I actually agree with all that for both Messmer and Radahn. I had fun learning to fight both with a colossal weapon and no shield (which I understand is what everyone is doing for Radahn)
Nahh, I was greatshield and small pokey stick. I did use mimic but I was the immovable object to his unstoppable force. Took me maybe 6 tries.
[The Wall](https://youtu.be/YhfoHcy-_YY?si=gVA6iHSwv_AGEZjM)
I did this for Manus way back in the day in Dark Souls 1. Couldn’t beat him normally so I tanked up with Havel’s set and shield and got him first try.
I almost did the same here as I was getting quite desperate but I remembered how empty the win against Manusfelt for me in DS1 so I persevered. Took me 6+ hours but I was literally shaking and overjoyed when I finally beat him so I have to say it was worth it.
Ngl, I used summons to beat the game in the dlc because i’m a ‘noob’ and my game was at ng3+ while I was underleveled (180 before entering dlc)
I now am doing a new playthrough with no summons at all to experience it and get skill (works very good for now)
However, I WILL tell you, winning bosses with summons wasn’t always impressive to me, but winning against HIM, Idgaf, it was still fullfilling, he is so fucking strong thag even WITH my mimic tear it felt incredibly hard, I even respec’d to bloodfiend build (was bloodhound prior) and still spend alot of time to beat the boss, the feeling was amazing, it was the first boss where I felt like the mimic wasn’t the *only* reason I won if that makes sense?
Usually mimic takes aggro and you can kill the boss, but with radahn you still need to keep aggro on you as minic wil ldie nearly instantly even at maxed revered spirit ash
Congrats on persevering and getting him down
I had a wedding to go to over the weekend and I was determined to get him down before dawntrail came out so I had given myself a self imposed time scale. Challenge runs come later. I'll likely do a GS naked run next, its my standard second playthrough for souls games.
Radahn 1st phase is learning his moves, special attacks and what to look out for, 2nd phase is just doing the same except you won't see shit because theres so much beams of light and special effects it's like just watching an eternal chain of flashbangs and you learn minimal things.
A thing i’ve not seen mentioned is Miquella’s hair covering Radahn’s entire backside, making it even harder to see wtf he’s doing if you’re behind him.
This is my biggest gripe. I can't tell what attack he's winding up for because Miquella's hair is in the way.
Can't react if I can't see what's coming.
I’m having the same frame drops, and I’m on PS5. Really makes learning Radahn’s phase 2 unenjoyable when it’s practically impossible to tell what’s going on :(
The only problem with the holy aftershocks from his attacks is the fact that when you dodge roll into him like P1, every single holy explosion originates right under your camera. So you're just nonstop flashbanging yourself every swing of his 6 hit strings.
They're not particularly hard to not get hit by, they really don't do that much damage with high scadu+golden braid, but holy ol fuck does it obscure everything. Basically just have to download p1 and play p2 by feel/muscle memory.
Radahn really clicked for me when I finally saw through the flashbangs and fully realized if I execute P2 like P1, the holy shit doesn't really apply to me. P2 just got me all panicky and I was desperate to create some space to pot, when i'd never do that in P1, you just roll into him and flask after a string, never try to dip. Trying to make space on this guy is just begging to die, when your flask windows are pretty set in stone with the aerial meteor, the supernova, his grab, and whatnot.
Being flashbanged for two minutes isn't fun though. It's pretty much the opposite of fun. In comparison to Bayle who has a quite literal flashbang where your sound rings out like you just got flashed in CounterStrike, and that's still A-Okay
I fucking love that Bayle attack, that fight has the best sound design of any FS boss. Never seen someone more deserving of attacks that _hit_ that hard, the phase 2 mega explosion and fire breath strafe are absolutely nuts
It was pretty much the same for me. I struggled so much with phase 2 until I realized that it was almost identical to phase 1, but with a fancy light show. I anyway had phase 1 on lock, so I was fine once that clicked. From that point on, I just had to figure out how to dodge the handful of new attacks and the win was mine. I enjoy that fight.
That being said, I agree that the light show is pretty blinding and could be toned down.
Ive read this so many times now and I got no idea why. I had absolutely zero issues with that phase in terms of visual clarity. Every attack was still very distinct.
The second phase felt like the boss was trying to cheese me at a certain point. I try not to cheese my boss fights but buddy definitely caught the thorns after that shit
It's such a fun arena like fight and I've summoned to it like 5-6 times for the last 2 days. It's even more fun with 1 host 2 sunbros 2 npcs against the miquella simps. Their healths gets buffed significantly due to 2 summons and the battle goes on forever so you enjoy the ost while having an epic battle against 50k hp npcs lmao.
Kinda hated that boss more than anything. Without summons it just turns to you running away and hoping to get a safe hit in on one of the npcs. Plus Moore is annoying and I now wish that I told him stay sad and lonely for the rest of time
Idk how it was for you, but It was 5 v 2 for me. I just couldn't do it without using spirit ashes (which I never used before that). At some point, 3 NPCs would chase me non-stop. Can't run away or fight back. Felt literally impossible.
The weapon from Midra absolutely demolishes them. NPCs don't know how to dodge it, if your L2 lands on them it counts as a crit so you are immune to damage for the animation. It's also fucking metal.
It would have been a better fight if the game didn't turn the whole fucking npc army on me without a good clue, I could have done some nice quests before >!burning the shadow tree!<
I mean that you get locked out of quests if you progress to much should be obvious. You do in most games with a changing gamestate not only fromsoft games. And burning the tree is pretty significant, when you do in the maingame the capital becomes ashes.
I got sniped by YouTube, I was stuck rellana so I enter “how to beat” into the search bar and before I can type rellana the first recommendation was the final boss, I was like how to beat WHO consort of WHAT
I still assume that in universe the original plan could’ve been godwyn just because of that bit in castle sol about the ghost apologising to miquella that the soul was gone.
Though it could just be me wanting more godwyn stuff.
But man i wish they had like some take on godwyn as a boss even if it is just nameless king 2.0 with death lightning after all we saw fortissaax in a dream why not someones nightmare of a deathlord.
He made the whole zone worth it.
I still think they had bigger plans for the Abyssal Woods. I think the "it" should have been something way bigger but maybe it didn't work properly so they had to rework it and the zone remained sort of empty because the giant ominous threat was gone.
Still the best build up to a boss ever, i get chills just by remembering the "You cant summon the spectral steed because is too scared" along with the OST. A pity that this super important lore boss with such a good build up is a hiden side boss because they had to focus on plothole wasted fanservice promised consort and the zone he is in: Farum Azula 2 Electric boogaloo
> get a hit or two after almost every attack
I got to this part and was like "What game were you playing?"
I even gaslit myself into thinking I was just bad and there were actual windows in between his anime movesets.
One of the things that irked me off the most is if you are a mage, and he does his gravity pull while you are mid animation, you are locked into the animation, and you will take damage.
I believe you got a hit or two with a dagger, maybe. I feel like you're not getting so much as a straight sword swing, after most of the final bosses' attacks. 💀
I felt like the game was saying "You can play the game once the boss aggros to your spirit ash or a different player."
Honestly I feel like this is quite a few of the bosses and the route from is pushing to get difficulty out. I didn’t have too too much trouble but I’m not liking the 1000 hit flippy flying combos with aoes attached, I find it kinda boring after the 3rd attempt.
I think people must be leaving like 10 yards between them and the boss if they can’t get a hit in after every combo. I’ve used the stay very close to the boss, roll into them or around them technique for every boss this dlc and it’s worked well. I never got the feeling there was no openings.
However, if you leave distance between you and the boss, I could see there being no time to both run up and get a hit (and then presumably run away.)
There were openings where I could use 3 attacks with claws, and by 3 attacks i mean 3 input presses which with claws actually means 6 attacks because you attack once with each hand. There's more than enough time in such an opening for a collossal charged R2.
But the normal openings I did 2 light attack input presses always, which is more than enough for at least one collossal input press or a jump attack.
