How to easily beat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring
Is the horse tiny, or is he big?
Update: Elden Ring has had plenty of updates, so we've updated this Elden Ring General Starscourge Radahn boss fight guide to reflect any changes made to the game. There's also some new tips and tricks for taking on this sizeable boss.
The Radahn boss battle in Elden Ring is arguably one of the game's most mechanically simple, but most difficult, bosses. Even following the Radahn nerf that now prevents players from cheesing this boss, this horseback encounter is a high-stakes exercise in patience and manoeuvrability.
Almost all of Radahn’s moveset can squish you in one hit - no questions asked, no chance to heal. The ones that you do survive are usually followed by another attack that sends you back to the start. This means you'll have to maintain your focus throughout the whole of the boss fight, despite the fight's relatively passive nature.
Defeating Radahn can be particularly difficult for melee characters, since with some methods you have to leave almost every strategy you’ve built up throughout Elden Ring so far at the door.
However, here’s everything you can do to beat Radahn as easily as possible in Elden Ring.
When should you fight General Radahn in Elden Ring?
Despite being just the fourth main boss in Elden Ring, there is a huge jump in power between Radahn and Godrick and Rennala.
To avoid running up against a solid brick wall we’d recommend being between level 60-75 and rocking as upgraded a weapon as you can muster. But you might not use it much.
Radahn is very difficult to melee without a significantly upgraded weapon and heavy stat investment - but there are cheesy methods to use if you don’t have the gear.
These involve using either a bow and arrows or magic on horseback while Radahn is distracted, or literally hiding until your helper NPCs can take him down, but more on that later.
Where is Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring?
To get to General Radahn on the other side of Redmane Castle, you first need to complete the Caria Manor in the northwest of Liurnia of the Lakes.
Once you’ve defeated Royal Knight Loretta at the top, you can get to Ranni’s Rise and begin a new questline with her.
She will direct you to find the hidden city of Nokron with your old friend the Welsh wolf, Blaidd.
To meet him, go the elevator east of the Mistwood Ruins in the east of Limgrave.
Descend and make your way forward through this area and eventually you will see a stone structure on your right. Blaidd will be on an overlooking cliff nearby at the map screen above.
He will tell you to go back to see Selvus, who has his own tower to the southeast of Ranni’s.
Talk to him, then take the item he gives you to the sorcerer in Waypoint Ruins in Limgrave.
After the conversation, return to Blaidd underground, then travel to the southeast of Caelid - specifically the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace. Go through the portal to the left of the bridge and follow the path into the courtyard.
Speak to the crier up on the wall in front of you, watch the cutscene, then take the lift out the back of the building behind him. There’s a final teleporter here which takes you into the boss fight.
If you've reached Altus Plateau or begun the Radahn Festival before talking to Ranni, she won't be at her tower until after you defeat the general.
How to beat General Radahn in Elden Ring
There are three phases to the General Radahn boss fight: the archery battle, the horseback fight, and the magical horseback fight.
Those might sound fun, but they aren’t.
General Radahn boss fight phase one
The archery battle with Radahn is frustrating, since you will likely have to do it over and over and over and over again. But once you learn how to time your rolls, it’s the easiest part.
There are two types of shots: purple lasers, and crushing barriages.
At the start of the fight, Radahn will ping you consistently with purple lasers. The best way to dodge these is to roll into them and exploit your brief invincibility. The timing is less difficult than you might think and you can get it down quite easily.
During this fight, there are also multiple NPC summons that you'll want to call upon during the first phase of the fight while dodging Radahn's attacks. There's Iron Fist Alexander, Blaidd, Patches, Okina, Lionel the Lionhearted, and more that will fight alongside you. Some of these summons may or may not be available depending on how far you have progressed with their individual storylines, and whether or not they are actually alive when you go to do this fight.
Anyway, back to the fight. Roll under one laser arrow, then make a start by interacting with the summon signs in front of you, standing behind the debris that is in front of you to block another arrow if he shoots one.
