Elden Ring boss guide: How to beat Starscourge Radahn

Starscourge Radahn is one of the harder Legend Bosses in Elden Ring. He is an optional encounter in Redmane Castle and the fight can only be activated once the Radahn festival kicks off in the RPG.

Caelid is not a fun area to explore in the open world no matter how many levels you have on your character. It’s one of the most dangerous places in the Lands Between and the Radahn boss fight perfectly embodies that theme.

The Starscourge is a difficult encounter irrespective of the build you are going for. He has good resistance values to most attack types and elements, hence, there aren’t many weaknesses you will be able to exploit.

However, once beaten, Radahn will drop 70,000 Runes, Remembrance of the Starscourge, Radahn’s Great Rune, and unlock access to Nocron, the Eternal City.

Contents:

• Radahn boss overview
• Where to find Radahn
• Radahn phases, movesets, and counters
• Radahn resistance and weakness
• How to beat Radahn

Starscourge Radahn boss fight overview

Location:

• Redmane Castle (Caelidl)

Optional:

• No (If you are going for linear progression)
• Yes (You only need to beat two Shardbearers to gain access to Leyndell)

Available Summons

• Blaidd (NPC)
• Iron Fist Alexander (NPC)
• Patches (NPC)
• Okina (NPC)
• Great Horned Tragoth (NPC)
• Lionel the Lionhearted (NPC)
• Finger Maiden Therolina (NPC)
• Castelan Jerren (NPC)

Weakness

• Scarlet Rot

Resistances:

• Standard Attack
• Slash Attack
• Strike Attack
• Magic
• Fire 
• Lightning
• Holy
• Madness (Immune)

Boss Drop:

• 70,000 Runes
• Remembrance of the Starscourge
• Radahn’s Great Rune
• Unlocks Nocron, the Eternal City

Radahn is an optional boss fight in Elden Ring as you only need to beat two Sharbearers to gain access to Leyndell. Irrespective of the build you are going for or the number of levels you have put in your character he will be a tough encounter.

He comes with an array of AOE attacks that hit like a truck. He has a lot of combos up his sleeve, so if you are not successfully dodging his skills he will immediately take you down.

The Starscourge is also resistant to many attack types and elements. The only status effect that you will be able to exploit the most is Scarlet Rot. However, if you are on NG and this is your first run, you will likely not have access to too many tools that inflict Rot at this point in FromSoftware’s title.

Where to find Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring?

You will encounter Radahn at the end of Redmane Castle. However, the boss fight will trigger only after you have completed Ranni’s questline to an extent or have reached the Altus Plateau and activated a Grace Point there.

Once the festival starts all the soldiers in the castle and its surroundings will disappear. A waypoint will activate from the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace to the Chamber Outside the Plaza Site of Grace.

Many doors will be locked during the festival, and the plaza will now contain a lot of NPCs, who are preparing to take on Radahn. 

To activate the encounter, you will need to talk to Jerren. After a shortcut scene, a door will open at the back end, leading to a lift that will lead you to where Radahn is rampaging, as Malenia’s Scarlet Rot has reduced him to a state of complete insanity.

Starscourge Radahn phases, movesets, and counters in Elden Ring

The Radahn fight in Elden Ring has three phases namely Phase 1, Phase 1.5, and Phase 2. Apart from a few new moves, there are not too many changes between the Phases. However, the Starscourge does become more aggressive with his combos the lower his HP gets.

Here are some of the moves that you can expect in the Radahn boss fight:

Phase 1

Gravity Arrow

• Move: As soon as the encounter begins Radahn will charge his arrows with gravity magic and keep spamming it toward you till you close the gap. 
• Counter: Keep dodging them with Torrent. The arrows can do enough damage to knock you off. You can also try using the debris on the battlefield to block the shots.

Radahn’s Rain

• Move: Before you reach him, Radahn will draw his bow and fire in the air. This will cause large spear-like arrows to fall from the sky. The arrows can track and have enough damage to knock you off Torrent
• Counter: Keep moving sideways till the arrows stop falling.

Scattering Shot

• Move: As you close in on Radahn, he will start hitting you with a large spread of arrows. These shots are easy to dodge but hit multiple targets.
• Counter: You can dodge right through them without a hassle. Use the Terrain if dodging seems problematic.

Random Slams and Sweeps

• Move: Radahn will use his two swords to slam and sweep them across the field doing a lot of damage. At times he will use them in isolation, but he can also chin the moves up to 4 times.
• Counter: Keep dodging the attacks. If he is using a single strike dodge away. If you see him chaining the hits keep dodging into him. It has a pretty long recovery period allowing you to get some hits in.

