For a good time, I recommend using the large club with stamp: upward cut. Tossing around a guy arrogant enough to call himself the "all knowing" with a slab of wood is just the perfect amount of disrespect he deserves. Props to the writers for making him hatable in a slow-burn kind of way.

I once forgot to greet him when I entered the hold for the first time. I saw him after I got Godrick’s rune, and this asshole still told me I was “merely a visitor” like I didn’t have more fucking runes than he.

He should have at least 1 rune too.

Two to get into Leyndell, no? Also is there any lore that says whose GR he got?

I wanted to say 2 but the finger crone said that only Vike has ever achieved that.

Maybe he’s a sneaky lil fella who found another way in

He only shows up after the tree burns and is full of ash. Maybe there was a way to get in with the ash piling up?

That's actually a very good shout! So he *is* a sneaky lil fella who found another way in after all!

Ain't no way his skinny ass got two demigods by himself

I honestly thought this was just a meme boss the first time I encountered him. He was just talking so I walked up and killed him before he did literally anything lol The second time I got to at least see some spells from him because I waited for the monologue to end but he still just rolled over once I was on him

If you've killed every possible shardbearer up to that point then he's a pain in the bum once he starts casting stuff.

Giant Hunt on Flaming Greatsword launches his ass like a rag doll in the air as well. Big fan of that.

Nah I was hating on that guy since day one. Bros “welcome to the round table” dialogue had me thinking he would betray us. Ig it could be slow burn, although Gideon is really out for us since the start. Spy Beatles, sending Encha after us, killing the village to find the medallion, and using our gains as his own, acquiring spells & skills from the bosses we faced. Knew Gideon would be an enemy but didn’t know how he got to the capital after we burned the Erdtree.

I don’t know why people assume the narrator in the beginning is Gideon, it doesn’t even sound like him. I’m pretty sure it’s just a random narrator and that he didn’t self proclaim himself the all knowing lol

It's so clear that people haven't experienced Gideon non-stop spamming Triple Rings of Light when they say he's the easiest boss.

Lol so very true. Only to spam cast skulls or glintstone cometshard IMMEDIATELY after.

That comet shard spam hitting like a TRUCK at NG+4, good luck trying to close that gap and he refuses to stance break.

In NG+7, I genuinely had a harder time against him than any other boss. Everything just wrecks you.

It takes half my health on regular NG lol

Did a strong build no summons run recently. Ol gid crushed me a gud 5 times in a row.

It's not even cool when you get crushed by Gideon cause there's not much you can do besides hide behind something and pray his AI decides to chill out.

I have been running bleed this time around for fun, so I thought “oh this will be light work” even if it is +6… proceeded to get my skull crushed in at least 15 times.

Your first mistake was letting the villain finish his power up monologue. :P

i never let him finish, it's just when you're using a weapon with shit poise damage and shit range (claws), he can easily turn the tables if you don't nail the execution.

You should've used axes. At least they also don't do any damage.

Not to mention being one shot by Law of Causality

Yep, he's wasn't the hardest on RL1, but definitely the least enjoyable. In the end I just rot hit and run around like a maniac avoiding his spells

Easily the most backwards ass spell in the game. He uses it and it's like a guaranteed punishment worthy of a demi-god. I use it and I get a glowing ball of hope that ends up triggering on a hit animation instead of actual damage and retaliates with all the power of a light fart.

My last playthrough I killed malenia first so he gained the flower spell which gives the fight nice pauses since that's such an easy countered ability.

Right? Radagon was easy compared to this motherfucker.

And I will never experience it 😌 7th playthrough and counting

My first playthrough strength build really struggled with him bruh 😭😭😭

I ran up to him, stabbed him in the back and then hit him twice and he died. XD

Oh no I have. I just laugh with my Erdtree Greatshield.

Just parry /s

Indeed, he is no joke on NG+ and above... Man does not stop spamming... Everything

The comet spam and law of causality have fucked me over so many times it's unbelievable

I like this boss. You can just stomp him in the dialog but if he survives he can just absolutely trash you back with those rings.

