In Elden Ring’s most successful Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to date, there are dozens of new bosses. Some of them require you to find them with great effort, but some will quietly meet your challenge there, and Blackgaol Knight Boss is one of them.

Although Blackgaol Knight Boss is about the same size as Tarnished, it is difficult to defeat it. You need to develop some combat strategies and learn some combat skills before the battle. In addition, the rewards, for example, Greatsword of Solitude you get after defeating Blackgaol Knight Boss are also very generous, which is worth your time.

This guide will introduce you to the various moves you will encounter when fighting Blackgaol Knight Boss and its weaknesses, so that you can develop corresponding strategies for it. Without further ado, bring your weapons and come with me!

How To Find Blackgaol Knight Boss?

Blackgaol Knight Boss is located in Western Nameless Mausoleum in the game. You need to go through the area northwest of your spawn point in the DLC, where there are Gravebird-infested and gravestone-ridden.

Alternatively, you can go southwest of Three-Path Cross site of Grace and find a tunnel near the Tower Settlement Belurat. By riding your Torrent here, you can greatly increase your exploration speed.

Eventually you will reach the westernmost entrance of Mausoleum surrounded by cliffs. Once you enter, you will encounter a staircase leading to the bottom, and at the end of the stairs is the door to the arena where you fight the Blackgaol Knight Boss. Once you step in, the battle begins.

If you are unfortunate enough to die during the battle, you will not respawn at the original Site of Grace, but at the entrance to the arena. When you’re ready, you can re-enter the arena. 

But please note that if you fail the battle, you will not be rewarded with Elden Ring Runes. So before you challenge again, please make your build more powerful. The most important thing is survivability and damage ability.

Pre-Battle Preparation

With the location of Blackgaol Knight Boss solved, now you need to understand its weaknesses so that you can strengthen them. First, the armor of Blackgaol Knight Boss is very thick, so when choosing a build, you can directly abandon those that rely on melee attacks and choose some that rely on sorcery and incantations.

In addition, Blackgaol Knight Boss has a very high resistance to Bleed, Frostbite, or Scarlet Rot, so when choosing weapons, you should avoid damage from these elements. This enemy has no resistance to Magic and Lightning damage, so when choosing a class, you can choose those Sorcerers and Incantation-wielders.

In addition, if you don’t want to change builds or classes frequently, you can also directly use spells like Greatblade Phalanx, which can also cause a lot of magic damage to Blackgaol Knight Boss.

Blackgaol Knight Boss’s Moves

Now you need to know what moves Blackgaol Knight Boss will use, and how to counter them during the fight. These counter-attack strategies are just for reference, and it’s totally fine if you try to find a strategy that suits your own operation habits.

Greatsword Attacks

Blackgaol Knight Boss will attack you with its Greatsword, and each swing will have a four-hit animation. But whether it is used with one hand or two hands, you can jump to dodge it first, and then use a heavy attack on it. This will effectively prevent Blackgaol Knight from using a combination of attacks on you. If you fail to prevent it, you can hide in a corner for a while and attack again when you have a free time.

Storm Blast And Follow-Up

After swinging Greatsword, Blackgaol Knight Boss will raise it and then fire a wave of physical damage forward, and finally it will quickly dash forward and attack you. What you need to do is to dodge its physical attack wave first, and then retreat or dodge its sprint continuously.

Here you need to remind you that the final sprint attack of Blackgaol Knight Boss will not stop because of your dodge, because it can also be cast at a long distance. So inevitably, you will be injured in this move, and you may need to prepare some healing flasks for emergency use.

Crossbow Barrage

Besides Greatsword, Blackgaol Knight Boss will also use a crossbow to fight you. It will continue to shoot crossbows at you, and the frequency and speed of the shooting will become faster and faster over time. When you are at a medium or long distance from it, you can move along the side of the arena. Don’t roll or dodge, because the moment you stand up, you are likely to be hit by the crossbow and suffer a lot of damage.

Dash Slash

When Blackgaol Knight Boss uses a sword with both hands, it will also dash forward and launch a slash after attacking you several times. At this time, you can dodge to ensure your safety.

Battle Strategy

The above are just the counterattacks you need to do in front of a certain move. But before the battle, your battle strategy is also very important. For example, when Blackgaol Knight Boss is firing and reloading crossbows, it is very vulnerable, so you can attack it immediately at some medium distance.

Slowly walk to the boss at medium and long distances to avoid all the fast-firing crossbows. But it should be noted here that the avoidance mentioned here is walking forward, not just walking to the side, because this will make you fall into the barrage when you stand up.

Blackgaol Knight boss often attacks the player with weapon skills such as Blasphemous Blade, which will launch a wave of physical damage when it lowers Greatsword. It will always follow up with a charge, so be careful to avoid physical explosions and close-range attacks.

If you have trouble with any boss battle in the game, you can always go out and explore other areas to become stronger, and then come back and try again. This is the most effective strategy to defeat any boss in the game.

Blackgaol Knight Boss Rewards

After you successfully defeat Blackgaol Knight Boss in Western Nameless Mausoleum using the right strategy, you can get Greatsword of Solitude and Blackgaol Knight armor set. The armor set is a very defensive and stylish armor set. Greatsword of Solitude mentioned in the title is one of the most powerful weapons in the DLC. You can use it to replicate Blackgaol Knight Boss’s slam and charge combo in battles with other enemies.

In addition, Ash of War of Greatsword of Solitude is also very powerful, which can shoot a beam of physical damage forward. If operated properly, this beam is unavoidable for most enemies and will cause a lot of damage to them.

The above are some strategies and tips for defeating Blackgaol Knight Boss in Elden Ring DLC ​​and obtaining Greatsword of Solitude. I hope this guide helps you overcome it. If you have questions about the build in Elden Ring, you are welcome to ask questions in IGGM Discord. You will also have the opportunity to get some free runes on it. I wish you a happy game!