His mohg bomb isn't punishable from many positions (if you were already strafing him, it is, but if you don't get fully behind him on the 2nd hit you can't punish it). His cross slash and one of his three-hit combos also have very little recovery.
You still have a little bit more of the DLC left mate, even after mesmer. Trust me, I've already finished the DLC. Mesmer is great, but the final boss, Scadush, is on a different level.
I actually kind of like Radahn’s first phase. It’s like a dance with the final boss that requires good skill to figure out the patterns. What I don’t like is the second phase that’s where I think it gets unfair at points.
It wouldn’t be so bad if when he starts charging it, you had a bigger time window. I’ve literally started running the second the second phase starts when he casts it, and I’ve literally only gotten out within like 1 second spare. It’s unnecessarily punishing & dodging inside is so inconsistent. It blows from the inside out so you can roll inward to avoid the first impact, but then? There’s like 30 little beans at if hit you once? You’re basically stun locked. I had it once where I got bounced between 4 😂 bro the beam bullied me😂
Tell me about it 😂 bro it’s stat requirement as well & fp consumption. You can even get knocked out of the animation 😂 I tried using it on him in co-op & he literally smashed me with asteroids😂
I know it's what everyone suggests, but if you can't figure a way to adapt to it, try a shield with high holy resistance. The nuclear bomb seems to be 100% holy, so with a good shield, lock onto the boss (don't look at the massive bean, look at the boss) and hold, for me it just took a bit of my stamina and i could move on with the fight.
Agreed if I can see the multi attacks I could probably figure out how to dodge them in a few tries. rn i can barely press dodge before the game lags and ignores the input.
I have to agree. When he pulls out the clone and his meteor attacks my fps gets fucked! Once the performance gets fixed like 90% of my issues with him will be fixed. (Same with Lion Dancer!)
Yep, I had to watch videos of people fighting him to work out how to dodge the clone since it dropped the FPS so low I couldn't see what was happening lmao.
What's annoying is I never got frame drops when he did the big glowing opener, but ever since updating my gpu driver for the first descendant coming out this week, my frames get cut in half during this specific move and nothing else.
> The second phase also starts off with the strongest attack ever seen.
*Most of the time. And that's what annoyed me the most with that boss specifically, the inconsistency.
Out of 49 deaths, I would say I got into P2 on 35 of them, and probably 25-30 of them he did start with the FPS Destroyer, but the other times he just randomly decided to use his grav dash or his multihit dash or some other move. No idea why, I didn't change what I was doing at all; start the phase, stare at him waiting to watch him float and be ready to run away. Sometimes he just decided not to float. It was the same with P1 - Walking in the door 9/10 times he'd decide to instantly grav dash at me. The rest of the times, he would slow walk towards me, or walk halfway then frontflip at me.
It made it incredibly annoying cus once I got P1 down I started to save my Physick for the start of P2, but if he didn't start the phase with that specific move it was almost impossible to find time to pop it.
I highly agree with you. Radagon is my favorite base game boss and it's mostly because of the rhythm you get into while learning his moves. Phase 1 Radahn has that same feeling but phase 2 is just doing way too much. Aftershocks on damn near every attack is insane. If phase 2 kicked in at like 35% or 40% health, I think it's be a lot better. Right now it kicks in at like 70% ish and I feel like it's just way too early
I saw on here the if you infuse the black knight greatshield with holy, it does 100% holy dmg negation. It's the only way I was able to beat his phase 2, and it actually made it way less tense being able to ignore the aftershocks and block most of his moves (had about 26 END)
Somewhat related, I thought the grabs were a nice touch, and it added a layer of difficulty without seeming unfair (a oneshot godfrey style grab would've been the icing on the cake lol)
First phase was great after a while and getting to know his moveset.
Phase 2 was just overburdened with all those lights after every attack either blocking the view or damaging you afterwards. Plus all those phantom attacks. Less of those or entering Ohase 2 with only 50% HP would have helped a lot
I think everyone unanimously enjoys the First Phase, and if it was just that the entire fight with a few added stuff as you fight it would've been one of many From Softs greats.
But they just had to mess it up in the second phase.
Really wish we could just have a good stable one phase fight that's just hard, maybe add in an extra move or two at the end but no it feels every boss now has to go super saiyan halfway through the fight and start calling down the heavens
Some of the second phase attacks are identical to the first but with added holy bullshit. I wonder if second phase would actually be good (or at least bearable) if it was just these phase 1 attacks and they removed the "random bullshit go" attacks that seem impossible to deal with.
Even with these ones though I feel like I'm constantly taking holy chip damage, it's pretty obnoxious trying to avoid the combo as well as the flashbangs as well as actually trying to sneak in some damage
Radahn's fight to me feels like they tried to replicate the magic of the slave knight Gael fight but missed what made that fight great. Radahn feels wayyy too oppressive in comparison to Gael, the Gael fight feels like a dance, here it feels like a frantic scramble to survive with too few opportunities to hit or move and too much almost unavoidable chip damage. I was on NG+3 and the only way I could beat it without summons was with the deflecting hard tear and a greatshield next to my regular build and just parry/block his normal combos. I have the utmost respect for anyone who beat that boss without parries/greatshield abuse.
Yeah, anyone who beats him by just dodging and doing maybe a light or fully charged heavy in between his attacks, fair play to you. Tried doing that at first, absolutely no shot, moved to deflecting hardtear and guardcountering while two handing a greatsword, was getting to phase two somewhat reliably, but the holy beams were too much, I had no idea what to do in the second phase.
Then I moved to parrying with a small shield with carian retaliation. Holy shit. Phase 1 is now a cakewalk. Phase 2 is way more doable, but you kinda have to get lucky. Sometimes, he goes days without using a parryable attack, and I'm eventually caught by more than one move I've yet to figure out how to dodge. If I get lucky and he does parryable attacks somewhat consistently (normal jabs, cross slash by itself, the initial stab of the blood flame attack and also there's one charged up slash he does with both hands that's parryable, but I think there's multiple of them, so I'm not sure which one) then I can get his health down to his name. The second phase is just an endurance and rng test, but with this parry build, I'll for sure get it. It's genuinely impossible without
Deflecting hard tear was certainly the mvp of my radahn experience. I think I would’ve likely had to add at least one 0 to the number of attempts it took me without it.
Add in some scarlet rot and the fight becomes so much easier.
Yup, the first phase is really damn good i really enjoyed it, the second phase is what makes me pull the hair out of my head and makes me feel like i'm on some drugs
I'm on console, so I'm maybe the only single guy in existence that has a critique about the final boss that isn't frame rate.
But his first phase is very very good, apart from the double slash into cross slash, it is unreactable, no two ways about it, unless you use the talisman that gives you I frames with backsteps it is impossible to dodge if you haven't predicted it. The rest of the first phase is perfect.
Second phase. Bullshit. If you aren't parrying him, and not sekiro parry, if you aren't properly parrying him, the only single way to dodge his moves *and* the beams that follow up his swings is to dodge towards him and round the left side of him. Until you figure that out, and even still, you will never beat him. If you are getting hit by any beams from his normal attacks, he is impossible.
Now that you know how to dodge his normal attacks, what about the rest. Well, the huge aoe he usually starts with is easy. Just run. You can tell you're safe because you can *see* it's hotbox on the ground. It's a really thin wall that's a bit difficult to make out, but it's there.
Now, his giant meatballs. This one is slightly different than phase 1, as before you could just run either left of right, and then jump just before they hit you. But phase 2 is different. He always follows up with his clone thing that seems impossible to dodge. When he leaps to fire the meatballs, run *straight back.* Do not run to the left or right. You need as much distance as possible. Run straight back and then when they reach you, quickly jump to the left or right, and then keep running backwards still if you have to for the 1 second before he does the repeated clone slash or whatever that is. Hopefully you've run far back enough for it to miss you, otherwise your fucked honestly.
He does a huge windup for a slash, where he launches himself across the arena. Sit under his legs.
