Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is filled with numerous challenges that are sure to test your mettle. Perhaps none are as frustrating as a certain foe, whom you’ll meet at the end of your journey. Here’s our guide on how to beat the final boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Naturally, this article contains major spoilers.

How to beat the final boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree – Promised Consort Radahn guide

The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree final boss is General Radahn, your old buddy from when you had migraines after spending hours in Caelid. Now, though, he’s called Promised Consort Radahn, as he’s revealed to be Miquella’s most loyal companion. You’ll battle him in a legacy dungeon called Enir-Ilim, which you’ll gain access to upon burning the Sealing Tree.

There are some similarities between Mr. Starscourge and Mr. Promised Consort, most notably the use of massive dual greatswords and a penchant for dive-bombing you like a meteor. The key difference, now, is that the fight takes place in a smaller arena and not a desert island, so don’t worry about Radahn galloping around on a tiny horse.

Preparing for the Promised Consort Radahn boss fight

Make no mistake, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Promised Consort Radahn boss battle is one of the hardest in the entire game (not just the DLC). We feel that he’s more difficult than Malenia. As such, you need to be well-prepared. We suggest the following:

• Boost your character’s capabilities and summons by collecting more Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes. We defeated the final boss when our Shadow Realm Blessings were at level 17 and level 9, respectively.
• Speaking of summons, a single summon like the Mimic Tear or Banished Knight Oleg will not be enough. You might need help from NPC allies. You can call on both Thiollier and Ansbach if you complete their quests. We’ve got all the details for you in our Thiollier quest guide and Ansbach quest guide.
• Golden Braid talisman – You can find this in the Shaman Village once you access the secret northeast area (Scaduview). It boosts holy damage resistance by the utmost.
• Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +2 – Found in Crumblign Farum Azula in the base game. This helps mitigate physical damage.
• Armors with high resistance to holy damage.
• For those who prefer bleed builds, the new Red Bear’s Claw is a viable option. It comes from the Northern Nameless Mausoleum.
• Base game options, such as Blasphemous Blade and Dark Moon Greatsword, are still viable. You can also choose the Staff of Loss or other spellcasting weapons.
• The ground in the arena has a bright color. You should have as few runes as possible in case of deaths. It’s going to be hard to see the marker where you dropped your runes, and you don’t want to run around looking for your XP/currency.
• Lastly, you’ll want to have high Vigor (at least 60). You’ll need all the HP you can get.

Phase 1: Promised Consort Radahn

What makes Promised Consort Radahn so dangerous is that his combo sequences have multiple swings (sometimes up to five or six strikes), and these have rather fast animation speeds. He also has the following abilities during the first phase of the encounter:

• Meteor Dive – Radahn will always start the encounter by jumping into the air and dive-bombing your location. Do not spend these first few seconds casting or summoning. Just dodge the initial dive-bomb to be safe.
• Meteor Rain – Radahn will jump and spawn half a dozen rocks in mid-air. These will crash one by one at your location.
• Gravity Pull – The boss will pull you if you’re too far away, followed by a stomp that causes a quake. Dodge the eruption as it’s about to occur.
• Melee combos – Ideally, you should dodge toward the boss instead of sideways or backwards. His swings have follow-ups that can reach you even if you avoid the first few blows.

Phase 2: Radahn Consort of Miquella

The second phase against Promised Consort Radahn in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is where things get extremely hectic. At roughly 60% HP, a cutscene will play and Miquella will make an appearance. He’ll then piggyback off Radahn, like a creepy angelic backpack of sorts, causing Radahn’s attacks to be infused with holy damage. This is why it’s important to boost your holy resistance as much as possible, since the boss’ melee attacks are usually followed by holy-based area-of-effect (AoE) damage.

Likewise, Radahn will retain several abilities from the first phase, and you need to watch out for some new tricks such as:

• Holy Bombardment – The second phase will always begin with Radahn casting a spell that causes multiple beams to strike your location. Remove lock-on immediately and sprint to the side until the beams are gone.
• Lightspeed Slash – Radahn will start flashing, then he’ll rush and slice you multiple times.
• Heavenly Eruption – When the ground starts to glow, a massive eruption is about to occur. This will likely deplete a chunk of your HP. You can either block to help mitigate the damage, or sprint behind the boss since this is a frontal AoE spell.
• Holy Hug – When Radahn pulls back, he’s about to run and grab you in a bear hug. You don’t actually take damage from this move, as Miquella just goads you into giving up. However, if you get hugged for a second time, your character will die because their “heart was stolen.”

Promised Consort Radahn Remembrance and rewards

Having as many summoned allies as possible certainly helps in the battle against Promised Consort Radahn in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Your spirit ash summon and NPC allies can distract Radahn and take aggro for a few seconds, giving you enough breathing room. It’s also beneficial for those who like to cast spells from afar or those who want to do a few strikes to apply bleeding.

If you succeed in defeating the boss, then you’ll receive the Remembrance of a God and a Lord, which can be exchanged for the following:

Option 1: Greatsword of Radahn (Lord)

• Type: Colossal Sword
• Effect/description: Promised Consort
• Stat scaling: Str D, Dex D, Int E
• Stat requirements: Str 22, Dex 18, and Fai 12

Option 2: Greatsword of Radahn (Light)

• Type: Colossal Sword
• Effect/description: Lightspeed Slash
• Stat scaling: Str D, Dex D, and Int E
• Stat requirements: Str 38, Dex 12, and Int 15

Option 3: Light of Miquella

• Type: Incantation
• Effect/description: Annihilates foes with a pillar of light.
• Stat requirement: Fai 72
• FP cost: 48

There are also a couple of other notable goodies:

• Let Us Go Together emote – Obtained after defeating the boss or if your character perishes to the Holy Hug.
• Circlet of Light – Obtained after interacting with the Memory Orb (ending cutscene).
• NPC rewards – You can pick up rewards from the NPC allies whose quests you completed.

That does it for our guide on how to beat the final boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. If you’d like to know about other rewards, you can take a look at our boss Remembrances guide.