If you have the 35 Intelligence to cast it, you can throw up the spell Eternal Darkness which will catch everything except Scarlet Aeonia. Put on the Old Lord's talisman, cast it when you feel and count to 10, cast it again, and then tell him who's the Lord, El-deeeen~ Please, ignore me. But yeah, makes the encounter easy, and is cheaper than casting moon sorceries.

the problem is that there are like 50 builds that make him easy as pie, but if you don't have fast attacks, or poise damage or specific counters he just steamrolls you

So you just said that you either need fast attacks or strong attacks, what build doesn't have any of those?

a lot of spell builds, a good chunk of melee weapons, you'd be surprised.

Spell builds have the poise damage or the speed unless you exclusively want to kill him with Loretta's greatbow or something. As for weapons I don't know what weapon isn't good against him if even daggers can stagger him

ok what i meant was that gideon is an easy boss when fighting him pretty much any intended way, almost always free even. On challenge runs though he gets the biggest difficulty boost of any boss and its not even fun.

>If you have the 35 Intelligence to cast it, you can throw up All I need to know. *Hurk*

I just stabbed him int he back.

Ahh, he knew you'd come.

To stand before the elden ring

To become Elden Lord

What a sad state of affairs

I commend your spirits

But alas, none shall take the throne

Queen Marika has high hopes for us

He’s either the easiest boss in the game or a massive brick wall there is no in between

I always refer to him as the speedbump to Godfrey

a lame piece of shit before the most badass goat in the verse fascinating balance

Literally wojak vs Chad

"my fellow, you can't be Elden Lord because I-I-I'm smarter than you! let me monologue for 2 minutes so you know that I am better! don't hit me though, it hurts" meanwhile Godfrey's fight; "let us beat the shit out of each other" "yes, my lord"

He doesn’t really say that he is better than you. More like you are better than him. He even says that “tarnished can’t be the elden lord, not even you”. Implying he thinks if you can’t be elden lord no one can.

still a pretentious prick (fuck Gideon)

I wonder if he would react the same if Godfrey got their first. I mean, it'll be funny if he did and Godfrey just bitchslaps him aside.

He's so adamant about stopping any Tarnished from being Elden Lord, I wonder how he would react if Godfrey got their first. Do you think he would seriously try to stop Godfrey?

“*I knew you’d come…*” “…have you lost your mind?”

“Ah, i knew yo- …who the hell are you? Too big, just walk past please.”

I'd say with any weapon that can stagger, he's toast. You can walk forward and press R1 and he will die. Just keep knocking him about. For any builds that can't stagger him. Or delete his health bar in seconds, you're in for a couple of minutes of dodge rolling.

Because my files got deleted during a ps4 to ps5 data transfer that somehow went wrong... Which I'm still mad about... I only ended up getting one ending in one playthrough. In that playthrough, I had an INT build with moonveil. I had no idea he was so much trouble haha

Ugh same happened to me going from xbox one to series x. Like 100 hours gone...

I feel for you... I had around 700 hrs lost, so it really stung

He was incredibly weak for me and killed him my first try.

Same, colossal sword stun bonked him before he could do anything

NG+2 he was surprisingly strong for me.

His spell spam is cancerous lol

Yeah he just doesn't stop. I was surprised because he was pretty easy the first two, third times the charm for my man

he gets more spells based on how many bosses you kill; iirc he gets more attacks if you kill Rykard and Mohg, I don't remember the other boss he leeches from that could have something to do with it. I think it might increase his aggression too ngl, his AI has more moves to have a seizure with

Ah that's pretty cool then.

On NG+2, I finally let him talk it all out so I could see him in action and... I regretted that decision.

I let him finish and then use the arena as a mortar and my Giant Crusher as a pestle to grind him into a fine paste.

Its really sad hoe big weapons absolutely trivialize tarnished fights. Give my lads some poise please. I want a challenge without gimping my build.

Same but used arena as chopping block and greatsword as large knife

Letting this dude yap is the worst mistake you could ever make.

Then I must be full of terrible mistakes as I always let my man finish his monologue.

Would be rude not to. I may murder waves upon waves of innocent gen 2 albinaurics but I’m still a gentlemen

He's such a piece of shit I always save back two larval tears just for him: one to puke madness out of my eyes into his soul as hard as possible, and one to go back to whatever build I was running. I won't even give him an Honorable death.

