Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is proving to be quite a difficult game to complete, and the main problem players are facing is the final fight of the DLC. Since launch, even seasoned Elden Ring veterans have found this fight extremely difficult, but that hasn’t stopped players from rising to the challenge by creating the most ridiculous builds. For example, one player has now managed to defeat both phases of the final boss with a single attack.
Spoilers for the ending of Shadow of the Erdtree.
First spotted by Gaming Radar+Streamer Ainrun is the latest to defeat the DLC’s final boss, the Promised Consort Radahn, in absolutely stunning fashion. Some have designed builds that allow them to overcome Radahn’s immense attacks, but Ainrun opted for something completely different: annihilating him with a single attack.
How does he accomplish this feat? With the help of several magics. Far more than I thought you could reasonably accumulate. Elden Ring To be completely honest, as a Soulslike player who often uses the blade and nothing else, magic seems wild in these games. I still won’t use it, but kudos to all of you for managing to crack this game wide open.
I really don’t get the amount of stuff Ainrun uses before the fight and their different effects. I get the Physick, obviously, but he goes on to use several other consumables, including a stone that seems to make him frenzy (a tactic that is also used to destroy other bosses with powerful techniques), which wakes his character from a sleep he falls into due to something else Ainrun does before the video starts. He also uses Ash of War techniques, which are abilities often tied to specific weapons that use FP (Elden Ring’s mana), like a flag that empowers Ainrun, and a literal act of seppuku.
At the end of this exhaustive list, Ainrun uses a dozen buffs at once. With all the different items and abilities used, including a weapon swap, he enters Radahn’s arena, uses an additional Ashes of War ability, and then unleashes a charged heavy attack as the boss rushes to close the distance between them. You can barely make it out because of Twitter’s video compression, but this single attack deals 93,000 damage to Radahn, completely destroying his health bar.
This is such a powerful move that it triggers Radahn’s second phase cutscene and also skips the entire phase itself. By the end, Radahn (and Miquella, I assume) are left limp, having barely landed a single attack. Radahn’s move hits and manages to kill Ainrun, but once the boss is defeated, only Ainrun will return and be able to claim victory.
Even though the Radahn fight at the end of Shadow of the Erdtree is a complete flop (and for the record, it’s really broken and not in your favor), it was almost worth it to see how players like Ainrun crafted builds to meet the challenge. There are obviously much easier ways to improve yourself, like using just a few of the skills Ainrun deploys here rather than the full range. You can build on Scadutree’s blessings to reach Radahn’s immense strength via Shadow of the Erdtree’s standalone leveling system, but it’s especially satisfying to see people go on crazy adventures and develop completely cracked builds instead. Kudos to FromSoftware for allowing players to break the game in their favor, and to the community for rising to the occasion and showing Radahn what he’s made of.