Big Baddies Breakdown: Starscourge Radahn (Elden Ring)

In Big Baddies Breakdown, Wolfman Jew analyzes all sorts of boss fights across the games industry. The catch: one boss per game. Many of these are brilliant, some of them poor. Several show technical polish, while others tell stories through their fights. But all are worthy of discussion.

This article features spoilers for the boss fight against General Radahn. Thanks to Cart Boy and Hamada for edits.

Elden Ring has great bosses. It’s drowning in great bosses. That’s not surprising; it’s courtesy of FromSoftware, who have made spectacular bad guys their business in Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Boss fights are central to the FromSoft appeal, and they punctuate the rhythm of constant deaths and exciting triumphs. The worlds and pace of these games don’t make sense without each entrance or exit being guarded by a huge demon or a giant aggro knight, each with a big ole’ health bar and intense music. And given Elden Ring’s grand open world, demand for bosses is higher than ever.

Generally, a lot of the early discourse about a FromSoft game focuses hard on these guys, with excitement, difficulty, and general quality being the most popular topics. Is the boss too hard or easy? How unique do they fight? How unique do they look? Are they too similar to an older boss? It’s from these debates that certain bosses get put in the Souls Canon, the home of Vicar Amelia and Sif the Great Grey Wolf. And while many Elden Ring bosses joined the pantheon pretty much instantly, one dominated the discussion. He’s Elden Ring’s wildest, craziest, possibly best, and certainly most intriguing baddie of the bunch.

Image: Source Gaming. Malenia the Severed fights Starscourge Radahn to a standstill in the intro. Other than one GIF, all images were taken from a second playthrough of mine last week—except for this. This took about three restarted playthroughs to get right.

General “Starscourge” Radahn is one of eight Shardbearers, royal and godlike inheritors of the shattered Elden Ring who each hold sway over a realm of the Lands Between. They are heirs of the pantheon that built this dying empire, and they and their rivals comprise most of the political factions and antagonists. The bulk of the game is home to five of them, though Morgott, the Omen King is sheltered in the Royal Capital of Leyndell that houses your ultimate destination. To get into the citadel, kill him, and subsequently access the final areas, you have to defeat at least two of the remaining four. Godrick the Grafted is all but required for most players, even if he’s no less skippable, but the other three are up to you.

But being technically optional doesn’t make them side characters. Much of the plot and world revolves around the four: Godrick, Queen Rennala of the Full Moon, Radahn, and “Blasphemous” Praetor Rykard (their fellow Shardbearers Morgott, Mogh, Lord of Blood, Malenia the Severed, and Ranni the Witch are no less important). And since this is a FromSoft game, you’re probably going to want to fight them either for the experience points or the thrill of the hunt. All are exceptionally cool with multiple phases, incredible style, and exciting locations. But it was easy for the leonine Radahn to wildly eclipse his siblings within “Elden Ring discourse,” not for one reason but many.

First off: location. Radahn presides over the eastern realm of Caelid. It borders the starting area, Limgrave, so it’s entirely possible for a player to make it their second region. But that would be quite dangerous, as Caelid is spectacularly threatening. It’s a hellish apocalypse soaked in the burning red of the Scarlet Rot. A sort of boiling blood, it’s spent centuries eating Caelid alive and poisoning the minds of everything it touches. Random fires endlessly burn over the ruins of houses, hordes of bleeding skeletons march along roads, and ugly ravens and dogs tower over them. In the backstory, Radahn was one of the rot’s victims, and he’s spent forever riding his comically tiny horse having lost all but an instinct to kill and eat anything nearby.

Image: Source Gaming. This is most players’ first look at Caelid: arid, crimson, and backed by an exceptionally unnerving musical theme.

Caelid is scary even by FromSoft’s lurid standards, which is smart since it’s definitely intended to be explored after Limgrave, the Weeping Peninsula, and Rennala’s Liurnia of the Lakes. You’re expected to be around Level 50 or 60, at least. But you can go there fairly quickly, as I did, and either struggle through each enemy or aggressively seek out safe spaces that act as fast travel points. No matter when you see it, though, it stays in your mind. And you’re gonna associate it with Radahn whether making a beeline for every landmark or failing to access a conspicuously unapproachable beach to the southeast.

Similarly, while his hideout is pretty small, Redmane Castle still has exciting bits. Besieging it involves riding over a bridge and past a catapult’s fiery discharge, while sneaking through it pits you against flamethrowers and sword-fighting lions. It’s cinematic, exciting, and firmly leads into the second reason: presentation. All of the main Elden Ring bosses leak personality like a sieve, and the ways you get to them are often wild. Rykard, for instance, is a voracious cannibal god who happily invites you to be eaten and reborn inside him. He lives under a place literally called “Volcano Manor” whose subplot involves infiltrating a mass murder cult. They’re all like that, amazing and wild. But even there, Radahn outclasses the rest.

