Due to the fact that Elden Ring contains 165 different boss fights, it may be difficult for even FromSoftware to guarantee that each and every one of these encounters is among the best in the company's history of game development. This is unfortunately evident in the case of Elden Rings Valiant Gargoyles, who prevent access to an otherwise impressive location by acting as one of the most challenging bosses the game has to offer at the moment. It is not the same thing to look at struggling with the difficulty of the fight and try to find an excuse for why it might take multiple attempts to finish the encounter as to say that the Valiant Gargoyles are frustrating. To say that they are frustrating is not the same thing. Instead, it is the unique design of this boss that sets it apart from the other encounters in the Elden Ring. This is because it is comprised of two foes, each of which grinds harshly against the game's combat mechanics individually but does not synergize with each other. Immunities and Resistances of the Elden Rings Valiant GargoylesWhen each of the Valiant Gargoyles is analyzed on its own, it becomes clear that the fundamental design of these foes is incompatible with the toolkit that the player has accumulated up to this point in the game.
This is where the problems with this fight begin. The Valiant Gargoyles have immunity to each and every type of status effect that can be encountered in Elden Ring, beginning with items that more casual players are less likely to worry about using. Due to this immunity, builds that rely on bleed, frostbite, or the various types of poison to deal damage will be completely ineffective against either Gargoyle. This is because both Gargoyles are immune to these types of damage. When it comes to the equipment that the vast majority of players will most likely have by the time they do battle with the Valiant Gargoyles, these bosses are also resistant to almost every other kind of damage that isn't based on a status effect being applied to them. This makes dealing damage with the wide variety of swords, claws, and spears that Elden Ring possesses, as well as anything else that does not specifically deal striking damage, a tedious and time-consuming task. It is not an uncommon strategy to make bosses more difficult by removing some parts of the player's toolkit when fighting them, but the Valiant Gargoyles take this strategy one step further by being resistant to the vast majority of options that could otherwise work for the rest of the game.
This adds an extra challenge to the fight against these bosses. Gargoyles from Elden Ring are more disturbing in groups than they are individually. Every one of the difficulties that accompany the Gargoyles on their own is challenging enough to face during any run through of Elden Ring. There are even several moments in which players are pitted against Gargoyles on their own, or the Black Blade Kindred variants, which already highlight the battle as a lengthy and unrewarding process. These moments can be found throughout the game. On the other hand, when the game decides to put two of these valiant gargoyles in the same room and have them fight at the same time, it is far more terrifying than when you have to face off against just one of these gargoyles. Moving the focus away from how players engage the Valiant Gargoyles in combat and toward the various ways in which these bosses are able to inflict damage on their own, it is sometimes essential to take note of these abilities.
The majority of the attacks feature all of the bells and whistles that are found on bosses in Elden Rings, including combos that can last for several minutes at a time, no delay in between combos, and windups that hold multiple beats longer than natural before snapping into action
- However, in addition to all of that, the Gargoyles have two distinct types of attacks that can make it extremely difficult to fight against two of them at the same time
- Their abilities to conjure wind and exhale poison are described as such here
- In the case of the poison mist, the visual indication of this poison is extremely difficult to see while in the middle of a fight, and it also ticks damage on the player in addition to adding the status effect
- This causes the wind attacks to be frustrating because of the way that wind can appear around bosses in Elden Ring with almost no telegraphing, and the attacks themselves last longer than a single dodge can manage to avoid
- Each of these attacks, on their own, wouldn't be too problematic; however, when both of these attacks are compounded together at the same time, it may be simpler to cheese Elden Ring's Valiant Gargoyles and move on to the more interesting areas that are behind them
