This page offers a guide on how to beat Starscourge Radahn, who can be found in Wailing Dunes in the Caelid region, in Elden Ring.

Starscourge Radahn Rewards¶

Where to Find Starscourge Radahn in Wailing Dunes, Caelid¶

Starscourge Radahn is a demi-god boss. He can be found in Wailing Dunes in Caelid, and can be reached in one of two ways. The first, and likely most popular way to reach him is to follow Ranni’s questline, which you can find a guide on here. This way, you’ll make it to the Radahn Festival at Redmane Castle in Caelid, where you’ll be able to travel through a waygate and fight Radahn in Wailing Dunes.

If you don’t want to do Ranni’s questline, for whatever reason, you’ll be able to get to the fight by activating any site of grace in Altus Plateau. You can reach Altus Plateau by using the Grand Lift of Dectus. To activate the Grand Lift of Dectus, you’ll need the Dectus Medallion (Left), found in a chest in Fort Haight, Mistwood and the Dectus Medallion (Right), found in Fort Faroth, Dragonbarrow. The Grand Lift of Dectus is found northeast Liurnia of the Lakes and when activated, it’ll take you to Altus Plateau. Once it’s night time, which you can trigger at a nearby site of grace, the Radahn Festival will begin and you can fight Radahn.

Climb the big staircase and activate the lift using the Medallion. The lift will take tarnished to Altus Plateau. Summon Torrent and sprint past the two Giants and go for the nearest Site of Lost Grace.

Light the Site and pass the time to Nightfall. This will trigger Radahn’s Festival. Now, players can travel to the Impassable Greatbridge bonfire and proceed to face Radahn.

Contrary to popular belief, he is actually an optional boss, as you technically only need to defeat two demi-gods to have access to Leyndell, Royal Capital. It is recommended that you do at least try to fight him since he’s a pretty cool boss and you also don’t want to lock yourself out of potential game endings (see our guide on endings) and you also lock yourself out of being able to reach parts of Nokron, Eternal City - which is an optional but also an interesting area with fun equipment and the almighty Mimic Tear spirit ash!

What Companions Should You Choose to Help Fight Starscourge Radahn?¶

There are eight possible NPC companions to choose from to help you in your fight against Radahn but you can only summon five of them at a time. To summon them, you’ll find golden signs on the ground that you can activate to summon the corresponding NPCs. Below you’ll find a list of all the possible NPC companions and what they can offer in the fight. For the most part, you’ll just want to view the NPCs as good distractions and targets for Radahn’s attacks, but some of them are stronger than others.

You can also resummon the NPCs when they die (you’ll get a message when they are dead), as their golden sign will reappear on the ground. This is the case for all of the NPCs except Alexander, Warrior Jar, who cannot be resummoned.

Radahn Attacks¶

Radahn wields two colossal swords, called Starscourge Greatswords. He will also use a huge bow as well, which is called the Lion Greatbow. Below, you’ll find a complete account of all of Radahn’s special attacks and how to best counteract them.

Multi-Arrow Bow Attack¶

When you first begin this fight, you’ll be really far away from Radahn. Don’t assume that you’re safe though! Even though you’ll want to take the time to summon as many NPCs as you can before Radahn reaches you, you’ll also want to make sure to keep an eye on his very powerful bow attacks. There are two main variations of his bow attacks: multiple arrow attacks and a purple magical/electrical bow charge.

Although Radahn is super far away to begin with, you’ll be able to vaguely see the kind of arrows he’s knocking, and therefore you’ll be able to prepare for which variation of bow attack he may use.

There are two variations of the multi-arrow bow attack but he will often use the two types within quick succession. He will send out a huge line of arrows that’ll slam into the ground then travel slowly towards you. At the same time, he’ll also send a huge barrage of multiple arrows towards you which will be very fast and hit very hard. The combination of these two attacks can be pretty devastating - on one hand you need to keep an eye on the line of arrows following you, but you also can’t take your eye off Radahn’s bow! The best way to avoid these massive attacks is to run quickly on mount or by foot - keep moving chaotically to keep Radahn guessing and he’ll have a harder time predicting your movements.

Magic Electrical Bow Attack¶

During this attack, Radahn will send out a huge purple electrical arrow towards you. It’s very powerful and will knock you down and chunk you for a lot of damage if you get hit. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to dodge, and you could also use your NPC companions as meat shields (mean, but effective!).

Sword Attacks¶

Radahn will use his colossal swords in a variety of ways. He’ll swing each one separately and also slam them both down in front of him. The attacks aren’t even that slow either, meaning his massive swords can sometimes be difficult to dodge. The best way to counter these sword attacks is to make sure there are always enough melee NPCs to keep him distracted.

Radahn Sword Transformation¶

This sword transformation can be considered a sort of phase 1.5, since Radahn will always do this move when he’s damaged to around 65% health. He will plunge his weapons into the ground and when he pulls them out they’ll be covered in rocks. The Rocky swords signal that he’ll now begin performing a series of new magical attacks as well as start to use his swords more like big clubs.

Gravitational Pull¶

Immediately after pulling the swords from the ground he’ll do a special move in which he puts his swords into the air and performs a gravitational pull and everything around will be dragged closer to him - this is indicated by a purple pulse emanating from him for a split second. This attack will damage you a little bit and may also, more dangerously, put you in the line of fire for bigger sweeping or slamming attacks.

He may also charge up a huge electrical attack that’ll cause a large purple dome wherever he hits down, meaning those in the immediate area may also be impacted by the force.

Mini Meteor Attack¶

Radahn will summon several small magical meteors and immediately send them flying at high speeds towards a target. They’re very hard to dodge at times and can also one-shot, making them a pretty nasty attack. You could attempt to hide behind an NPC by lining yourself up with them or if you’re quite close to him, you could roll inwards to hide against his body. If you successfully roll inwards and avoid the attack you’ll also be able to get in an uncontested attack on his legs.