Image: Source Gaming. The front of Castle Redmane, with its trebuchet barely visible. Not so much of a humble brag, but this time I worked my way through it at only Level 29!

Because Radahn isn’t at Redmade Castle. There is a boss fight at its ending plaza, but progressing in Radahn’s quest line—which entails either progressing in Ranni the Witch’s or finding a way to the Altus Plateau, both of which are quite involved—removes it temporarily. Instead, the room turns from a place of death into one of celebration: the Radahn Festival. NPCs flock to the arena, all cheerful and excited. Two you might even know; you could have already met half-wolf Blaidd and living jar warrior Alexander earlier in optional but seeded points (Blaidd can also help clear out the castle—though only if you interact with him first, as I failed to do). It’s surprising given how this kind of character interaction is rare in FromSoft games.

What’s the Radahn Festival? An old knight explains in a monologue to the crowd: that giant inaccessible beach is Radahn’s home, where he rides day and night killing anything that wanders up the shore. It’s a horrid existence, so every so often a grand team of warriors tries again and again to kill him and end his pain. Many people in Elden Ring can return after death (which is part of the whole FromSoft system where death costs money but is never a fail state), and these ones keep signing up out of honor or kindness or because, as we can learn elsewhere, Radanh’s gravitational magic is so strong that even in mindlessness he still keeps the very stars frozen in place. “Starscourge” indeed.

This theatricality stays for the battle itself, which is the third thing. Because alongside being a great battle, Radahn’s entire deal has this meta element of upsetting the entire FromSoftware system. It starts with the approach. You’re on one end of the Wailing Dunes, and he’s at the center: towering, shadowed, and bathed in the red of the sky. You can summon your magic horse Torrent, and it’s not too long before you realize you have to. Radahn’s very first move is to snipe you with a homing arrow, one that’s got the kick of a mule. He’ll keep firing, demanding that you either dodge on your feet or run at full-tilt. Eventually, he’ll shoot a wave of arrows that rains on you in a mammoth line. It’s your cue to start riding up to him, since that’s the only way you’re outrunning them. Many of these attacks can one-shot many builds, as can his sword swings once you get into melee range.

Image: Source Gaming. Radahn’s opening play, and the game’s first clear evidence for where he even is. When I finally beat him on this playthrough, I was at Level 43.

This is terrifying, but you do have something—at least, beyond your dodge and your horse (though you can’t do both at once, nor can you summon Spirit Ashes like in most encounters). There are sigils marked all over the beach; these are summon signs for the eight other participants of the festival. It’s one of the most concrete and famous parts of FromSoft games, that you can summon NPC friends or human players to join you. Normally, summoning anyone increases the boss’s health as a compensation, but this requirement is lifted for the computer characters here. Because instead of doing much damage, their goal is to keep his attention from you. When they die, you can even summon them again from another sign elsewhere.

It’s like something out of a grand war epic. You walk, then dodge, then ride up the beach, summoning one friend at a time as they march forth. It’s truly awesome to see Radahn snipe you from far away, summon a storm of bolts, and slowly turn towards the heroes who’ve made it to him in his distraction. You don’t have to use the sidekicks at any point (most speedruns ignore it as a distraction, as do most videos showing the battle), but it’s super cool. There’s even a fun Easter egg mocking FromSoft’s scumbag mascot Patches. And yet, this run up to Radahn is just the first phase of four.

The next is seemingly simple: get yourself into melee range, then chip away at his health with or without your party. But in another point for the fight’s iconography, it flips the script. Radahn fits into a weird space in the spectrum of FromSoft bosses, which are most famous as either a malformed monster (Asylum Demon, the Rotten, Cleric Beast) or a comparably “normal” human rival who’s faster, bulkier, and far more deadly (Ornstein & Smough, Slave Knight Gael, Lady Butterfly). He combines both archetypes; he’s a beast—a dead ringer for Ganon from The Legend of Zelda, no less, which I doubt is a coincidence—but he’s also a deft swordsman. And thanks to his adorable horse, he can zip around the beach faster than any other boss.

Image: Source Gaming. My lack of familiarity with PS4 capturing means that the only videos I captured (which made this GIF) were by accident. But it’s hard to show Radahn’s scarily smooth movement in stills.

