Starscourge Radahn is one of the toughest early game shardbearers. Unlike the other two early demigods, you don’t just find him at the end of a dungeon; there are some conditions you need to fulfill to face him.
The most popular way is to defeat Godrick and Rennala to unlock the Radahn festival in Redmane Castle in Caelid. But there is also a lesser-known, easier option. Collecting the Grand Lift Decius medallion halves and rushing the Altus Plateau The final way sits in the middle and involves Ranni’s quest line.
In this article, we will look at the three ways to unlock the Rahdan fight, how to get there, and what to expect while facing the Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring.
Starscourge Radahn: The Traditional Route
The route the game intends for you to take to find Starscourge Radahn is to first go and kill Godrick and Rennala. This is mostly due to the difficulty scaling of the bosses, as Gorick is easier than Rennala, and Rennala is easier than Radahn. Once they are defeated, it will start the Radahn festival, where you will find Starscourge Radahn.
1. Here is a brief rundown of how to get to Godrick the Grafted
Head to Stormvale Castle in the Limgrave region. The first couple of graces will point the way but otherwise you just need to follow the road up Stormhill.
On the way to the castle you will get attacked by Margit the Fell Omen (boss) whom you will need to defeat to continue onward.
Past Margit, you will find the gates to the castle. Here you will meet Gatekeeper Gostoc who can open the gate but will warn you that it is dangerous or you can take the path to the left.
If you take the “easy” path, you will go through the opening and make your way through the castle. The enemies are quite spaced out at the start so you should have too much trouble if you have made it this far. You need to make your way to the main courtyard, but the route is relatively straight forward.
If you take the “dangerous” path you will need to run a gauntlet of arrows and enemies. If you have a bloodhound’s step you can blitz your way up the path to reach the main courtyard of the castle.
From the courtyard, you need to follow the stairs on the right until you get to the Secluded Cell Site of grace. Also, if you met Nepheli while exploring the castle you should also see her golden summon sign outside the boss door.
When you pass through the doors you will be greeted by Godrick the Grafted. This fight has two stages. The second triggers when he is around 60% health and he will get a flame attack. If you have summoned Nepheli she is a great help in this fight as she can tank.
2. Here is a brief rundown of how to get to Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
Rennala is found in the Liurnia of the Lakes region. You can get here by either defeating Godrick the Grafted or by going around the castle and following the secret path along the cliffside in Northern Stormhill.
The academy is in the center but to get access you will need to pick up the entrance key which can be found near the Temple Quarter site, north of the academy, in the nest of the Glintstone Dragon Smarag nest. You don’t need to kill the dragon, as you can simply run in, pick it up, and then run away. Note: It has the purple glow
With the key in hand, you can make your way through the academy.
There is a boss you need to kill, the Red Wolf of Radagon. When the wolf dies you have a new site of grace.
Out the doors is a courtyard, go up the east edge, where a raised bridge is located. Follow the bridge and watch out for the rolling ball.
At the top, you will find a single enemy, a Carian Knight. It is a unique enemy so once you kill it, it will not respawn. After killing the knight, you will gain access to the elevator that will take you to the Queen Rennala of the Full Moon boss fight.
Queen Rennala’s, like Godrick she has two phases. In the first to deal damage, you need to attack her minions with a gold aura until her bubble bursts and she will eventually drop to the ground so you can attack her directly.
In her next phase Rennala will unleash all manner of spells that deal high amounts of damage, including using her own spirit ashes. Note: she is resistant to magic damage and melee characters will suit the fight. Once you defeat Queen Rennala, you will get her great rune and will unlock rebirth.
Once they are both dead, you will start the Radahn festival at Redmane Castle.
Triggering the Radahn Festival at Altus Plateau
The second way you can trigger the Radahn festival is to activate a site of grace on the Altus Plateau. You can do this without killing a single boss, and if you are quick, this can take well under two hours.
There are two paths, but for now we will concentrate on the one with the fewest enemies, which is to take the Dectus Lift. But in order to use the lift, you will need to collect the two medallion halves.
Dectus Medallion, Left
The left side of the medallion is found in Fort Haight, in the Limgrave region. The nearest site of grace is Fort Haight East. The area is part of the Kenneth questline, but you don’t need to interact with him to find it.
When you get to the fort, you will find some demihumans getting shot by the ballista on the fort, but you can just ride past this area on Torrent. Out the front of the fort, there are several soldiers and a Pumpkin Head. You can summon spirits here, and the lone wolf ashes are useful for keeping the crowd away from you.
You don’t actually need to attack anything to get into the fort. You can simply run past everything, enter the gates, then head up the stairs. At the top there is an elite soldier, but, again, you can run past him into the tower and up the ladder. At the top you will find a chest with the medallion in.
Dectus Medallion, Right
The other half can be found in Forth Faroth, in Caelid. The easiest way to get to the fort is from the Bestial Sanctum, which you can teleport to from the Third Church of Marika (the portal is in the water behind the church). From the Bestial Sanctum, travel south until you find the giant dragon, and the fort is on its left next to the burning wall.
Once again, the medallion is in a chest accessible by a ladder, and once again, you can run past all the enemies inside to get to it. It is worth running past them no matter what level you are, as the bats can make short work of players over RL100.
Dectus Lift
The lift itself is in northern Liurnia at the end of the Bellum Highway (near one of the gates to the academy). You just need to follow the road up, past the enemies and trebuchets. At the base of the lift, you will get the “hoist medallion” prompt.
At the top, you will be greeted by two golems, but if you head left, you will find the Altus Plateau site of grace, resting at it is a crucial part of this method to start the Radahn festival at Redmane Castle.