Double Slam

• Move: This ability will hit you like a truck. Radahn will jump up with both swords over his head and slam them down together on you.
• Counter: Dodge the attack as soon as he jumps and keep rolling till he lands. The slam down is much faster then you will anticipate so dodge into him and get some attacks in.

Dive Swing Attack

• Move: Radahn will dive toward you like a torpedo swinging blades five times. The first two will be slow while the final three will come out in quick succession. The final hit will be a ground sweep.
• Counter: Either you can dodge away and keep rolling away from the successive swings (the dodge timings will get harder) or you can dodge into him and stand below his feet. If you are below his feet he will not be able to reach you with the swings and you can get a lot of damage in.

Gravity Step

• Move: Radhan will start storing some gravity energy at his feet. He would then quickly step back (around 0.025 seconds later) and sweep his sword where he was standing. This move will catch you off-guard if you are not prepared and does a lot of damage.
• Counter: To counter it you can either get greedy and dodge into him, or you can dodge away to be safer.

Consecutive Slams and Sweeps

• Move: After a 3-second charge time, Radahn will lift his right-hand sword up vertically and keep his left-arm sword horizontal. He will then go into a flurry of sweeps (with the left) and slams (with the right). He will alternate between the two in quick succession making this his most dangerous move. He will end the combo with a spin attack with both blades.
• Counter: There are two ways to go about countering it. You will either have to learn this move by heart and dodge each of the attacks or you can dodge to his feet and stay there for the rest of the combo. However, the latter will not guarantee your safety. The chances of Radahn’s hitbox reaching his feet is low but he can always clip you out with one of the slams.

Double Forward Slam

• Move: Radahn will light both his swords up and slam them down infront of him. He usually does this move when the player is close to him and they are getting greedy with their attacks.
• Counter: You will need to stop getting greedy with your DPS. Radahn punishes over-commitment, so make sure you are not stuck in an attack animation when he lifts his swords up.

Circling Slash

• Move: Radahn will circle you while closing the gap. His blade will trail on the ground during this move and it has a pretty long build-up time. At the end of it, he will go for a wide swing.
• Counter: Dodge as soon as you see him lifting the sword up to swing. Do not panic roll this attack or you will get clipped by the hitbox.

The Spin Away

• Move: Radahn will spin two times in position while swinging his sword. The spins come out very quickly but he will move away from you when he does it.
• Counter: Do not get caught in the swing. This move has a stun lock effect so if you get hit by the first, you will likely get hit by the second as well.

Phase 1.5

Cragblade

• Move: In this move, Radahn will clash his blades together and then slam them into the ground after a while. He will bury his blades while at it and charge them and himself with gravity. When he pulls the swords out they will be covered with rocks. His blades will now do more damage and he will also get additional moves to his arsenal.
• Counter: You can get some DPS in while he is busy charging his blade.

Starcaller Cry

• Move: Radahn roars while crossing his swords. The move is infused with gravity energy and once it ends he will pull in everything around him. The effect has a large radius. He can do this move right after Cragblade and he can follow this up with a downward slam with his swords.
• Counter: You can either ride Torrent out of the AOE or dodge behind him as soon as you get pulled in.

Cross Dive

• Move: Radahn will use his horse to create some distance. He will then turn towards you and charge with his swords crossed infront of him. When close, he will jump up, and dive down. An AOE gravitational blast will take place where he lands.
• Counters: Do not try and dodge the slam as you will get clipped by the gravity blast. Run away from the slam and then dodge into the blast. You will get some free time to get some attacks in at this point.

Gravity Waves

• Move: Radahn charges his swords with gravity and then sends out waves of gravitational energy in three separate attacks. He can discharge th waves during Cross Dive, he can do it at the final sweep of his Dive Attack, or he can just dig his swords in the ground and launch a wave toward you.
• Counter: The waves do a lot of damage. So dodge them or run away from the attacks. Use Torrent to run away or double jump over the waves.

Collapsing Stars

• Move: Radahn slams his sword on the ground again, but instead of charging gravity he sends out a pulse of energy. He then makes multiple gravity orbs around him which after a short delay will fly at you. The orbs hit for a lot of damage and will pull you closer to Radahn on impact.
• Counter: Either dodge the balls by rolling to the side as soon as they launch at you or run away with Torrent. Getting caught by just one ball will make it easier for the rest to land.

Phase 2

Meteor Crash

• Move: Radahn’s phase 2 begins at 40% health and he will start it off by slamming his sword to the ground and then jumping into the air. There will be a few seconds delay after which he will hurl himself at where you are standing like a meteorite.
• Counter: Just keep running with Torrent. Radahn can’t change direction once he begins his descent. So take Torrent for a ride till he finally lands.