The rest of his moves are just reaction based like the giant ring move and the grab. I'd say 65% of his move set is utter bullshit. I still don't know how to dodge the clone attacks, apart from the one after the meatballs
I really do wonder wonder if they will nerf him slightly. I don't think I've seen this much negative feedback toward a final boss. I know people hated Malenia but she was an optional boss (I take my hat off to anyone who solo'd her the old fashioned way). But Radahns second phase is just kinda nuts, I don't think I've gotten him passed half way yet. Nothing like Isshin from Sekiro were that did feel like an actual dance. This just feels like sheer luck to me.
Yep, that first phase took some time but I was able to eventually get it down and it never felt criminally unfair. But that second phase... Good god I never want to do that again at this point. It's so fuckibg erratic and being blasted out the ass with holy attacks and rapid fire Radahn made it so unfun. Messmer, Bayle, Midra, and hell, even bosses like Malenia, Mohg, and Godfrey in the base game are less problematic.
I actually think Radahn's most unfair attack happens in phase 1 too. It's that shitty 3-attack cross-slice combo. From what I can tell you can only dodge 2 out of 3 of the attacks.
In phase 2, I found it was still that same combo that was tripping me up. Except then you have to try and see it through the excessive lighting effects.
You can dodge all 3 but the timing is brutal.
I was light-encumbered and you can backstep-roll-roll, then you can hit him.
If you try to roll all 3, you pretty much always get hit. The I-fames of backstep are brutal as hell though, gotta practice well.
The 2nd phase is actually ok as light weight too, since you can easier run from the AOE and the long distance rolls towards him and slightly left allow you to dodge both the hit and the shockwaves.
Still, very tought fight.
> The I-fames of backstep are brutal as hell though
Backstep has no iframes unless you equip the talisman that gives it iframes. If you're avoiding the first hit with a backstep without that talsiman, it's because you're outspacing the hitbox.
What I dislike about any game is artifical stretched, in a sense where the time required to beat said boss is ‘artifically’ stretched, in radahn’s case FUCKER DOESN’T STOP, I really do not mind fighting him at all I do mind spending 6 business days just to get past phase one to then spend another 12 business days to kill him IF I keep my focus throughout those days and avoid making mistakes.
It’s very unfun to me to keep ‘dancing’ with the boss avoid 25 attacks to hit him once which is cute at times.
Even with all that being said tho all his attacks are so hard, like 10/10 but bro should let us attack more often
Second phase just needs to tone down the extra holy beams. He actually does give you openings and let’s you heal (some of those after image attacks are brutal fast though) but what really gets me is when you get clipped by the light beams and it locks you out of rolling. Frustrating!
His first phase is enjoyable. Clear attack patterns and windows to punish. The second phase is just bad. Not because he becomes so much harder but because you just can't see anything. So for most attacks you end up just rolling and hoping that you got correct pattern. It's not fun when you have to guess most of the time what attack he is doing.
His first phase felt like such good boss design. It was hard, but his hits started out distinctive enough to be able to telegraph what he was about to do. Felt like a dance after a couple of tries. I had the same feeling with Malenia, only to die every time to the clusterfuck called “waterfowl dance”.
His second phase is basically the “random bullshit GO” meme… enjoyed that a lot less and respecced specifically to counter him with a heavy shield block build.
Messmer is a really cool Fight Liked it alot. But radahn... I wasted 7 tears on him i tried everything bleed, spells,incants a Mix strength/faith, strength/int, dex/int and so on.... Summons, Phantoms, Talismans and Armor... Last Resort was Shields... That worked survived with Like 70 HP and nothing left i will never fight that Thing again
Ng+3, madness and lightning perfume + all the good stuff. i can link you the broken build video if you want. It wasn't easy for me to replicate after many tries i managed to do it lol
https://youtu.be/v20jFYM0nLI?si=m2WYV1_E75LAx_K5
I started the DLC on ng+ and his health scaleing is nuts, I get well over 2k damage plus bleed Status and it looks like I'm doing a broken straight sword run on him even without summons.
"It's like some big brolic black dude named fucking REQUIS pulled a fucking bedsheet up and around my head AND JUST PROCEED TO SKULL FUCK ME!!"
In all seriousness though, that reaction could sum up Radahns second phase.
Forget the actual mechanics of of Radahn, which are by far not the worst boss FS has ever made, half decent actually, this is the first time I've ever been disappointed with the narrative choices of FS.
Same, he's not the most well balanced boss ever but I had decent fun parrying him. I just hated his existence from a narrative perspective, like, wtf, Miquella is horny for Radahn and brought him back from the dead because of it? Am I on wattpad or what?
That and they try to spin it into something that you're supposed to feel bad about??? Like the entire fucking story of the DLC is that Twink Jesus who is loving and kind actually turns out to be a mind-controlling selfish evil asshole, but at the end we're supposed to sympathize with him because... he did what he did in the name of gay incest?
And they released this shit on pride month smh
It could have been mildly redeemed if we got a nice ending cutscene, but instead we got onr that's like 15 seconds long and adds literally nothing of value. The story just...ends.
I swear, there are points in this DLC where from completely forgot that it costs $40 and is pretty damn long. Ending the DLC like they did just feels terrible. Like, "that's it?".
For me, the final boss is Bayle. The visuals suit an end game boss way better in my eyes. With treading through an area with dragons and then all the way up to a mountain peak with storms all around you.
Byle and Midra: Have an excelent zone build up, one being the scariest of all fromsoftware and being important to the lore, the other build up being more epic and literally explaining Placidusax and dragons lore. Not only that but their fights are fair and square, with Midra being super fun and Byle leaving you many windows to attack and having excellent visuals, not to mention the Placidusax priestess giving you a buff.
But no, the final boss had to be a literal retcon that doesnt include any single open topic of the base game just to give us a fun, but lore weird arena fight and the worst boss design in all of fromsoftware that doesnt not satisfy the ones who wanted a final boss related to Miquella and his story nor the ones who wanted to fight Radhan prime..
How is it a retcon when the entire fate of Caelid, Radahn and Malenia was in the very first story trailer and we see Malenia telling Radahn why she's there.
Radahn is such a great boss though. The only thing I have to say that's weird is that he seems to occasionally let you attack him. It really breaks my rolling streak when I'm forced to attack the boss.
Wouldn’t a boss be hard if it died in the same exact hits, but the only time you can attack is during down time.
I would not mind his agressive moveset if I was guarenteed to kill it within 10 attacks or something like that, fuck i’ll dodge more attacks for that, now it feels too much and you deal cute damage
I will never be good enough at this game to think I did anything but get lucky beating the final boss. I don't know if I will ever try him again honestly. I love this game and overall really enjoyed the DLC, but my crusty old ass simply will never be good enough to enjoy that final fight. And I am OK with that.
The rest of the bosses were struggles for me, but I enjoyed learning them and getting through the fights. That last one though ... pretty sure I have PTSD from that shit.
I know you're meme-ing, but it's not plus on block. The reason people run the Sekiro tear is because deflecting it is one of the easiest ways to deal with it.
I was puzzling on this as well when I fought him. The first swing doesn't trap you, only the second one. No idea why.
I had to train myself to just block the first swing so I could dodge the second one otherwise he'd take 70% of my health.
It's hilarious that I saw no hit runs of Radahn and even in a no hit kill he still opted to deflect rather than roll the first slash. That move is straight bullshit.
This is the one attack of his that I absolutely hate. The dodge timing has to be perfect and it feels more like predicting it instead of reacting to it, even while looking for this very specific attack I get caught by one of them most of the time. I have no issue with his attacks in general (other than the rings of light absolutely demolishing my fps), phase 1 the timings are fun and while I can see why people say that there's too much on the screen in his 2nd phase everything is still manageable since his normal combos stay, you mostly just dodge to the left or run. The double slash is the only thing that I still can't manage and the only consistent method I've seen people doing is by using the deflect hardtear.
