The Elden Ring Rennala boss fight against the Queen of the Full Moon is a vibrant, surreal encounter against a master of the arcane, with Rennala using a spectrum of strange sorceries to take down the Tarnished. Raya Lucaria is a pivotal moment for Elden Ring, the area where the game changes from ground-level swords and steel to weirder magics, and Rennala is the pinnacle of that change. With her Phase 1 and Phase 2 functioning very differently, we'll show you how to beat the Rennala Queen of the Full Moon boss fight in Elden Ring, as well as how to use her Great Rune of the Unborn.
Table of Contents
- Rennala boss fight tips and tricks
- Rennala Phase 1 and how to break the shield
- Rennala Phase 2
- Rewards
- Great Rune of the Unborn explained
Rennala Queen of the Full Moon tips and tricks
Before going into the Rennala boss fight, you'll need to know how to prepare, as this is an odd encounter that can throw players who aren't prepared for its strange mechanics and situations. We'll go through some things you can do to get ready before going into the fight here, then we'll talk about the two different phases below.
- Something you might have struggled with when you were working out how to beat the Red Wolf of Radagon in Elden Ring before this, there's a little bit of a commute to Rennala from the closest Site of Grace, definitely not helped by a powerful NPC named Moongrum, Carian Knight who attacks you when you approach the elevator. Moongrum is very tough and worth getting out of the way (he won't respawn if you kill him), and can be tricked into an easy death by luring him onto the elevator and knocking him off on the way up.
- Back to the main boss fight, we should clarify that pretty much all of Rennala's attacks are magical. The higher your magical defence, the better off you'll be. Pick your armor and buffs accordingly.
- You also don't want to depend on a shield - evasion and dodge rolling will keep you alive here, as magical attacks tend to punch through practically any shield.
- Use the Skeletal Militiamen Spirit Summon! Any summon is helpful here, but the Skeletons are devastating because of their ability to self-resurrect. Rennala and her forces will attack them, but the moment they go down they tend to be left alone, giving them a good chance to come back. It's pretty viable to have them survive into Phase 2, where they'll be a lot of help.
- Don't use Intelligence and Magic if you can help it. Raya Lucaria is a great place for sorcerers, who can find all kinds of magical trinkets and items for their build, but Rennala has high resistance against magical damage. Using her own spells against her won't be easy.
- Contrarily, brawn versus brain is incredibly viable, as Rennala has notable weakness against standard Slashing, Stabbing and Striking attacks. Warriors and melee fighters who can avoid the spells thrown at them can do real damage to her.
Once you're done, head into the arena, where there'll be a rather creepy cinematic of Rennala's students crawling towards you in the darkness before the Queen of the Full Moon herself descends from above and illuminates everything.
Rennala boss fight Phase 1 and how to break the magic shield bubble
The first phrase against Rennala Queen of the Full Moon is an odd one, with the sorceress hanging in the air above the arena in a shield of protective energy while her minions send nearby objects at you as projectile attacks. It's easy to get overwhelmed or confused if you don't know what's happening, but breaking the shield and getting Rennala back down to ground level should be your first priority - this phase of the fight can't end until you do.
To break Rennala's shield and hurt her, you need to find the three students around you who are singing with a gold aura about them. They could be anywhere in the library, so look around and make sure you can find them! Once you find them, attack them - you don't necessarily have to kill them (though it's probably worth doing anyway), just break their pose so they stop singing.
These golden students are sustaining Rennala's magic shield, so if you can stop all three of them from singing the spell, Rennala's bubble will fall to the ground and disappear, leaving her reclined on the ground. She won't defend herself, so this is your chance to run straight at her and do as much damage as possible before the bubble reforms! A quick player can do as much as half her health bar, but the bubble will come back and you'll have to repeat this process. Be careful though - when gold light emanates from Rennala, the shield is about to return and do serious damage to everything around her. Back away the moment you see that light!
