- Alternate Unused Resting Pose
Champion Gundyr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lore
Once, a champion came late to the festivities, and was greeted by a shrine without fire, and a bell that would not toll.
— Description of the Soul of Champion Gundyr
Portion of a steel chain used to restrain Gundyr.
A prisoner is one who has staked everything on a belief, a proclivity most apparent in the greatest of champions.
— Description of the Prisoner's Chain
General Information
Gundyr, in his prime, guards access to the dark Firelink Shrine within the Untended Graves, including the Eyes of a Fire Keeper for the End of Fire Ending.
This fight is optional.
Location
Found in Untended Graves on the path to the Flameless Shrine.
Summons
- Sword Master (Only if the player has defeated the Sword Master outside Firelink Shrine.)
Item Drops
Moveset
- Grab: Grabs target and spears on halberd, dealing high damage. Well telegraphed.
- Spear sweep: Charges up then does a half-circle swing from his left to right.
- Kick: briefly bows his shoulders, then spins and delivers a kick at shoulder height. Relatively low damage but will knockdown. Will often use on targets behind him, especially after another combo to punish opportunistic attacks.
- Shoulder charge: A very fast attack often used as part of a combo. Quickly dashes to the target and tackles them with his shoulder, delivering moderate damage and knockdown.
- Shout: When the boss is down to roughly half health, his eyes will begin to glow red and he will briefly yell, staggering but dealing no damage. This indicates the boss is entering phase 2, where his attacks can chain much longer.
- Charge: Similar to the weapon art. Lowers his spear, then runs forward. If at any point he hits you, he will carry you with the glaive, then finish it off with a quick, high damage slash. One of his most lethal moves. The attack at the end of the charge can be parried.
- Overhand slash: A two-hit attack where he slashes downward at a distant target then quickly reverses the attack. Try to roll as you may not be able to block the second hit.
- Uppercut: A very fast attack that will knock you airborne. Usually followed up by a kick when you are still in the air.
- Vertical chop: A far-reaching attack that he usually opens the fight with, and tends to use when you are too far away and/or trying to use estus. He runs for a few steps while raising his halberd, then chops down.
- Jumping slam: The boss jumps high up then plants his halberd into the ground while landing. This attack is not used very often, but tends to be a follow-up after you are knocked down by his kick.
2nd Phase
- Running + jumping attack
- Champion's Charge
- Roundhouse kick
- Foot stomp
- Stab, stab, slam
- Slam, stab, slam
- Punch, stab, slam
- Punch, juggle, kick/shoulder bash
- 2-handed delayed slash, juggle, kick
- Run-to-the-side slash, kick
- Slash, slash, stab
- Slash, slash, shoulder bash
- Grab + impale + toss
- (When player knocked down) Leaping attack
Strategies
Most of your deaths will be to his incredible combo potential in the second phase. He can cover a lot of ground very quickly.
Rolling through attacks to strike from behind, then dodging the kick will be instrumental to your success.
Good dodging will be essential because his combos simply have too many hits to block all of them. A good way to avoid potential follow-ups, especially the shoulder bash, is to stay out of his range, wait for an attack, then run back in and do a running attack once he finishes a move. It is best to use a weapon with long range, like a spear, so that you can hit him sooner and do not end up too close to him after you attack. The idea is to bait him to start a new combo, which in most cases starts with a halberd swing variation, which is easy to dodge or parry.
If you choose to summon the Sword Master, you should consider using a weapon with bleed. The sword master uses a chaos blade, and with his help you can deliver bleed procs with some frequency to bring the boss down faster. He occasionally still does his normal Overhead Slash , so take advantage of that with a parry, if you can.
Most of his attacks can be parried. During the second phase of the fight, the boss is much more aggressive and performs combos that are hard to deal with, but the first attack of a combo is usually slow and easy to parry. The sweeping slash at the end of the charge attack can be parried as well, although the timing might be a bit tricky. When he enters rage mode, run away from him and stay at a distance so that he will end the charge just before reaching you. Then, as he makes the sweeping slash, parry him. Just watch out for his grab attack. Aside from timing the parries, it's important to stay within his range, but not too close. If you are too close, he tends to do the shoulder bash, the grab attack, or the uppercut which is extremely fast. A Target Shield or Small Leather Shield can make this fight significantly easier.
Some spells (mostly pyromancies) have casting time short enough to allow you to cast after a parry and still have enough time for the riposte. You would need to stand closer to Gundyr when parrying so that you can do the riposte right away after casting. Spells that work well are Great Combustion, Black Flame, Black Fire Orb, Chaos Bed Vestiges, Lightning Spear, Great Lightning Spear, Sunlight Spear, and some others. This is actually easier to pull off if you do not use a parrying shield, because the parry animation of a parrying shield takes more time to complete. If you use a parrying shield, you will need the Sage Ring to pull this off with the lightning miracles. It is harder for Black Fire Orb and Chaos Bed Vestiges to work as well. Otherwise, you do not need the ring at all. Have the catalyst ready in one hand so that you can cast immediately after the parry, then switch to your weapon for the riposte.
Notes
Trivia
- Champion Gundyr has an unused alternate resting pose.
Videos
- Solo Melee Video Strategy
- A youtube vid that may help https://youtu.be/rDafHXjl5zo
- Boss #18 - Champion Gundyr - NO DAMAGE
- Parry/Riposte Only
- Champion Gundyr Melee Strategy
- NG+ Hypermode kill