Elden Ring: How to beat the final boss

The final boss in Elden Ring is actually a two-part encounter. Here’s our guide to help you beat both Radagon of the Golden Order and the Elden Beast.

The final boss in Elden Ring is actually a two-part encounter. This occurs after you’ve finished off Godfrey, the First Elden Lord. Rest up and approach the previously barred entrance to the Erdtree to engage in a climactic duel. Here’s our guide to help you beat Radagon of the Golden Order and the Elden Beast in Elden Ring.

The final bosses of Elden Ring

Boss fight #1: Radagon of the Golden Order

Radagon of the Golden Order is a challenging boss in Elden Ring. This is primarily due to his endless cycle of repeating attacks, oftentimes aided with holy AoE. This gives Radagon unparalleled burst potential, and one misstep could lead to your doom.

Radagon’s abilities in Elden Ring include:

  • Grab and Pound – When the boss’ hand glows, it will attempt to grab you. This is a guaranteed kill since you’ll get hit for massive damage a couple of times. Roll away whenever you see it coming.
  • Holy Daggers – Similar to what you’ve seen from Morgott the Omen King, except these projectiles travel faster.
  • Holy Spear – Also similar to Morgott’s, but with higher velocity. Master the dodge timing for this since this will get used often.
  • Thor’s Hammer – One of the boss’ most used abilities is a flying lunge that crashes down on you.
  • Groundbreaker – Several melee combos will end with a powerful shockwave, causing an explosion on areas marked on the ground.
  • Stomp Blast – Even if you’re locked-on, the boss will disappear for a split second before reappearing, causing a shockwave in turn.

We opted to go with Dexterity weapons for the Radagon of the Golden Order fight in Elden Ring. Our suggestions include the Eleonora’s Poleblade from the Second Church of Marika in Altus Plateau and the Hand of Malenia dropped by Malenia Blade of Miquella.

Bear in mind that the default skills of these weapons have a charge-up time and lengthy animation that will leave you open. In fact, Radagon can bash you while you’re in mid-air in the middle of your animation.

This is where the Mimic Tear Ashes comes handy. This summon from Nokron Eternal City creates a clone of your character, including your loadout at the time of casting. It will help you deal a lot of damage, while also distracting the boss. You’ll then be able to follow-up with devastating hits, blocking or dodging immediately afterward in case the boss switches its attention to you.

Boss fight #2: Elden Beast

Immediately after killing Radagon of the Golden Order, a cutscene will play. This will showcase the Elden Beast, the real final boss of Elden Ring. Think of it as Loch Ness monster meets Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Thankfully, the Elden Beast is significantly easier, at least that’s how we see it since we’re fighting it from afar. That’s right, we chose to go with ranged DPS here with a fully-upgraded bow/crossbow and a lot of ammo, as well as the Arrow’s Reach and Arrow’s Sting talismans.

The reason for this is fairly simple: the Elden Beast encounter in Elden Ring has extremely predictable abilities if you’re battling from a distance.

These include:

  • Shower of Light – When you see beams coming out of its back, just run or sidestep to avoid a cascade of projectiles.
  • Cosmic Breath – When it lifts its head, back away since this breath attack has massive range.
  • Glitterbomb – When purple smoke forms in a line, sidestep since explosions will occur soon.
  • Sword Wave – You’ll want to get the timing for this down pat. The first two projectile slashes are done in quick succession. The third is slower, and the four is slightly more delayed.
  • Razzle Dazzle – A bright orb will follow you around, emanating streaks of light. It will then explode after a few seconds.
  • Combination – It’s possible for the boss to do a combo. For instance, Razzle Dazzle’s brightness can distract you, causing you to miss the boss’ animation when it’s doing the Sword Wave.

However, the Elden Beast’s most dangerous ability is the Rings of Power. While this won’t showcase the prequel to the Lord of the Rings, it will cause several circles to appear around you. The circles will slowly close in, and you need to time your roll correctly while attempting to get out of the center, since an explosion will follow.

Assuming the Mimic Tear summon survived, then it will still be able to grab the boss’ attention while you snipe. Play it safe and play it cool, and you should be able to defeat the final boss of Elden Ring in no time.

This will reward you with the Elden Remembrance. This key item can be exchanged for Marika’s Hammer, which has average Strength and Faith requirements, as well as the Sacred Relic Sword, which scales better with Dexterity and Faith.

Lastly, you’ll see a Site of Grace and a statue of the Fractured Marika nearby. You can make a backup save here in case you want to watch the other ending cinematics that you’ve unlocked in Elden Ring. Reload this save so you don’t need to fight Radagon and the Elden Beast again.

Struggling with another Elden Ring boss? Check out our full Elden Ring guide and walkthrough.

Written by Jason Rodriguez on behalf of GLHF.

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