There’s actually a couple of different ways to make your way into the Shadow Keep in Shadow of the Erdtree, and no one would necessarily blame you for looking at the literal army camped outside the front door, along with the Furnace Golem behind them, and opting all the way out. But, it is Elden Ring: if Malenia couldn’t put the fear of an angry Elden God in you, nothing will. So, let’s just say you actually make your way past the chaos at the front gate—you’ve still got to have a little meeting with Messmer’s receptionist. And by receptionist, we mean the giant berserker hippopotamus who’s guarding the lobby of the Shadow Keep. We’re sure you’ve got this if you managed to take down a Furnace Golem, but it couldn’t hurt to have a few pointers walking into this.
Golden Hippopotamus Abilities
Right off the bat, the hippo will come barging towards you, mouth open, to take a bite out of you. If it manages to snatch you in its jaws, chances are pretty good you’re dead meat. If that doesn’t get you, its next attacks—when it tries to headbutt you into the ground a few times—probably will. For the first phase, honestly, it’s pretty typical hippo things, barging towards you, and trying to take a bite out of you while its headbutts try to tenderize you. Its big attack is when it rears back and slams the ground, creating a shockwave that can put you in the dirt if you’re too close. By and large, though, it’s dangerous mostly due to the fact it’s a hippo the size of a city bus.
Perhaps sensing your apathy, at around 50 percent health the hippo decides to show you its Sonic the Hedgehog cosplay outfit, growing a giant set of glowing, golden spines and rolling around the arena. When the spines first come out, it’ll shake a little, then rain a barrage of them down all around. It’ll also fire them directly at you from time to time. And yep, as mentioned, it’ll leap into the air and roll around the arena to squash everything in its path, doing huge damage.
Defeating Golden Hippopotamus - Phase One
So, first off, if you want a leg up on this, you might consider advancing some of the NPC questlines a wee bit further. This is one of the first fights where it’s entirely possible to have two options for summon signs—either Redmane Freyja or Hornsent—or absolutely none at all, which can make the task at hand more than a little troublesome, but not impossible, depending on your build.
Once you step in the arena, if you’re bringing a Spirit Ash, bring it in ASAP. If you’re running with the Mimic Tear, don’t even bother trying to heal until you’ve rolled off to the immediate left or right before the hippo charges in. If you’ve managed to dodge that, back away a little further so you’re nowhere near the hippo’s head, since it will follow up that initial charge with a couple of quick headbutts. Now you can heal up.
From there, phase one is basically a bullfighting competition. Your one and only job is to stay away from the hippo’s head. The big galoot ain’t smart, so staying off to one side of it usually means free hits aplenty whenever the hippo misses a strike. It does thrash around fairly unpredictably, so you want to get in, do two or three hits of damage, then wait to see what he does. You don’t wanna be too close when it goes for its ground attack, but as long as you can dodge that, the hippo’s got a lengthy recovery time where you can go to town on it.
Melee users will have it made here, since the hippo can be stance broken pretty easily. Tanks will also do well, but you can’t necessarily rely on a Greatshield 100 percent of the time—the hippo’s attacks will chew through your stamina in no time. Still, if you do have to take a hit dead-on with a shield, punish it with a guard counter. Magic users will need to bait the hippo into using one of its bigger moves before trying a spell, and you may want to stay a little further towards the hippo’s hind quarters just to be safe for when it starts moving again. If you did bring a Spirit Ash or summon into this fight, the hippo’s focus can be pretty straightforwardly on them, and a particularly strong one rocking the right weapon can do some serious damage. Just, again, stay away from the business end of that thing.
Defeating Golden Hippopotamus - Phase Two
For the Sonic phase, the hippo will stop dead in its tracks to extend the spines. This looks like a prime moment to land a couple extra hits, and can be, but only if you’ve got something that can hit from a fair distance. Melee users need to take a big step back before it’s too late. If you’re too close—at any point for the rest of the fight—not only will you get hit with the spikes, but you’re the prime target for the rain of spikes it sends into the sky. At range, it may also shoot the spines directly at you. A good shield can eat the damage from that; everyone else, dodge forward through the barrage. If you’re quick, you could even land a hit before needing to take another couple steps back.
As for the roll, when you see the thing leap into the air, get some distance in a hurry, and dodge the blast of quills that comes after. If you’re lucky, it’ll concern itself with your summon or Spirit Ash more than anything, and keeping your distance will be a cinch. If it’s not, at least angle yourself towards the middle of the arena and don’t end up rolling yourself closer to a wall, where you can very easily get pinned. Beyond those, the hippo is using all the same stuff it did before, it’s just a matter of watching for the tells that things are about to get spiny. Aim for only two hits at a time before giving the hippo some space, he’ll go down eventually.
Your rewards for victory are 200,000 Runes, two(!!) Scadutree Fragments, and an Aspects of the Crucible incantation called Thorns that basically let you, too, live out your dreams of Spin Dashing into your enemies like Sonic the Hedgehog. Also, just saying, there’s another one of these things roaming out in a field just outside the Shadow Keep at the Ancient Ruins of Rauh, albeit without the spike phase, which is good because he and any other hippos you encounter from here on are carrying Scadutree Fragments too.