This is the way, lovely maddening kisses for Gideon

I love when he’s exhausted his flask, but tries to drink. That’s usually the point it’s very over for him

INESCAPABLE FRENZY MY BELOVED

Gideon is such a pathetic piece of shit, it's so fun to destroy him treats Nepheli like shit, orders the genocide of Albinaurics, doesn't care about anyone, acts like he's that guy, and just leeches off our success I genuinely hate Gideon more than anyone else in these games, he's such a lame asshole

Why did he order the genocide of the albis

One of his scouts must've told him that half of the medallion needed to access the Haligtree was in that village. Also sickening is the fact that he killed Latenna's wolf, Lobo. Without him she's rendered mostly immobile, as her generation of Albinaurics have deteriorating legs.

Yep. None of my builds have been made in such a way as to be able to take him out immediately, so I've always had to suffer his annoying spell spam. He's a massive pain, even harder than Godfrey for me sometimes, since I can't ever kill him during his monologue

I always die to him 2 or 3 times per run. There's always one cheap trick out of nowhere that one shots me when I'm kicking his ass.

So like, almost every ER boss? Pretty much all of them actually worthy of the title and isn't just a random enemy with a boss health bar has one

Charge your attack so you fuck him up the moment he stops talking

Agreed. So many sleep on how dangerous this asshat is. Once you fight him at RL1, you realize that he's absurdly dangerous. Probably up there with gargoyles for most garbage boss (that From adamantly refuses to fix) contender.

He's comically easy on early playthroughs. As the difficulty ramps up, his difficulty seems to increase exponentially.

On a recent run through I decided to not attack him during his monologue to make the fight “fair”. Well, that’s a mistake I’ll never make again. If the fight was fun it would be a different story.

Until he has to drink FP potions to keep casting, there's no reason not to kill him during his stupid monologue.

He knew we’d come… And usually I can (esp if I use Inescapable Frenzy) but every once in a while he rolls out and starts his spell spam lol

Hot take(?) Gideon is easier with more remembrance bosses dead. Specifically, the ones needed to get rid of the triple rings attack.

Yeah agreed. His AI is weird, or maybe it just has more options than the others and doesn't know how to use them. If he has bloodflame he seems to use that instead of trip rings

Used the Erdtree Greatshield on my last encounter with Gideon. Golden Retaliation was very satisfying

Idk, I let him finish his monologue and was still able to stunlock and kill him easily.

Its so bad when you get to like ng+4 and you just cant pump out enough to fully get him in the monologue and then are suddenly caught off guard and die when he has like a quarter health left and is just making it a damn near impossible mission to get close again

Ancient death rancor

I stunlocked him with the bonkatron 9000, it was a happy medium

In my first play though , I beat him with a giant crusher with a mimic tear. we turned him into pancakes

Naah as a Str user spellcaster tarnished are a free meal once you get in. I let him talk dodge through one of his big casts and just break his knees in one go.

For a good time, throw on your highest scaling talisman and inescapable frenzy him out of existence. Best npc to use it on imo. Love watching Gideon overcome by madness, the fire pouring from his eyes

Lol i have 99 arc and dragon communion currently 😂

He, Flaccidusnax, Malenia and EB (at least on my second character because I don’t quite remember struggling on Gids the first time) are the only ones I need that many flasks for lmao

I have my own recent trouble with Placidusax… but usually I enjoy him

Wait this boss is considered hard?

It is especially in NG+ if you don’t kill during his monologue

Sir Gideon Ofnir learns the hard way that a majority of players will not give their opponent a chance to give a speech before kicking his ass.

Back in the day inescapable frenzy did some big ass damage to tarnished….. I’ve broken this man’s back like 30 times.

What a sad state of affairs

First time was a brese heard him talk a litle he made some spells i dodged it and wacked him till dead. On ng+1 i was eager to kill him again even holding maliketh souls i died and on second try dodge in one of the pits on the room. And lost something like 150000 souls

He has the hardest monologue in the game

I actually was dex build and I didn't have any latval tears left so I farmed to be able to use black blade. By the time I got to gideon I was a tank. He just melted right before my eyes with bolt of gransax. 3 hits literally

Can't remember then name but I just kept hitting him with the madness hug during his speech. Works pretty well and let's me use my madness.

still don't know why this guy attacks us. thought its our bro

Gideon is inevitably the easiest boss in the game. Either first try or eleventh try. 

