How to beat the Elden Ring Radahn boss fight

The Starscourge Radahn boss fight is done as part of a Festival and, along with Mohg, Lord of Blood in Elden Ring, is one of two bosses you need to defeat to access the Erdtree DLC. 

The battle sees the player summon NPCs to beat Radahn as part of the Radahn Festival at the end of Castle Redmane. While you can find this boss pretty early in Elden Ring, it'll probably be way before it's a good idea to try and fight him. This fallen Lord is a serious difficulty spike and you'll need to bring an army with you to take him down. To make the battle ahead easier I'll show you how to beat Radahn in Elden Ring, as well as how to summon the best friends possible to take on the rotted Starscourge himself.

Here's everything you'll need to find and defeat Radahn in Elden Ring: 

How to start the Elden Ring Starscourge Radahn fight and Festival

How to start the Elden Ring Starscourge Radahn fight and Festival

Radahn is at the end of Castle Redmane in South Caelid, a massive fortress with fire-wielding soldiers, beset by monsters. Once you're in and make it to the end, you'll see NPCs gathered in a courtyard, being addressed by a figure above them to start a grand festival. Speak to the festival organiser above them by turning left after ascending the steps, and he'll give you a cutscene explaining Radahn's backstory, then open a door in the church behind him, leading to an elevator that'll take you down to a teleportation portal. Trigger that and you're in Radahn's arena, and the fight begins. If you leave at any point, you'll have to talk to the festival organiser again to open the door.

Radahn is a brutal boss, and the festival itself is a collaborative effort to bring him down. His fight has two main phases, but there's an unofficial one before that - simply reaching him, not to mention bringing in allies to help.

Radahn boss fight tips and tricks

• Radahn is a powerful foe who can only be matched by powerful players. You should be level 40 at the minimum, and arguably much higher, ideally 50-60, with gear to match, at least +8.
• There are NPC summons signs all over the arena, allowing you to bring them in to help. They work excellently as distractions, but while some are better than others, they're not hugely powerful, even combined. When killed, some of their summon signs respawn somewhere else (usually at the peak of the hill around Radahn's spawn point, whereas to start with they're nearer the entrance and on the path up).
• Bleed damage is an excellent choice here - any weapons that deal this will be very effective on a big target like Radahn, especially considering at least one of the summoned allies (Okina) seems to be able to do bleed damage too.
• Ranged attacks are great to use if you can get some powerful ones. Once any character gets close, Radahn shelves his giant bow and mainly switches to melee attacks. Once he's distracted by your friends and starts hitting them, that's your chance to start shooting arrows or spells from horseback.
• You need to learn combat rolling. Shields won't help you against Radahn much, especially his ranged attacks, which can devastate any foe and punch through defenses. Evasion is the key to survival.
• Make sure you have Torrent ready to go! Radahn's arena is big enough to allow for your horse, but you need to be careful about how he's used. While he's good for avoiding certain attacks, he's terrible at dodging others. We'll get into this more momentarily, but you should learn how to mount and dismount him rapidly, as switching between feet and hooves is essential.
• You can't summon Ash Spirits in Radahn's arena - all your allies have to be living people.

Radahn's ranged attacks and patterns

Once you reach Radahn's arena, you'll notice he's very far away. It's tempting to leap onto your horse and ride at him, but don't! There'll be summoning signs ahead for you to trigger. Stay on foot and activate as many as you can, keeping one eye on Radahn constantly to anticipate any of his three ranged bow attacks.

• Singularity Arrow (fired at mid-to-long-range): A charged shot where purple energy and darkness seem to be drawn into Radahn's arrow, this is his most commonly used attack and one of the deadliest. It's an arrow with a slight homing ability that can kill many players in one hit, especially if it's a headshot. Learn to roll at the very last moment, and don't try to block it.
• Rain of Arrows (fired at mid-range): Radahn fires a shot into the air, followed by a line of giant arrows that fall from the sky and follow the player for a time. Neither rolling or shielding work here - you need to leap onto Torrent and outrun the arrow storm until it ends. Be careful - it lasts for so long that Radahn can perform other attacks while the arrows are still falling.
• Shotgun Arrows (fired at mid-to-close-range): The trickiest attack to deal with, Radahn fires a spray of giant arrows that are arranged randomly. It's entirely possible for him to miss you, depending on the spread, but you also might get caught by several. Your best hope is either to raise your shield and pray, or throw yourself into a combat roll the moment you see him raise his bow without the singularity effect.

All Radahn Festival NPC summons

There's a total of 8 NPCs that the player can summon as part of the bigger Festival mechanic, but from what we understand, only 6 can be brought in at once. Once you have that many, the other summon signs will vanish from the arena until your numbers get whittled down by Radahn. Here's what all these allies have to offer below.

