Elden Ring: Starscourge Radahn

Starscourge Radahn is the boss in the game Elden Ring. He is one of the six Half-Gods.

Description

The demigod Radahn is one of the children of Rennala and Radagon. After Radagon married Marika, Radan became the queen’s stepson. He inherited the formidable fiery red hair from his father and was always proud of its heroic halo. He said he was born a baby hero and grew into a proud lion who knew no defeat.

The redheaded general knew how to control gravity. He had learned this in Sellia when he was young-just so he could never part with his beloved racehorse. His mentor was the Onyx Lord, a creature with stone skin.

Long ago, Radan challenged the spinning constellations and won a crushing victory by stopping them. He is the force that holds the stars together.

The Ring of Elden was broken and the demigods divided the pieces of it among themselves, known as the Great Runes. Thus begins the story of the Interspace and the destructive war between the children of Marika, known as the Schism. Two of the most powerful demigods, the Conqueror of the Stars, General Radan, and Malenia, Blade of Mikella, faced off in a terrible battle, but no one emerged victorious from it. The vast Star Wastes became the final battlefield between them. Now they were swallowed whole by the red rot. General Radan was cursed and doomed to wander forever. The red rot of Malenya is devouring Radan from within, and his mind has long since abandoned him. Now he kills everyone, friends and enemies alike, and gnaws at their corpses like a dog. Mad and devoured by decay, the only thing he longed for was to die with honor.

Jerren, who swore with Radan that they would die an honorable death, holds a festival of war for him at the Castle of Ginger Mane, urging heroes to defeat General Radan, to earn glory, and to gain the great fleece. A festival of war! Radan’s festival! After defeating the general, the protagonist grants him his one wish.

Location

Caelid, location Redmane Castle. The location can be accessed via the teleporter to Fort Gael or bypassing the castle from the right side.

To be able to fight the boss, you must agree to help the Witch of Renny (the second meeting) or reach any place of grace in the region of the Plateau Altus.

Attacks

First Phase

The boss is initially at a great distance from the player and shoots at him with his bow. He uses 4 types of attacks: Long-range shot, Rain of arrows, and a volley of arrows, and will use Normal attacks as he gets closer.

Long range shot

Is a single arrow shot with high magic damage (arrow flies very fast, it’s better to roll about a second before it hits you) (arrow can also shatter on some obstacles in the arena).

Rain of arrows

Releases a rain of arrows following the character (best avoided on horseback).

Arrow fire

Fires arrows with a large spread, similar to a shotgun blast.

Normal attacks

After converging, the boss switches to melee combat, where he wields two huge curved swords. Radan does a lot of combinations with huge damage, swinging very long in some attacks, giving him a chance to heal.

Bug

The first phase of the battle with dodging arrows can be skipped if at the very beginning of the battle you walk away from Radan instead of towards him until he disappears from view. Then, on his way back, the boss will shoot in a random direction, after which he will pull out his swords and start approaching the character.

Second Phase

After losing a certain amount of health, Radan sticks his swords into the ground and charges them with the power of meteorites, getting several different gravity attacks after that: attracting the player and phantoms to himself, launching waves of gravitational energy, collapsing a powerful blow with a magical explosion.

Phase Three

After losing 50% of his health, Radan can enter phase three. This is marked by a guaranteed disappearance from the battlefield, turning into a meteorite and quickly falling to the point from which the boss disappeared, with massive damage (best to run away a couple of meters on horseback from this attack), a call of small purple meteorites around him and purple lightning bolts running through his body. He can now use long-range attacks with gravity charms and make more dangerous combinations. The boss as a whole becomes more aggressive and dangerous.

Tactics

General Information

Since this boss has a unique feature (the ability to summon large numbers of NPCs during fights), the easiest way to kill it is to summon all the NPCs and wait until they deal enough damage. NPC summoning signs are located under ghostly banners towering over the battlefield. When summoned NPCs die, you can summon them again in the same location. Over time, NPC summoning signs will disappear in the old locations, then you will have to run deep into the battlefield under other banners and summon them there.

In the end the number of NPCs will be enough to kill the boss without hitting it manually (it’s recommended to hit the boss with magic pots, as it gets increased damage from spells). The most effective NPCs in combat are Blade Halfwolf and Alexander, the Iron Fist, but in order for Blade to appear in the arena, you need to bring his storyline to a certain point (it’s not required for Alexander, he’ll already be there under any circumstances).

Notes

• Cooperative mode is available on this boss.
• Potok can be used in combat.
• Cannot summon creatures with ashes.
• Vulnerable to bleed, frostbite, red rot, poison, and sleep attacks.
• Vulnerable to stabbing type damage.
• Can be knocked off-balance and critically struck.
• A unique feature of this boss is the ability to summon a large number of NPCs right during the battle, they will be very useful and help to deal with him. Blade Halfwolf, Flapjack, Alexander, Iron Fist, Lionel the Lionheart, Terolina, Maid of Fingers, Great Tragoth the Horned, Okinah, Bloody Finger and Jerren the Witch Hunter can participate in the battle. Each of these can be summoned a limited number of times:
  • 6 times to summon Blyde, Half-Wolf.
  • 6 times summon Lionel the Lionheart.
  • 6 times to summon the Great Horned Tragoth.
  • 5 times to summon Okina, the Bloody Finger.
  • 5 times Terolina, Handmaid of Fingers.
  • 6 times Jerren (only in the third phase after the meteor fall).
  • 3 times Alexander, the Iron Fist.
  • The information is valid for the game version 1.04
• After the patch 1.03 boss was significantly weakened: his attacks became slower, cause less damage, and he becomes more passive on the battlefield. More specifically, he has lost more than three-fourths of his damage, 40% of his original hitboxes and almost all of his tracking on hits.
• After Patch 1.03.3, Radan got back 100% of his damage with any ranged attacks and 10% of his normal attacks, but his hitboxes are still the same.
• After his death, a star falls from the sky, which opens the way to the secret location Nokron, the Eternal City, which is needed to pass the storyline of the Witch of Renny.
• The rain of arrows is similar to the attack of Aldric, the Eater of the Gods from Dark Souls 3.
• Radan’s armor is a reference to King Geiserich’s armor from the Berserk Manga.