If you just hit a wall on your first run in Elden Ring Nightreign, odds are the wall has three heads. Gladius, Beast of Night is the Night Boss of the Tricephalos expedition, the very first Nightlord most players ever reach, and the one standing between you and the rest of the game's content. This guide covers exactly what Gladius is weak to, how the dreaded Phase 2 three-wolf split works, and the community-tested tactics that turn a run-ending wall into a clean clear. Every mechanic below is cross-checked against the Nightreign wiki and four independent boss guides — ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, patch 1.03.5.
Quick answer: Beat Gladius, Beast of Night by stacking Holy damage — it takes roughly 35% extra holy and that is the single biggest fix for a stuck player. Do not bring fire weapons (Gladius resists fire by about half). At 75% HP it splits into three separate wolves for about 45 seconds; normally only one attacks at a time, so stay calm, heal or revive, and save your Ultimate to burst all three at once. Sleep (lowest status threshold, 154 buildup) is a strong secondary. Fight it on Night 3 of the Tricephalos run; the first kill unlocks six new expeditions and drops the Night of the Beast and Old Pocketwatch relics.
Key takeaways
- Who it is: the first Nightlord in Nightreign — the Night Boss of the Tricephalos expedition, fought on Night 3 (the final night) of the run. A three-headed wolf that carries a chain-linked sword on its back.
- Weakness: Holy (negation −35, i.e. ~35% extra damage) and Sleep (buildup threshold 154, the lowest of any status). Enough holy to the head applies a gold-glow stun that drops its damage and resistances.
- What NOT to bring: fire — Gladius has ~50% fire negation. Bleed, rot and frostbite are also poor (status resistances of 252–542).
- Phase 2 at ~75% HP: it becomes a fireball, flies forward, and splits into three wolves for ~45 seconds before reforming with fire-enhanced attacks.
- The swarm cue: usually only one wolf is aggressive at a time; the sword-carrying leader can howl and red-mark you to make all three swarm — that is your signal to disengage.
- The reward: the first clear unlocks six new expeditions, drops the Night of the Beast and Old Pocketwatch relics, and is also the gate for unlocking the Scholar and Undertaker Nightfarers.
Who is Gladius, Beast of Night in Nightreign?
Gladius, Beast of Night is the Nightlord of the Tricephalos expedition — Nightreign's introductory raid target and the boss featured in the game's Network Test. Flavor text describes it as a "many-legged beast appearing from shadow," but in practice it reads as one enormous three-headed wolf dragging a chained greatsword behind it.
A quick naming note, because the confusion costs people time: this is ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, FromSoftware's standalone co-op roguelike — not a DLC boss for the base game Elden Ring. Nightreign has its own Steam release, its own patch line, and its own structure of Nightfarers, Nightlords and Expeditions. Guides that call this "Elden Ring's Gladius DLC fight" are blurring two separate games.
Mechanically, Gladius matters more than any other first boss because it is a content gate. As the Nightreign wiki documents, defeating it for the first time unlocks six new Expeditions, opening up the rest of the Nightlord roster — so a clean Tricephalos clear is the thing that actually gets your account moving.
What is Gladius weak to in Nightreign?
This is the whole fight in one sentence: bring Holy, leave the fire at home.
Per the Nightreign wiki's resistance table, Gladius carries a Holy negation of −35, meaning holy damage lands for roughly 35% more than neutral. On the flip side, it has a Fire negation around 50 — fire does about half, so a fire build actively fights you. Its physical negations are all effectively zero (with Pierce at −10, a sliver of bonus), so standard melee is fine; it is the elemental layer that decides the run.
"The best tip for Gladius is to equip a weapon with holy damage. The boss is weak to holy, and dealing enough of it will stagger the beast and open it up for critical hits." — Fextralife, Gladius, Beast of Night boss page
On status effects, the numbers are lopsided. Sleep has a buildup threshold of just 154 — by far the easiest status to apply here, and a genuinely strong sleeper pick for buying your team a free opening. Everything else is a trap: Poison 542, Frostbite 542, Scarlet Rot 252, Blood Loss 252. If your whole kit is bleed, you will be chipping for a long time. Holy is the answer; Sleep is the backup.
There is a concrete payoff for committing to holy: land enough of it — especially to the heads — and Gladius takes on a gold glow / stun debuff that lowers both its damage output and its resistances, creating a visceral-style critical window. That stun is where holy builds pull ahead of everything else.
How does Gladius's Phase 2 (the three wolves) work?
Gladius has one health bar, but Phase 2 triggers at roughly 75% HP — confirmed consistently across the Nightreign wiki, Rock Paper Shotgun, Sportskeeda and IGN. The transition is dramatic and catches most first-timers off guard.
When it crosses 75%, Gladius wreathes itself in flame, becomes a fireball, flies forward, and splits into three separate wolves — one of which keeps the chained sword and acts as the pack leader. Here is the part people miss in the panic: normally only one wolf is aggressive at a time. The split is not a sudden three-on-one beatdown by default. The real danger is the leader's howl, which can tag you with a red mark and make all three swarm at once — that red mark is your cue to run, not to trade.
