How to Beat the Gentle Gaverus, Mistress of Hounds Boss in Lords of the Fallen

After traversing the treacherous peaks of Pilgrim’s Perch and finally stumbling upon the Vestige of Blind Agatha, your Lords of the Fallen playthrough may be interrupted by the appearance of Gaverus. While she may appear to be just a regular person, you really shouldn’t underestimate the Mistress of the Hounds. True, she just has a bow and a knife as weapons but, as you likely surmised from her title, that’s not where her true strength lies. If you’re struggling with this fight, then read on to learn how to beat Gentle Gaverus, Mistress of Hounds in Lords of the Fallen.

Where to Find Gaverus in Lords of the Fallen

Admittedly, Gaverus snuck up on me during my first Lords of the Fallen playthrough, which honestly, is entirely my fault. From the Vestige of Blind Agatha aka The Bellroom Vestige, take the elevator shortcut down. Don’t bother talking with the miner at the top, he has nothing useful to add to the conversation and, honestly, is pretty dismissive of your quest.

Once you get to the bottom of your ride, dismount and turn right to find three hags who’re really unhappy that you’ve stumbled upon their platform. Eliminate them, being careful to avoid the Radiant spells they’re slinging, and proceed through the tunnel they were guarding until you reach a lengthy ladder. Obviously, climb down it and then see… another elevator! Climb aboard and drop even lower into the mine. Once you get off, follow the tunnel all the way through to a massive cavern that’s very clearly an arena. For whatever reason, I didn’t read it like that and got completely stomped upon discovering that there was a boss fight within.

Related: Lords of the Fallen Cuts Into 8 Minutes of Lore & Gameplay in New Trailer

Before we get into actually discussing Gaverus, I do want to bring up that shortly before you encounter her you’ll find a cloaked figure in the path leading up to the fight. Named Damarose the Marked, she’s a loyal following of Adyr, the Chaos God, and after having a quick chat and exhausting her dialogue, you’ll be able to purchase some goods from her very small store. The weapons she sells aren’t all that impressive but she does have Adyr’s Rage, an Inferno spell that significantly boosts physical attack. It’s a decent addition to your book of tricks if you’ve opted to embrace Rhogar magic so don’t sleep on the opportunity to buy it. If you die to Gaverus, Damarose will be gone when you return for a second attempt.

Now, onto the Mistress of Hounds herself…

How to Prepare to Fight Gaverus in Lords of the Fallen

The first thing worth mentioning when it comes to this boss fight is that Gaverus is, from my understanding, just a normal human. A Heretic, sure, but no matter what you believe in poison and fire burn just the same. Use Fire Salts or Poison Salts on your equipped weapon for a small damage boost that should help turn the tables. On the same note, I HIGHLY recommend using a weapon that’s rather quick. Something like a hand axe or spear should work wonders in Gaverus. Granted, you’ll be doing less damage but this boss doesn’t have a massive health pool and this fight is all about speed and avoidance.

How to Beat Gentle Gaverus in Lords of the Fallen

Now that your blade is properly doused in deadly potions, enter the arena to see Gaverus standing dead center, a beam of light shining down upon her. While this may seem like a holy sign, she certainly doesn’t treat you like a benevolent saint when she sees you. As you run closer, she’ll whip out her bow and arrow and begin taking shots. These are easy to avoid if you’re at range; their travel time is relatively slow so if there’s a decent gap between you and your target, just run left or right rather than burning stamina on a roll. If you’re up close, dodging will be a better option. Being shot from point-blank range is both painful and embarrassing. Do your best to circle around Gaverus and sneak in a couple of hits before backing off because the real fun is about to arrive.