Aside from that, the important thing in Phase 1 is to keep your head on a swivel. The students use a combination of projectile objects and fire breathing, so you need to watch from all directions, be ready to roll at any time, and stay constantly mobile so you're harder to hit (you should also learn to use the bookshelves around you as cover in a pinch).
Rennala also herself does a rare attack wherein she levitates students into the air, turns them into projectiles and fires them at the player. You can kill the students as they start to ascend to prevent their transformation, but it's safer and quicker to simply find cover when you see it happening - the projectiles do high damage and move fast.
Chip down Rennala's health bar to zero and another cinematic will begin with a familiar face - Ranni, who's here to give her ma a pep talk. Things are about to get a lot simpler, and a lot more deadly.
Rennala boss fight Phase 2
Ranni and Rennala's cutscene cinematic will transfer the player, their allies, summons and Rennala to a new area - a watery realm under a giant moon, reminiscent of Rom's arena in Bloodborne. None of the students will make the transfer though, so you don't have to worry about them.
The problem is Rennala's now far more powerful than all of them combined, and it's about to become much more of a classic boss fight. Seeing as there's no puzzle solution in this phase, we've outlined some helpful tricks and tips to help you stop Rennala once and for all. Bear in mind that if you die here, you'll have to redo Phase 1 all over again!
- Rennala doesn't have a huge amount of health, though her magic resistance and weakness to traditional weapons carries over. She's fairly easy to stagger (at least by comparison to most bosses), meaning heavy attacks might interrupt her if used carefully.
- Her attacks tend to focus on ranged combat; using beams of energy, projectiles and energy blasts to keep players at a safe distance. Rolling is vital here, shields won't save you from these kinds of assaults.
- Rennala will at times form an image of a moon around herself and rise up into the air before sending it at the player. Run! This moon creates a massive explosion that does heavy damage over a decent area.
- At lower health, Rennala can summon various monsters to help her - a pack of wolves, a giant, a Bloodhound Knight, or even a dragon. These all have their own attack patterns and need to be treated very carefully. We actually don't recommend fighting them - they disappear after they make a few attacks, so play defensively and try to stay out of their way.
- If you have Spirit Summons or a player ally, try to attack Rennala from opposite sides. Her attacks tend to be directional, and she'll struggle to hit both of you at once.
Eventually you'll bring her down… but not kill her! When Phase 2 ends you'll return to the Raya Lucaria Academy Grand Library, and Rennala will be there as an NPC, her "loyal" students now nowhere to be seen. You can't actually hurt her, as after the boss fight the game designates the library as a non-combat zone like the Roundtable Hold. Not that you'd want to though, as she provides a very helpful service…
Rennala boss fight rewards
Killing Rennala gets you multiple great rewards - 40000 Runes, the Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen, and the Great Rune of the Unborn, which we'll explain momentarily. The Remembrance is superb for high-level sorcerers, as Enia back at the Roundtable Hold can transform it either into the sorcery spell Rennala's Full Moon, or the Carian Regal Scepter, a special staff used to cast sorceries.
Both of these are very good, and if you head to a Walking Mausoleum you'll be able to duplicate the Remembrance for both rewards. However, if you're choosing between one or the either, we'd probably suggest the Scepter, as despite Rennala's Full Moon being a great sorcery, it's not as good as Ranni's Dark Moon, a more powerful variant that actually made it onto our Elden Ring best spells list.
You'll also notice that there's a chest in the library now that wasn't there before - but it's locked and can't be opened. We can explain to you how to get in there and what's inside in our quick-and-easy Elden Ring locked Rennala chest guide!
How to use Great Rune of the Unborn explained
The Great Rune of the Unborn is unique among the Great Runes, as it doesn't require use of an Arc Rune to trigger it, nor do you need to activate it with a Divine Tower. It comes preactivated and ready to go - its function is to allow you to converse with Rennala and use her "Rebirth" option, which allows the player to respec their stats completely! This can't be done infinitely, but we've gone into the limitations and potentials of it in our Elden Ring respec and Larval Tears page.
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