How to beat the Golden Hippopotamus in Shadow of the Erdtree

✓ at a glance

• The Golden Hippo is an optional boss barring the front door into the Shadow Keep.
• You can beat this boss easily by keeping close to him at all times.
• Watch out for golden spines when he powers up.
• As always, bleed is effective.

The Golden Hippo boss in Shadow of the Erdtree will bar your path into the Shadow Keep dungeon. While there are two ways into this Legacy Dungeon, with one that can avoid this boss, you will probably end up fighting it regardless. As with most bosses in the DLC, the Golden Hippo will power up halfway through the fight, because that’s a super fun and not at all original thing for them all to do. Anyway, let’s look at how to beat the Golden Hippopotamus to help you get through this mess of a dungeon.

Golden Hippopotamus location

You will fight the Golden Hippopotamus at the very start of the Shadow Keep Legacy Dungeon if you approach from the main gate. Yet again, the Site of Grace is located directly outside the boss room, making it much easier to get straight back in there and die to a silly multi-hit combo or grab attack.

The Rivers of Blood specifically synergises disgustingly well with the Mimic Tear – as do most weapons, truth be told – because the AI character has infinite FP and stamina, meaning they will abuse the Corpse Piler Ash of War and trigger bleed consistently and frequently throughout fights. No NPC summons for this fight, but they are all fairly useless with the boss scaling being as high as it is in the DLC.

Golden Hippopotamus boss guide

The Golden Hippo shouldn’t give you too much of a hard time. This boss is a literal gatekeeper insofar as he is barring the way forward into the dungeon. You technically don’t need to fight this boss, because you can enter the Shadow Keep through a path in the Church District located in the east. As is seemingly the norm with these DLC bosses, the hippo will power up halfway through the fight, giving it new attacks and more damage.

The grab attack is incoming when you see this. Image taken by VideoGamer

When powered up, it will grow golden spines. Image taken by VideoGamer

The spines are small protjectiles that will stick into you. Image taken by VideoGamer

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Golden Hippo – first phase

The biggest problem in this fight is the Hippo’s grab attack. The hippo can use this move as soon as you enter the arena, and if you try to summon your Spirit Ash, it will catch you out. You will know it’s coming because it will charge at you with its huge mouth wide open. The hitbox on this attack is, frankly, annoying. It is designed to roll catch you if you start spamming the dodge button, so you need to take your time and roll into it and slightly to the side to avoid it.

✓ Roll with it

For this boss, you will be safe most of the time if you stay as close as possible and always roll into the boss. You can aim to roll slightly to the side because the sweet spot is right by the back legs. Sometimes, you will just clip under the boss’s huge head and end up there, which makes for a great way to deal damage.

After dodging the grab attack, try and get in behind it while it recovers for some free hits. Equally, you can use this time to summon your Spirit Ash and get yourself prepared. Because this boss is large (and in charge) it has plenty of annoying attacks that will stop you from exploiting its blindspots. If you spend too long behind it, you will get hit. If you spend too long at its side, you’ll get bit. And on and on it goes. The key here is to not get greedy with your hits.

The hippo will mostly use its gigantic face and large body in its attacks. The truly large face has a hitbox – and then some – to match it, making it hard to avoid attacks when you’re too close for comfort. This is where a useful Spirit Ash comes into play. If you want to, you can solo this boss and it won’t be too difficult. We highly recommend you make things easier on yourself and use and abuse all the mechanics you can. The boss doesn’t fight fair, so why should you?

Golden Hippo – phase two

While not technically another phase, the hippo will power itself up when you do enough damage to it. In this form, it will sprout some spikes and use them liberally to poke at you. The hippo doesn’t change its attacks at all, other than two new ones using the spikes. When it powers up, it will rain down spikes on your location and continue to do so. Due to this, you should back off as soon as you see it powering up. When the spines have rained down, go in for some damage.

✓ Golden indeed

You’ll know when it will do an attack with its spines, because they will glow gold.

The second new attack is another spin-to-win move from the boss. The hippo will start to glow and then swing forward with its head and follow that into a spin attack while on its side. This move has its own hitbox and it will also fire off spines in a circular AoE from its position. All you need to do is back away from it. You can outrange it and then move in immediately after it stops spinning to punish the attack.

