Rewards: 
Gargoyle’s Great Axe,
2,835
Summons Available: Yes
This twinblade-wielding boss has a number of deceptive moves, and uses two different weapons like the try-hard it is. Fortunately, since it’s encountered outdoors, you can use Torrent to make this fight much easier. In this guide, we’ll give a simple, specific strategy for defeating the Valiant Gargoyle.
Strategy
First, you’ll want to summon your favorite spirit ashes once you’re far enough up the staircase that they’re available. Start the fight by letting your summon(s) take aggro, and attack the boss only after it’s finished an attack.
Once you’re alone with the boss, the strategy will change a bit: ride directly at the boss, tapping sprint when you get close. Melee characters will get an attack or two in as they pass, while ranged characters will simply ride past. By riding directly at the boss, almost all of its attacks will miss.
The boss will dodge many ranged attacks while idle, and it has some scary gap-closing attacks, so this strategy helps you cast spells when the boss can’t dodge them, and also when it can’t punish you for casting.
Once you’re comfortable with the boss’s moves, you can also quickly turn around and attack it again while it’s finishing its own attack, rather than waiting for him to reset completely.
The boss does have a couple of Whirlwind attacks where it spins its twinblades in a circle rapidly — these will often hit you if you ride past as the boss starts their attack, so try to veer away if you see one of these attacks start. It’s honestly pretty hard not to eat these while following this strategy, but since you shouldn’t be taking any other damage, it should be OK to get hit once or twice by these attacks.
If you get hit by one of the boss’s attacks, it’s very likely Torrent will die. It can be hard not to panic — stay cool, and don’t spam rolls. Mash circle to get up, but then try to dodge the next attack, then revive Torrent and ride away. Of course, if the boss leaps away or is idle, feel free to immediately recall Torrent rather than waiting for an attack.
While being far away prevents most damage, the boss’s Leaping Whirlwind has the boss flying towards you. The best way to avoid this is — you guessed it — ride directly towards the boss while sprinting.
Moveset
This moveset list is mostly here for masochists who want to fight the boss on foot, since it isn’t particularly important for the strategy. The boss will swap between an axe and twinblades, but many of the attacks remain the same.
General
- Swipe – The gargoyle hops into the air just a bit (closing the gap if his target isn’t in range), and swings its weapon horizontally from (your) right to left.
- Leaping Plunge – The gargoyle leaps towards his target and stabs with his weapon.
- Ground Slam – The gargoyle roars and raises his twinblades high, then slams them into the ground. After a very brief delay, the ground around where his weapon struck quakes, doing damage to anything standing in the AOE.
- Stomp – The gargoyle stamps his front foot — often chained into Sweep + Slam.
- Sweep + Slam- The boss rings his weapon around his back and drags it on the ground before sweeping it upwards. He then quickly brings his weapon around again for a high-to-low slam attack. There’s a long delay between the stamp and the sweep, and then the final attack comes quickly, so this one can be tough to avoid.
- Stomp + Slash – The gargoyle stamps his front foot, then quickly slashes with his weapon horizontally.
- Slam + Sweep – The gargoyle raises his weapon high and quickly slams it down, then dashes away and starts dragging his weapon, then sweeping it upwards diagonally
- Double Slam – The gargoyle slams his weapon high-to-low two times.
- Sound Wave – The gargoyle roars, and a sonic projectile shoots rapidly towards his target.
Twinblades Only
- Thrust + Spin – The gargoyle thrusts its twinblades towards its target, then spins twice, sweeping horizontally with its weapon — sometimes chained into the Leaping Plunge.
- Slash + Stab – The gargoyle slashes diagonally (this can come from either side) and then stabs with the closer part of the weapon — sometimes chained into the Leaping Plunge.
- Leaping Whirlwind – The gargoyle turns 360° and starts spinning his weapon in front of him. If you’re close to the boss, it will do a large, sweeping horizontal attack to end this move. If you’re far away, he leaps into the air and plunges towards you, doing a spinning attack as he lands. If you’re below him on the staircase and he lands in front of you, this plunging version seems to miss every time.
- Whirlwind Sweep – The boss puts his weapon behind him, spinning it, then slashes horizontally after a brief delay.