• Alexander the Warrior Jar (High priority)
  • A powerful melee fighter, with a decent amount of health, Alexander tends to get right in the fray with wide-reaching spinning attacks. His occasionally slowness and shortness of reach means he struggles to keep up with Radahn though.
• Blaidd the Half-Wolf (High priority)
  • Probably the best NPC ally in this fight, Blaidd uses his greatsword for significant damage and can tank damage well, often surviving well into Phase 2. 
• Okina (Medium/High Priority)
  • A bloody samurai with a katana, Okina is basically serviceable, but can be more useful if the player is using Bleed weapons. With both of you inflicting blood loss on Radahn, you can inflict this status effect much faster.
• Great Horned Tragoth (Medium priority)
  • Tragoth dual-wields weapons that do average damage, though always has to do a little wave hello every time they show up, which means there'll be a delay before they can actually get into combat. Sadly, they don't have much health, usually out of the fight before long.
• Lionel the Lionhearted (Medium priority)
  • Using a combination of melee and short-range magic, Lionel tends to get thick into the fray but not survive long, usually slapped down by Radahn before the end of Phase 1. Lionel's magic also doesn't appear to do much damage, so if you're lucky he'll rely on his sword.
• Finger Maiden Therolina (Low priority)
  • Potentially helpful but not usually, Therolina is at the top of the hill like Jerren, on the left side, but can be summoned from the start of the fight. She uses very weak ranged attacks, and occasionally casts a Heal spell on everybody nearby. Unfortunately when she casts it appears to be pretty random.
• Castellan Jerren (Medium priority)
  • Jerren only appears as a summon on top of the hill when Phase 1 ends and you have your moment of respite. Until they, he won't be present. He's a fairly average addition, not doing much damage but serving as a viable distraction.
• Patches (Cowardly backstabber bandit)
  • The infamous rogue of FromSoftware games, Patches will appear as a summon if you fought him at Murkwater Cave in Limgrave and let him live. Unfortunately he's not repaying you well, as after being summoned, he usually takes a few steps towards Radahn, pauses, then de-summons himself and leaves the battle, not showing up again. He's basically a joke character - somebody who saw Radahn and realised there was no way he wanted any part of that. 

Elden Ring Radahn Phase 1

Once you or your allies get into melee range, Radahn will abandon the bow and draw two giant… swords? Clubs? Handheld mountain ranges? Whatever they are, they're big and you don't want to get hit by them. Radahn's melee attacks have a vast range and tend to sweep wide areas across the floor, sometimes in surprisingly unpredictable patterns. Here's some basic advice on how to handle him in this first, easier stage.

• Again, it's far safer to keep your distance from Radahn. Spellcasters and archers will have an advantage here - stay on Torrent outside of smashing range and take shots at him.
• If you're playing melee, you can do surprisingly well by getting right up behind him, practically in the shade of his armoured buttocks. He struggles to hit anything so close, but it's a risky play - he might suddenly pull away, putting you back in the danger zone. Take this as a high-risk/high-reward strategy.
• Radahn is surprisingly fast for being a big man on a tiny horse, and can circle the player in an instant, often dragging his swords on the floor to make the whole ground dangerous. It's easier to jump over these attacks than to dodge or block them. 
• If in danger, play purely defensively until one of your allies gets Radahn's attention, then get some distance and drink a Flask. Radahn's combos and sudden sweeps mean that you're never really safe when you're close to him.
• Once he's lost about a quarter of his health, Radahn enters a stage you might think of as "Phase 1.5", giving himself a power-up when he drives his blades into the ground and coats them in rock. Be warned - this'll be followed by a gravity pull that drags everyone closer, then a shockwave that does massive damage to all around him. You have to be very far to avoid the gravity pull, but the moment it's over, put as much distance between you and him as possible before the shockwave (it's slightly in front of him, so stay behind him if possible).

By this point most of your summoned allies have probably died. This isn't ideal, but it's unavoidable in most cases. Fortunately you can correct that momentarily - but only in preparation for something worse.

Elden Ring Radahn Phase 2

Once he's lost about half health, Radahn will suddenly leap up into the stratosphere, mysteriously vanishing. You should immediately heal, get on Torrent, and start riding about the top of the hill (where Radahn first appeared) looking for summon signs. Some of these signs will be new and only appear in Phase 2, others will give you opportunities to bring back some, but not all, of your dead allies, like Blaidd or Alexander. Be quick - you have maybe thirty seconds before everything goes crazy.

• The moment you see an orange glow, pick a direction and immediately start riding as fast as you can. Radahn is coming back down like a comet, and when he lands, he'll create a massive explosion that'll one-shot most players. You have to be out of its radius if you want a chance of survival.
• After landing, Radahn will summon four boulders that float around his head. These are harmless until he fires them at you - use a sideways dodge roll to get out of their way, as they're incredibly quick and incredibly powerful. 
• Radahn also has numerous spells and ranged attacks, but while the timing for all these is difficult, there's none that can't be dodged - as long as you wait until the very last second to do so.
• Arguably the best thing you can do if you're feeling weak is stay on Torrent, simply summoning more NPCs, then stand back and see what they can do. Keep an eye on the ground for any returning gold signs. 
• For more ambitious players, again - try and stay close behind Radahn. His attacks are more violent and damaging, but his melee patterns are roughly the same and follow the same movements. 
• If Radahn does the same gravity pull move, it's always followed by a deadly sword-slam shockwave. Use the gap between these moves to flee the danger zone!

After a few attempts (maybe a few dozen), Radahn should finally go down, ending the festival and causing a strange event in a cutscene. Looks like the Starscourge is not the only thing that can fall from the sky…

Radahn boss fight rewards

Killing Radahn will net you about 80000 Runes, as well as the special Remembrance of the Starscourge, an item you can give to Enia in the Roundtable Hold for either a very powerful (and heavy) Greatsword or Greatbow. You can also buy Radahn's armor from Enia, a set so good it made it onto our list of the best sets in our Elden Ring armor locations guide. 

On top of that, there's some significant story and world rewards. Killing Radahn is an essential part of the Elden Ring Ranni questline and secret ending, and ties into Blaidd's quest too, as outlined in our Elden Ring Blaidd the Half-Wolf locations and questline page. You'll also be able to access an optional new area via the crater left by the falling star, Nokron, the Eternal City. Head South of Mistwood in East Limgrave, and you'll be able to see it.

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