Elden Ring Commander Niall boss fight: how to defeat Commander Niall

Looking for a Commander Niall boss fight walkthrough? Commander Niall is the boss of Castle Sol in the Mountaintops of the Giants. While this boss fight is well out of the way and completely optional, he also guards a piece of the Haligtree Medallion. If you want to get into a new area and find some of Elden Ring's best bosses, such as Mohg, Lord of Blood, and Malenia, Blade of Miquella, then you'll need to defeat Commander Niall.

In this walkthrough, we share our top tips for defeating Commander Niall, so that you can complete Castle Sol and use the Haligtree Medallion to access an entirely new area. After defeating Commander Niall, take a look at our Elden Ring walkthrough to see where you should head next.

Elden Ring Commander Niall boss fight walkthrough

Commander Niall wouldn't be so troublesome by himself, but he immediately summons in two pesky Banished Knight spirit ashes. There's no way to stop this, making the Commander Niall boss fight one of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring.

Below, you can watch our guides editor, Ollie, fight Commander Niall. After watching his footage, read on to learn our five top tips for defeating Commander Niall in Elden Ring.

How to beat Commander Niall: tops tips for success

Here are our top tips for defeating Commander Niall:

1. Boost lightning damage negation
2. Prepare for powerful physical attacks with the right armor
3. Summon your own spirits
4. Kill the dual sword spirit immediately
5. Keep the shield spirit in play as long as you can

1. Boost lightning damage negation

While this won't seem important straight away, Commander Niall has some powerful lightning-based attacks in the second phase. If you want to survive this fight, you'll need to increase your lightning damage negation to deal with these moves.

Fortunately, there are a few items you can get to help with this. The Boltdrake Talisman, found in Stormveil Castle, is one of the best talismans in Elden Ring for this situation, as it slightly increase your protection against lightning damage. To boost your lightning damage negation even further, use a Lightningproof Dried Liver.

This is a consumable that you can find throughout Elden Ring, but you can also craft them if you have the Ancient Dragon Apostle's Cookbook (4), which you'll find in Crumbling Farum Azula. You might not have reached this area yet, so proceed through the main story and come back to Commander Niall when you can craft Lightningproof Dried Liver.

2. Prepare for powerful physical attacks with the right armor

Whether you're sparring with one of the spirits or with Commander Niall himself, you'll face some particularly powerful attacks. Outside of the special lightning moves in phase 2 that we mentioned above, you'll get smacked and walloped by mostly physical attacks. Many of these will deal huge damage, so come prepared with heavy armor.

Many of the options in our list of the best armor sets in Elden Ring offer massive bonuses to physical resistance, such as Lionel's set and General Radahn's armor. Consider using one of these so that you can tank through any enemy combos that land during this fight.

3. Summon your own spirits

Some might not like summoning spirits, but if Commander Niall plays dirty then so should you. Summoning spirits will make this fight a lot more manageable, as your summon should distract Niall's allies.

There are plenty of viable options here, but we recommend using either the Mimic Tear or the Wolves. Despite getting nerfed in path 1.03, the Mimic Tear still tanks very well, making it the perfect choice for holding enemy aggression in this fight. On the other hand, summoning the three wolf spirits will overwhelm Niall and his allies, allowing you to land some easy hits on any opponent while they're distracted.

4. Kill the dual sword spirit immediately

After summoning your own spirits, head straight over to the dual-sword spirit that Niall spawns. As it appears, you can land some easy hits before its animations kick in. If you use heavy attacks, you might even manage to stagger this spirit.

Once it is staggered, move to its front and perform a visceral by using a light attack. This will deal massive damage and hopefully kill the dual-sword spirit before it can get involved in the fight.

The hardest part about this fight is trying to survive attacks from all three enemies at once, so we strongly recommend taking this chance right at the start to quickly defeat one of Niall's spirits. Since the dual-sword spirit deals more damage, that's the one you should kill here.

5. Keep the shield spirit in play as long as you can

With the first spirit down, we recommend that you focus on Commander Niall while your spirits keep the shield summon occupied. Commander Niall is rather weak during his first phase, which usually lasts until he reaches half health. However, if you kill both summons, it will trigger the second phase early, making the rest of this fight much more difficult.

While your summons keep the shield spirit busy, you can wail on Commander Niall and easily blaze through the first half of this fight. When he reaches half health, the shield spirit will disappear and Niall will gain some new moves.

If Commander Niall raises his leg, this indicates that he is about to use a lightning attack. When he slams his leg down, it will deal damage to anything nearby, so run away when you notice this wind-up animation. Niall also has another move during which he leaps into the air and slams down to the ground. You can avoid this by running to the side and rolling when he hits the ground.

Aside from the lightning-based attacks, Niall also uses some frostbite moves. If you see Niall spinning his halberd around in the air, back away as fast as you can. This will unleash a cloud that deals frostbite damage to anything in the nearby vicinity.

Likewise, Niall will occasionally turn away and start drawing in this frosty cloud. While this might seem like a good chance to punish, we recommend backing away quickly, as Niall will send a frost cloud throughout the arena shortly after.

Since Niall should only have half health when he gains these attacks, you can use the above tips to avoid these moves. Strike patiently between Niall's attacks and you should slowly whittle his health down until he dies.

That wraps up our Commander Niall boss fight guide. If you want to improve your character further for this fight, take a look at our lists of the best weapons and best builds in Elden Ring. To upgrade your sacred flasks, check out our Elden Ring Sacred Tears and Elden Ring Golden Seeds locations guides. After beating Commander Niall, see what other challenges await nearby with our Elden Ring boss locations guide.