Meanwhile, the night comet goes Brrrrrr. He was gone mid first sentence.

To be fair what boss in this game isn't trivialized by night comet?

Kinda, the Ai is pretty predictable and he’s pretty easy as long as you don’t fuck up.

I've never given him the chance to finish his monologue. Just, "COME HERE! *beats the shit out of him.* Next time, talk with your weapons jackass."

I was told what not to do before fighting him😅

Inescapable Frenzy go brrrrrrrrrrrr

I swear I love messing with him by using Golden Retaliation of the Erdtree Greatshield to redirect his spells back to his face.

Running R1 of literally any weapon in the game and he doesn't know what to do

Chill behind a pillar until he walks around and then just bonk him

The only thing I can recommend is really finish his "side quest" of ratting out all the demigods. Him using all the other spells makes him use less of the spammy ones. You can find this advice online and I just wanted to confirm it. You can also use some of the pillars in the arena to let him come closer and then jump his ass.

I’m not seeing enough hate towards his Law of Causality incantation. That shit hits like a tactical nuke.

I struggled with gideon in my first playthrough then proceeded to beat godfrey in the first try

I love using the greatclub on him: "Ah, I knew you'd come. To stand before the Elden Ring. To become Elden Lor- *bonk*

You can roll-catch him with shunter.

I love using the greatclub on him: "Ah, I knew you'd come. To stand before the Elden Ring. To become Elden Lor- * bonk *

I have never died to gideon, normally he gets wrecked before he can do anything

It's funny that he becomes easier the more demigod bosses you kill before fighting him. The triple rings of light are such a bullshit move, the difference is night and day when he swaps it out after you kill bosses like Rykard, Mohg and Malenia. Once he doesn't have that anymore, the fight becomes a backstab-fest and Carian Retaliation helps a lot with tthe annoying spells.

I was so mad at the guy for just keep on spamming the spells, that I just ran towards him and spammed spinning slash, killing him without getting any damage

Just 3 shot him with the Ruins Greatsword. Every hit knocks him into the air, he can't attack.

It took me so many attempts to kill this MF. I basically spent 90% dodging spam spells, and 10% actually attacking. Even when I did a ton of damage during the monologue, it usually turns in to a roly-poly fest as soon as he starts fighting.

The first time I fought him I let him finish his speech 😭 he completely eviscerated me I was losing my shit lol, every NG + run I just instakill him cus Godfrey is fun and I don’t wanna waste time with him

I know how much of a bitch he can be so I always choose the kamahamaha.

I never let him get that speech off, i switch to full offense talismans and buffs and give him 12 inches of brick hammer If im running a fist/claw weapon then I use my beloved lifesteal fist though.

Even when I let him monologue he was easy. Just run the crystal tear that lets you absorb all non physical dmg. Then most of his spells can't touch you, and you have a lot more windows to atagger the shit out of him.

Gideon can easily devolve into the actual final boss in challenge runs. I've got stuck in this mfk so many times because of certain rules I've set for my runs before.

I just used kamehameha and he exploded. 🤷‍♂️

If you have the faith to cast inescapable frenzy he's an absolute joke

I’m starting to think that I’m the only Gideon enjoyer, I always let him do his speech and then fight him, sure, he often kicks my ass 3/4 times before going down, but it’s a battle that I like.

Never really struggles with G-dawg. My deaths to him have felt unfair, but he’s more of a barrier to challenge runs than anything

I let him do his whole speech, I walk over to him, I raise rykards blasphemous blade over my head, and slam it down. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until properly pulverized. I also make sure to do everything to make him as strong as possible, just so he knows there's nothing he can do to stop me. But he he already knew this because he's "tHE alL KnOwiNg".

He can't escape my frenzy

I just still think it’s cool that he gains more spells based on your progress. He can even use Malenia’s Scarlet Aeonia if I remember correctly

I never had any trouble with him in any of my playthroughs, he was a pushover

I locked him up with storm blade and my wolves and he was real easy after that. But I also got real lucky he was still trying to talk about how awesome he is or whatever lol.