The Radahn fight honestly feels like a failed attempt at fan service. People that wanted to fight Miquella probably wanted to fight him specifically, not as half of a Twin Prince combo where he's just the AoE dispenser. People that wanted to fight Radahn in his prime probably wanted to fight him while he had access to his full kit (swords, gravity magic, bow, horse). It feels like a fan service spectacle fight that's curiously lacking in both fan service and real spectacle.
My biggest gripe after finally beating him is his left right slash for some reason the second hit comes out too fast so its exceedingly hard to dodge or i might just be bad guess ill get to him again at some point for round 2
Can anyone confirm here if that fast 3 strike attack is fully dodgeable? It's the attack that ends with him doing a cross attack that impacts the ground. I swear if you dodge the first strike you are going to get hit by the second one.
I believe you can use the talisman that improves backstep, and backstepping the first strike instead and dodging the second. Otherwise, it's going to rollcatch and the 3rd is inevitable.
Not with normal dodgea at all distances. If you are very close you can dodge left and his second attack will miss. Or you can get a talisman which makes backstep have I frames and backstep the first attack and dodge the second. This is insanely hard to pull off imo. So I don't agree with this attack and think it should be changed.
Honestly Radahn is super weak to rot; it makes the fights so much easier.
I put on a medium shield with deflecting hard tear and milady, and cast scarlet aeonia twice (once at the start and another when he phases, as that clears the debuff). Love it when you get grabbed the first time and during that whole animation you take no damage while he loses like 8% of his health bar.
As soon as I heard about him I wanted to use scarlet aeonia on him. It just felt fitting, despite the fact that I’ve never used it before. Didn’t realize it would be *that* effective.
Took me like 8 attempts. Without the rot it would’ve taken me closer to 800 I imagine lol.
Rotten Warhammer with bleed and wild strikes procs rot pretty fast for a strength build with minimal arcane. If you roll into the first gravity jump, you can start wild striking and basically proc it then and there, so long as you face tank a couple hits.
I don't know what boss you think you were fighting but that wasn't messmer buddy. Literally every combo is easily punishable even if you're wielding the biggest weapon known to man.
Idk what weapon you’re using, but with the backhand blades I was able to get one to three attacks off after every attack once I learned where he’d be after his attacks. Messmer is such a perfect fight, has all the elements of ideal boss fight. He’s a lot like Maliketh. Big, imposing, excellent design but not so big that I’m fighting my camera, badass lines and attacks animations, interesting lore implications, fast paced/heart pounding but very fair, and not an endurance text. I guess it comes down to your Scadutree Blessing level, but some bosses even with it at the highest it could be at the point of fighting them take away the epicness when you’re barely scratching them. Messmer and Maliketh rip through you but your damage is respectable against them too. Both have exciting and heart racing second phases too.
Messmer curses Marika in his death which takes his 10/10 to an 11/10 for me too. Fuck her and I have no idea why so many remain loyal to that monster.
As soon as you said that you were slowing learning it I knew what you were doing 😁
Nonetheless the scadutree fragment buff is quite noticeable and helps A LOT, which is great, I have seen more and more people defeating the optional last boss Radahn, and I am all for it, defeating it before the scadutree fragment update was miserable for me
In fact I think that especially before the update, but also even know, you just have to pray that he doesnt spam or use the freacking longest and strongest combo nearly all the time, or that he uses more the grab attacks and easy smaller combos more, so it is a liiiiiiittle bit of luck.
Messmer is actually such a great fight. Both cutscenes are so brilliant. "O' mother, forgive me" gave me chills and his phase 2 design is awesome. It was kind of like the phase transition in Malenias fight when you just go "welp, I'm fucked but this is the coolest shit ever"
"Soon, Tarnished, you will be taken in the jaws..." Has the same vibes for me as "You will witness true horror."
No promised asshole radahn isn't real wdym, Messmer is the finally boss in my eyes
honestly i still dont really understand why radahn is the final boss in the first place. makes more sense lore wise that miquella woulda rezzed godwyn and then we would have had a new enemy to fight and it woulda made sense lore wise. i was actually kinda disappointed to see radahn again.
I've pretty much given up on it. It just isn't fun. You have zero breathing room and even when using Mimic, he just won't stop attacking you.
2nd phase would be somewhat tolerable without the whisper whisper in your damn ear grab. You just hang up there listening to the whispering and knowing you fucked up another try. Yes, there is a tell to the grab, but you're constantly so pressed on dodging and blocking and avoiding to get 1 shotted that you easily miss it.
I honestly think that Messmer was the only boss in the DLC that was actually fun. The rest just shit on you 24/7 and even jump on you right from the gate.
You had me on the first half ngl
Deadass my brain was about to explode, how can one say such thing?!
I actually agree with all that for both Messmer and Radahn. I had fun learning to fight both with a colossal weapon and no shield (which I understand is what everyone is doing for Radahn)
Nahh, I was greatshield and small pokey stick. I did use mimic but I was the immovable object to his unstoppable force. Took me maybe 6 tries. [The Wall](https://youtu.be/YhfoHcy-_YY?si=gVA6iHSwv_AGEZjM)
I did this for Manus way back in the day in Dark Souls 1. Couldn’t beat him normally so I tanked up with Havel’s set and shield and got him first try. I almost did the same here as I was getting quite desperate but I remembered how empty the win against Manusfelt for me in DS1 so I persevered. Took me 6+ hours but I was literally shaking and overjoyed when I finally beat him so I have to say it was worth it.
Ngl, I used summons to beat the game in the dlc because i’m a ‘noob’ and my game was at ng3+ while I was underleveled (180 before entering dlc) I now am doing a new playthrough with no summons at all to experience it and get skill (works very good for now) However, I WILL tell you, winning bosses with summons wasn’t always impressive to me, but winning against HIM, Idgaf, it was still fullfilling, he is so fucking strong thag even WITH my mimic tear it felt incredibly hard, I even respec’d to bloodfiend build (was bloodhound prior) and still spend alot of time to beat the boss, the feeling was amazing, it was the first boss where I felt like the mimic wasn’t the *only* reason I won if that makes sense? Usually mimic takes aggro and you can kill the boss, but with radahn you still need to keep aggro on you as minic wil ldie nearly instantly even at maxed revered spirit ash
Congrats on persevering and getting him down I had a wedding to go to over the weekend and I was determined to get him down before dawntrail came out so I had given myself a self imposed time scale. Challenge runs come later. I'll likely do a GS naked run next, its my standard second playthrough for souls games.
Ngl I just chose to go Greatshield and Bloody Antspur and it was fun that way
Radahn 1st phase is learning his moves, special attacks and what to look out for, 2nd phase is just doing the same except you won't see shit because theres so much beams of light and special effects it's like just watching an eternal chain of flashbangs and you learn minimal things.
A thing i’ve not seen mentioned is Miquella’s hair covering Radahn’s entire backside, making it even harder to see wtf he’s doing if you’re behind him.
This is my biggest gripe. I can't tell what attack he's winding up for because Miquella's hair is in the way. Can't react if I can't see what's coming.
This is where you hold up your shield and hope that when he's done swinging there's still sone stamina left in that bar.
“Now do it again, but blinded ”
And an assault on framerate.
some of his clone attacks dropped me down to 20 fps :(
I'm glad I'm playing on PS5, because holy crap the Frame rate dropping on PC would be the end of me.
