How to beat the Elden Ring Radagon boss fight

Elden Ring radagon boss fight how to beat golden order — (Image credit: FromSoftware)

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Tips and tricks to prepare
Boss fight strategies
Rewards

Knowing how to beat the Elden Ring Radagon boss fight against the head of the Golden Order will get you through the first half of Elden Ring's grand finale. The secret second half of the goddess Marika, Radagon of the Golden Order is a truly deadly foe who uses explosive holy magic and hammer strikes to come crashing through his opponents' defences and send them flying. You'll need to be very careful to defeat him and make it through to the even harder boss beyond, which is why we've put together this guide on how to beat the Elden Ring Radagon boss fight and bring the Golden Order to its knees, with even a Radagon cheese method.

How to beat the Radagon of the Golden Order boss fight in Elden Ring

To beat Radagon of the Golden Order in Elden Ring, players need to plan carefully and play cautiously, as beating him immediately throws you into a second, even harder boss fight, with no chance to heal or recuperate. It's not enough to simply defeat Radagon - you need to come out the other side prepared for an even greater challenge.

Consequently, preparation and careful strategy is vital in this first stage, as expending all your Flasks, items and FP will only leave you unprepared for the fight afterwards. We'll not only show you how to Radagon, but how to do so in a way that'll give you the best chance against his master afterwards.

Tips and tricks to prepare for the Radagon boss fight

Preparing for Radagon is, in a way, the last preparation you'll need to make for Elden Ring. He's the first of two final back-to-back bosses who mark the end of the campaign altogether, so this is really the chance to use up all the best items and consumables you've been saving for tough fights. Beyond that, here's some helpful advice for the almost-final battle.

For the best chance to beat Radagon of the Golden Order, your recommended level should be 120 and up, with weapons of +22 or higher.
Make sure you have a good Great Rune equipped. Godrick's or Morgott's are obvious choices, or you can try Malenia's if you've got an aggressive, fast-hitting build that can restore health rapidly.
Radagon deals Strike and Holy damage in varying amounts with all his attacks. Armor should prioritise defending against this. You also don't need to worry about later - the boss afterwards is going to do basically nothing but Holy damage.
Radagon and the boss that follows him are both very resistant to Holy damage, but Radagon himself is a bit weaker to Fire and Striking damage (though not so much that you should upend your whole build).
Radagon is resistant to most status effects, and completely immune to bleed - those who've adapted the Rivers of Blood build from our Elden Ring best builds might find him pretty difficult.
Despite his resistance to Holy magic, Faith builds can do well with the Lord's Divine Fortification Incantation and all the Black Flame spells, as he's weak to the latter and has his damage heavily reduced by the former.
Try equipping the Crimson Seed and Haligdrake talismans! Increased potency for your Flasks will help stretch them further, and the Haligdrake will help you shrug off more Holy damage.
Because of the two boss fights back-to-back, combined with the huge healthbar of the second one, spellcaster builds of any sort should make sure they have either a lot of Cerulean Flasks, or low-cost spells, or a ton of levels put into the Mind stat. If you run out of your primary power source at any point, you're in trouble.
Your best options for Spirit Summons would be Tiche or the Mimic Tear. Make sure you've fully upgraded them with Roderika, as any health they have at the end of the battle will carry over into the following one.

Once you're ready and decide whether you're bringing in friends to help share the glory of the final phase of the game, head into the burning Erdtree itself and confront Radagon beneath Marika's floating carcass.

Radagon of the Golden Order boss fight strategies

As mentioned, Radagon's status as an unofficial phase 1 means that players will have to manage their resources around him so as not to be worn out when the fifty foot-tall "phase 2" shows up afterwards. We've planned some tips and tricks with that in mind, methods players can use to bring him down without exhausting themselves along the way.

Radagon can't be backstabbed, but he is vulnerable to being staggered and having his poise broken, and his more standard melee strikes can even be parried, for the particularly confident player. Combined with his long cooldowns after certain attacks, these are your chances to hit him with jump/heavy attacks. In fact, it's pretty smart to play purely defensively until he leaves you these kinds of openings.
Many of Radagon's attacks leave a wide-reaching cracked gold pattern across the floor. If you see these, don't go near them or stand on them! He'll manually detonate them not long after for massive damage.
If Radagon throws lightning, it'll often stick in the ground and explode a moment later. Avoid it!
Most of Radagon's attacks are best avoided by rolling towards him at the last second, causing him to swing above the player. This also sets you up nicely for retaliation.
Radagon has a grab attack where his missing arm appears before he lunges for you. The timing is a little odd and the grab always comes later than you think - but beware! This is a devastating strike that can insta-kill some players. Roll as late into the animation as possible to avoid him.
Despite his languid movements, Radagon is capable of repositioning around the arena oddly fast, using jump attacks and a teleportation spell to suddenly close the gap. Be wary that he can get into your face with barely a moment's warning.
Speaking of which, Radagon's teleportation always has him reappear in a bolt of lightning that hurts all those around him. There's very little chance to see it coming, but the moment he vanishes, roll back!
If you're fighting him at range, you'll still need to be agile. Radagon's got a lot of AOE attacks that reach pretty far, though his cooldown animations after his bigger moves are great chances to hit him with the Comet Azur or similar mega-spell.

Easy Radagon cheese method

Radagon is a difficult foe, but one that most players should be able to handle at this point in the game, given enough time. However, the fact that he's the warm-up act to a second boss means that there's a real argument to be made for getting rid of him as quickly and painlessly as possible.

That's why we found this glitch/cheese method that, as far as we know, still works at time of writing and has been used by a lot of players in the Elden Ring community. To do it, you'll need a damaging spell you can cast a lot of, or a reasonably powerful bow with a lot of arrows.

Enter the arena through the gold mist, skipping the cutscene, and immediately start running forward, even before the arena has seemingly loaded.
Don't lock on to Radagon when you see him! We've seen this undo the glitch you're trying to activate.
Radagon starts by holding up his hammer as he turns to face you. Run right up in front of him - as in, as close as you can get, chest-to-chest, staring each other down. Then freeze and don't do anything.
Assuming this glitch has worked, Radagon will stop moving and simply stand in place, like he's not sure what to do next.
Melee attacks, locking on to Radagon or moving from that space will all break this hypnotic trance you've put him in, so don't do any of those.
Instead, equip either a bow or a spellcasting focus, and without moving or locking onto him, hit him with them. He should remain still, but take the damage nonetheless.
Repeat the last step until you've felled a god.

It can be a little difficult to get the positioning of this right, meaning players might have to try it a few times before it triggers. Still, it doesn't demand much and you'll know early on if it's worked, so it's definitely worth trying if you're really struggling with him.

Radagon boss fight rewards

Elden Ring Endings

You're so near the end now! But if you let Radagon kill you, there's still time to prepare for all the Elden Ring endings! Click on the link to see everything that can still happen...

Sorry to say it, but there's actually no rewards for the Radagon of the Golden Order boss fight, not even a clump of Runes for you to use. That's because this boss fight isn't giving you time to scavenge - the moment Radagon dies, a cutscene will trigger that shows the new boss appearing, the final boss of Elden Ring, and you'll immediately be up against them. If you need a helping hand, we'll be glad to take you through some vital tips on how to beat the Elden Beast final boss in Elden Ring. Good luck, Tarnished - the fate of the Lands Between all comes down to this.

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.