDEN RING
42 Achievements
100-120h
PS4
Commander Niall
Defeated Commander Niall Details for this achievement will be revealed once unlocked
42.8%
How to unlock the Commander Niall achievement in ELDEN RING - Definitive Guide
Niall is one of Elden Ring's many optional bosses, however if you want to be able to get to Malenia, you're gonna have to go through him first.
Niall is located at Castle Sol, in the northeast part of Mountaintops of the Giants. The area of the map is opened to you once you progress far enough in the story. Once you get there, many enemies will stand in your way, but you can ultimately run past all of them. Just make sure you keep going upward towards the top of the castle, and grab the grace that is situated within the castles chapel. Keep making your way to the upper parts of the castle and you will eventually find Niall.
Niall is a big knight-looking fellow who will summon 2 of his cronies at the start of the battle. Target them first to get them out of the way, they will not be summoned again in the fight.
Once they are out of the way Niall will get a little more aggressive, and even more so during his second phase.
You will want to come prepared for this fight, I am unsure what his weaknesses are, but he is pretty resistant to physical damage. I went in with a Bloodhound's Fang+10 and around 40 STR/65 DEX and it was still pretty challenging. My advice if you end up having a hard time with guy is to use the mimic summon ash, it can be extremely useful for late-game fights that you happen to struggle with, especially if you take the time to tune it to +10.
Once he is defeated, you can proceed to the highest point of Castle Sol and grab the left piece of the Haligtree Secret Medallion. Assuming you grabbed the right piece of the medallion from the guy at the Village of the Albinaurics, you can now head back to the Grand Lift of Rold to get to the Consecrated Snowfield area.
Commander Niall and Items Interactive Map
Niall is located at Castle Sol, in the northeast part of Mountaintops of the Giants. The area of the map is opened to you once you progress far enough in the story. Once you get there, many enemies will stand in your way, but you can ultimately run past all of them. Just make sure you keep going upward towards the top of the castle, and grab the grace that is situated within the castles chapel. Keep making your way to the upper parts of the castle and you will eventually find Niall.
Niall is a big knight-looking fellow who will summon 2 of his cronies at the start of the battle. Target them first to get them out of the way, they will not be summoned again in the fight.
Once they are out of the way Niall will get a little more aggressive, and even more so during his second phase.
You will want to come prepared for this fight, I am unsure what his weaknesses are, but he is pretty resistant to physical damage. I went in with a Bloodhound's Fang+10 and around 40 STR/65 DEX and it was still pretty challenging. My advice if you end up having a hard time with guy is to use the mimic summon ash, it can be extremely useful for late-game fights that you happen to struggle with, especially if you take the time to tune it to +10.
Once he is defeated, you can proceed to the highest point of Castle Sol and grab the left piece of the Haligtree Secret Medallion. Assuming you grabbed the right piece of the medallion from the guy at the Village of the Albinaurics, you can now head back to the Grand Lift of Rold to get to the Consecrated Snowfield area.
Commander Niall and Items Interactive Map
11 Comments
Should probably put where he is on the map to avoid downvotes
By Anxsighety on 17 Mar 2022 01:32
this boss f'ing sucks. hardest so far and just annoying.
By Shadow XBL on 20 Mar 2022 14:50
Welcome to the ultimate cheese version of this fight. All praise goes to H3NRY-56 over on Reddit for this one. I wasn't able to beat Niall as a melee build and came across this post on another website. You can actually snipe Niall with a bow from an opposite tower which is a complete walk in the park once you're set up.
This works as of Elden Ring Version 1.03.2 and may be patched in the future.
I uploaded a video showing you the exact spot I used.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tq5t8m/couldnt_b...
I did this with an upgraded Horn bow though you can do it with any bow, it just may take a bit longer. Make sure you have enough spare arrows or materials to craft more. I found that you need [fletched] ones that fly a bit farther. When it hits you will see his health bar flash. I never used a bow before this fight so I had plenty of crafting materials saved up to finish him off. Took me about 10 minutes and 250 arrows to take him down.
You can kill him through the window, achievement will pop right after.
This works as of Elden Ring Version 1.03.2 and may be patched in the future.
I uploaded a video showing you the exact spot I used.
Here's the link to the Reddit post showing the process:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tq5t8m/couldnt_b...
I did this with an upgraded Horn bow though you can do it with any bow, it just may take a bit longer. Make sure you have enough spare arrows or materials to craft more. I found that you need [fletched] ones that fly a bit farther. When it hits you will see his health bar flash. I never used a bow before this fight so I had plenty of crafting materials saved up to finish him off. Took me about 10 minutes and 250 arrows to take him down.
You can kill him through the window, achievement will pop right after.
Commander Niall is the boss at the end of
.
At the beginning of the fight, Niall will summon two phantom Banished Knights. All throughout his first phase, he sticks mostly to close range melee attacks, so the hardest part is really crowd control. It really helps to summon a tanky spirit ash such as your own Banished Knight or Mimic Tear to keep some of the aggro off of you. Keep your distance until you can separate one of the phantoms from the group, focusing on taking down one summon at a time.