She’s not called the Mistress of Hounds for nothing. As soon you get close to Gaverus, two cages will open up and a couple of massive canines will charge. This is the challenge of the fight, dealing with multiple targets at once. If these were ordinary mobs, it’s not too bad. But this is a boss fight, so everyone hits HARD. My advice would be to focus on the pups first. They should only take a few hits to kill and Gaverus takes quite a while to reload and fire, making it relatively safe to slash away at a hound and dodge to the left or right to avoid an arrow. Do be aware that if a hound hits you, it will inflict a small amount of bleed. Get bitten enough and you’ll have a difficult time trying to fight and stifle the blood flow at the same time.

Related: Is There Co-Op in Lords of the Fallen?

A note on the dogs themselves, I would recommend not using the lock-on for this fight. Being able to freely move the camera around to quickly survey your surroundings can be an absolute life save. You should also try and avoid hitting the dogs in the head; they’re wearing some kind of metal muzzle that will shatter when you hit it (freeing their face up for more hits) but your weapon will also rebound and set you off balance for a moment. It’s not so long as to ensure an instant death but it’s enough that if you swung at the wrong time you’re likely to get an arrow in the back.

While you’re dealing with her pets, Gaverus will leap away and switch up her bow stance, holding it horizontally, to charge up a holy arrow. You’ll be able to tell when she’s using these Radiance-infused shots by the golden light they give off as well as the trail of light that follows in their path. Get hit with enough of these and your Radiance meter will skyrocket, resulting in a serious amount of damage. You’d think the best thing to do would be to stick close to the Mistress of Hounds but if you do this, she’ll bring out a short sword and launch into a three-hit combo. While she swings fast, her hits don’t deal all that much damage and they’re easy to parry. She also sometimes uses a smoke bomb to disappear, returning behind you ready with an arrow already nocked.

After a while, another couple of dogs will erupt from the nearby cages. These two are identical to the ones you already fought and killed so just be wary of head-on attacks and keep an eye on your primary target. It’s worth keeping in mind that when I tested this encounter, I wanted to see whether the release of more hounds was tied to Gaverus’ health or if they just appeared after a certain period of time. Their spawn seems to depend on how long the battle takes as a third and sometimes fourth would appear after about a minute of fighting, even if Gaverus’ health bar was well above or below halfway. So it’s even more imperative that you be watchful of those pups as they can very quickly swarm if you’re not careful or fast enough.

Related: Do You Need to Play Lords of the Fallen 2014 Before LotF 2023

This all seems very dire, I know, but something you ought to keep in mind if you’re struggling with Gaverus is that she doesn’t have a second phase. All of her moves are observable right from the start, meaning you don’t want to worry about learning two different strategies.

An Alternate Strategy to Defeating Gentle Gaverus, Mistress of Hounds

Now, I know I’ve made a big deal out of killing off Gaverus’ hounds to prevent any kind of mobbing but it’s entirely possible to kill the Mistress of Hounds without harming a single pup. You will need to be significantly faster and very aware of your in-game spatial surroundings.

Firstly, apply whatever damage buff you want to your weapon and run into the arena, snaking up the right side of Gaverus. From what I was able to see, the first two hounds always join the fight from the bottom left, so heading this way will prevent any early damage. Once you’re in a position with Gaverus effectively standing between you and the hounds, you’ll want to maintain this kind of spacing, ensuring that the Mistress is always the piggy in the middle. While the dogs are quick and hit pretty hard, they tend to stick together, meaning that if you can maintain your positioning you can swing away at your target while also keeping an eye on the pesky ads trying to get in your way.

Given how Gaverus moves about the arena, it can be tricky to stick to this strategy but it’s easy enough to re-establish it if she does break away. It’s also important to know that when you kill Gaverus, all of her hounds will drop dead at the same time. Just knowing that alone will likely make many people try to charge her down. It’s certainly viably in a high-risk, high-reward kind of way.

With all that covered, Gaverus is dead and can continue on to Lords of the Fallen‘s take on a good ol’ infested swamp! Maybe you should just stay in the cavern for a while…

If you’re looking for more on the title, check out our guide to the best early game farming spots for Vigor in Lords of the Fallen.