Elden Ring guide: How to easily defeat Radahn and prepare for Shadow of the Erdtree

You have to defeat Radahn in Elden Ring before being able to play the new content in DLC expansion. With Shadow of the Erdtree less than a week away from its official release date (June 20, 2024), now would be the perfect time to get your Elden Ring builds ready for the DLC. Now would also be the perfect time for players to go fight a round with and beat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring.

Radahn is an optional boss in the base game, but beating him is a necessity for those who wish to access the DLC. This is easier said than done, as Radahn can be one of the trickiest enemies in Elden Ring.

But we've got you covered; this article will show you how to easily find and defeat Radahn, and prepare for Shadow of the Erdtree.

NOTE: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer's opinion.

---

Where to find Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring?

You can take the teleporter to Wailing Dunes to start your fight against Radahn. (Image via FromSoftware || YouTube/Boss Fight Database)

To beat Radahn you will first have to find him. He resides in Redmane Castle, located in the bottom right corner of Caelid. To fight Radahn, you will first have to trigger the Radahn Festival. There are two ways this can be done:

Grand Lift of Dectus method

To reach Radahn via the Grand Lift, collect both halves of the Dectus Medallion from Fort Haight (Liurnia) and Fort Faroth (Dragonbarrow). Use the medallion at the Lift to access Altus Plateau and trigger the Radahn Festival.

---

Ranni’s Questline method

You can also follow Ranni's quest to trigger the Radahn Festival and fight Starscourge Radahn. Talk to her at Ranni's Rise in Liurnia, then find her associates Blaidd and Seluvis. After learning Nokron's secret from Sellen, speak with Blaidd again to trigger the festival.

After the festival kicks off, you can take the teleporter behind the announcer and head to the Wailing Dunes to take on Starscourge Radahn to complete preparing for Shadow of the Erdtree. Now that you've found him, let's take a look at how you can defeat him.

---

How to defeat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring?

Radahn will begin firing arrows as soon as the fight begins. (Image via FromSoftware || YouTube/Boss Fight Database)

Phase 1 of defeating Starscourge Radahn

As soon as your battle with Radahn begins, he will start firing off various ranged attacks across the arena. These need to be dodged, as they can take away a ton of your health before the real fight even begins. Before you approach Radahn and start swinging, make sure you summon all the various NPCs through the signs found around the arena.

Once you and your army of NPCs are ready, close in on Radahn and focus on dealing as much damage as you can. Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring is very vulnerable to magic attacks; fire also deals a hefty amount of damage, so I would recommend using a sorcery build. Your strategy will be to hang back and let your summons tank Radahn's attacks.

---

Phase 2 of defeating Starscourge Radahn

Summon all the NPCs you can for the Radahn fight. (Image via FromSoftware || YouTube/Boss Fight Database)

While they annoy him at close range, you, the Tarnished, must use everything at your disposal to run down Radahn's HP. Once his health reaches the halfway mark, Radahn will shoot up into the air. For a few seconds, it will seem like the fight is over, but keep your eyes on the sky as the Starscourge is about to come crashing down.

Once Radahn begins to make his way down, it is absolutely vital to dodge him. If not, a single hit when he makes contact with the ground can easily kill you. Once the second phase begins, most of your summons will likely be dead, but you shouldn't panic. Upon taking another round of the arena, you will notice that more NPCs can be spawned to help you with the second phase.

Radahn is very dangerous during the final phase of his fight. (Image via FromSoftware || YouTube/Boss Fight Database)

With your second round of NPCs ready, you can follow the same strategy you used for the first phase to easily defeat Radahn in Elden Ring. He will use an energy wave attack during this phase that you can jump over. He also uses rocks and shoots them like missiles using gravity magic; dodging these rocks is also crucial.

As long as you deal damage along with your summoned NPCs, you should be able to make short work of Radahn. You can also use heavy attacks to quickly stagger him and get off a critical hit for bonus damage. With this strategy, you should be able to deal with Radahn without a lot of work, but it'll only be easy if you're paying attention and adequately dodging his attacks.

Once Radahn has been dealt with you can go ahead and beat Mohg in Elden Ring to finish all the prerequisites for Shadow of the Erdtree.

---

Check out our other articles covering Elden Ring:

• What are the requirements for ER SOTE?
• ER stat cap, recommended level for SOTE
• 5 things you might've missed in Elden Ring SOTE
• Best Armor Sets to get before SOTE