There are actually a few different ways to get into Shadowkeep shadow of treeno one would necessarily blame you for looking at the real army camped outside your front door, and the Forge Golems behind them, and choosing to go all the way out. But it is ring of fire: If Malenia can’t make you fear the angry God of Elden, nothing will. So, assuming you’ve actually gotten over the mess at the front door, you still need to have a brief meeting with Messmer’s receptionist. And by receptionist, we mean the giant rampaging hippopotamus that guards the halls of Shadowkeep. We’re sure you’ve got this if You successfully knocked down the furnace golem.but it doesn’t hurt to have some guidance on this.
golden hippopotamus ability
The hippopotamus will immediately open its mouth and rush towards you to bite you. If it managed to bite you into its mouth, you would probably be dead. If that doesn’t knock you down, its next attack – when it attempts to bang its head on the ground a few times – might. Honestly, in the first stage, it’s pretty typical hippo behavior, it’ll charge at you and try to bite you while headbutting you to try and soften you up. Its slam attack is when it slams back into the ground, creating a shock wave that will knock you down into the dirt if you get too close. Overall, though, it’s dangerous, mostly because it’s a hippo as big as a city bus.
Perhaps sensing your indifference, at about 50% health, the hippo decides to show you its Sonic the Hedgehog cosplay costume, which sprouts a set of giant glowing golden spines and rolls around the arena . When the spines first appear, they shake slightly and then rain down in all directions. Sometimes it will also fire directly at you. Yes, as mentioned before, it will jump into the air and roll around the arena, crushing everything in its path and dealing massive damage.
Defeat the Golden Hippo – Stage 1
So, first of all, if you want to get an advantage in this area, you might consider furthering some of the NPC quest lines. This is one of the first fights where it’s entirely possible that there are two summoning symbols to choose from – either Redman Freya or Horncent – or none at all, which could make the task at hand a bit confusing. A bit cumbersome, but not impossible, depending on your build.
Once you step into the arena, if you have ashes with you, bring them in as soon as possible. If you’re running with Mimic Tears, don’t even bother healing until you roll to the left or right before the hippo charges. Will follow up the initial charge with a few quick headbutts. Now You can heal.
From that point on, the first phase was basically a bullfight. Your only job is to stay away from the hippo’s head. The Big Garot isn’t very smart, so staying on its side usually means a ton of free attacks whenever the Hippo misses an attack. He does get around pretty unpredictably, so you want to go in, deal two or three hits of damage, and then wait and see what he does. You don’t want to get too close when it does its ground attack, but as long as you can get out of the way, the hippo has a long recovery time and you can ride it to town.
Melee users will make it here, as Hippo’s stance can be easily broken. Tanks can also perform well, but you can’t necessarily rely 100% on the shield – the hippo’s attack will drain your stamina instantly. Still, if you do need to use your shield to take a critical hit, punish it with a guard counterattack. The magic user will need to lure the hippo into using one of its larger moves before attempting the spell, and you may need to stay further away from the hippo’s hindquarters to stay safe when it starts moving again. If you do bring soul ash or summons into this fight, the hippo’s attention will likely be focused very directly on them, and a particularly powerful hippo shaking the right weapon can do some serious damage. Just, again, stay away from the business end of that.
Defeat the Golden Hippo – Stage 2
During the sonic phase, the hippopotamus stops in its tracks to stretch its spine. This looks like a prime time to get a few extra hits, and it might be, but only if you have something you can hit from a decent distance. Melee users need to take a big step back before it’s too late. If you get too close – at any time during the rest of the fight – you’ll not only be hit by the spikes, but also become a prime target for the rain of spikes it fires into the sky. At a certain distance, it may also shoot its spines directly at you. A good shield can negate the resulting damage; others, dodge forward from the barrage. If you move quickly enough, you can even hit your opponent before you need to take a few steps back.
As for rolling, when you see that thing jump into the air, get some distance away to avoid the ensuing explosion of feathers. If you’re lucky, it will care more about your summons or soul ash, and keeping its distance will be a breeze. If not, at least tilt yourself toward the middle of the arena and don’t end up rolling yourself close to the wall where you can easily get trapped. Other than that, the hippos are using all the same stuff as before, just watch for signs that things are about to get prickly. Only hit twice at a time before giving the hippo some space and he will eventually fall.
Your reward for victory is 200,000 runes, two (!!) Scadutree shards, and a Crucible aspect spell called Thorns, which also basically lets you live out your dream of spinning towards enemies like Sonic the Hedgehog. Also, just saying, there’s another one of these roaming the fields outside of Shadowkeep in the ancient ruins of Rauch, albeit without the spikes phase, which is fine since he and any other hippopotamus you encounter from here come with The same goes for the Scadutree fragment.