How do you defeat Promised Consort Radahn in Elden Ring? That’s the fun part: you don’t! Joking aside, Consort Radahn and his second phase, Consort of Miquella, will go down as some of the most difficult bosses in FromSoftware history. Seriously – Isshin, the Sword Saint from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the Orphan of Kos from Bloodborne have nothing on him. Luckily, we’ve got some tips to give you a fighting chance.
Whether or not you struggled to get this far in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, you’re going to want to find all Scadutree Fragment locations to reach your max damage output. And if he’s still wiping the floor with you, make sure you’re running one of our best Elden Ring builds. Successfully min-maxed, you’re ready to take on Radahn once again.
How to beat Elden Ring Promised Consort Radahn
The key to beating Radahn is preparation, giving yourself the best chance possible to survive his onslaught of earth-shattering attacks. First and foremost, you should stock up on as much physical damage negation as possible. This includes finding all Scadutree Fragment locations in order to reach Scadutree level 20, which will decrease the damage you take by over half and increase it by nearly double in the Land of Shadow. Finding all Revered Spirit Ash locations will also help if you plan on using Spirit Ash summons in this fight.
You can also use Miquella’s Great Rune, found after beating the Scadutree Avatar near the Shadow Keep, to dispel Consort Radahn’s charm attack. If charmed, Consort Radahn will insta-kill you. We recommend equipping the Great Rune to a quick item slot to use it when this happens.
Otherwise, Elden Ring has several different ways to buff your character before a boss fight that you pretty much need to make use of for Consort Radahn. Consider the following before crossing the fog door and beginning the battle:
- Equip the Opaline Hardtear in your Wondrous Physick to reduce physical damage by 15% for 3 minutes.
- Stock up on Boiled Prawns from Blackguard Big Boggard (or from his Bell Bearing in Roundtable Hold) from the base game. Boiled Prawns reduce physical damage by 15% for 60 seconds.
- Use the Golden Vow incantation for 10% more physical damage negation. It requires 25 Faith, but you can reach it with the Faith-knot Crystal Tear taking up your second Wondrous Physick slot and equipping the Two Fingers Heirloom.
- Equip the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman for 20% damage reduction.
- Make sure you aren’t using any Scarseal or damage-increasing talismans.
You do not need to do all of these as there’s a limit for how much damage you can negate; however, combining several of them will give you a much better chance of downing Consort Radahn. Do note that this won’t make you invulnerable; Consort Radahn can cause fire, lightning, and holy damage as well.
Next, you’re going to want to learn the moves of both Consort Radahn forms. Most of this will take practice and patience; however, as a general rule staying close to his front while trying to roll behind him is the safest place to be. His first form will only last until he reaches 75% health. His buddy Miquella will then hop on his back and he’ll retain his old moves while adding new ones to his repertoire. Here’s what to look out for:
- Consort Radahn will leap at you from a distance. The timing is tight, but you can roll into him to avoid this attack. He does this right at the start, making it difficult to summon a Spirit Ash.
- He will sometimes swing several times before slamming the ground, causing damage over a large area. Roll back, left, or right before rolling into him to try and get behind the slam. You can also dodge left or right for the sword swings then hastily roll backward two or three times to avoid the slam.
- In his second form, Consort Radahn will glow and begin floating in the air. Run back to avoid the area of damage.
- In his second form, Consort Radahn will try to grab you. Dodge at the last second. It doesn’t do damage, but Miquella will charm you and from there Consort Radahn will kill you. Make sure you have Miquella’s Great Rune in a quick item slot to use after this happens.
Last, consider using a Spirit Ash summon to draw attention away from you while fighting Consort Radahn. The classic Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche work well enough; they may not survive long even with all Revered Spirit Ashes found, but at least they’ll buy you some time to whittle him down to his second phase and beyond.
Elden Ring Consort Radahn melee strategy
To defeat Consort Radahn using melee, you’re going to want to stay as close as possible to him to avoid some of his more long-ranged, damaging abilities. This will, once again, require memorizing most of his moves and learning how much window you have to attack after a successful dodge. We do not recommend using a shield unless you have a ton of stamina to work with as he hits rather hard.
While difficult to do, you can stagger Consort Radahn. If using a rather large weapon, we recommend using jumping attacks when you have a short opening to hit him. If going this route, you may want to equip the Claw Talisman to increase jump attack damage. If using a faster weapon, hitting him with a charged heavy attack is key to knocking him to his knees for a critical hit. We found that a fully upgraded Backhand Blades, looted from the Gravesite Plains at the beginning of the DLC, fast enough to get a charged heavy off before recommitting to dodging. We stuck the Savage Lion’s Claw Ash of War on it for even more stagger potential.
This also works with weapons that cause bleed build-up if you wish to take off chunks of Consort Radahn’s health that way; however, do note that getting enough sustained pressure to stagger or cause bleed takes longer with Consort Radahn as the punish windows are shorter and less frequent than other bosses.
Elden Ring Consort Radahn ranged strategy
The best ranged strategy against Consort Radahn, whether wielding sorceries, incantations, or bows, is to switch to a melee strategy. Seriously – he’s an overpowered boss that will punish any attempts at getting off powerful spells with long windup animations with near instant-death. While it’s possible to get enough poise through equipment and talismans – over 100 – to tank a few of his attacks while casting, you’re only going to survive attempting to do so if you’ve fully committed to damage negation as well.
That said, if you have a fully upgraded Spirit Ash summon assisting you, such as a Mimic Tear, you should be able to get a handful of powerful spells off to whittle Consort Radahn down to around 50% HP before the summon dies; from there, you’re going to want to switch to quick-casting sorceries or incantations, such as the Carian sword spells or Lightning Spear, to chip him down the rest of the way. This will still require you to learn the brief openings where you can attack Consort Radahn.
Do note that Consort Radahn will leap at you after immediately entering the arena, meaning you cannot summon your Spirit Ash right away.
Elden Ring Consort Radahn cheese strategy
Consort Radahn is very difficult to cheese. While we defeated him by using our melee strategy above, we’ve seen discussion online that using a Mimic Tear equipped with a colossal weapon will allow you to stagger him far more frequently – a strategy that worked in the base game as well. The idea is that with both you and your Mimic Tear hitting him for high poise damage, you can stagger and critically hit Consort Radahn enough to stop the fight from becoming a battle of attrition and instead turn it into a race against running out of healing. This strategy also requires all the physical damage negation techniques above as you’ll be tanking some hits, and you will have to have a basic understanding of Radahn’s attacks for this to work regardless.
The Axe of Godfrey from the base game works well here with its Regal Roar skill. Otherwise, you could try the Grazing Finger club from the DLC, earned by trading in the Remembrance of the Mother of Fingers at Roundtable Hold for it after beating Metyr, Mother of Fingers.
We hope this guide helps you overcome this ridiculously overpowered boss and that you’re able to see Shadow of the Erdtree to its conclusion. If you do manage to do so, and you’re itching to play more Soulslikes, we have a handy guide on the best Soulslikes on PC for you to check out. And if you want to take a break from this challenging genre, we don’t blame you, either.