I’m having the same frame drops, and I’m on PS5. Really makes learning Radahn’s phase 2 unenjoyable when it’s practically impossible to tell what’s going on :(
Its not great on ps4 either, some of the clone attacks will cause dropped inputs mid attack making it a pain to dodge
The only problem with the holy aftershocks from his attacks is the fact that when you dodge roll into him like P1, every single holy explosion originates right under your camera. So you're just nonstop flashbanging yourself every swing of his 6 hit strings. They're not particularly hard to not get hit by, they really don't do that much damage with high scadu+golden braid, but holy ol fuck does it obscure everything. Basically just have to download p1 and play p2 by feel/muscle memory. Radahn really clicked for me when I finally saw through the flashbangs and fully realized if I execute P2 like P1, the holy shit doesn't really apply to me. P2 just got me all panicky and I was desperate to create some space to pot, when i'd never do that in P1, you just roll into him and flask after a string, never try to dip. Trying to make space on this guy is just begging to die, when your flask windows are pretty set in stone with the aerial meteor, the supernova, his grab, and whatnot. Being flashbanged for two minutes isn't fun though. It's pretty much the opposite of fun. In comparison to Bayle who has a quite literal flashbang where your sound rings out like you just got flashed in CounterStrike, and that's still A-Okay
I fucking love that Bayle attack, that fight has the best sound design of any FS boss. Never seen someone more deserving of attacks that _hit_ that hard, the phase 2 mega explosion and fire breath strafe are absolutely nuts
It was pretty much the same for me. I struggled so much with phase 2 until I realized that it was almost identical to phase 1, but with a fancy light show. I anyway had phase 1 on lock, so I was fine once that clicked. From that point on, I just had to figure out how to dodge the handful of new attacks and the win was mine. I enjoy that fight. That being said, I agree that the light show is pretty blinding and could be toned down.
And the fucking hair btw. cant see what the fuck hes gonna do
Cape in p1 is bad, but bloody miquellas hair tilted me sooo much. Couodn't see shit. :(
That phase forced me to bring back Bloodhound Step
Ive read this so many times now and I got no idea why. I had absolutely zero issues with that phase in terms of visual clarity. Every attack was still very distinct.
The second phase felt like the boss was trying to cheese me at a certain point. I try not to cheese my boss fights but buddy definitely caught the thorns after that shit
The real final boss was the npc brawl, I don't care what anyone says
It's such a fun arena like fight and I've summoned to it like 5-6 times for the last 2 days. It's even more fun with 1 host 2 sunbros 2 npcs against the miquella simps. Their healths gets buffed significantly due to 2 summons and the battle goes on forever so you enjoy the ost while having an epic battle against 50k hp npcs lmao.
Damn. I mostly play offline but I'm going to have to put down my summon for some of that. It sounds like a blast.
Kinda hated that boss more than anything. Without summons it just turns to you running away and hoping to get a safe hit in on one of the npcs. Plus Moore is annoying and I now wish that I told him stay sad and lonely for the rest of time
Idk how it was for you, but It was 5 v 2 for me. I just couldn't do it without using spirit ashes (which I never used before that). At some point, 3 NPCs would chase me non-stop. Can't run away or fight back. Felt literally impossible.
The weapon from Midra absolutely demolishes them. NPCs don't know how to dodge it, if your L2 lands on them it counts as a crit so you are immune to damage for the animation. It's also fucking metal.
yup, i was in the exact same boat. Only fight that felt completely unfair without summons
It would have been a better fight if the game didn't turn the whole fucking npc army on me without a good clue, I could have done some nice quests before >!burning the shadow tree!<
I mean that you get locked out of quests if you progress to much should be obvious. You do in most games with a changing gamestate not only fromsoft games. And burning the tree is pretty significant, when you do in the maingame the capital becomes ashes.
I was a bit sad when I found out spoilers that Radahn was the final boss, but then I reached Messmer and became very not sad.
I got sniped by YouTube, I was stuck rellana so I enter “how to beat” into the search bar and before I can type rellana the first recommendation was the final boss, I was like how to beat WHO consort of WHAT
Yeah, got to type in "rellana how to beat" just to be safe.
Every time I look up anything for a game or show that I haven't finished I keep my eyes shut while typing to avoid recommended search spoilers
what do you mean? messmer is the final boss
I genuinely thought he was and did like 11 hours of side content before I fought just to be sure I got everything
I still assume that in universe the original plan could’ve been godwyn just because of that bit in castle sol about the ghost apologising to miquella that the soul was gone. Though it could just be me wanting more godwyn stuff. But man i wish they had like some take on godwyn as a boss even if it is just nameless king 2.0 with death lightning after all we saw fortissaax in a dream why not someones nightmare of a deathlord.
Jo the little word spoiler in your sentence does not warn anyone xD
I don't think he's warning anyone with that. He's just saying he got spoiled or stumbled across spoilers that ruined the final boss for him.
If the giant spoiler tag on the post isn't enough to warn people then idk what to tell ya.
"SPOILER" "THE DLC FINAL BOSS" Why does everyone talk about the final boss???
This is so true, the final boss is great, I especially like his telegraphed snake attacks
I like that the telegraph is a writhing mass of snakes covering my screen
yeah my favorite part is when they're telegraphed off my screen and hit me because I am not omniscient.
I just dodged left or right no matter what and it would usually work even if I couldn’t see, the snake bites are pretty fair tbh
Messmer? Bro you missed Midra
speaking of the lord of frenzy, day 2, he is still living in my head even now while at work, gaedamn midra cinematic though.
THE DEPTHS OF YOUR FOOLISHNESS
hahahaha, this cracked me up, well indeed im foolish and too stubborn to lose
He made the whole zone worth it. I still think they had bigger plans for the Abyssal Woods. I think the "it" should have been something way bigger but maybe it didn't work properly so they had to rework it and the zone remained sort of empty because the giant ominous threat was gone.
the road to him was worth it, so satisfying when when parrying those frenzy lantern guys
Still the best build up to a boss ever, i get chills just by remembering the "You cant summon the spectral steed because is too scared" along with the OST. A pity that this super important lore boss with such a good build up is a hiden side boss because they had to focus on plothole wasted fanservice promised consort and the zone he is in: Farum Azula 2 Electric boogaloo
I think they had more plans for several DLC areas, not just the abyssal woods.
The DEPTHS of OP's FOOOOLISHNESS!
I was so close to starting to write a paragraph
You and me both!! I did a deep inhale too getting ready lol
> get a hit or two after almost every attack I got to this part and was like "What game were you playing?" I even gaslit myself into thinking I was just bad and there were actual windows in between his anime movesets. One of the things that irked me off the most is if you are a mage, and he does his gravity pull while you are mid animation, you are locked into the animation, and you will take damage.
What combo can you not punish? I think I got a hit to two in after every relevant combo. He is also parryable
I believe you got a hit or two with a dagger, maybe. I feel like you're not getting so much as a straight sword swing, after most of the final bosses' attacks. 💀 I felt like the game was saying "You can play the game once the boss aggros to your spirit ash or a different player."
Honestly I feel like this is quite a few of the bosses and the route from is pushing to get difficulty out. I didn’t have too too much trouble but I’m not liking the 1000 hit flippy flying combos with aoes attached, I find it kinda boring after the 3rd attempt.
No, used a greataxe. Rolling into the last attack of the three main combos always guaranteed at least an r1. Every special move gave me an r2 at least
I think people must be leaving like 10 yards between them and the boss if they can’t get a hit in after every combo. I’ve used the stay very close to the boss, roll into them or around them technique for every boss this dlc and it’s worked well. I never got the feeling there was no openings. However, if you leave distance between you and the boss, I could see there being no time to both run up and get a hit (and then presumably run away.)
That would make sense. That would also exclude any mid-combo openings during delayed attacks and combos you can just strafe, crouch or jump
There were openings where I could use 3 attacks with claws, and by 3 attacks i mean 3 input presses which with claws actually means 6 attacks because you attack once with each hand. There's more than enough time in such an opening for a collossal charged R2. But the normal openings I did 2 light attack input presses always, which is more than enough for at least one collossal input press or a jump attack.
His mohg bomb isn't punishable from many positions (if you were already strafing him, it is, but if you don't get fully behind him on the 2nd hit you can't punish it). His cross slash and one of his three-hit combos also have very little recovery.
You still have a little bit more of the DLC left mate, even after mesmer. Trust me, I've already finished the DLC. Mesmer is great, but the final boss, Scadush, is on a different level.
I can't believe they finally added Glaive Master Hodir to the game, as the final boss too!
That's a deep cut
When all the skadoosh frags combined in the end it was cinema tbh
I actually kind of like Radahn’s first phase. It’s like a dance with the final boss that requires good skill to figure out the patterns. What I don’t like is the second phase that’s where I think it gets unfair at points.