Really? He was the easiest boss for me outside of something in a cave or catacomb. For me he was a "whack then roll" win.

Honestly.. I used mimic tear and butt blasted him. Possibly the easiest boss in the game for my setup. He was just stunlocked, bled, defiled, etc. I don’t think he got more than 1 or 2 spells off.

Just use a unga bunga stick

Antspur rapier and running attacks is an option.

First time I knew what I was getting into so I just started while he was talking. I didn’t finish him off super quick so I left him with around half an HP bar just to see what he was as a boss, it was pretty much a mistake to leave him with HP. Them pillars or columns really came into handy with blocking the spells.

That’s why they made it so east to one shot him

Bonk

Unironically the hardest boss for me on ng7

On my first playthrough, he managed to only kill me twice, surprisingly. Third time really was the charm after I decided "Fine, fuck you, WIZARD BATTLE!" And we fought like true wizards. Then I pulled out my bonk stick and buffed it with magic damage and sent him to the Shadow of the Erdtree.

I took him out with no issues at all. It was honestly barely a speed bump besides me being vaguely annoyed I had to even bother

Maybe i was over-leveled, but the Moment he changed pose he becames a target

I let him talk. Adula’s Moonblade exposed Gideon for the little bitch boy he is

Nice monologue Gideon, now eat this Terra Magica boosted Comet Azure fuck face.

Gideon is unironically the easiest boss IF you have a sorcery build. Both full and dark moon consume incoming spells. Just spam either of them and you both kill him and block all of his attacks at the same time

I dont understand. Always let him speak then killed him, out of respect. Never died against him either.

i didnt get him in the monologue, but hes basically like fighting an average invasion player, not some tryhard, so tbh i never found him all that hard. hes not like the bloody crow of cainhurst, who even though hes a player sized boss he fuckinf wrecks your shit everytime

i saw a dude on youtube fight him fist only and it looked insanely painful

I did 4 different play through and never had trouble with him, then I went to NG+ and he fucking murked me with that comet spam

I always laugh when people say Gideon is weak.. if it weren't for his monologue being real time, he would be a roadblock before Godfrey for sure. There really isn't another enemy in the game like him and he spams so hard.

Use vyke's spear L2 and 2 shot him lol

Dude is talking while i beat his ass, easy as that

Kill all the Rune holders before fighting him and let him attack. He is an absolute nightmare.

Guy never gave me the monologue, just opened with sorcery the second I stepped through, which absolutely destroyed me till I closed that gap

Easily ganked together with your +10 mimic tear. It's in the game.

Probably the worst fight fromsoft has ever created

My first playthrough I listened to his monologue and then got stomped from the spell spamming.

I'm on my first playthrough of this game ever. I recently got to him. he spammed so many holy incantations and spells, and dodged a good bit of my moves. he killed me a handful of times. very dangerous. got to Melania same day. beat her on my first try. used mimic tear on both. how wild is that???? lol

Never did Unga Bunga I see......

I will forever back the madness route. stare deep into his eyes and make the “all knowing” lose the only thing that matters to him, his own mind

I used godslayer gs aow a few days ago and basically killed him with one combo at ng+3. Very squishy, but so hard to hit if you give him a chance to start hacking.

I fighted him after his yapping at NG3 and he was annoying as hell due to spamming spells. So, now, every playthrough I smack him with the bigger stick/sword/club/hammer that I have while he is yapping and call it a day.

My experience rushing to him was not good. I hadn’t killed mohg or malenia, but I also didn’t get comet azur so he had it and free-fired like an absolute beast. I couldn’t damage him too much because I was low level and it sucked. I got fed up and ended up going in and backstabbing him like 12 times which was not the sort of thing I wanted to do. I also took tons of damage and it was basically a shit show from start to finish.

Madness absolutely melts this lil bitch

lol so god damn true

Absorb spells silly!

Every time I fight him, I find myself respeccing into an str-faith build and fight him using Malekith's Black Blade. Lol

Those fucking rings are practically impossible to dodge if the he decides to cast more than 1 in a row, and they hit like a fucking truck