Elden Ring Radagon boss fight walkthrough: How to beat Radagon of the Golden Order
How to beat Radagon of the Golden Order, the penultimate boss of Elden Ring
Want to know how to beat Radagon in Elden Ring? Radagon of the Golden Order is the first half of the final fight in Elden Ring and pushes the player to really take advantage of the game’s new tools. You’ll need to apply many of the lessons you’ve learned across Elden Ring’s wide array of bosses while conserving flask charges and other resources for the true final boss after. Tackling Radagon efficiently goes a long way toward completing the final boss. In this guide, we’ll give you everything you need to do just that.
Elden Ring Radagon boss fight walkthrough
Radagon is deceptively fast, lurching across the arena with a variety of long-distance lunge attacks. When Radagon rears back to swing, you cannot get comfortable no matter how far away you are. Just about the entire arena is in range of most of his arsenal. He also has a variety of quick follow-ups and combo chains, so you can’t just roll once and swing.
Radagon also uses several abilities that deal Holy damage in large areas. These leave him vulnerable for longer and provide great opportunities to get damage in. However, they hit hard, cover large chunks of the arena, and aren’t always easy to roll through. Below we’ll walk you through dealing with these attacks, plus tips for defeating Radagon quickly to save your flask charges for the final boss.
How to beat Radagon: top tips for success
Here are our top tips for victory in the Radagon of the Golden Order boss fight.
- Jump over Radagon’s ground slam effects
- Use fire damage and Blackflame
- Avoid Blood Loss weapons
- Break Radagon’s Poise with jump attacks and guard counters.
1. Jump over Radagon’s ground slam effects
Radagon’s various holy ground slams track the player extremely well and often involve secondary explosions that make it very tricky to dodge them by rolling. It is possible to roll through these with impeccable timing and direction, but there is an easier method. You can jump over these blasts of Holy damage to avoid them entirely. This still requires some timing, but the window to jump over these attacks is much more generous than the window to roll through them.
2. Use fire damage and Blackflame
Radagon is surprisingly weak to fire damage, and any flame-based attacks, skills, and spells can very quickly dispatch him. Popular weapons like Blasphemous Blade and the Sword of Night and Flame work great for this, as do fire Incantations and Sorceries. Use any of these to deal huge chunks of damage to Radagon.
Black Flame skills and spells work particularly well, dealing high damage upfront before dealing even more damage over time. The Black Flame incantation lets you apply this from range, while non-elemental melee weapon users can use Black Flame Blade to temporarily apply Black Flame effects to their weapon. Black Flame Blade requires only 17 Faith, so a minor respec may be worthwhile if you’re struggling.
3. Avoid Blood Loss weapons
On the flipside, Radagon is extremely resistant to Holy damage and outright immune to Blood Loss. Blood Loss is a very popular build strategy, but you will gain nothing from it here. If you’ve been using katanas or other Blood Loss scaling weapons throughout the game, you may find you have enough damage to get by without it.
4. Break Radagon’s Poise with jump attacks and guard counters.
Like many humanoid bosses in Elden Ring, Radagon’s Poise, the stat that determines when an enemy’s stance breaks for a critical opening, is a bit low. Heavy weapon wielders and shield users can take advantage of this to deal tons of damage quickly. Jumping attacks are one of the best ways to break an enemy's poise, and work particularly well with heavy, strength-based weapons. Guard Counters also do the trick, and may work better for faster, lighter weapons. Use the Claw Talisman for jump attacks or the Curved Sword Talisman for Guard Counters to drop Radagon even faster.
That’s everything you need to defeat Radagon! This fight isn't necessarily the hardest in Elden Ring, but it's important to tackle it efficiently and conserve resources for the final boss. If your build needs adjusting before the fight, check out our guides to the best weapons and best talismans in Elden Ring for some ideas. Track down the rest of the game’s bosses with our complete list of every boss location in Elden Ring.