Best Boss Battles: Promised Consort Radahn

Miquella awaits thee, o promised consort.

Y’know, when I wrote my article on the original Radahn fight, I wasn’t expecting to write a sequel so soon. Or at all. Nor did I ever want to. Thanks, Miyazaki.

As you travel through the Land of Shadow, many powerful foes will bar your path. Renalla the Twin Moon Knight. Messmer the Impaler. Midra, God of Frenzied Flame. Those giant flame fuckers with a billion HP. The same dragons we’ve killed a thousand times in the base game. So on and so forth.

Yet all of them pale to what awaits at the end of your journey. One of, if not the, hardest boss fight in From Software history. Harder than the Orphan of Kos, than Isshin the Sword Saint, than even Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

Champion of the Festival, the Promised Consort: Radahn. The mightiest of the demigods, brought back to the prime of his power.

Or as close as he could get without his trusty steed. RIP, Leonard.

But why is he back? How is he back? Well, to understand that, we first must understand the god to whom he is sworn: Miquella.

Miquella the Kind sought not to inherit the Golden Order from his mother, Marika, for he knew that the Order hid many dark secrets. He saw the world of horror and brutality that had come about because of his mother’s rule. He lived it; while his sister, Malenia, was cursed ever to rot, Miquella was cursed to remain forever young, doomed to never reach his true potential. Thus, he sought to form his own order, free from Marika and the Two Fingers, and become his own god. One that would rule over a world of compassion.

At some point, Miquella asked his half-brother Radahn to serve as consort to his new order. Though Radahn made the promise, when Miquella asked him to make good on it, he refused. So Miquella the Kind did the reasonable thing: he sent his sister to nuke Radahn, along with the entirety of Caelid, with the Scarlet Rot.

Despite his title, Miquella is far and away the most terrifying of the demigods. Rather than wielding the power to bend the stars, he held the ability to twist the hearts of those around him. Mortal, demigod, anyone he needed to fulfill his goal fell under Miquella’s spell. He’s a tyrant who rules by love rather than fear.

One such victim was another of his siblings: Mohg, the Lord of Blood. Brainwashing Mohg, Miquella tricked him into thinking he would be the promised consort for his new kindly domain. Using him, Miquella gained access to the Land of Shadow, where he could ascend as his mother did into true godhood. But with Radahn still raging against the rot writhing within him, his true plans could not yet come to fruition.

That’s where you, the player, come into play.

If you’ll recall, you kill both the rotted Radahn and the brainwashed Mohg in the base game. Little did we know that we were playing right into Miquella’s hands. For in striking them down, we sent Radahn’s soul to the kindly god’s grasp, and in murdering Mohg, we provided a body that could house the general’s spirit. Thus, by your own unwitting hand, Radahn returned, young and strong and fully entranced within Miquella’s spell.

And he’s going to kill you. A lot. Like, a LOT. I was stuck on this guy for nine hours across five days. It was a nightmare.

My loyal blade. And champion of the festival. Both your deeds will ever be praised in song.

Now, the vow will be honoured, and my Lord brother’s soul will return. So that he may be my consort.

Once you step onto the peak of Enir-Ilim, to the gates of heaven crafted from what seems to be mountains of corpses, Radahn makes his presence known. Drawing his two blades from the ground, the whole arena trembles beneath his monstrous power. Then, with Miquella’s voice ringing across the field, the battle begins.

Radahn will start the battle out by leaping through the air towards you, wreathed in the purple lightning of gravity magic. Once he hits, the power extends outwards in a wave of sharp stone. Luckily, this move is pretty easy to dodge. Just roll inwards once he gets close, and you’ll have a brief window to punish, heal, or summon.

Heavy emphasis on brief. Hope you make the best of it. That’s pretty much the biggest window he’s gonna give you at any point in the fight.

The demigod’s basic combos are slow heavy-hitting swings that vary in length. While they are difficult to avoid, particularly if you’re mashing the dodge button in a panic like I always do, there is a distinct rhythm to them. You need to be bold and calm; retreat or mess up the timing, and you’re in for a world of hurt, no matter how many Scadutree Fragments you’ve collected. Just be patient, dance to the rhythm, and you’ll be all right.

Gravity magic is still the consort’s bread and butter. Get too far, and he’ll pull you in and unleash a nigh unavoidable AOE attack. Luckily, this can be avoided if you dodge through the initial pull. If Radahn doesn’t feel like bringing you to him, he’ll leap into the air, conjuring a half dozen boulders and hurling them at you. This move can be tricky to dodge; run as fast as you can to either side and either dodge/jump the last few rocks as they fall, or stick close to the walls and use them to absorb the blows before they come.

Being housed in Mohg’s body, Radahn is also armed with a blood-flame attack. After thrusting a sword forward, he’ll slice to the side, leaving a red gash in the air. Stand too close to it, and it will explode for some hefty damage. Thankfully, the initial attack isn’t too hard to avoid, making it easier to position yourself to avoid said explosion.

While all of this can certainly be overwhelming to begin with, it’s still perfectly manageable. Your windows to punish are small, but once you get the dodge timing down, you’ll find yourself with more of them to work with. Keep calm and steady, and phase one will eventually become a cake walk.

Phase two is another story entirely.

Lord brother. At long last, you are returned.

Tarnished one. Aspiring Lord of the old order. If you have known sin, if you grieve for this world, then yield the path forward to us.

To I, Miquella, and my promised consort, Radahn.

