Elden Ring boss guide: How to beat Starscourge Radahn

Players who thoroughly explore the southern portion of Elden Ring’s Caelid region will likely come across Redmane Castle. Here, several warriors from the Lands Between can be found preparing for a special warrior’s festival that celebrates the thrill of combat. The “festival” in question is a chance to do battle with the legendary Great Rune holder Starscourge Radahn, who mindlessly wanders a nearby battlefield following his fall to the disease of Scarlet Rot. And it’s up to you to lead everyone else into the fray.

While Starscourge Radahn is one of the hardest bosses in the entire game, you can take him down with enough patience, practice, and some smart tactics. Here’s a full breakdown of the Starscourge Radahn boss fight and how you can defeat him in Elden Ring.

These general tips and pieces of information will help you prepare and strategize for the fight with Starscourge Radahn.

• Starscourge Radahn is highly susceptible to the Bleed status effect. If you have a weapon that applies Bleed or items that can buff your weapon with Bleed damage, use them. You shouldn’t use a Bleed weapon if you can’t upgrade it, though.
• Bind your Spectral Steed Whistle to your hotbar for this fight. Using Torrent is highly advised for certain sections of this battle, so you’ll want to be able to get on and off him quickly.
• Summoning for this battle isn’t recommended, as it makes Starscourge Radahn’s already huge HP bar even larger. Also, summoning other players prevents you from using Torrent in this battle. Note that the NPCs you’ll summon during this boss fight do not increase his health.
• Strength builds can use a greatshield effectively in this fight, as you’ll be able to block many of Radahn’s attacks. Blocking with other types of shields is a bad idea since Radahn’s hits do massive stamina damage.
• Radahn can be staggered if you and your allies hit him rapidly. Immediately sprint to his head when this happens to deliver a critical riposte.

Elden Ring: Starscourge Radahn Phase 1

When you enter the fight and begin Phase 1, you’ll find yourself on the edge of a battlefield, far away from Radahn’s position in the center of it. Here’s how to get through the first phase of this battle.

• Begin sprinting towards Radahn, activating the visible golden summon signs as you go. This is how you summon all of the NPCs that want to fight Radahn for the “festival.” They’ll take aggro for you and do lots of chip damage to Radahn, so it’s crucial that you summon them.
• Dodge roll through any purple arrows that Radahn tries to snipe you with. These do huge damage and will hit you if you’re on Torrent, so stay on foot for now.
• When Radahn fires arrows into the sky, get on Torrent and begin riding to the left, still moving forward. These arrows will fall from the sky and track you faster than you could get away from them on foot.
• When Radahn begins firing multiple arrows at you in a spread, circle around the base of the hill Radahn is on. You don’t want to get too close or else the arrows will hit you.
• When Radahn begins firing purple arrows again, get off Torrent and sprint towards him. You need to make sure you’re on foot again so you can dodge these arrows.
• Carefully avoid Radahn’s large melee attacks, hitting his legs when you can. Your summons will often distract Radahn, allowing you to score some safe hits on him.
• If Radahn uses a purple gravity attack to pull you in front of him, run behind him. The follow-up area-of-effect attack he does won’t hit you, and you’ll get a chance to damage him with a few attacks afterwards.
• Once you get Radahn to about 50% health, he will fly into the air. Immediately begin looking to the sky and listen for him.
• After a few seconds, Radahn will crash into the ground and create a huge explosion that you have to dodge. Note that you have a better chance of not getting hit if you dodge towards where Radahn lands, as you may still get caught in the explosion’s lingering damage frames if you roll away from him.

Following this attack, Radahn will begin Phase 2 of the fight.

Elden Ring: Starscourge Radahn Phase 2

Radahn’s second phase is largely like his first, though he has a few new attacks, and all of his attacks deal more damage. Here’s how to get through it.

• Get on Torrent and ride around the immediate area, using the new summon signs to respawn any killed summons. From here on out, these signs will continuously reappear, so make sure to use them to summon reinforcements periodically.
• Get off Torrent and begin fighting Radahn in melee combat once more. Note that Radahn will often buff his weapons with magic, making them more deadly.
• Occasionally, Radahn will attack you with a flurry of small energy balls. Make sure you dodge them (they can’t be effectively blocked). These energy balls stun you and do a ton of damage, and can often kill you in one hit if they all hit you.
• Radahn may also create four magical meteors and launch them in volleys of two at you after a while. These will one shot you if you get hit, so pay close attention to them. Note that Radahn generally won’t launch them at you as long as you stay close to him.
• Sometimes, Radahn will fly into the air and attempt to fly into you several times. It’s possible to survive this move by blocking, but dodging is safer and is recommended.
• Radahn may also repeat his skyfall attack. Dodge it in the same manner that you dodged it at the end of Phase 1.
• Make sure you attack Radahn between his moves, as often as it’s safe to do so. Radahn’s moveset is chaotic and difficult to dodge, so you should try to take him down as fast as you can to reduce the chance of making a mistake.

As long as you keep the pressure on Radahn and avoid his most dangerous attacks, you and your NPC summons will eventually defeat him. Stay focused and patient, and victory will come to you soon.

Elden Ring is finally here, and it’s available for $60 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC. It’s one of the best Xbox games you can play right now if you’re a fan of challenging RPGs, and we strongly recommend it.