This twisting is something Elden Ring explores with its player character as well, primarily with their horse Torrent. It’s much faster than almost any enemy, and it allows you to circle and flee and outpace them. It’s an inversion of the combat in FromSoft’s games; you’re faster and stronger but can’t dodge, almost like a boss. There are other horseback bosses like Radahn that push you to use Torrent. But none of them are as fast as him. None of them have as many moves as he does. None of them are as scary.

Fitting for a “conqueror of the stars,” the actual duel against Radahn has a slightly otherworldly feel. A lot of the studio’s boss fights are theatrical and grandiose, but not in this way. The arena is hazy and wide—probably as wide as several individual areas in Dark Souls. It takes so long to get a good look at him, and that might be after you’ve already died by his hand several times. He’s very hard, and while many FromSoft bosses are very hard, and some arguably too hard, none ever feel quite so overwhelming or intimidating. Even divorced from the story, or the whole “Aragorn summoning the Army of the Dead” thing, it feels special.

But you can get in, slash, evade, run back in, summon your buddies, and take him down. You have to be quick and even more careful than usual, but the humongous arena is an amazing asset for retreating. Of course, some high level players even give up on Torrent by this point just to get their dodgeroll back, though that’s quite a challenge. But it’s more than possible to cut his health down to fifty percent, after which, he suddenly… disappears. Radahn just up and leaves. You don’t know what happened to him.

And then this happens:

Image: Tenor. Still kicking myself for not thinking to get video of this, but FromSoft games autosave and I can’t replay the game again just to get to him a third time.

Yes, General “Starscourge” Radahn f___ing shoots himself down to earth like a goddamn meteor! It’s amazing! It’s stupendous! It’s one of the single craziest things to ever appear in a FromSoft game, but the extremely lavish one-hit kill is only a one-scene act before the finale. Phase Four is just a continuation of the sword fight, but with the baggage of his last attack keeping him extra threatening. Plus, now he has a number of magical meteoroids revolving around him, each capable of being launched for a lot of damage. The sky even changes to a dark blue night sky, almost as though he drew the blood red right into his attack.

Actually, they used to do even more. Part of what made Radahn the most iconic boss of Elden Ring was in his sheer difficulty; you’re expected to be in the Level 60 – 70 range for him, but he’d still regularly one-shot you. I think it took me well over fifty tries to beat him, at a higher level than “expected” by the end, and about a week before a patch that significantly cut his damage output, reduced his hitboxes, and was replaced weeks later by another patch buffing him. FromSoftware felt their nerf overreached. Arguably, it did, and making his magical attacks less potent (and giving them fairer hitboxes) was the most important thing. After all, being sniped well before you’re in range puts too much weight on the part before you actually get to see him.

If you make it through the Radahn festival, you gain more than just another notch to open the Capital. You have braggings rights and experience, to be sure, but there’s a more material prize. See, Radahn’s backstory as the binder of the stars, the explanation for his meteor attacks and ability to ride that tiny pony? That has actual plot relevance, as his death sets the stars back into motion and lets a meteor crash right in the Weeping Peninsula. If you stumble upon the impact site, you’ll find a mammoth tear in the ground that opens the way to Nokron, the Eternal City. The underground sections of Elden Ring are among its wildest secrets, and this one is central to the questline of fan favorite Ranni the Witch, so this shocking new area is just one last feature of his notoriety.

Image: Source Gaming. The entrance to Nokron, one city in a massive series of underworlds most players will miss entirely. But… did the comet cause that devestation?

Size, scale, import, inexplicable meteor attack; Radahn has it all. He’s got the excellent Ganon look. He’s got an amazing fight. Everything around the fight is just as spectacular. I really don’t want to do poorly by the other bosses, because they are superlative, too. The demented Rykard, the very easy but rather stylish Rennala, the super-tough dragons, the Fire Giant, Astel the Naturalborn of the Void in all its hideousness… I could keep naming great or insane or memorable bosses. There’s a ton of them. One is basically a Tekken character, while others throw out entire storms with one arm. They can be found in rivers of blood, undead trees, and picturesque keeps. Alongside Elden Ring’s copious other qualities, it might have the actual best FromSoft bosses. Even its bad ones have stature.

But even in their individual glory, they’re still overshadowed by Radahn. The style that FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki developed in Demon’s Souls and have been iterating on since 2009 is great. Every sequel has found new and satisfying ways to interact with it. The same is true with the storytelling, world-building, and role-playing elements. It’s getting older but is still very much alive. But fighting Radahn is like being thrown into something far, far more insane and unsafe. It feels unusual, terrifying, special. It’s kind of a response to several tropes the studio’s well known for, but it’s not just that. It’s unbelievable.