After the ghosts are gone, whittle down Niall's health by dodging his combos and getting in hits when you can. At around half health, he'll transition to phase two. At this point, ha adds several AoE spells to his arsenal that deal a ton of frost or lightning damage. Almost everything would two shot me during this phase, so you really want to keep a large distance between you and him for most of this phase to avoid the worst attacks. At range, he has two moves to worry about:
- Let's call the first "Frost Tornado Lightning Slam". He starts with a spinning frost attack and then you'll see a spark and he jumps with a lightning infused leg, hangs in mid air for a second and slams down on you. This closes the gap between you no matter where you are, so you need to dodge at the last possible second. He usually follows this up with one additional spear thrust. You can get a quick hit in if you dodge the second attack towards him. Get away again as fast a possible.
- The second is a quicker spear lunge that also takes him across the arena to wherever you are. Again, try and dodge at the last possible second.
You can wait for counter attack windows and defeat him with melee armaments, but the easiest way I found to deal with his second phase was to dodge those two attacks, run away and hit him with spells at range. There was plenty of time to get off a hit or two while he was just kind of standing across the arena from me. Just don't get too greedy because if you're in the middle of an attack when he jumps at you, you're probably dead.
At the beginning of the fight, Niall will summon two phantom Banished Knights. All throughout his first phase, he sticks mostly to close range melee attacks, so the hardest part is really crowd control. It really helps to summon a tanky spirit ash such as your own Banished Knight or Mimic Tear to keep some of the aggro off of you. Keep your distance until you can separate one of the phantoms from the group, focusing on taking down one summon at a time.
After the ghosts are gone, whittle down Niall's health by dodging his combos and getting in hits when you can. At around half health, he'll transition to phase two. At this point, ha adds several AoE spells to his arsenal that deal a ton of frost or lightning damage. Almost everything would two shot me during this phase, so you really want to keep a large distance between you and him for most of this phase to avoid the worst attacks. At range, he has two moves to worry about:
- Let's call the first "Frost Tornado Lightning Slam". He starts with a spinning frost attack and then you'll see a spark and he jumps with a lightning infused leg, hangs in mid air for a second and slams down on you. This closes the gap between you no matter where you are, so you need to dodge at the last possible second. He usually follows this up with one additional spear thrust. You can get a quick hit in if you dodge the second attack towards him. Get away again as fast a possible.
- The second is a quicker spear lunge that also takes him across the arena to wherever you are. Again, try and dodge at the last possible second.
You can wait for counter attack windows and defeat him with melee armaments, but the easiest way I found to deal with his second phase was to dodge those two attacks, run away and hit him with spells at range. There was plenty of time to get off a hit or two while he was just kind of standing across the arena from me. Just don't get too greedy because if you're in the middle of an attack when he jumps at you, you're probably dead.
Optional
Location: Mountaintops of the Giants - Castle Sol
Suggested Level Range: 80-90
Damage Types: Standard, Pierce, Lightning, Frostbite
Weakest To: Pierce
Drops: 90,000 Runes, Veteren's Prosthesis
When you enter the boss arena Commander Niall will summon two knights to aid him. One is dual wielding greatswords and the other is wielding a sword and a shield. The dual greatsword knight is much more dangerous and it is advised to take him out first, then the sword and shield knight. While the two knights are summoned Commander Niall won't do much and just moves about the arena. Once both knights are dead, he will become much more aggresive. It is also possible to damage Commander Niall to about 50% HP and then the knights will despawn.
His most dangerous attacks are his whirlwind dash attacks. One comes out fairly quick but the dash itself doesn't do damage while the uppercut afterwards is the damaging attack. The other attack is charged and will have a larger area of frost around him, same rules apply for dodging this and afterwards he will tire out and that is your opportunity to get the most damage in. He can also use lightning stomps after charging his prosthetic leg, the one where he slams his prosthetic into the ground to produce a shockwave can be jumped over while the other where he jumps at you can be dodged by rolling to the side.
Location: Mountaintops of the Giants - Castle Sol
Suggested Level Range: 80-90
Damage Types: Standard, Pierce, Lightning, Frostbite
Weakest To: Pierce
Drops: 90,000 Runes, Veteren's Prosthesis
When you enter the boss arena Commander Niall will summon two knights to aid him. One is dual wielding greatswords and the other is wielding a sword and a shield. The dual greatsword knight is much more dangerous and it is advised to take him out first, then the sword and shield knight. While the two knights are summoned Commander Niall won't do much and just moves about the arena. Once both knights are dead, he will become much more aggresive. It is also possible to damage Commander Niall to about 50% HP and then the knights will despawn.
His most dangerous attacks are his whirlwind dash attacks. One comes out fairly quick but the dash itself doesn't do damage while the uppercut afterwards is the damaging attack. The other attack is charged and will have a larger area of frost around him, same rules apply for dodging this and afterwards he will tire out and that is your opportunity to get the most damage in. He can also use lightning stomps after charging his prosthetic leg, the one where he slams his prosthetic into the ground to produce a shockwave can be jumped over while the other where he jumps at you can be dodged by rolling to the side.
This guide was translated automatically.
Located in Sol Castle in the winter zone. In Russian localization for some reason it is called Commander O'Neil
3 Comments
If you kill both minions, the boss will immediately go into the second phase with full HP. You can kill a minion with two swords and start damaging the boss, then he will go into the second phase at half HP and call off the summoner with the shield.
By H1deout on 05 Mar 2022 18:48
The boss is very well poisoned by red rot from the dragon's head.
Video guide (ru).
Video guide (ru).
By Valdermag on 13 Mar 2022 19:15
This guide was translated automatically.
I recommend using “Swarm of Flies”. The spell inflicts bleeding well at a distance, from which you will need to take 23 flasks with mana
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