Hot Take - Commander Gaius is the Best Horseback Boss

[j3omega]

I remember a friend of mine talking about Gaius like he was the second coming of a certain Austrian painter. A boss that moves around too much and has several bs attacks that can't be dodged. Fought him not long after and I'll fully admit, fighting him on foot is rough. Ran into similar problems and thought this boss was gonna be one of the worst of the DLC.

Then I hopped on Torrent. All those undodgeable suddenly became dodgeable, Gaius became easier to hit, and the fight as a whole became far more interesting. Circling each other preparing to strike, using Torrent's sprint and jump to maneuver precise attacks. Killed him after a few tries and can't say I've enjoyed fighting another boss on horseback more.

[Fenix]

And When I used Torrent the boar kills him in one hit, resummon with a flask dead again in 2 seconds… and yet I beat him on foot on the 5th try…

[Despaired.]

Originally posted by j3omega:

I remember a friend of mine talking about Gaius like he was the second coming of a certain Austrian painter. A boss that moves around too much and has several bs attacks that can't be dodged. Fought him not long after and I'll fully admit, fighting him on foot is rough. Ran into similar problems and thought this boss was gonna be one of the worst of the DLC.

Then I hopped on Torrent. All those undodgeable suddenly became dodgeable, Gaius became easier to hit, and the fight as a whole became far more interesting. Circling each other preparing to strike, using Torrent's sprint and jump to maneuver precise attacks. Killed him after a few tries and can't say I've enjoyed fighting another boss on horseback more.

I found fighting him on foot alot easier except that long combo of him and the boar might be tricky to dodge at times. Since when we are on horseback there is no iframes whatsoever and sometimes his attacks are just impossible to dodge depending on your position.

[j3omega]

Originally posted by Fenix:

And When I used Torrent the boar kills him in one hit, resummon with a flask dead again in 2 seconds… and yet I beat him on foot on the 5th try…

Sounds like you need a few more revered spirit ashes to keep that from happening. Nice job killing him on foot, though. Much respect

[Fenix]

Originally posted by j3omega:

Originally posted by Fenix:

And When I used Torrent the boar kills him in one hit, resummon with a flask dead again in 2 seconds… and yet I beat him on foot on the 5th try…

Sounds like you need a few more revered spirit ashes to keep that from happening. Nice job killing him on foot, though. Much respect :er_heart:

Yeah and right after that I bang my head against the wall fighting the Stupid Sunflower 30 times before I finally gave up and went to bed… At 12:30 am…

[j3omega]

Originally posted by Despaired.:

Originally posted by j3omega:

I remember a friend of mine talking about Gaius like he was the second coming of a certain Austrian painter. A boss that moves around too much and has several bs attacks that can't be dodged. Fought him not long after and I'll fully admit, fighting him on foot is rough. Ran into similar problems and thought this boss was gonna be one of the worst of the DLC.

Then I hopped on Torrent. All those undodgeable suddenly became dodgeable, Gaius became easier to hit, and the fight as a whole became far more interesting. Circling each other preparing to strike, using Torrent's sprint and jump to maneuver precise attacks. Killed him after a few tries and can't say I've enjoyed fighting another boss on horseback more.

I found fighting him on foot alot easier except that long combo of him and the boar might be tricky to dodge at times. Since when we are on horseback there is no iframes whatsoever and sometimes his attacks are just impossible to dodge depending on your position.

True, but luckily you don't need iframes when Torrent can outrun pretty much every attack Gaius throws out. Certain on foot moves also feel impossible to dodge depending on position, like his ranged gravity aoe, his boar charge he does every other move, and like you said, that huge combo string he does. I never got far enough on foot to learn how, but how did you end up dealing with those moves on foot? Well done beating him on foot, though

[j3omega]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Originally posted by j3omega:

Sounds like you need a few more revered spirit ashes to keep that from happening. Nice job killing him on foot, though. Much respect

Yeah and right after that I bang my head against the wall fighting the Stupid Sunflower 30 times before I finally gave up and went to bed… At 12:30 am…

You mean fighting him 30 times from the start or 10 times but he kept reviving? XD
Gotta respect the sunflower for having more fight in him than most base game demigods lol

[Despaired.]

Originally posted by j3omega:

Originally posted by Despaired.:

I found fighting him on foot alot easier except that long combo of him and the boar might be tricky to dodge at times. Since when we are on horseback there is no iframes whatsoever and sometimes his attacks are just impossible to dodge depending on your position.