With Miquella riding piggy-back on Radahn’s shoulders, this boss fight becomes 10000% more difficult. Not only does he keep his phase one moveset, not only is he faster and stronger, but almost all of his attacks are now wreathed in Miquella’s holy light. It can be downright blinding to look at! These two will flash-bang you, then pound you into the dirt before you can so much as rub your eyes!

At the beginning of phase two, Miquella will conjure a massive circle of light. If you see this and you aren’t already running for you life, then it’s too late. This thing has a massive radius, does crazy damage, and as a last little cherry on top, sends out pillars of light afterwards to do additional damage after the initial blast. Oh, but they won’t always open up with this; you’ve gotta be on your toes the instant the phase change happens, lest they surprise you with one of their other devastating light attacks.

As stated earlier, Radahn maintains his moveset from phase one for phase two. However, now his basic combos are accompanied by beams of light, increasing their damage and changing their dodge window. Hope you’re not too attached to that muscle memory from the normal version, because it can and probably will kill you. Oh, and don’t get too comfortable at a distance, because now they have the rings of light magic that you yourself may already have.

Did I mention that they can now clone themselves? Several of their attacks are accompanied by a row of illusory Radahns to psych you out and cover the real one’s assault. But don’t be deceived; both the real and illusory versions can hit you for some mean damage. Besides which, they can make tracking the real thing a bloody nightmare.

Even if they do look really fucking cool.

Finally, the pair have a command grab. Should Radahn scoop you up in his arms, Miquella will descend to whisper a honeyed word in your Tarnished’s ear. This will leave you with a glowing symbol hovering over your head. Should they hit you with that move again, your character will drop to their knees and pledge fealty to Miquella, and you’ll be treated with a unique death screen: ‘Heart Stolen.’

Luckily, there is a counter to this. If you found your way to the base of the Scadutree and killed the Scadutree Sentinel, you’ll have gained Miquella’s Broken Great Rune. While the game describes this as a relatively useless item, it does serve one crucial function: to dispel charms. Take this into the fight with Miquella and Radahn, and you can use it to break the kindly god’s charm before your heart can be stolen. Though be warned: if you don’t have summoned aid to keep the god and his consort off your back, the window for using this item will be small indeed.

But Radahn still has one last trick up his sleeve. One you probably remember from his first battle. Once he reaches his last eighth or so of health, Radahn will leap up and vanish into the air. He comes back down in a golden ray, causing a massive explosion. If there is a dodge window for this, I never figured it out. You’ll either hope you’re far enough away or that you have enough health and healing left to make up for the damage.

Yet for all of his speed and power, it’s Radahn’s durability that makes this fight an absolute nightmare. This boss has an insane pool of health. 46,134, according to his page on the wiki. While he can kill you basically whenever he wants, you’ll need to survive one of the most exhausting marathons in video game history.

This is far and away one of the most demoralizing bosses in From Software’s history. They can kill you with such brutal efficiency at any point in the fight that learning how to dodge even one of their attacks is a boss fight in it of itself. After spending several hours getting wiped out instantly, I found it difficult to find the will to keep fighting. This shit started to feel personal, dudes!

But make no mistake. Radahn is far from invincible. His basic attacks can be parried, and he’s still vulnerable to status effects like bleed and scarlet rot. Unstoppable though they may be, this boss is still mortal.

If you persist, if you keep going and finally manage to overcome? Holy shit, dude. I was so excited that I lost my god damn voice screaming my victory! It truly makes you feel like you’ve just ascended to godhood!

With Radahn and Miquella laying slain at your feet, you may now claim your spoils. Firstly, you’ll be treated to a cutscene of a young, innocent Miquella begging Radahn to become his consort. It seems that before Miquella gave up everything he was, he did genuinely want to make the world a better place for altruistic reasons rather than selfish intent.

If you’re still willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt.

If you’re not so much about lore rewards, fear not. You’ve got plenty of material items to grab as well. Firstly, you’ll take Miquella’s golden crown from his head, which is one of the best Faith headpieces in the game. Considering I play a Faith-magic paladin, this left me feeling quite pleased with myself.

Taking their Remembrance back to the Finger Crone, you have not two, but three choices. Two of which are variant’s on Radahn’s greatswords, one with the standard gravity magic, the other with the illusory holy magic. The third is Miquella’s giant light explosion spell. All three are well worth the effort; the swords are some of the strongest in the game, and Miquella’s light spell does crazy damage, has strong tracking, and can be cast from surprisingly great distances.

Some may argue that this boss is too difficult to be fun. Indeed, it certainly is more rage inducing than the average Elden Ring boss. However, to say that it is unreasonable or unfair seems a bit much for me. Yes, it is overwhelming and brutal, but it’s still well within the range of possibility. People are already no-hit running them, you can parry a lot of Radahn’s attacks, and if you simply can’t find the way forward, you can always summon other players for help. God knows there’s more than enough of ’em lined up outside the fog wall.

Even so, I doubt I’ll be throwing hands with Promised Consort Radahn any time soon with my other characters. Partially because only my paladin benefited from it, and I already beat them with him. But mostly because of how exhausting this bloody fight is! Seriously, I felt like I ran three consecutive marathons with this one!

Love it or hate it, I think we can all agree that this boss fight has already become a legend in the gaming space. I doubt anyone who has faced them will be forgetting the experience anytime soon. For fuck’s sake, poor Kai Cenat was so traumatized he had to talk to a therapist on stream!

I could use such a chat myself after this fight…