Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree - Golden Hippopotamus Boss Guide

Elden Ring'sShadow of the Erdtree DLC has several fearsome foes to test your Tarnished metal against, but the Golden Hippopotamus is strange amongst them (beyond not being a hippopotamus at all). With a healthpool that puts many other bosses to shame, the Golden Hippopotamus is less a test of skill and more a test of preparation and patience.

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To defeat the Golden Hippopotamus, you'll have to use every trick you've learned for overcoming the tankiest bosses, from items to status effects to clever damage-type choices. At least you won't have to fight it alone. After all, you'll have Hornsent, Redmane Freyja, and us, TheGamer, at your disposal for this tedious fight.

How To Prepare For The Golden Hippopotamus

The Golden Hippopotamus is found within the Shadow Keep. As the first boss and obstacle of the keep, it's hard to miss him.

His arena is filled with water, meaning that he'll take exaggerated damage from Lightning spells.

As a result, we recommend making the following preparations:

1. Bring Physical damage reduction means such as the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +2 .
2. Bring means of Lightning damage such as Lightning skills (e.g., Ash of War: Lightning Slash ) and lightning incantations (e.g., Lansseax's Glaive ).
3. When bringing Lightning damage, use the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear in your Wondrous Physick.
4. Consider thrown items for status inflictions, such as the Hefty Freezing Pot .
5. Summon Freyja and Hornsent to assist.

Freyja and Hornsent appear as summons outside the fog wall. If they are not there, then you have not exhausted their prior dialogues at the Three-Path Cross Site of Grace and the Highroad Cross Site of Grace. Once the spell breaks upon entering the keep, return to them and exhaust all dialogue with them (and Leda) before coming back to the Shadow Keep.

Golden Hippopotamus Attacks And Combos

The Golden Hippopotamus really enjoys throwing around his weight in combat. Thankfully, its moveset is very limited.

Most of the damage it does is physical damage, meaning you won't have to worry about mixed damage types and additional talisman slot requirements.

It does have a second phase, but it only adds three new moves worth noting. See the full list of attacks and combos below.

Attack Name

Attack Description

Suggested Counter

Charge!

The hippo shakes its head and then lowers it before charging forward with its mouth agape. If caught by this charging attack, the player will be grabbed and tossed backward. If not, the hippo strikes the wall of the room, becoming very briefly staggered.

Sprint to the left or the right. Attack from behind as it strikes the wall.

Crunch

The hippo turns its head and holds its mouth wide open as it goes in for a bite.

Dodge roll forward

Upward Horn

The hippo does a small jog and tosses its head upward for a vertical strike ahead. It continues the small jog for a few extra steps after.

Dodge to the left or right.

Jaw Slam

Raising its head and biting the air, the hippo slams its jaw down, tracking the player's movements, two times. If nearby, this attack combos into a third, larger body slam strike.

Thorny Transition

At the 65 percent health mark, the hippo will transition to the second stage by growing a back of porcupine-like needles. It rears during this transition and then slams on the ground. After, a rain of needles falls in the area of the target, following for a few seconds. This transition attack can be repeated after its initial use in stage two.

Back away as it transitions and begins sprinting around the hippo after it slams on the ground, dodging where required.

Thorn Spin

The hippo rears with a slight lean to its right before spinning on the spot. A rain of needles will emanate from this spinning position in all directions.

Dodge roll forward or maintain distance (the needles fly with an upward trajectory as opposed to a completely flat horizontal).

Wheel of Thorns

The hippo jumps into the air and does a frontflip before rolling on the ground a distance. This roll can move slightly to the left or right.

Sprint until under the hippo and roll forward as it crashes to the ground to ensure you end behind it begins to roll.

How To Defeat The Golden Hippopotamus

Health

78,000~ (Full Summons)

Weaknesses

Lightning (x2 in water), Fire

Resistances

Holy, Magic

Immunities

None, but high Robustness

Parryable?

Unknown

Backstab?

No

Staggerable?

No

Stance Broken?

Yes; Criticals allowed

Weak Spots:

None

Special Notes

None

The only notable wall when it comes to the Golden Hippopotamus is its incredible healthpool. Without the NPC summons, the boss's health would still be around 60,000.

While the Golden Hippo is not difficult because of his moveset or any outstanding damage, he can outlast the best of them as his health is almost equivalent to Rykard's phase one.

To get the best of this creature, you'll want to come up with ways to inflict high damage quickly.

Thankfully, the arena here is covered in water, so you'll want to have a build that incorporates lightning somehow.

Whether it's an ash of war or a spell, lightning will be your workhorse.

Frostbite and Bleed are okay, though it seems like this boss's robustness is quite high. It will take a while to build these meters up. Using hefty pots is generally better than using weapons with the Cold infusement due to his Magic resistances.

We do recommend taking the NPC summons here ( Freyja and Hornsent ). Despite increasing his health, they are both very handy for this fight while also providing a sense of inclusion in the narrative we find very charming.

In addition, the following tips should be observed:

• Ranged combat is much better against the hippo, as his melee attacks have a slightly wider hitbox than it appears visually.
• Holy and Magic damage appear to not be as effective, in much the same way as Crucible Knights.
• Sprinting does a lot for this fight and can sometimes be superior to dodging, especially for the charge attack.

Fire attacks, or fire infused weapons, are also doable but are inferior to lightning as the Golden Hippopotamus has both an innate weakness to lightning while also having an increased effectiveness when he's standing in water.

Eventually, your reward will be two Scadutree Fragments and the Aspects of the Crucible: Thorns incantation.

But more importantly, you can now finally move into the Shadow Keep for real. Good luck, Tarnished!

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