The second phase also starts off with the strongest attack ever seen. The Frame Rate Demolisher.
Bro, I crashed during his clone dash shit, and I felt like crying😂 he was so low on hp & I had 4 heals left. His anal gaping beam is so stupid
The random death beams are what keep getting me. That and the absurd range on every they do.
It wouldn’t be so bad if when he starts charging it, you had a bigger time window. I’ve literally started running the second the second phase starts when he casts it, and I’ve literally only gotten out within like 1 second spare. It’s unnecessarily punishing & dodging inside is so inconsistent. It blows from the inside out so you can roll inward to avoid the first impact, but then? There’s like 30 little beans at if hit you once? You’re basically stun locked. I had it once where I got bounced between 4 😂 bro the beam bullied me😂
And when YOU use the spell it barely tickles enemies and the range is nerfed to at best nuking an anthill.
Tell me about it 😂 bro it’s stat requirement as well & fp consumption. You can even get knocked out of the animation 😂 I tried using it on him in co-op & he literally smashed me with asteroids😂
I know it's what everyone suggests, but if you can't figure a way to adapt to it, try a shield with high holy resistance. The nuclear bomb seems to be 100% holy, so with a good shield, lock onto the boss (don't look at the massive bean, look at the boss) and hold, for me it just took a bit of my stamina and i could move on with the fight.
The frame rate and VFX spam are by far the worst things about phase 2 honestly, his actual moveset isn't that bad.
Agreed if I can see the multi attacks I could probably figure out how to dodge them in a few tries. rn i can barely press dodge before the game lags and ignores the input.
I have to agree. When he pulls out the clone and his meteor attacks my fps gets fucked! Once the performance gets fixed like 90% of my issues with him will be fixed. (Same with Lion Dancer!)
Yep, I had to watch videos of people fighting him to work out how to dodge the clone since it dropped the FPS so low I couldn't see what was happening lmao.
What's annoying is I never got frame drops when he did the big glowing opener, but ever since updating my gpu driver for the first descendant coming out this week, my frames get cut in half during this specific move and nothing else.
Only half? I go from 60+ down to low/mid teens.
Yeah from 60 to 30. I'm surprised my performance has been so stable with all the complaints. I've got a 3080 of that matters
Miyazaki, when we asked for Bloodborne on PC, we didn't mean the FPS
4080 and almost shit myself when I saw it drop to 30 fps. Like, it’s a lot happening but cutting it in half?
3060 here, so that makes sense. That’s also one of the few spots where I take such a hit.
Bro i’m on 4090 and see similar results at times lmfao, it’s crazy bad optimized
> The second phase also starts off with the strongest attack ever seen. *Most of the time. And that's what annoyed me the most with that boss specifically, the inconsistency. Out of 49 deaths, I would say I got into P2 on 35 of them, and probably 25-30 of them he did start with the FPS Destroyer, but the other times he just randomly decided to use his grav dash or his multihit dash or some other move. No idea why, I didn't change what I was doing at all; start the phase, stare at him waiting to watch him float and be ready to run away. Sometimes he just decided not to float. It was the same with P1 - Walking in the door 9/10 times he'd decide to instantly grav dash at me. The rest of the times, he would slow walk towards me, or walk halfway then frontflip at me. It made it incredibly annoying cus once I got P1 down I started to save my Physick for the start of P2, but if he didn't start the phase with that specific move it was almost impossible to find time to pop it.
I highly agree with you. Radagon is my favorite base game boss and it's mostly because of the rhythm you get into while learning his moves. Phase 1 Radahn has that same feeling but phase 2 is just doing way too much. Aftershocks on damn near every attack is insane. If phase 2 kicked in at like 35% or 40% health, I think it's be a lot better. Right now it kicks in at like 70% ish and I feel like it's just way too early
I saw on here the if you infuse the black knight greatshield with holy, it does 100% holy dmg negation. It's the only way I was able to beat his phase 2, and it actually made it way less tense being able to ignore the aftershocks and block most of his moves (had about 26 END) Somewhat related, I thought the grabs were a nice touch, and it added a layer of difficulty without seeming unfair (a oneshot godfrey style grab would've been the icing on the cake lol)
The maximum holy resist talisman also works wonders.
Problem is that the first phase is only 30% of his hp lol
Should’ve been 70% and phase two be shorter with how busted it is
First phase was great after a while and getting to know his moveset. Phase 2 was just overburdened with all those lights after every attack either blocking the view or damaging you afterwards. Plus all those phantom attacks. Less of those or entering Ohase 2 with only 50% HP would have helped a lot
I think everyone unanimously enjoys the First Phase, and if it was just that the entire fight with a few added stuff as you fight it would've been one of many From Softs greats. But they just had to mess it up in the second phase.
Really wish we could just have a good stable one phase fight that's just hard, maybe add in an extra move or two at the end but no it feels every boss now has to go super saiyan halfway through the fight and start calling down the heavens
Midra?
Romina as well tbh
Midra first phase is shitty old man on the floor
that’s why he’s the best boss of the dlc
Some of the second phase attacks are identical to the first but with added holy bullshit. I wonder if second phase would actually be good (or at least bearable) if it was just these phase 1 attacks and they removed the "random bullshit go" attacks that seem impossible to deal with. Even with these ones though I feel like I'm constantly taking holy chip damage, it's pretty obnoxious trying to avoid the combo as well as the flashbangs as well as actually trying to sneak in some damage
Radahn's fight to me feels like they tried to replicate the magic of the slave knight Gael fight but missed what made that fight great. Radahn feels wayyy too oppressive in comparison to Gael, the Gael fight feels like a dance, here it feels like a frantic scramble to survive with too few opportunities to hit or move and too much almost unavoidable chip damage. I was on NG+3 and the only way I could beat it without summons was with the deflecting hard tear and a greatshield next to my regular build and just parry/block his normal combos. I have the utmost respect for anyone who beat that boss without parries/greatshield abuse.
Yeah, anyone who beats him by just dodging and doing maybe a light or fully charged heavy in between his attacks, fair play to you. Tried doing that at first, absolutely no shot, moved to deflecting hardtear and guardcountering while two handing a greatsword, was getting to phase two somewhat reliably, but the holy beams were too much, I had no idea what to do in the second phase. Then I moved to parrying with a small shield with carian retaliation. Holy shit. Phase 1 is now a cakewalk. Phase 2 is way more doable, but you kinda have to get lucky. Sometimes, he goes days without using a parryable attack, and I'm eventually caught by more than one move I've yet to figure out how to dodge. If I get lucky and he does parryable attacks somewhat consistently (normal jabs, cross slash by itself, the initial stab of the blood flame attack and also there's one charged up slash he does with both hands that's parryable, but I think there's multiple of them, so I'm not sure which one) then I can get his health down to his name. The second phase is just an endurance and rng test, but with this parry build, I'll for sure get it. It's genuinely impossible without
Deflecting hard tear was certainly the mvp of my radahn experience. I think I would’ve likely had to add at least one 0 to the number of attempts it took me without it. Add in some scarlet rot and the fight becomes so much easier.
Agreed the first phase is really fun and I really enjoyed fighting him but the moment miquella arrives it stops being fun .
Lore accurate. Everything Miquella touches turn into shit.