Meteor Summon

• Move: This is a much more powerful version of the Collapsing Stars. Radahn slams his sword in the ground as usual but this time calls up 4 meteorites. They do way more damage than the stars and he can shoot them at you at any time.
• Counter: Keep running away when you see the balls. While you can go on the offensive if you are confident, it’s not advised. So run away and dodge the balls when they come towards you.

Spiraling Death

• Move: Radahn will hover in the air for some time, then raise his sword and start spinning like a drill. He will rush at you like a torpedo and do it two times in a row.
• Counter: This is easy to counter, and you can just dodge to the side to avoid it.

Starscourge Radahn resistances and weaknesses in Elden Ring

Resistance:

Radahn has a fair bit of resistance to most types of physical attacks. Slash, Standard, and Strike will do lesser damage to him. However, he is neutral to pierce so weapons like spears will do the regular amount of DPS to him.

The Starscourge also has high resistance to Magic, Fire, Lightning, and Holy (highest). So mages are likely going to struggle a fair bit against him, especially if they are going for a Paladin build.

As for status effects, Radahn has the same resistance numbers for Poison, Hemorrhage, and Frostbite. So you will probably be able to exploit these status effects once or a maximum of two times in the fight.  

He is immune to Madness and has a high resistance to Sleep. 

Weakness:

The only thing that Radahn is a bit more susceptible to is Scarlet Rot. His resistance values are lower for this status effect so if you have weapons and tools that inflict Rot, you will be able to proc the effect on him three to four times.

How to beat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring

No matter when you are facing him during your playthrough, Radahn is going to be one of the more difficult bosses in Elden Ring. His higher resistance values make it difficult to burst him down, and the fight is going to be a long-drawn affair with you being forced to learn his movesets by heart.

Below are some general tips for facing the Starscourge along with specific do’s and don’ts for ranged and melee builds.

General tips for beating Radahn:

• As soon as you land on the field, use Torrent to close the gap on Rdahn. Dodge his Gravity Arrows at all costs, or position yourself in a way that they get blocked by the debris on the field.
• Don’t feel shy to summon other NPCs to the fight. You can call them onto the field with just one button press, and you can call them up as many times as you want even if you get killed and are going for another run. You can summon all the available NPCs in the fight so it’s possible to have them beat Radahn while you just sit and watch. However, that method will take a very long time.
• As you get closer Radahn will start his Rain attack. As the arrows will hone in on you, make sure to keep moving with Torrent so that you can dodge them all.
• He will then start throwing out scattered shots with his bow when you get closer. These are pretty easy to dodge, so just keep moving sideways with Torrent while circling and closing the gap.

Ranged build tips for Radahn

Mages and Faith builds that rely on Spells and Incantations will definitely have a hard time in the fight. However, you can make things easier by using a summon or two and fighting Radahn on horseback. 

While it can make it harder to land your spells, you will find it easier to survive longer. Additionally, if some NPCs die during the fight, just resummon them.

If you aren’t too fond of fighting on horseback then you will need to learn Radahn’s patterns by heart. He has a lot of tools at his disposal to not only close the gap on you but even pull you to him.

His combos come out in quick succession and often times he will not give you enough room to cast Spells. So make sure you are relying more on Incantations that have a smaller cast time. You do not want to be caught channeling skills when he has his swords raised to strike.

If you have the Rotten Breath Incantaion then the fight will be incredibly easy. You just need to execute two to three full charges of it onto Radahn and see his HP reach 0 because of the Scarlet Rot. However, it’s unlikely that you will have this Dragon Breath Incantation on you at this stage of the game during your initial run.

Bow builds need to keep their distance at all times and only hit Radahn when he gives you the room after his combos. Make sure to use arrows that inflict Scarlet Rot to make the fight easier.

Melee build tips for Radahn

Melee users, especially those going for a build that has 0 range options will just need to learn Radahn’s attack patterns by heart. His moves give enough room to counter with some damage of your own so the first rule for you is not to get greedy with your hits.

Radahn punishes over-extensions so if you are relentlessly going on the offensive then you are not going to survive long. 

If you’re struggling, summon all the NPCs to tank the hits for you. This will give you enough room to move up behind Radahn and start dealing damage. 

But do watch out for his combos and spin attacks. They will often combo-lock you and you are going to die immediately if your defenses are not high enough.

While an optional fight, you will need to beat Radahn if you are looking to achieve the Age of the Stars ending in Elden Ring. Beating him unlocks Nocron which triggers the ending and helps you complete Ranni’s questline.

Once defeated, Radahn will drop 70,000 Runes, Remembrance of the Starscourge, and Radahn’s Great Rune.