After about 45 seconds, the wolves reform into Gladius, now with fire-enhanced attacks: a Volcanic Burst (sword into the ground, then a torrent of flame), a Sword Slam Blast (airborne dive into ground explosions), and a short-radius Flame Blast roar AoE. Because most of its moveset is forward-facing, the safest real estate for the whole fight is at its side.
The smartest way to read the split is as a gift, not a threat. With only one wolf pressuring you at a time, those 45 seconds are the best window in the fight to heal, revive a downed teammate, or buff up — or, as IGN and the Nightreign community both recommend, to hold your Ultimate and drop it when the wolves are clustered so a single cast hits all three for massive burst.
How do you beat Gladius? Step-by-step tactics
The following are community-consensus tactics — the approaches that repeatedly show up across the Nightreign wiki, Reddit and Steam discussions for players who were stuck and then cleared it:
- Equip Holy damage before you ever load in. Every major source agrees this is the biggest single fix. Aim for the heads to build toward the stun.
- Don't panic at the split. Only one wolf is usually hostile. Keep moving, pick off the aggressive one, and ignore the passive pair unless you get the red-mark howl.
- Treat the 45-second window as free tempo. Heal, revive, reposition, or charge your Ultimate. Do not waste it swinging wildly at wolves that aren't attacking you.
- Save your Ultimate for the cluster. A well-timed Ult during the split can hit all three wolves at once — one of the highest-value plays in the fight.
- Solo? Kite the swarm. If you're playing alone and eat the red mark, retreat and let the howl's aggression window expire rather than trading into three wolves.
- Roll toward the sword/chain on its basic combos. The recovery on its standard swings is punishable; rolling into the weapon side keeps you close for the counter.
- Popular picks: Nightfarers with holy access or bait tools (community favorites include Duchess for bait/holy and Guardian or Raider Ultimates for the split-clustering burst).
One honest caveat on the numbers: we are deliberately not printing a single base-HP figure for Gladius. The health table that renders cleanly on the wiki is the Everdark Sovereign variant (a harder version), whose HP scales across depth tiers (17,558 / 35,116 / 52,674), and base Tricephalos HP plus Deep of Night scaling vary by tabulation. The good news: Everdark Gladius keeps the exact same Holy weakness, so the core strategy never changes no matter which version you face.
What do you get for beating Gladius?
The first Tricephalos clear is one of the most rewarding moments in an early Nightreign account. Defeating Gladius:
- Unlocks six new Expeditions, opening the rest of the Nightlord roster and effectively "finishing the tutorial" of the game's content loop.
- Drops the Night of the Beast relic — Stamina recovers +1 on hit, and your starting armament deals fire damage.
- Drops the Old Pocketwatch relic — FP restoration on successive attacks, plus Dexterity +3.
- Serves as the unlock gate for the Scholar and Undertaker Nightfarers: once Gladius is down (with The Forsaken Hollows DLC owned), speak to the Iron Menial at Roundtable Hold to add both new characters.
If you're planning which Nightfarer to main next, our best Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign, ranked tier list breaks down all ten characters, and the two newest unlocks each have a dedicated playbook: the Elden Ring Nightreign Scholar guide for the support caster and the Elden Ring Nightreign Undertaker guide for the melee bruiser — both of which you unlock off this very fight.
FAQ
Is Gladius the first boss in Elden Ring Nightreign? Gladius, Beast of Night is the first Nightlord most players face — the Night Boss of the Tricephalos expedition, fought on Night 3 of the run. It is also the boss used in the Network Test, so it functions as the game's introductory raid target.
What is Gladius weak to in Nightreign? Holy damage is its primary weakness (negation −35, so about 35% extra damage), and Sleep is its weakest status (buildup threshold 154, the lowest of any effect). It resists fire (~50% negation), so fire weapons are a poor choice.
Why does Gladius split into three wolves? At roughly 75% HP, Gladius enters Phase 2: it ignites, becomes a fireball, and splits into three wolves for about 45 seconds. Only one is usually aggressive at a time, until the sword-carrying leader howls and red-marks you to make all three swarm. The wolves then reform into a fire-enhanced Gladius.
Should I use my Ultimate on the wolves? Yes — holding your Ultimate for the split is one of the strongest plays in the fight. A single well-timed cast can hit all three wolves at once for heavy burst, and the one-at-a-time aggression gives you the breathing room to line it up.
What do you unlock for beating Gladius? The first clear unlocks six new Expeditions, drops the Night of the Beast and Old Pocketwatch relics, and (with The Forsaken Hollows DLC) opens the Scholar and Undertaker Nightfarers via the Iron Menial at Roundtable Hold.
Is Gladius part of Elden Ring or a DLC? Neither — Gladius is a Nightlord in Elden Ring Nightreign, FromSoftware's standalone co-op roguelike. It is not a boss in the base game Elden Ring or in Shadow of the Erdtree. The DLC for Nightreign is The Forsaken Hollows.