Triggering the Radahn Festival via Ranni’s Quest
The third way to unlock the Radahn festival is to start the Ranni quest line. Her quest is one of the longest in the game but you only need to complete it up to a certain point to start the festival.
You can start this by visiting Ranni in the Three Sisters in Liurnia. To get to the Three Sisters, you will need to travel through Caria Manor and fight Knight Loretta to get access.
You will find Ranni at the top of the tower named “Ranni’s Rise” (the middle one with a dragon out the front). She will task your character to find the hidden treasure of Nokron and ask you to speak with her followers, War Counselor Iji, Half-Wolf Warrior Blaidd, and Preceptor Seluvis.
Note: If you have attacked any of her followers you will need to go to the Church of Vows to get forgiveness.
You will find all three downstairs. The three will appear as spectral projections that can be spoken with. You will be unable to leave the tower area until all three people have been spoken with and their dialogue has been exhausted. After speaking to the three, return to Ranni and finish speaking with her.
Note: If she tells you to begone after mentioning the curse mark on her discarded body, you won’t be able to start her quest until you speak to Rogier at the Roundtable Hold.
Next, you will need to find Blaidd in the Siofra River area. He will suggest that you go speak with Seluvis at Seluvis’s Rise in Three Sisters. He will inform you that Sorceress Sellen might have some information and then give you Seluvis’s Introduction to show her.
Sellen is at the Waypoint Ruins (you need to fight a Pumpkinhead to see her) and showing her Seluvis’s Introduction. She will tell you that Starscourge Radahn has used his power to stop the movement of the stars and that you will need to slay him. This will start the Radahn festival at Redmane Castle.
How To Find Starscourge Radahn
With the Radahn festival unlocked, you will be able to fight Starscourge Rahdan by travelling to Redmane Castle in South east Caelid (the area filled with the scarlet rot). The best way to enter the castle is through the transporter at the impassable gate, which will teleport you directly inside to the courtyard.
Note: If you do this before the Radahn festival, you will get attacked by the soldiers inside.
In the courtyard you will find several NPCs, including Blaidd and Alexander, warrior Pot. You should also get a welcome message from Jaren to the Radahn festival. If you want to fight Radahn, you will need to speak to Jaren, who can be found up the stairs.
Speaking to him will trigger a cutscene about Radahn and how the festival is a way to celebrate Radahn. Once it’s finished, the church doors will open, and you will find a lift you will need to take down. At the bottom, you will find a transporter and an effigy of the Martyr, which you can use to get multiplayer help.
To get to Starscourge Radahn, go through the transporter, and you will be teleported to the boss arena.
The Boss: How to Fight Starscourge Radahn
The Starscourge Radahn boss battle area is massive, and you will start at quite a distance from Radahn himself. Fortunately, if you aren’t using multiplayer summons, you can ride torrent in this fight.
You should also notice that there are several golden summon signs scattered on the ground, and unlike other golden summons, you will be able to re summon them should any die while fighting.
Starscourge Radahn Attacks and Phases
Like the other bosses in this list article and many major Elden Ring bosses, he also has two phases.
Phase 1
Radahn will always open the first phase with ranged attacks. At first, they will be singular magic arrows. One hit can do lots of damage, so be sure to be constantly moving at this part.
As you get closer, it will become an arrow barrage. But as soon as someone is within close range, he will halt and switch to attacking with his swords. If you use the NPC summons to fight alongside you, they can help reach Radahn and get him to swap quickly, as they will just run straight to him.
During the first phase, he only has a few attacks, including some strong spinning slashes, but he moves around a lot. At around 75% health, he will start slamming his swords into the ground, which does a gravity pull, stunning everyone around before doing another attack that deals a heavy amount of damage.
As you chip more of his health away, he will gain a few new ranged attacks; just be wary of his rush attacks and try to create distance using Torrent.
Phase 2
The second phase will start when he reaches half health. He will leap into the air for a few moments before eventually crashing back into the arena in a fiery ball like a meteor. Riding torrent can help you avoid it. Note: if you are hit by it, you will most likely be one shot.
Starscourge Radahn’s attacks will increase when he lands. In this final phase, you need to watch his 3 new gravity magic attacks: a gravity wave attack, gravitas, and drill blades.
Once he is dead, it will unlock the Sand Dunes site of grace and a prompt to teleport away.
Tips
Radahn has a weakness to the scarlet rot and other status effects.
Ranged users will have an easier time as the NPCs can keep him back while you hit him with spells or arrows.
Melee builds will benefit from armor with high poise and will need good timing to escape his spinning attack.
You should be at least level 70 before the fight so the traditional route is recommended to get the runes necessary.
You can cheese the fight by standing at the waterline when after he has jumped up into the air at the start of the second phase as he can land in the water killing himself.
The best opportunity for melee attacks is when he has started his slam attack, rush in and hit him from behind and run away before he pulls you in.
The NPC summons are key in distracting Radahn and allowing you to get to a safe distance to drink a flask.
If you are on foot, the two attacks you need to be wary of are his spinning slashes and gravity pull.
If you are a mage using rock sling and the meteorite staff can stagger Radahn.
Final Thoughts
Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring is an impressive early game optional boss. But if you want to find him, either because you are a completionist or because you are following a certain witch’s quest, you’ll find him in Redmane Castle.
Dane started off gaming at the tender age of 3 with the first Atari console. His favorite video game genres are turn-based RPGs (can I get a shout out for Tactics Ogre?) and fighting games. Read more...