Radahn, as already established, has a pretty erratic and often hard to predict attack pattern, and occasionally he’ll immediately follow up this attack with a jumping slam down attack. However, if you’ve rolled successfully, you should also be able to dodge out of the way of his landing sword slam.

Radahn Phase 2 Attacks¶

Second phase is triggered at around 50% health and is indicated by Radahn jumping up into the sky for a prolonged amount of time. He’ll still have his rocky colossal swords.

Comet Radahn¶

When Radahn jumps up into the sky, you may be wondering where the heck he’s gone! He’ll be out of combat for around 5-10 seconds but you’ll want to keep an eye on the sky as he’ll return in a huge ball of fire (like a comet). He’ll crash down into the ground and if you’re caught in it, you’ll be one-shot. Typically, he’ll slam down into the ground near the most people, so keep clear of your NPC companions. In fact, you could use Torrent to get away and stay back until he’s returned from the sky.

Summoning Metors¶

After phase two has been triggered, Radahn will slam both blades into the ground in a large V-shape. After some build up, he will pull his blades out of the ground and 4 big purple meteors will fly around his head for a short amount of time. The meteors floating around his head should be seen as more of a warning sign of other potential electrical attacks. During this period, he’ll summon the smaller meteors that he can send at you or an NPC at high speeds. You can also expect him to do the gravitational pull attack like he did after transforming his swords so watch out for possible combos of being dragged in and slammed down by meteors. Take a look at the gif below for one of the most brutal combos that Radahn can pull.

Magic Electrical Wave¶

Sometimes, Radahn’s sword hits will also send out a huge wave of electrical energy across the ground in front of him. This will mean that even if you’re not in the direct line of fire you may be impacted by the attack anyway.

Charging Attack¶

Radahn will retreat on his horse and charge full force at you or an NPC. You may want to counter this attack by mounting Torrent and disengaging, or you could also time the perfect roll to the side to avoid him. Sometimes he’ll end the charge with a huge jumping slam attack, which can pretty much one-shot.

Strategy for Defeating Starscourge Radahn¶

Radahn can be a very tough fight and if you’ve been zooming through the game then you might feel quite under prepared for the battle. Below, you’ll find some tips for melee and ranged strategies that could be useful to keep in mind when fighting Radahn. His purple magical looking attacks do magic damage and his normal looking sword or bow attacks will do standard physical or piercing damage depending on what he does. Although his magical attacks look intimidating and can be very powerful, you should be most concerned by his sword attacks, which will do huge amounts of damage and will most certainly one-shot lower-levelled players.

One tip that all players should consider is using Torrent, your mount. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should always stay on your mount, but you should definitely consider occasionally hopping on to get away from Radahn’s homing attacks or to disengage from the fight once in a while.

Also, if you’re really struggling to survive Radahn’s hefty attacks, you could consider respecing, which you can find out how to do with our guide. You could put more points into vitality to make yourself a bit tankier.

Melee Strategy¶

As mentioned, you’ll definitely want to make use of Torrent. When you enter into the boss arena, you’ll be miles away from Radahn and he has heaps of ranged attacks that can do a whole bunch of damage. Once you’ve summoned the NPCs, hop onto your horse and circle around until you edge closer to Radahn - don’t run straight at him as you run the risk of being shot. By going around and weaving, it’ll give the NPCs a chance to also reach him and keep him distracted. You can then attempt to position yourself behind Radahn to get in some hefty attacks.

Radahn won’t just let you hit him in the back for free though. He is good at switching between targets and using his colossal weapons to swing around and smack multiple people at once. Having the NPCs is really great for doing extra damage and keeping Radahn distracted somewhat, but you also can’t get too comfortable because that’ll lead to you getting caught out by Radahn when he suddenly swings around to target you. Unfortunately, Radahn can’t be parried, but his poise can be broken, which can done with a few good heavy/jumping attacks and the help of your NPC companions smacking him at the same time.

When phase 1.5 comes around and he transforms his swords, you’ll need to be prepared for more area of effect (AoE) attacks, meaning you won’t be safe just trying to stay away from his front. Some of his magical attacks will now have a large area of impact and his gravitational pull attack move may also leave you vulnerable to being smacked down by his swords as well.

One good thing about his huge double sword slam attacks is that he gets momentarily exhausted by them, and if you’re right next to his head or close to his body when he slams down, you’ll be able to hit his head for a pretty huge amount of damage - it’s his weak spot. You can also get to his head when his poise is broken!

One of the best bits of advice for melee players tackling Radahn is to try to always keep moving. Circling around his body can help avoid being caught out by swinging slashes but you should also disengage and back off from time to time, especially in the second phase when he has meteors above his head. The meteors indicate that he’ll be performing more frequent magical attacks which also do big AoE damage and can knock you over as well. As long as you have plenty of NPCs on the board, you can safely back away and either replenish your health, summon some NPCs or just wait until he’s performed his big magic attacks. Knowing Radahn’s tells is one of the best ways to combat his seemingly chaotic attack sequence.

Ranged Strategy¶

Coming soon!

Starscourge Radahn Rewards¶

Upon defeating Radahn, you’ll get 70,000 Runes, Remembrance of the Starscourge and Radahn’s Great Rune. The Remembrance of the Starscourge can be traded in at Roundtable Hold for the colossal weapon, Starscourge Greatsword or the Lion Greatbow. You can dual wield the Starscourge Greatsword like Radahn - they’re slow but double attacking with them is a very powerful attack! The weapon skill, Starcaller Sky is also a very slow but very powerful attack.