There are eight formidable Nightlords for you to come up against at the end of your Expeditions in Elden Ring Nightreign, and some of them pose more of a threat than others, including Gaping Jaws (also known as Adel, Baron of Night). Compared to three-headed wolf, Tricephalos, Gaping Jaws is another story entirely as he clumsily crashes around the arena and tries to eat you with his sizeable jaws.
He doesn’t initially look like much either, but as the fight progresses, he speeds up, and his arsenal of attacks become a lot more threatening to you and your team. To help you with countering that and bringing the boss down though, here’s our guide on how to beat Gaping Jaws in Elden Ring Nightreign.
How to beat Gaping Jaws in Elden Ring Nightreign
First things first, if you’re embarking on an Expedition to go and ultimately fight Gaping Jaws in Nightreign, there are a few things you’ll want to bear in mind while you explore Limveld and prepare. Being aware of the Nightlord and their weaknesses while looting POIs from the moment you set foot in Limveld can help with ensuring you have equipment and passive effects applied that’ll make the fight easier:
- Gaping Jaws is weak to ailments that slow or stop him: Poison, Sleep, and Frostbite are effective, but Poison is best.
- Gaping Jaws dishes out Physical and Lightning Damage, so any passive effects or Dormant Powers that negate these damage types is good to have.
- Having an Ironeye or Recluse on your team to stack status ailments like Poison and Frost from a safe distance is a good idea. It’s also worth bringing at least one melee character who can take a good portion of the boss’s aggro.
I can’t stress enough how useful it is to ensure you’re bringing a status ailment into the fight against Gaping Jaws. Without Poison or Sleep to stop the huge dragon in its tracks, he becomes formidable: zipping back and forth across the arena trying to grab you with its jaws or catch you in its AoE attacks, leaving you little to no time to attack it yourself.
Poison and Sleep are best for this fight, with Poison stopping Gaping Jaws in its tracks as it vomits, while Sleep can temporarily immobilise the boss. If Ironeye can get a Poison-affinity or Sleep-affinity bow – or any other character on your team, for that matter – this is great. You can have one player stack the ailment from afar while another stacks it further by wailing on it with a Poison or Sleep-inflicting melee weapon, keeping the ailment up during the majority of the fight (which is very helpful during Gaping Jaws second phase). That said, if you’re playing a melee character, be careful not to stand in Gaping Jaws’ puddle of sick, as this will then poison you.
Frostbite is another useful status ailment, though it won’t stop or slow Gaping Jaws: it will stack, dealing chunks of damage, and will increase the power of the other status ailments we’re afflicting. So, while Poison and Sleep is ideal for Gaping Jaws, Frostbite doesn’t go amiss if that’s all you can find during your Expedition.
Attacks to look out for during Gaping Jaws’ first phase are:
- Crushing Maw: Adel drags its head backwards, opening its mouth, before charging at the Nightfarers and attempting to eat them, triggering Blood Loss. This attack is recognisable for the purple Lightning seen either side of Gaping Jaws’… jaws. The best way to avoid this is by dodging directly through the attack as he approaches. Teammates caught by this attack can be freed from it early if remaining player’s quickly attack Gaping Jaws.
- Roaring Tantrum: Adel will roar, stunning nearby Nightfarers, before then performing two running attacks and a grab attack. The roar itself, while annoying, doesn’t actually deal any damage; use this as a warning to flee Gaping Jaws’ running attacks and prepare to dodge through the grab attack if he is targeting you.
- Roars: Gaping Jaws will regularly roar, stunning you if you’re caught in it, but fortunately not dealing any damage. His roars are typically followed by him running across the arena twice and proceeding to try and grab attack players with his jaws. Like Crushing Maw, you can dodge through his grab attempts.
At around 50% HP remaining, Gaping Jaws will stop and begin to blow purple, unleashing a lightning explosion around him that kicks off his second phase; be sure to sprint away as his transition begins to avoid this blast. Now, Gaping Jaws becomes faster, you’ll have a lot more lightning to try and avoid, and there’s some horrible AoE attacks to look out for.
During Gaping Jaws’ second phase, he will continue to use attacks from his first phase, as well as the new attacks listed below:
- Diving Jaws: This attack follows Gaping Jaws transition into the second phase. He’ll fly up into the air before diving down, dealing Physical damage to anyone in his path and then unleashing a Lightning blast. You can dodge his dive and then jump over his blast; the blast can also be dodged, but jumping to avoid it is much more safe.
- Lightning Blasts: Gaping Jaws will occasionally stomp, sending surges of Lightning through the ground that will explode after a brief delay. Once you see the ground covered in purple lightning, you want to dodge through the blast or sprint away and ensure you aren’t standing on the Lightning veins in the floor of the arena.
- Roars: Gaping Jaws’ roars from his first phase continue, but this time, he’ll run across the arena just once (rather than twice) before going in for a grab attack, so be prepared for this!
Bashing your way through Gaping Jaws’ first phase is no problem at all really, but it’s his second phase where things really get out of hand. Given how fast he moves and his AoE blasts, it’s much more difficult to build up recommended status ailments – Poison and Sleep – especially if your team is largely relying on melee attacks.
If you’ve brought any consumables into the fight – such as Poison or Sleep Pots, Exalted Flesh, and so forth – it’s best to save them for the second phase, where you’ll need to expend every part of your kit in order to manage Gaping Jaws aggression.
It’s a long, gruelling fight – especially without any status ailments – but as you get used to his aggressive albeit limited moveset, and continue to try and slowly build Poison, Sleep, or Frost on him, you’ll find that he can be slowed down (or sometimes halted entirely), giving you ample opportunity to dish out a chunk of damage. Gaping Jaws is certainly no walk in the park but he’s not the most punishing of Nightlords, that’s for sure!
For more on Nightreign, take a look at our Ironeye build guide, our Executor build guide, and our Revenant build guide. Alternatively, here’s our Nightreign tips, tricks, and guides page which features everything you may need help with.