How to Beat Bols, Carian Knight - Elden Ring Boss Guide

Rewards: 4600, Greatblade Phalanx
Spirit Summons Available: No

This very large prisoner (and presumably criminal) is a fairly easy fight, just because he’s so slow. However, he hits pretty hard, so you’ll need to not make mistakes in order to survive. In this guide, we’ll give some general tips and tricks, as well as offer a strategy for how to defeat him.

General Tips

When you enter the evergaol, you spawn facing where Bols appears — run forward and once he starts appearing, get a free jumping attack while he arrives.
You can easily move through his legs — this will generally allow you to avoid his sword swings.
Bols can be staggered and fall to the ground — run to his head and stab his eye for a critical attack.
If he’s idle (not running towards you or attacking), you can cast spells or attack him safely, since his moves have such long wind-up time.

Strategy

Like most fights against giants or large foes, being under/behind this boss is your best bet. He has decent reach and will charge at you if you’re too far away, so both ranged and melee characters should use the same technique. His attacks have very long recovery periods, and you can attack after all of them finish.

The pattern you’ll want to use is: attack, roll through his leg as his attack’s wind-up is finishing (and the actual attack is starting), and then attack again. If he’s doing the Stomp(s) or the Stumbling Charge, you’ll need to continue rolling/moving instead of attacking after your first roll finishes. When he casts his Greatblade Phalanx spell, roll or run in a circle under him until all three projectiles have missed.

His attacks have decent tracking, but once they start coming downward, you can roll (or sometimes even walk!) through his legs, and they’ll miss unless they’re a large AOE (which is why you should roll unless you need to heal).

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Charged heavy attacks or jumping attacks are ideal if you’re melee, since the boss can be staggered for a critical hit. Keep an eye on your stamina, and always have enough for at least a couple of rolls.

Moveset

Because Bols is so big ‘n strong, you’ll want to roll/reposition to avoid these attacks (rather than block).

Stomp(s) – Bols stomps whatever foot you’re closer to 1-3 times.
Stomp + Sweep – Bols stomps a foot, then swings his weapon horizontally starting from his opposite foot. Rolling through his legs will make the sword swing miss.
Running Stomp + Elbow – This attack usually only occurs when you’re far away — Bols runs towards you and stomps his left foot, then slams his right elbow down. Has decent tracking, but if you roll between his legs the second part should miss.
Stumbling Charge – Bols grips his sword with both hands, dragging it on the ground to his left, and runs towards you. After a bit of dragging, he swings the sword upwards from the ground. He follows this up with another swipe from his right to his left, stumbles towards you more, and slams his sword down a final time. Be careful, as the second and third part of this move has excellent tracking and can hit you even if you’re behind him. If you stand near the wall fo the arena , he will sometimes bump into it and stun himself during this combo.
Two-Handed Slam – Bols grabs his sword with both hands and raises it high into the air, and then slams it down. Does damage in a large AOE, so either run far away or time your roll for right when it lands — it has a long recovery time so it’s best to roll through it and attack him while he recovers.
Stab + Swipe – Bols stabs his sword with both hands into the ground, then tears it out and swings it again from over his shoulder, then slams the sword down a final time. You can roll through the first part of this, then attack, but you’ll need to dodge the third part since it has good tracking.
Backhand Slap – Bols swings his left hand from his right to his left at you. Besides his stomp, this is his fastest move, but it’s still pretty slow.
Greatblade Phalanx – Bols casts the Greatblade Phalanx spell — run horizontally to Bols or roll dodge the projectiles.