Updated, July 22, 2024 — After adding an additional tool to his arsenal—the Royal Ancestral Spirit’s Winged Greathorn boss weapon that can weaken enemy defenses with its war ashes—Ainrun managed to hit the boss even harder, hitting 105,527 damage with a single melee attack.
“We did it, my magnum opus – 105,000 damage with a single melee weapon swing,” he said. “That’s the limit. That’s Goku and Vegeta fusing against Majin Buu.” You can watch the clip of the kill herebut it spoils the final boss fight, so be aware of that.
Original article: Last month’s Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is brutally difficult, to say the least, even by FromSoftware’s standards. Of all its arduous battles and encounters, however, none are as formidable as the expansion’s final boss. With a ridiculously large HP pool of 46,134, resistances to nearly every damage type, and a deadly moveset with deadly combos and narrow counterattack windows, many players agree that it’s the hardest in Soulsborne history.
But even a boss as tough as this one isn’t immune to Elden Ring’s most cheesy and powerful strategy: stacking a ridiculous number of buffs in order to deliver an ultra-powerful attack that hits so hard it can one-hit the biggest bad guys in the game. A few players have managed to one-hit him with this tactic in recent weeks, but by far the most impressive kill I’ve seen is Elden Ring content creator Ainrun’s, which was shared Sunday afternoon.
Spoilers for the final boss fight of the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC follow below.
You can witness the masterfully executed removal by watching the embedded clip below, in which Ainrun stacks 18 damage buffs (yes, 18) with an assortment of self-inflicted status effect procs fueled by consumables and carefully timed hot swaps to various talismans and armor pieces that provide temporary bonuses under certain conditions. He then enters the boss arena, activates the Royal Knight’s Resolve ability, and perfectly times a charged heavy attack with his Fire Knight’s Greatsword that lands just as the betrothed consort Radahn flies in, stabbing him for a jaw-dropping 93,598 damage — that’s a little over double his total HP, and just under 100,000 — and he vaporized his entire health bar. Even his phase 2 transition cutscene couldn’t save him.
This was the most damage I could get on Radahn using all the new buffs available in the DLC + the base game buffs. I was able to get over 100k on weaker bosses, but I couldn’t figure out how to get over 100k on Radahn. Maybe another time 🥲July 21, 2024
I’ve watched the clip a few times now and have gathered all the different buffs Ainrun used for this glorious takedown. To help you out if you want to see if you can pull it off, I’ve listed them below; note that you’ll need items like Frenzy Stones, Soothing Branches, and Raw Meatballs as well as a weapon with the Seppuku War Ash on it to trigger Madness, Sleep, Poison, and Bleed on yourself respectively.
- Old Man’s Exultation (+20% after Madness triggers)
- Mad Hand (+7.5% after Madness triggers)
- Smile of Saint Trina (+20% after sleep process)
- Bloody Sacred Flesh (+14% with Bleeding proc)
- Bloodboil Aromatic (+30%)
- Commander’s Standard War Ash (+20%)
- Mushroom Crown (+10% after Poison proc)
- Kindred of Rot’s Exultation (+20% after Poison proc)
- Poisoned Hand (+7.5% after Poison proc)
- White Mask (+10% after bleeding process)
- Kindred of Blood’s Exultation (+20% after bleed triggers)
- Axe Talisman (+10% to charge attacks)
- Spiked Cracked Tear Physick (+15% to charge attacks)
- Two-Handed Sword Talisman (+15% with two-handed weapons)
- Spear Talisman (+15% with piercing attacks against attacking enemies)
- Red Feathered Branch Sword (+20% when below 20% HP)
- Rakshasa Armor Set (+8%)
- Royal Knight’s Resolution Ash of War (+80% on next attack)
The reason this works is because buffs in Elden Ring often stack multiplicatively, leading to some truly absurd damage numbers if you can time things so that a lot of them are active for a single all-powerful strike. FromSoftware has tried to balance this out by only allowing you to have one buff of a specific type active at a time, but crucially, this limitation doesn’t not apply to temporary bonuses gained from talismans and a few select weapons and armor pieces. This way, Ainrun was able to combine all of these bonuses with quick swaps, then supercharge it all with the Royal Knight’s Resolve skill, which increases the damage of your next hit by 80%.
It’s also worth noting that Radahn has a weakness to Pierce damage (his only real vulnerability during both phases of the fight), which is what the Fire Knight’s Greatsword’s heavy attack deals. He also got hit in the middle of his first hit, which triggered the Talisman of the Lance buff.
To watch
“This was the most damage I could do to Radahn using all the new buffs available in the DLC + the buffs from the base game,” Ainrun wrote in a comment below the clip on social media. “I was able to get over 100k on weaker bosses, but I couldn’t figure out how to get over 100k on Radahn. Maybe another time.” Personally, I’m just amazed that the damage could reach that level at all.
Ever since Elden Ring patch 1.12.3 nerfed Broken Perfume Bottle weapons, players have been resorting to other methods for their one-shot antics. Ainrun’s strategy is the most damaging I’ve seen, but as YouTuber Titus Actual—aptly nicknamed “Dr. One Shot”—demonstrates in the video embedded above, you can easily get the job done with Shadow of the Erdtree’s new Priestess Heart dragon transformation and the Elder Dragons’ Lightning Strike spell as well. The Impenetrable Thorns sorcery is also as broken as ever, capable of triggering Bleed on some bosses multiple times in a single cast.
The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is finally here, and it’s one of the best xbox games And best pc games of all time even better. It’s available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Windows PC for $39.99.