✓ Be aggressive, be, be aggressive

If you can tank the hits, stay close while it powers up and keep whacking the hippo. The spines don’t interrupt your actions, but just keep an eye on your HP.

The hippo loves to charge around the arena to create distance between you. This is likely so it has more of a chance to use its stupidly finicky grab attack. Nine times out of ten, you’ll roll right through that. But that one time, it’s gonna get you, and it’s gonna be annoying. The final bite of the attack is what has a hit box, so whatever you do, don’t start spamming roll as it comes towards you. Equally, don’t ever roll backwards, because the range on it is outrageously long and it will register as a hit even if there is clear space between you and the boss. Simply roll into the boss and go to the side.

The hippo doesn’t have a lot of HP and you can take it out nice and easy with some luck at the start. Keep in mind to stay in close range and always dodge into the grab attack. The attack where it rears up for a large body slam is also another great move to bait since you can get so much damage during the windup and after the attack is finished.

One final note on this boss is to think about not using the lock-on function. Sometimes, thanks to how much these bosses move and jump around, your camera can work against you. Not locking onto the boss all the time also makes it easier to roll through attacks, since the camera isn’t swinging around and changing your direction. Give it a try, but if you can’t stand it then feel free to keep using lock-on.

Golden Hippopotamus move list

While fighting the hippo, we noted down all the attacks we encountered during the boss fight. Naturally, these aren’t the official names for the attacks, but the ones we think best describe the move it will use.

Move	Description	Strategy
Lunging Bite	This attack can come out to close the distance between you and the boss. While initially similar to the grab attack, you can tell these apart by its mouth movement.	Roll into the attack and slightly to the side. Try turning off your lock on if you have trouble with the camera.
Head Slam	big wind up and then runs away.	Since the hitbox is the lion’s head, you can exploit this and stay close to the middle of its body to get free damage in.
Bite + Head Slam Combo	The hippo will bite at you and then swipe with its head, turning the attack into a repositioning move for it.	You can wait roughly one second between the flips to dodge them, then back up a bit to avoid the spinning breath attack. After the breath, move in for some free damage as it finishes the animation.
Double Head Slam	The hippo will hit downwards twice using its head, butting you with its chin two times. This can combo you to death if you’re at half HP.	This double chin attack can kill you in two hits if you don’t have much HP. Make sure you roll to the side to avoid the AoE damage from the impact. Wait for the second and go back in for damage.
Side Bite	Depending on your position, the hippo will do a sideways bite to catch you on its left side.	If you favour one side, it will use attacks to catch you out of that position. Don’t get greedy and move back from it after a few hits when you see it react.
Lunging Grab	More often than not, the hippo will begin the fight by charging towards you with its mouth wide open for a grab attack.	The hitbox on this move is awkward. If you roll into the attack and slightly to the side, you can dodge it. Rolling backwards or just to the side will result in you being grabbed. Roll forward and then get behind it quickly to exploit the end of the animation.
Body Slam	The hippo will rear up and slam down, causing an AoE shockwave where it lands.	The range on the shockwave is small, especially if you get yourself behind it. When it lands, wait for a second and go in for the attack.
Golden Spines	At around half HP, the boss will change form and glow gold. It will sprout golden spines on its back and now be able to shoot them.	When you see the hippo glow, be ready to get back a bit. The range on this is large, but you can move in after it’s done to punish it for free damage.
Spine Rain	The Golden Hippo will rain down spines from above you, landing in a huge AoE and hurting you for several instances of damage.	This attack is used when the hippo powers up. It can be used again after, so just look out for the glowing spines on it as your cue to get out of the way.
AoE Spin + Spines	The hippo will now have an AoE spin attack that launches spines at you in a huge radius from the boss.	Again, its spines will glow gold before doing this attack. It will begin to curl up and then spin around to hit in an AoE. Stay away from the boss or get close and roll through the move. Either way, punish the boss after this attack.

Golden Hippopotamus rewards

Nothing super special here for killing this boss. As a means to get into the Shadow Keep, it’s nothing difficult to deal with and the rewards are, frankly, uninspired. You get the Aspects of the Crucible: Thorns incantation and Scadutree Fragment x2.