Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Beat The Final Boss Of The Elden Ring DLC

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Beat The Final Boss Of The Elden Ring DLC – This is it. You’ve made it all the way to the final boss of the Elden Ring DLC, the long-awaited Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion.

You head into the boss room at the top of the tower of Enir Ilim, learn who the final boss is, and get walloped. Or maybe you don’t – but I suspect you wouldn’t be here if that was the case.

This is one of the toughest boss fights in FromSoftware history, capping off what was already arguably one of the toughest DLC expansions FromSoftware ever released.

You’re very much not alone if you’re struggling to defeat them, but take heart in the knowledge that it’s not impossible – you just need to remember a few basics, and in due time you’ll be able to claim full victory over the DLC and its bosses.

Related News – Check out our other guides on Shadow of the Erdtree to help you through the Realm of Shadow

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Guide – How To Beat The Final Boss Of The Elden Ring DLC

Radahn But Backed By A God

The final boss of the Elden Ring DLC Shadow Of The Erdtree is Promised Consort Radahn who then transitions to Radahn, Consort of Miquella – which is essentially just Radahn with Miquella on his back. (Author’s Note: My personal theory is that the “Ring of Miquella” gesture comes from this fight, the moment where Miquella puts his arms around Radahn’s neck.)

Compared to the base game Radahn fight, this is an entirely different beast. He’s not old and driven mad by scarlet rot. He’s young, in his prime, with a level-head and two giant blades that hit so incredibly hard.

He’s also got all the gravity magic you’d expect him too, though now on his own two feet he’s far faster than he could’ve ever been on his scrawny horse. His combos can last up to four or five attacks in a row, each with their own delayed attack timing that FromSoftware loves to do.

And of course he’s also got a few attacks that do huge damage across a large area in the arena. Also, he uses a Bloodflame spell attack, which he has for various lore reasons but regardless it’s something new to look out for.

That’s all just his first phase. When you hit the mid-fight cutscene, and Miquella enters the arena to aid Radahn against you, everything gets much worse.

Now his regular melee combos include holy magic attacks from Miquella, where beams of light strike the ground following wherever Radahn swings his blades. If you dodge his sword, you might not dodge these beams, and that one mistake could be all that’s required for Radahn to swing again and kill you in a few swift hits.

He also has attacks that have him charge at you multiple times in quick succession before a final slam, and a giant holy attack where Miquella and Radahn float in the air as a pillar of light explodes onto a huge area. Think of the Elden Beast’s attack that you need to jump over the rings to avoid, but bigger.

You need to keep all this in mind if you want to take Radahn and Miquella down. A huge part of winning these fights comes from retained knowledge about how the boss behaves and attacks.

Like how the second phase will always begin with the giant pillar of light attack, and the first phase will almost always begin with Radahn charging you with gravity magic.

Or that in the second phase of the fight, if Radahn grabs you and Miquella speaks to you twice, he’ll charm you and steal your heart. This results in an instant-death, but if you’ve acquired Miquella’s Great Rune prior to this fight, you can use that to reset the charm after being grabbed once.

Another thing to note is that Miquella will cure Radahn of any ailments in the second phase of the fight, so you’ll need to re-do all the scarlet rot or poison build-up you had going in the first phase.

But in spite of all this, Radahn can be defeated if you just remember two things.

Stay Close, And To The Left

In order to beat Radahn and Miquella, you need to stay absolutely glued to them the entire time. You cannot back down. It’s actually ideal if you’re rolling into Radahn as you dodge. That’s how close you need to be.

You also need to be dodge-rolling to the left. Your left, that is. Like many a previous FromSoftware boss, all of Radahn’s otherwise overwhelming attacks can be dodged just by staying close to him and dodging in one specific direction, to always stay in a ‘safe zone’ of sorts regarding his attack windows and hit-boxes.

This strategy though works best for melee-focused builds. Even though the whole pitch of Elden Ring is that you can create whatever build you like to take down every foe in your path, Radahn’s attack patterns and his long-to-mid-ranged attacks (especially in his second phase) make fighting him as a caster very, very difficult.

If you’re a full Intelligence build, then having any melee-focused spells as your go-to’s will still have you sorted with this strategy. Of course you can still use ranged spells directly in his face, just be aware that you likely won’t have as many windows due to the timing it takes to cast, even with certain talisman buffs for casting speed.

Melee builds though, whether that’s a strength or dexterity focus, should have no issue with good ol’fashioned dodge rolling, so long as you stay to the left. Which goes for both phases – the secondary attacks from Miquella in phase two will always land behind you, so long as you keep dodging left and into Radahn.

Another crucial point for the second phase of the fight is that when Radahn holds a stance and does a series of attacks very quickly, as if multiple versions of him are charging you with an attack before he finally does charge, you can avoid that by simply standing as close as possible to him.

This only works if he’s already on the ground – if he’s doing this attack from in the air, then running to the right is most advisable – because the initial quick attacks are technically like beams of light from Miquella, so they run right through you while you take no damage.

Staying close to Radahn at all times is best in this fight. It’s more nerve-wracking, sure, but being aggressive in combat is something FromSoftware has been pushing for years, this new Radahn and Miquella fight is just the latest example of that philosophy.

The one time you’ll want to run away from him is when he levitates to activate Miquella’s giant ring of light spell. When that happens, run away fast as you can. Or, if you want to try and be cool about it, you can put the Ash of War called Raptor of the Mists on your weapon. This Ash of War essentially allows you to teleport when an attack lands, jumping in the air and avoiding it.

You can successfully use this Ash of War to stand right next to Radahn, and avoid the big beam of light entirely, if you time it right of course. The Ash of War’s description reads: “Raptor of the Mists: Duck into a low stance, momentarily vanishing. If an enemy attack connects, avian wings will allow for a quick escape into the air.”

It is a really cool way to dodge this attack, but you’d have to make sure to get the timing right, otherwise you’re likely to be killed in one hit from the giant beam of light.

Rot, Bleed, Stance Break – All The Hits

As far as how to make the fight even easier once you have the dodge timing down and know how to avoid his attacks, you can’t go wrong with the classics – the hits that keep on giving for Elden Ring players like classic rock songs.

Using weapons that deal and build up scarlet rot damage, bleed damage, or a succession of heavy attacks to break his stance for a critical hit, are all the best strat’s still. If you want to ‘bonk’ Radahn, then a DLC weapon called the Bloodfiend’s Arm is your best bet. It has a heavy attack that will be able to break his stance consistently, so you can do a bunch of damage quickly.

You could also throw Frost damage in there, if you’re a Dark Moon Greatsword-stan. Just remember you’ll have to find ways to remove his Frost build up, ideally with fire attacks, if you want to keep doing huge damage when maxing out his Frost meter.

If you can memorize his attack pattern and nail down your dodge timing, mixed in with whatever strengths your build has that you can play with, on top of heavy incremental damage from rot or bleed, you’ll have no problem conquering this fight.