After stacking an ungodly amount of buffs, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss can be defeated in a single hit so strong that even its second phase cutscene can’t save it

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss is arguably the most formidable foe in the entire action RPG, but it turns out you can actually take it out in one single hit if you’re prepared enough. 

Warning: spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss are ahead.

Promised Consort Radahn is a menace, but multiple players have now demonstrated that you can delete him from the game in a matter of seconds. One of these is Twitch streamer Ainrun, who, over the weekend, stacked an ungodly amount of buffs to end the fight right as it started. 

After chugging Wondrous Physick, inhaling consumables like the Bloodboil Aromatic, and popping skills like Rallying Standard and Seppuku, the player heads into the boss arena. Then, after using the Royal Knight’s Resolve Ash of War to charge up the Tarnished’s next move, the streamer lands a ferocious charged attack to deal 93,000 damage and remove Radahn’s entire health bar. You’ve almost got to feel sorry for the boss – while he starts his cutscene to enter his second phase, as soon as it’s over, he falls to his knees as he and Miquella fade out of existence, no doubt wondering what the hell just happened.

If swords aren’t your style, then there are other ways to do this, too. Not even a week after Shadow of the Erdtree was released, YouTube content creator Titus Actual demonstrated how to take Consort Radahn out in a single hit using the Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Strike incantation. Similarly, this requires a massive amount of buffs and preparation to actually work – so many, in fact, that a large part of the challenge is popping them all fast enough that the first ones don’t wear off by the time you enter the fight. To counter this, Titus Actual had to swap around equipment while entering the boss arena to save time.

So, if you’ve been stuck on Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss for a while and just want to get it done, this is definitely one way to do so, even if remembering the list of buffs you need to pull off may honestly be harder than the regular fight. You can always check out our guide to beating Shadow of the Erdtree final boss Radahn for some top tips.

Elden Ring yapper beats Shadow of the Erdtree DLC using voice controls, taking down the final boss in a flurry of “wow,” “panic,” and “shrimp.”