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By the time you reach the Golden Hippopotamus in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, you'll have learned that bosses aren't messing around. The Golden Hippo is the first foe you'll face in Shadow Keep, and while both the Dancing Lion and Rellana were both agile, fast-hitting foes, in true hippo style this boss fight is considerably different. Don't take that to mean it's easier though, because each hit you take is devastating.
If you're struggling against this enormous beast and you need some tips, here's how to beat the Golden Hippopotamus in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
How to beat the Golden Hippopotamus in Shadow of the Erdtree
Firstly, you'll want to take advantage of an NPC summon for this fight. Your options are either Hornsent, who can deal plenty of damage thanks to his bleed capabilities, or Redmane Freyja, who is much more tanky. However, for my fight only Hornsent was available to summon, so Redmane Freyja has some criteria that must be met first.
As soon as you enter the arena, the Golden Hippo will charge at you. It will either do a slower charge with its mouth wide open, trying to grab you and smash you against the floor multiple times, or it will leap forward for a harder-hitting single attack. Either way, you have enough time to quickly summon a Spirit Ash - as usual, the Mimic Tear is recommended - before dodging to the side.
The general rule of thumb for this entire fight is to stay away from its head. The Golden Hippo is huge which means you can deal plenty of damage from the sides, but it can also spin fairly quickly and change its target. For the first stage of the fight, its main attacks are the aforementioned charges, a chomp attack where it bites twice in quick succession, and a head slam which it tries to position directly above you. For the latter, note the rhythm of the second slam is much quicker than the first, so be ready to dodge immediately after the first comes down. It can also perform a much bigger, heavier slam that sends out a shockwave.
Slightly before the halfway point, our water-dwelling foe will sprout enormous spikes on its back, becoming somewhat of a golden porcupine. While it keeps all the previous attacks, it adds a few more to its arsenal here, including a few ranged options. One of these usually happens immediately after the second phase starts, where it sends needles flying into the sky, but provided you summoned Hornsent or Redmane Freyja and they're still alive, these will usually target them instead of you. If they are focused on you, just keep rolling until it finishes.
The other ranged attack also involves firing the needles, but they're sent out in a seemingly random fashion. There's no pattern to dodging these, so just keep rolling, but as it leaves the hippo immobile for a short period, melee users can use this as an opportunity to get a hit in.
The main attack you'll want to dodge is when the spiked hippo leaps into the air and curls into a ball. It will one-hit kill you if it lands on you, or if it then rolls into you as it zooms around the arena afterwards. Make sure you time this dodge correctly or you'll be flattened.
If you are using melee weapons, your best bet is to try and inflict bleed damage. With Hornsent in play that is much easier, but any weapon that can attack fast and frequently is a better shout than anything particularly heavy. Which is to say dexterity builds are better suited than strength. However, I found the most success with a ranged caster build because as long as you can keep your distance from the hippo and let it aggro on your summons, you can whittle its health down from afar. I found the Lightning Spear incantation to be the most useful due to how quickly you can cast it each time.
Golden Hippopotamus rewards
Taking down this magnificent beast will net you with Aspects of the Crucible: Thorns, which is an incantation that allows you to perform the spiked, rolling attack the hippo loved so much. You'll also get two Scadutree Fragments which are a huge help in keeping you alive in Shadow of the Erdtree.
Keep in mind that there are other Hippos throughout the game, though they're wild, less powerful, non-boss variants. You should absolutely kill them if you get the chance though, as they all drop Shadow of the Erdtree Scadutree Fragments.
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