This page details how to find and kill the V blood boss, Nicholaus the Fallen in V Rising. Includes where to find him, and how to defeat him.

Nicholas or Nicholaus?¶

First things first, the correct way to spell his name is Nicholaus. The name is a derivative from the Greek name Nikolaos which means “victory of the people”. You wouldn’t be completely wrong spelling it the other way though as Nicholaus is a variation of the root name Nicholas.

Where to find Nicholaus the Fallen¶

You will find Nicholaus in the Forgotten Cemetery in Farbane Woods. The easiest way to get to him, is by teleporting to the Vampire Waygate to the west of it, and following the roads east. If you choose this route, make sure you don’t have any resources on you as that will stop you from being able to use it.

When you get to the Forgotten Cemetery, you’ll notice that this place is infested with the undead. There will be Armored Skeletons, and Skeleton Mages here. The Skeleton Mages are frustrating to deal with, as they will constantly move away from you whilst summoning groups of skeletons, these are always a priority to defeat when you see them. To find Nicholaus, you’ll want to head to the highest point in the cemetery which is in the northern part of the area. When you reach the top, you’ll see Nicholaus at the back.

How to defeat Nicholaus the Fallen¶

This boss fight can go one of two ways, really easy, or really hard depending on how long he is alive. Nicholaus is a necromancer at heart, and he’ll keep summoning skeletons the longer he is up. This can be overwhelming if you don’t deal with either the skeletons or Nicholaus quickly as you could find yourself fighting against 20+ skeletons.

Nicholaus himself isn’t too difficult. He only has a couple of attacks to worry about which are:

Unholy Bolt¶

This attack is your typical projectile attack. Nicholaus will hurl a green ball of unholy energy in your direction. This can be avoided by simply moving to either side.

Jumping Fear¶

Nicholaus will launch himself into the air, and slam down at your location. When he’s in the air, a red circle will appear on the ground. If you are caught inside it when he lands, you’ll be feared. This will cause you to run away from him whilst being unable to attack for several seconds. When he is in the air, either run or dash out of the red circle to avoid the attack.

Pestilence¶

This is most likely the toughest attack to avoid, especially if you’re in melee range at the time of casting. Nicholaus will cast numerous unholy skulls around himself in a circle, before unleashing them around the area. If you’re at range, you can just move back and forth to avoid them. If you’re in melee range, you may want to use a shield ability.

This attack can take a while to cast, and can be interrupted. When he casts the attack, a thin white bar will begin to charge up, and when it reaches the end, the spell will be cast. If you have an iron or better bow, you’ll have access to the weapon skill, Snapshot, which has the ability to interrupt.

Summon Undead¶

This is Nicholaus’ most frustrating attack to deal with, and is the main mechanic of the fight. He will constantly keep his distance from you whilst continuously summoning hordes of undead. The best way to deal with this is by interrupting the cast with the Crossbow’s Snapshot attack otherwise use area of effect attacks like the sword’s Whirlwind attack, reapers’ Howling Reaper attack, and abilities like Aftershock.

Recommended Weapons¶

The reason behind the first two weapon picks is for their area of effect capabilities. The sword has access to the Whirlwind weapon skill, and the reaper has access to the Howling Reaper weapon skill. The reaper also has bonus damage to the undead which makes this another good reason to take it.

Although we recommend the Merciless version of the weapons, the regular iron version will be fine if you don’t have access to them yet. Note, you’ll need to defeat Quincey the Bandit King to make these weapons. He is the same level as Nicholaus, so defeat him first.

Recommended Abilities¶

The Veil of Chaos travel ability is good for any boss as it’ll allow you to dodge twice every time you use the ability. This will also leave behind an illusion that’ll explode and deal 50% magic damage to nearby enemies. Finally, it’ll increase the damage to your next melee attack by 25%.

We take Crimson Aegis for its strong shielding ability which is 200% of your spell power whilst also knocking back enemies who attack it. This is great to use when you’re getting overwhelmed by all the undead attacking you.

You can exchange Chaos Volley for Aftershock if you like, Chaos Volley will deal more damage, but Aftershock will hit more enemies. We prefer the extra damage from Chaos Volley which will hit other enemies from its splash damage.

For the ultimate, you’ll most likely only have Merciless Charge by now. This can be useful against the hordes of undead as you’ll charge forward in a line in front of you dealing 125% magic damage on impact, and 100% magic damage in an area. If you’re coming back to fight Nicholaus’, you may have access to the Arctic Leap ultimate, if you do, choose that instead.

Strategy¶

The main mechanic of this boss fight is around Nicholaus summoning undead whilst he keeps his distance from you. You want to fight Nicholaus aggressively by closing the distance, and staying on him, but don’t neglect the undead getting spawned as they will overwhelm you if you let their numbers get too high.

A lot of Nicholaus’ abilities are easy to avoid by simply dashing out of the way. His Pestilence attack requires a bit more thought to avoid it, but you can either interrupt it with the Crossbow’s Snapshot ability, use Crimson Aegis to avoid taking damage from it, or weave left and right to avoid each projectile.

When the number of undead starts to become too many, make use of the Sword’s Whirlwind attack, Reaper’s Tendon Swing and Howling Reaper, and the Chaos Volley/Aftershock, Merciless Charge abilities to whittle them down. You’ll want to stay on Nicholaus as much as possible and the Sword’s Shockwave attack to close the distance, followed up by switching to the Reaper, and using that to damage him due to the bonus undead damage. The key to this battle is to keep the summoned undead at a manageable level whilst focusing on Nicholaus.

Nicholaus the Fallen Rewards¶

When you defeat Nicholaus, you’ll be rewarded with the following: