Elden Ring is full of frustratingly tough boss fights, and that should come as no surprise to anyone who has even heard of Soulsborne games. This boss takes things up a notch even by those standards, but we’re here to lend a helping hand. Here’s how to beat the Starscourge Radahn boss fight in Elden Ring.
How to Beat Starscourge Radahn Boss Fight in Elden Ring
First off, I was at level 50 when I finally took down Radahn and it still took many, many tries to do so. This fight is unique though, in that you’ll be summoning several NPCs to help out with the battle. The fight takes place on a vast sandy battlefield, so your little NPC army will be running into battle with you.
One of the best NPCs to have in that fight is Blaidd, a companion of Ranni the witch. Proceed through Ranni’s questline and find Blaidd in Siofra River. Do as he says, then return to him and he’ll be there to summon when you go up against Radahn at Redmane Castle in this “festival” of battle.
Starscourge Radahn Phase 1
The portal leading to the Wailing Dunes — the location for the fight — will drop you off on the opposite end of the sandy arena, across from Radahn. He’ll start off by sniping with a magical bow, but the shots can be avoided by timing a roll either forward or sideways as they approach.
As you dodge these shots, move through the battlefield from one NPC summon sign to another and call them all in one by one as you get closer to Radahn. He’ll also mix things up by raining down iron shots from the sky. Avoid these by either getting on Torrent or outrunning them until they stop coming.
The best part about the NPC summons is that they can be revived by activating their summon signs again. Pay attention to when the game tells you that one has died, and if too many die, ride around on Torrent to look for their golden summon signs once more.
The most helpful NPC summons are Blaidd for his ability to self-heal soak up hits, and Finger Maiden Therolina for her AOE healing ability. Whenever you see Therolina kneeling and glowing yellow, stand near her to get healed without using a flask.
With that said, all of the summons are useful since they distract Radahn and deal little bits of damage while you either attack with Sorceries or Incantations from long range or get up close for melee. If melee is your main option, try to stay behind him at all times. He’s riding around on a comically small horse and can’t always turn around right away.
Keep all of those things in mind while looking out for a few of his most devastating attacks. Radahn can essentially drift around on his tiny horse like it’s a car, so he has a lot of circular motion to go with his giant blades. Roll forward, toward his back, if he ever starts spinning in circles while slashing. You want to be right on the back side of his horse, basically.
Midway through the first phase, Radahn will start using purple electrical attacks that make this a much harder boss fight. He can now use a suction move that pulls you in, send out homing orbs, do a ground wave, and use an AOE explosion.
Remember these facts well: the gravity pull can be blocked to not get sucked into his next attack, the orbs can be rolled through, the ground wave can be jumped, and the AOE can be avoided by running toward his back since it only happens in front of him.
Ranged attacks have an advantage here, especially if he’s distracted by the summon NPCs, since you’ll be out of striking range for the most part. But melee can overwhelm him quickly at the right angles. When his health drops below 50%, the second phase begins.
Starscourge Radahn Phase 2
This is where you get to see one of the reasons why they call him the Starscourge. At the start of phase two, Radahn will fly up into the sky and come back down like a flaming shooting star. DO NOT let him land on/near you when he returns or it’s almost certainly instant death. Get on Torrent and ride around to avoid his re-entry while keeping an eye on the sky and reviving any dead NPC summons.
The purple electric moves are turned up a notch in this phase, as the boss adds new moves to his arsenal while improving the old ones from phase one. The first thing Radahn will do is summon huge rocks that float around him and can be used as projectiles at seemingly random times. Don’t get too far away or he’ll definitely fire them at you along with the homing orbs. The rocks can be blocked or avoided like the orbs but they’re a bit quicker.
The new attacks to look out for include one where Radahn flies up into the sky and dives down at you twice. Roll into him both times as he approaches to avoid any damage. The gravity pull has a much wider range and the AOE explosion is much larger now, so this is really a damage race at this point.
You will die if this fight drags out, so cast from medium range or stay under/behind him and go all-out with the NPC summons to try and get him to stagger. If he’s staggered while you’re behind him, don’t even go for the critical hit on his head — just continue to get hits in until he’s finally dead and gone.
This is a difficult one, for sure, but that’s everything you need to know about how to beat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring. Be sure to check out our guide wiki for the game to find more tips, tricks, and other boss guides that’ll help in the Lands Between.
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