Here’s what you need to do to find and defeat the Golden Hippo, the third mandatory boss in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. This critter will be relatively easy, but it has a nasty surprise in store.
How to defeat the Golden Hippo
Well, the truth is that it’s a very simple boss in terms of attacks . If he’s too far away, you’ll see him charge with his jaws open . He starts running sideways and rolls to the side you’re running in just as he reaches you. If you’ve done it right, you’ll get out of the obscene hitbox of the attack , which is a grab that will take away almost all of your life.
How to defeat the Golden Hippo
Then, at medium and short distances, he can slam his jaw into the ground . Finally, his third normal attack is one where he hits from side to side . Both the smash attack and this one have a deceptive delay , so you’ll eat the hit the first few times, don’t worry.
Aside from these three main attacks, he has a ground pounding move that covers quite a bit of area and the classic short-range fast attacks and mid-range charge . The problem comes when you’ve done enough damage to him and he pounds the ground and becomes covered in thorns .
Most of his attacks now shoot out golden spikes that do indecent damage . Especially the ground pounding attack, the trail of golden spikes that will fall on you is now more dangerous than the attack itself.
The good news: he’s vulnerable to almost everything . In our experience, Rellana’s Twin Blades will scorch his life bar, but he’s also vulnerable to Slash, Bleed, Fire, and Lightning attacks. If you can harass him hard enough, you can knock him to the ground before he can even get his spikes out , saving you an attack and giving you a chance to critically hit him by attacking the eye.