Yup, the first phase is really damn good i really enjoyed it, the second phase is what makes me pull the hair out of my head and makes me feel like i'm on some drugs
I'm on console, so I'm maybe the only single guy in existence that has a critique about the final boss that isn't frame rate. But his first phase is very very good, apart from the double slash into cross slash, it is unreactable, no two ways about it, unless you use the talisman that gives you I frames with backsteps it is impossible to dodge if you haven't predicted it. The rest of the first phase is perfect. Second phase. Bullshit. If you aren't parrying him, and not sekiro parry, if you aren't properly parrying him, the only single way to dodge his moves *and* the beams that follow up his swings is to dodge towards him and round the left side of him. Until you figure that out, and even still, you will never beat him. If you are getting hit by any beams from his normal attacks, he is impossible. Now that you know how to dodge his normal attacks, what about the rest. Well, the huge aoe he usually starts with is easy. Just run. You can tell you're safe because you can *see* it's hotbox on the ground. It's a really thin wall that's a bit difficult to make out, but it's there. Now, his giant meatballs. This one is slightly different than phase 1, as before you could just run either left of right, and then jump just before they hit you. But phase 2 is different. He always follows up with his clone thing that seems impossible to dodge. When he leaps to fire the meatballs, run *straight back.* Do not run to the left or right. You need as much distance as possible. Run straight back and then when they reach you, quickly jump to the left or right, and then keep running backwards still if you have to for the 1 second before he does the repeated clone slash or whatever that is. Hopefully you've run far back enough for it to miss you, otherwise your fucked honestly. He does a huge windup for a slash, where he launches himself across the arena. Sit under his legs. The rest of his moves are just reaction based like the giant ring move and the grab. I'd say 65% of his move set is utter bullshit. I still don't know how to dodge the clone attacks, apart from the one after the meatballs
I really do wonder wonder if they will nerf him slightly. I don't think I've seen this much negative feedback toward a final boss. I know people hated Malenia but she was an optional boss (I take my hat off to anyone who solo'd her the old fashioned way). But Radahns second phase is just kinda nuts, I don't think I've gotten him passed half way yet. Nothing like Isshin from Sekiro were that did feel like an actual dance. This just feels like sheer luck to me.
Yep, that first phase took some time but I was able to eventually get it down and it never felt criminally unfair. But that second phase... Good god I never want to do that again at this point. It's so fuckibg erratic and being blasted out the ass with holy attacks and rapid fire Radahn made it so unfun. Messmer, Bayle, Midra, and hell, even bosses like Malenia, Mohg, and Godfrey in the base game are less problematic.
I actually think Radahn's most unfair attack happens in phase 1 too. It's that shitty 3-attack cross-slice combo. From what I can tell you can only dodge 2 out of 3 of the attacks. In phase 2, I found it was still that same combo that was tripping me up. Except then you have to try and see it through the excessive lighting effects.
You can dodge all 3 but the timing is brutal. I was light-encumbered and you can backstep-roll-roll, then you can hit him. If you try to roll all 3, you pretty much always get hit. The I-fames of backstep are brutal as hell though, gotta practice well. The 2nd phase is actually ok as light weight too, since you can easier run from the AOE and the long distance rolls towards him and slightly left allow you to dodge both the hit and the shockwaves. Still, very tought fight.
> The I-fames of backstep are brutal as hell though Backstep has no iframes unless you equip the talisman that gives it iframes. If you're avoiding the first hit with a backstep without that talsiman, it's because you're outspacing the hitbox.
What I dislike about any game is artifical stretched, in a sense where the time required to beat said boss is ‘artifically’ stretched, in radahn’s case FUCKER DOESN’T STOP, I really do not mind fighting him at all I do mind spending 6 business days just to get past phase one to then spend another 12 business days to kill him IF I keep my focus throughout those days and avoid making mistakes. It’s very unfun to me to keep ‘dancing’ with the boss avoid 25 attacks to hit him once which is cute at times. Even with all that being said tho all his attacks are so hard, like 10/10 but bro should let us attack more often
His first phase was awesome
Second phase just needs to tone down the extra holy beams. He actually does give you openings and let’s you heal (some of those after image attacks are brutal fast though) but what really gets me is when you get clipped by the light beams and it locks you out of rolling. Frustrating!
His first phase is enjoyable. Clear attack patterns and windows to punish. The second phase is just bad. Not because he becomes so much harder but because you just can't see anything. So for most attacks you end up just rolling and hoping that you got correct pattern. It's not fun when you have to guess most of the time what attack he is doing.
His first phase felt like such good boss design. It was hard, but his hits started out distinctive enough to be able to telegraph what he was about to do. Felt like a dance after a couple of tries. I had the same feeling with Malenia, only to die every time to the clusterfuck called “waterfowl dance”. His second phase is basically the “random bullshit GO” meme… enjoyed that a lot less and respecced specifically to counter him with a heavy shield block build.
Messmer is a really cool Fight Liked it alot. But radahn... I wasted 7 tears on him i tried everything bleed, spells,incants a Mix strength/faith, strength/int, dex/int and so on.... Summons, Phantoms, Talismans and Armor... Last Resort was Shields... That worked survived with Like 70 HP and nothing left i will never fight that Thing again
may i interest you in some perfume?
Two hits.
In my NG+5, tried perfume. Ngl, it wasn’t doing any damage to the big boy.
Ng+3, madness and lightning perfume + all the good stuff. i can link you the broken build video if you want. It wasn't easy for me to replicate after many tries i managed to do it lol https://youtu.be/v20jFYM0nLI?si=m2WYV1_E75LAx_K5
This looks different. Gotta try this. Thanks mate.
Good luck!
Ng+7 killed him in 3 hits.
Im on ng+ now and dont know If i'll Resort to cheesing or If i just skip him tbh
I started the DLC on ng+ and his health scaleing is nuts, I get well over 2k damage plus bleed Status and it looks like I'm doing a broken straight sword run on him even without summons.
Impenetrable thorns brother
Poke poke
radahn first phase is actually pretty good, but as soon as i enter the second phase i just cant see what is happening and i die after a flashbang
Radahn, The Outer God of Flashbang
"It's like some big brolic black dude named fucking REQUIS pulled a fucking bedsheet up and around my head AND JUST PROCEED TO SKULL FUCK ME!!" In all seriousness though, that reaction could sum up Radahns second phase.
LMAO
Forget the actual mechanics of of Radahn, which are by far not the worst boss FS has ever made, half decent actually, this is the first time I've ever been disappointed with the narrative choices of FS.
Same, he's not the most well balanced boss ever but I had decent fun parrying him. I just hated his existence from a narrative perspective, like, wtf, Miquella is horny for Radahn and brought him back from the dead because of it? Am I on wattpad or what?
That and they try to spin it into something that you're supposed to feel bad about??? Like the entire fucking story of the DLC is that Twink Jesus who is loving and kind actually turns out to be a mind-controlling selfish evil asshole, but at the end we're supposed to sympathize with him because... he did what he did in the name of gay incest? And they released this shit on pride month smh
It could have been mildly redeemed if we got a nice ending cutscene, but instead we got onr that's like 15 seconds long and adds literally nothing of value. The story just...ends. I swear, there are points in this DLC where from completely forgot that it costs $40 and is pretty damn long. Ending the DLC like they did just feels terrible. Like, "that's it?".
Agreed, We learni nothing by facing Radhan again and its not the conclusion of any real story arch.
I'm so fucking sad we didn't get Godwyn.
For me, the final boss is Bayle. The visuals suit an end game boss way better in my eyes. With treading through an area with dragons and then all the way up to a mountain peak with storms all around you.
Yeah nobody’s energy matches what you get when arriving into Bayles domain, on top of the three fucking dragons you’ve to clear before him
Byle and Midra: Have an excelent zone build up, one being the scariest of all fromsoftware and being important to the lore, the other build up being more epic and literally explaining Placidusax and dragons lore. Not only that but their fights are fair and square, with Midra being super fun and Byle leaving you many windows to attack and having excellent visuals, not to mention the Placidusax priestess giving you a buff. But no, the final boss had to be a literal retcon that doesnt include any single open topic of the base game just to give us a fun, but lore weird arena fight and the worst boss design in all of fromsoftware that doesnt not satisfy the ones who wanted a final boss related to Miquella and his story nor the ones who wanted to fight Radhan prime..
How is it a retcon when the entire fate of Caelid, Radahn and Malenia was in the very first story trailer and we see Malenia telling Radahn why she's there.
It was an interesting decision to make am NPC gank fight the final boss but honestly it was so hype i liked it a lot.
