Skip To...
The first roadblock Nightfarers will face in Elden Ring: Nightreign is Tricephalos, also known as Gladius, Beast of Night. This three-headed menace is one of the toughest bosses in all FromSoftware games and one that can end an expedition in seconds, especially if you’re unprepared. Furthermore, you need to beat this enemy to unlock most of the game’s features and all the other Nightlords you need to defeat. Therefore, we’ve prepared a guide to help you defeat Tricephalos (Gladius, Beast of Night) in Elden Ring: Nightreign.
Preparation
Like many other bosses in the whole Elden Ring universe, Tricephalos (Gladius) also has a weakness in Nightreign. If you want to face this three-headed dog, you must bring Holy weapons or Incantations. This is its only weakness, and other elements won’t do much. When roaming around the map, look for places that have the Holy icon.
If you’re struggling to find these places, the Holy icons look like the ones we’ve marked above. Usually, Holy camps or castles aren’t too challenging. Castles will have Oracle Envoys, while camps or ruins will have Albinauric enemies. Both types of enemies are extremely weak, but you can get overwhelmed quickly, especially if playing solo.
Other than that, here’s the checklist before facing Gladius in Elden Ring: Nightreign.
- Bring Holy equipment (incantations/weapons).
- Upgrade your flasks at least to six charges (you’ll get the seventh before facing Gladius).
- When choosing Nightfarers, bring Ironeye, Wylder, or Raider.
- Revenant is another great option due to her high Faith stat, but she lacks an option to restore FP.
Solo Strategy
- Recommended characters: Ironeye, Wylder
- Weapon element: Holy
In truth, Tricephalos (Gladius) isn’t the most challenging boss in Elden Ring: Nightreign, but it can be quite annoying. It has a lot of attacks that will keep you at bay, and when you try to get close to it, it will attack with faster melee moves, so you need to be on your toes at all times.
First Phase
When fighting solo, getting through the first phase will be challenging, and instead of wacking this three-headed dog, you should focus on learning its moves. For starters, it has a long chain that will whip around to hit you from afar. It usually comes with a combo move that you’ll need to dodge at least three times. If you’re too far away, it will swing the chain to hit you with it, so when that happens, run far away from Gladius.
Other than that, it will lunge toward you and shoot the occasional fireballs if you’re too close. The easiest way to get through this phase is by staying close to it and to its sides at all times. Most attacks are sweeping moves, and they are easy to read if you check which head is grabbing the chain. If you’re playing as Ironeye, always mark the enemy first and run away so you can land a few hits. It’s going to be a slow fight, but at least it will let you reach the second phase.
Second Phase
The second phase will begin once you get Tricephalos down to around 75% HP. Once that happens, the arena’s colors will change, and Gladius will split into three dogs. This is going to be quite scary for many solo players, but there’s a fast way to cheese this.
When the three dogs appear, focus on the one with the sword on its back. Attacking it will eventually stun it, and if you land a critical hit, it will take out a good chunk of HP from the boss’s bar. However, this will be extremely difficult for solo players, since the sword dog tends to stay behind the other two. If you have Ironeye, it might be a bit easier to hit it.
Co-Op Strategy
- Recommended team: Revenant/Ironeye, Wylder, Raider
- Weapon element: Holy
For preparations, a team with Revenant, Wylder, and Raider works. Revenant is there to provide heals if needed, as well as summons. The Revenant should always have Helen or Frederick out to dish out damage and hold aggro. Sebastian is good, but it doesn’t move much, so only use it if the other two are on cooldown. If you are playing Revenant and have a good Holy incantation, focus on DPS only.
The Wylder is there to provide another DPS increase and also use his grappling hook to approach the boss. Gladius can be quite slippery, so being able to get closer is always good. However, the Raider is a must-have because it can stagger the boss with his ultimate and also do a lot of stun damage, assuming he has greathammers, which are the ideal weapons for the Raider.
Lastly, we included Ironeye because he and the Raider are a killer combination. Ironeye can mark an enemy, and if the Raider hits it with weapons that have high stun damage, you’ll be able to stunlock the boss often. This is another team comp that you should consider in most expeditions.
First Phase
The overall strategy doesn’t change much from solo to co-op. Actually, it becomes much easier. All you have to do is send your melee classes to aggro the boss, or send the Revenant’s summon first. Stay under the boss and get as many hits in until you trigger the second phase. Again, fighting the three-headed dog alone isn’t too difficult, but things get dicey in the second part.
Second Phase
Like in solo, focus on the dog with the sword. It will be much easier here because each dog will target one player, so the Nightfarer who has the aforementioned dog can hit it until they stuns it. If you see a red circle around a player, that means the dog will focus on this Nightfarer only, but that’s something you can use to your advantage. The targeted player should stay as close as possible to other players so they can get hits in. It will require a lot of coordination, but it is doable.
It all sounds like a complicated ordeal, but it is much simpler than it seems. The real challenge here is learning and re-learning the moves because, if you die here, you need to restart the Tricephalos expedition in Elden Ring: Nightreign all over, and that takes some time. Also, that’s assuming you make it past the second night. So, the real strategy here relies on proper preparation and getting a good Holy armament because that is what will be doing the real damage.