True, but luckily you don't need iframes when Torrent can outrun pretty much every attack Gaius throws out. Certain on foot moves also feel impossible to dodge depending on position, like his ranged gravity aoe, his boar charge he does every other move, and like you said, that huge combo string he does. I never got far enough on foot to learn how, but how did you end up dealing with those moves on foot? Well done beating him on foot, though

His boar charge has BS hitbox I think many players have complained about it and I assume it will get fixed next patch. When I did my run i just used bloodhound step to evade his charge which made it so much easier, it also makes the gravity ball thing he does in phase 2 much easier to get out of when he spams that thing. His charge is very depending on your distance from him and alot of times if he does a magic spear thrust he will immediately charge if you are not close to him so its a fake opportunity that baits player into attacking him. If he rides the boar to your left hand side on the screen 80% times it will follow up with a sideway charge from the boar. I've died so many times to this boss to the point that I just know his entire moveset in and out really, it was a painful journey to say the least.

[ilikestamps51]

Personally I think this is the only unfair boss in the dlc lol, and it's mainly due to the charge attack

[Funpire]

Originally posted by j3omega:

I remember a friend of mine talking about Gaius like he was the second coming of a certain Austrian painter. A boss that moves around too much and has several bs attacks that can't be dodged. Fought him not long after and I'll fully admit, fighting him on foot is rough. Ran into similar problems and thought this boss was gonna be one of the worst of the DLC.

Then I hopped on Torrent. All those undodgeable suddenly became dodgeable, Gaius became easier to hit, and the fight as a whole became far more interesting. Circling each other preparing to strike, using Torrent's sprint and jump to maneuver precise attacks. Killed him after a few tries and can't say I've enjoyed fighting another boss on horseback more.

i just wish every boss in the game didn't rush the fog wall.

[rparham685]

Mounted combat has never been a strongsuit of mine, sadly. o7

[Despaired.]

Originally posted by j3omega:

Originally posted by Fenix:

Yeah and right after that I bang my head against the wall fighting the Stupid Sunflower 30 times before I finally gave up and went to bed… At 12:30 am…

You mean fighting him 30 times from the start or 10 times but he kept reviving? XD
Gotta respect the sunflower for having more fight in him than most base game demigods lol

I actually enjoyed the sunflower boss as its mechanics are some of the most fair or forgiving ones in the DLC, although its really advised for players to be tanky enough to survive that explosion attack in phase 3 as its not fun to get one shotted from an untimely roll dodge and get send back to phase 1 redoing the entire thing.

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by j3omega:

Hot Take - Commander Gaius is the Best Horseback Boss

While I did fight him on foot and still liked the fight, I do wish I was a smarter fellow and thought to use Torrent. Next time Gadget, next time.

[j3omega]

Originally posted by Despaired.:

Originally posted by j3omega:

True, but luckily you don't need iframes when Torrent can outrun pretty much every attack Gaius throws out. Certain on foot moves also feel impossible to dodge depending on position, like his ranged gravity aoe, his boar charge he does every other move, and like you said, that huge combo string he does. I never got far enough on foot to learn how, but how did you end up dealing with those moves on foot? Well done beating him on foot, though

His boar charge has BS hitbox I think many players have complained about it and I assume it will get fixed next patch. When I did my run i just used bloodhound step to evade his charge which made it so much easier, it also makes the gravity ball thing he does in phase 2 much easier to get out of when he spams that thing. His charge is very depending on your distance from him and alot of times if he does a magic spear thrust he will immediately charge if you are not close to him so its a fake opportunity that baits player into attacking him. If he rides the boar to your left hand side on the screen 80% times it will follow up with a sideway charge from the boar. I've died so many times to this boss to the point that I just know his entire moveset in and out really, it was a painful journey to say the least.

I never thought to use Bloodhound Step. That's a good workaround for those moves. Sprinting away from the boar charge with Torrent was the only consistent way I found. Same with the his ranged aoe except you can sprint at him to get extra hits in. Gravity ball and spear were pretty easy to sprint around, but that sideway charge hit me more times than I care to admit. Definitely a painful journey, but I managed to push through, and from the sound of it, you're pushing through as well. Much respect.

[Capybarasan]

I just went max poise, armour, shield, block, balls to the wall tank and hit him when I could. This game is the greatest game ever made thanks to this DLC but holy F*CK that boss was awful.

[j3omega]

Originally posted by ilikestamps51:

Personally I think this is the only unfair boss in the dlc lol, and it's mainly due to the charge attack

Understandable, my friend thought the same thing. Honestly, if you're playing on foot and not using a movement ash of war, it is pretty unfair, but I think that's what makes Torrent so nice in the fight. He's got a consistent response to pretty much all of Gaius' moves, including the boar charge.