Golden Hippopotamus is one of the earliest compulsory bosses in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and with the right strategy, he can be the easiest. Here’s the best approach to fighting this boss in Shadow Keep.
How To Beat Golden Hippopotamus in Elden Ring
Most of the attacks from the Golden Hippopotamus in Phase 1 are close-range bashing-type moves. These can be easily avoided by rolling through them and dealing damage once the action is over.
Like most FromSoftware creature bosses, getting behind the Golden Hippopotamus makes beating it much easier. From behind, only a few attacks can hit you and they tend to be easy to see coming. When the enemy repositions to get in front again roll through its attack and get behind once more. You can repeat this all the way into phase two.
During Phase 2 things get much trickier. The Golden Hippopotamus will start to emit golden spikes from its body. These have two purposes, they deal damage to anything close when they appear, but they also shoot out of the creature’s body flying at the player. This ranged attack is easy to see coming and can be rolled to avoid.
Aside from the spikes, Phase 2 of the Golden Hippopotamus fight is almost identical to the first and as such you can use the same method of getting behind the beast to deal damage and eventually take it out.
If you’d like to make things easier you can always use Spirit Ashes to draw agro and help out with repositioning and dealing damage to the boss. The best choice is likely going to be the Mimic Tear as it will have the same weapons and armor that you are using which can be tailored to your style and build up status effects during the fight.
With these tips, you shouldn’t have too much trouble slaying the Hippopotamus and continuing your adventure through Shadow Keep. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available now.