Then make a beeline halfway towards the summon sign on your right. It’s best to wait here and exploit the fact you can dodge the lasers quite easily to let your allies run closer to Radahn before you make the next summon.
Once your ally summons get about half way up the hill towards Radahn, he will switch to barrages. When this happens, use the summon sign, then hop on your horse. Sprint over to the left, grab the last two summons, then zig-zag over to the right to avoid any other hits.
If he switches back to purple lasers, press the left stick in on your controller to quickly dismount and roll out of the way.
Once your summons reach him, Radahn gives up on his bow and the next phase begins.
General Radahn boss fight phase two
The general strategy of this fight is to let your summoned allies take all of the aggro, get the occasional hit when it is absolutely safe to do so, then resummon any allies that die.
General Radahn can and will kill you in one hit or combo on a whim, so it just doesn’t make sense to be anywhere near him for any length of time. If you get greedy, you will die. If you miss your hit, you will die. So you need to make things count.
If you want to melee, wait until the end of one of his combos, then ride in, hit him once, and ride back out.
If you want to use range or magic, keep a good distance and break your lock on and run away whenever he turns his attention to you. Again, one hit is likely all it will take.
Even when you’re letting your friends take the brunt of the damage, there are still two attacks you need to avoid. The five magic orbs that home in on you can be dodged with a timed sprint of your horse either left or right.
When he slams the ground and leaves an electric shockwave, this needs to be double jumped over.
There’s also an attack which hits everything in a wide area for a smaller amount of damage. I genuinely don’t think there’s anything you can do about this other than be far away.
Settle into a cadence for this phase where you summons do most of the work, you revive them from their signs when they die after a cooldown, and you get ONE hit in at the end of some of his combos if you’re melee, or fight off hits then run away if you’re a mage.
Once he’s at half health, the final phase begins.
General Radahn boss fight phase three
As Radahn’s health bar wanes, he flies off up into the air before crashing back down with a furious flaming attack.
To avoid this, hop on your horse and run away from the centre of the arena, reviving any dead summons at their signs as you do.
After all your hard work, this portion of the fight is the most frustrating because you can get insta-killing without warning or mercy.
His moveset is basically the same, with one gigantic exception. There’s a new move where he summons four huge meteors over his head. They are nigh impossible to dodge and stay in the air longer than the wait for Bloodborne to come to PC.
They bait you out of hiding and kill you effortlessly. You could block the meteors with a shield, but if all of them hit, the damage will likely overwhelm you to the point where Radahn will saunter over and kill you instantly.
Instead, where the rest of the game has rewarded you for being brave, the answer here is cowardice.
If you constantly revive any defeated summons and maintain as much distance as possible, you can whittle him down slowly by letting them do most of the work.
When you see the meteors rise, hide behind the sand dunes in the arena and use their elevation as a natural shield.
Eventually, if you keep resummoning them, your friends will defeat Radahn for you.
Given his lethal moveset, I wouldn’t advise you to try and brute force any part of this fight, even the last hit.
Hide, cower, and whimper in the corner as your furry warrior mate and his friendly chum who is a giant pot for some reason do all the heavy lifting.
This feels very wrong if you’ve been butting your head up against this brick wall of a boss for multiple attempts, but trust me, the defensive approach is much safer.
Since this can take a while, he may do the flying fire attack again. Just dodge in the same way by riding away from the middle of the arena.
What to do after beating Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring?
Now you have another Great Rune in your possession, you’re free to help Blaidd and Ranni continue their pursuit of Nokron.
You could also take the Grand Lift of Dectus up to the Altus Plateau and visit Leyndell, the capital city.
But if you’re a melee character, also consider returning to the Roundtable Hold, where you can now buy Radahn’s clothes. They offer a huge amount of protection and poise if you’ve got the endurance.
For more help with your time in The Lands Between, here’s our Elden Ring guide.