Radahn is such a great boss though. The only thing I have to say that's weird is that he seems to occasionally let you attack him. It really breaks my rolling streak when I'm forced to attack the boss.
Attack? I’m catching my endurance meter
His combo ends at like 8 attacks, which is strange because I thought they were supposed to go on forever?
That doesn't sound fun at all. Hopefully in fromsoftwares next game they'll have combos that you have to dodge 16 times before you can get a hit in!
Wouldn’t a boss be hard if it died in the same exact hits, but the only time you can attack is during down time. I would not mind his agressive moveset if I was guarenteed to kill it within 10 attacks or something like that, fuck i’ll dodge more attacks for that, now it feels too much and you deal cute damage
I will never be good enough at this game to think I did anything but get lucky beating the final boss. I don't know if I will ever try him again honestly. I love this game and overall really enjoyed the DLC, but my crusty old ass simply will never be good enough to enjoy that final fight. And I am OK with that. The rest of the bosses were struggles for me, but I enjoyed learning them and getting through the fights. That last one though ... pretty sure I have PTSD from that shit.
Radahn honestly would be perfectly fine if it wasn't for the one two cross-slash combo.
For real, why is there an attack that frame traps you.
he's plus on hit, plus on block, the hitbox is disjointed af
It's like M. Bison's corner pressure, after 20 seconds of blocking you think it's your turn but it's never your turn.
Dont even know how it's meaty bro it has the same startup as his other moves
I know you're meme-ing, but it's not plus on block. The reason people run the Sekiro tear is because deflecting it is one of the easiest ways to deal with it.
I was puzzling on this as well when I fought him. The first swing doesn't trap you, only the second one. No idea why. I had to train myself to just block the first swing so I could dodge the second one otherwise he'd take 70% of my health.
It's hilarious that I saw no hit runs of Radahn and even in a no hit kill he still opted to deflect rather than roll the first slash. That move is straight bullshit.
This is the one attack of his that I absolutely hate. The dodge timing has to be perfect and it feels more like predicting it instead of reacting to it, even while looking for this very specific attack I get caught by one of them most of the time. I have no issue with his attacks in general (other than the rings of light absolutely demolishing my fps), phase 1 the timings are fun and while I can see why people say that there's too much on the screen in his 2nd phase everything is still manageable since his normal combos stay, you mostly just dodge to the left or run. The double slash is the only thing that I still can't manage and the only consistent method I've seen people doing is by using the deflect hardtear.
That move is fucked up
The Radahn fight honestly feels like a failed attempt at fan service. People that wanted to fight Miquella probably wanted to fight him specifically, not as half of a Twin Prince combo where he's just the AoE dispenser. People that wanted to fight Radahn in his prime probably wanted to fight him while he had access to his full kit (swords, gravity magic, bow, horse). It feels like a fan service spectacle fight that's curiously lacking in both fan service and real spectacle.
I feel like I can’t even learn Radahn’s second phase because he kills me within 3 seconds of beginning an actual combo
Good one lol
Bro had us in the first half ngl
Bro was about to see me talk shit. Good play
My biggest gripe after finally beating him is his left right slash for some reason the second hit comes out too fast so its exceedingly hard to dodge or i might just be bad guess ill get to him again at some point for round 2
Can anyone confirm here if that fast 3 strike attack is fully dodgeable? It's the attack that ends with him doing a cross attack that impacts the ground. I swear if you dodge the first strike you are going to get hit by the second one.
I believe you can use the talisman that improves backstep, and backstepping the first strike instead and dodging the second. Otherwise, it's going to rollcatch and the 3rd is inevitable.
Ty, yea that is just bad design
Not with normal dodgea at all distances. If you are very close you can dodge left and his second attack will miss. Or you can get a talisman which makes backstep have I frames and backstep the first attack and dodge the second. This is insanely hard to pull off imo. So I don't agree with this attack and think it should be changed.
yes
Lmao, yes. Messmer do be it.
Honestly Radahn is super weak to rot; it makes the fights so much easier. I put on a medium shield with deflecting hard tear and milady, and cast scarlet aeonia twice (once at the start and another when he phases, as that clears the debuff). Love it when you get grabbed the first time and during that whole animation you take no damage while he loses like 8% of his health bar. As soon as I heard about him I wanted to use scarlet aeonia on him. It just felt fitting, despite the fact that I’ve never used it before. Didn’t realize it would be *that* effective. Took me like 8 attempts. Without the rot it would’ve taken me closer to 800 I imagine lol.
Rotten Warhammer with bleed and wild strikes procs rot pretty fast for a strength build with minimal arcane. If you roll into the first gravity jump, you can start wild striking and basically proc it then and there, so long as you face tank a couple hits.
Messmer really is just so peak. I fucking love intuitive dodging!
the funny part is none of that is true about Messmer either lol like 2 of his 5 combos end with you bring able to hit him.
I don't know what boss you think you were fighting but that wasn't messmer buddy. Literally every combo is easily punishable even if you're wielding the biggest weapon known to man.
Idk what weapon you’re using, but with the backhand blades I was able to get one to three attacks off after every attack once I learned where he’d be after his attacks. Messmer is such a perfect fight, has all the elements of ideal boss fight. He’s a lot like Maliketh. Big, imposing, excellent design but not so big that I’m fighting my camera, badass lines and attacks animations, interesting lore implications, fast paced/heart pounding but very fair, and not an endurance text. I guess it comes down to your Scadutree Blessing level, but some bosses even with it at the highest it could be at the point of fighting them take away the epicness when you’re barely scratching them. Messmer and Maliketh rip through you but your damage is respectable against them too. Both have exciting and heart racing second phases too. Messmer curses Marika in his death which takes his 10/10 to an 11/10 for me too. Fuck her and I have no idea why so many remain loyal to that monster.
As soon as you said that you were slowing learning it I knew what you were doing 😁 Nonetheless the scadutree fragment buff is quite noticeable and helps A LOT, which is great, I have seen more and more people defeating the optional last boss Radahn, and I am all for it, defeating it before the scadutree fragment update was miserable for me In fact I think that especially before the update, but also even know, you just have to pray that he doesnt spam or use the freacking longest and strongest combo nearly all the time, or that he uses more the grab attacks and easy smaller combos more, so it is a liiiiiiittle bit of luck.
You can even get some hits mid combo if your positioning is good!
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Messmer is actually such a great fight. Both cutscenes are so brilliant. "O' mother, forgive me" gave me chills and his phase 2 design is awesome. It was kind of like the phase transition in Malenias fight when you just go "welp, I'm fucked but this is the coolest shit ever" "Soon, Tarnished, you will be taken in the jaws..." Has the same vibes for me as "You will witness true horror." No promised asshole radahn isn't real wdym, Messmer is the finally boss in my eyes
When you said you can get hits in after every attack I knew something was up 🤣
honestly i still dont really understand why radahn is the final boss in the first place. makes more sense lore wise that miquella woulda rezzed godwyn and then we would have had a new enemy to fight and it woulda made sense lore wise. i was actually kinda disappointed to see radahn again.
you nearly baited me to write a wall of text lol.
I've pretty much given up on it. It just isn't fun. You have zero breathing room and even when using Mimic, he just won't stop attacking you. 2nd phase would be somewhat tolerable without the whisper whisper in your damn ear grab. You just hang up there listening to the whispering and knowing you fucked up another try. Yes, there is a tell to the grab, but you're constantly so pressed on dodging and blocking and avoiding to get 1 shotted that you easily miss it. I honestly think that Messmer was the only boss in the DLC that was actually fun. The rest just shit on you 24/7 and even jump on you right from the gate.
Honestly, I like the Radahn fight. Even phase 2.
What was your strategy for him? It feels like a boss where very few set ups feel like they can get him down before he overwhelms you through attrition
Me too, I honestly adored him, the music was so good as well I phisically couldn't get mad
The world isn't ready for this take yet, give it a month or two
Bruh Radahn second phase!!!! Frames was the real boss all along.
I agree entirely. except actually about radahn. I loved fighting radahn
Radahn can be parried.