Two bosses, one meteor and a horse named Leonard.
If Part 1 was about surviving Caelid’s rot-soaked welcome, Part 2 is where things escalate significantly. You’ve made it through the Swamp of Aeonia, kick-started Millicent’s questline, and hopefully stocked up on Preserving Boluses.
Now it’s time to crack open Sellia’s secrets, storm a castle full of soldiers who definitely don’t want you there, and then fight one of the most spectacular – and infamous – bosses in the entire game.
Let’s get into it.
Sellia, Town of Sorcery
Ghost town. Literal ghosts.
Sellia sits on the eastern edge of the Swamp of Aeonia – a crumbling ruin of a settlement packed with spectral sorcerers who are invisible until you get close enough for them to ruin your day. The place is also sealed off behind magical blue barriers that block most of its streets and all of its good loot. Frustrating? Yes. Permanent? Absolutely not.
The Tower Puzzle
The secret to Sellia is that you must navigate the rooftops to light three torches positioned atop the town’s towers. Doing so breaks the magical seals on several treasure chests throughout the settlement, as well as a pair of larger sealed doors.
Gowry will actually hand you a note called Sellia’s Secret after you complete his errand – it reads “The Town of Sellia hides the source. Light three flames atop the candle towers to break the seal.” Helpful of him, though by that point most players have already been bashing their heads against the barriers for twenty minutes.
Torrent’s double jump is your best friend here. You can use him to help with the platforming throughout the rooftop sections, hopping between buildings and scaling roots to reach each tower’s ladder. The invisible enemies make the whole process more stressful than it needs to be, but none of the individual jumps are particularly punishing once you know where you’re going.
What’s Behind the Seals
The effort is worth it. Behind the three smaller seals you’ll find the Spelldrake Talisman +1, the Night Comet sorcery, and an Imbued Sword Key. The Night Comet is a powerful sorcery that fires a semi-invisible projectile, and when paired with the Staff of Loss – also found in Sellia – its damage output increases by 30%. A legitimately broken combination for intelligence builds that’s worth grabbing even if you’re not currently running magic.
The larger sealed door leads to a boss room housing the Nox Swordstress and Nox Priest – a dual boss fight that’s relatively manageable at this stage, rewarding you with the Nox Flowing Sword on defeat.
Millicent, Continued
With the northern seal broken, the path to the Church of the Plague opens up. If you completed the Part 1 steps – defeated Commander O’Neil, visited Gowry, collected the repaired needle – Millicent will be waiting here, slumped against the church wall. Give her the repaired Unalloyed Gold Needle and she’ll wake from her stupor, rewarding you with the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom Talisman, which raises Dexterity by five.
Her questline continues well beyond Caelid, but this is the moment it properly begins. Don’t rush past it.
Redmane Castle
A fortified welcome party, and a very important crier
Redmane Castle sits at the southernmost tip of Caelid on its own rocky peninsula, connected to the mainland by the Impassable Greatbridge. It’s home to Redmane Knights – Radahn’s surviving warriors – and it exists in two distinct states depending on where you are in the game.
Triggering the Radahn Festival
If you cleared Fort Gael in Part 1, the waygate at the top of its watchtower teleports you directly to the Impassable Greatbridge outside Redmane Castle – the fastest route there.
The castle changes dramatically once the Radahn Festival is triggered. There are two ways to do this: activating any Site of Grace on the Altus Plateau, or progressing through Ranni’s questline far enough to learn of Nokron’s existence.
For most players, the Altus Plateau route is the natural one – you’ll reach it as a matter of course by progressing through the main game. Once the festival is active, a waygate portal near the Impassable Greatbridge becomes usable, teleporting you directly inside the castle. No fighting your way through the gates required.
Once inside, the castle is filled with friendly NPCs and champions who’ve gathered to challenge Radahn. Head upstairs to the platform overlooking the central courtyard, where Witch-Hunter Jerren – the castle’s announcer – is holding court. Speak with him and confirm you’re ready to begin. The waygate behind the castle drops you into the boss arena.
🛠️ Speedrun Trivia: Intrepid speedrunners often bypass the festival requirements entirely using the Plague Church Skip. By double-jumping Torrent off the cliffs behind the Church of the Plague into the abyss below, players can deliberately die inside the boss arena’s boundary and force a respawn at the beach’s Stake of Marika. However, this is tricky to execute and can disrupt NPC side quests!
Before You Jump In: Preparation
Radahn is a significant wall for many players. A few things worth sorting before you step through that portal:
The recommended level is between 70 and 80, with an upgraded weapon – ideally one capable of inflicting Bleed or Scarlet Rot, both of which Radahn has meaningful weakness to.
Switch all your flasks to health restoration unless you’re a pure caster, and consider any talismans that boost your survivability rather than raw damage output. The fight is a marathon, not a sprint.
One item worth having: the Rotten Breath incantation, purchasable from the Cathedral of Dragon Communion in southern Caelid in exchange for a Dragon Heart, can inflict Scarlet Rot on Radahn from a safe distance and is one of the most efficient damage tools in the fight.
Starscourge Radahn
The festival of a lifetime
The arena itself is unlike anything else in Elden Ring – a vast beach of black sand called the Wailing Dunes, dotted with enormous sword-hilts jutting from the ground. The fight functions almost like a raid encounter: scattered around the arena are golden summoning signs, and unlike most summons, calling NPC allies here does not reduce your rune reward. Use them. All of them.
Phase 1: Surviving the Opening
The moment you enter the arena, Radahn (check out the Boss Weakness Finder for your best fighting options) opens fire from a hilltop in the distance with gravity-charged arrows that can take off half your health in a single hit. This opening stretch is the part that kills most players before the actual fight even begins.
Your priority in this phase is to ignore Radahn entirely and sprint forward to the first cluster of golden summoning signs. Get your NPC allies into the fight as quickly as possible. Use the piles of swords embedded in the ground as cover to block the incoming arrows while you build your army.
Once your summons close the distance, Radahn will switch from ranged fire to melee combat. Mount Torrent and circle around to his back, waiting for gaps in his attack pattern before riding in to strike. His spinning slash combos have a long wind-up – dodge toward him rather than away, and you’ll slip past them cleanly.
When your summoned allies inevitably fall, their signs reappear after around 25 seconds (give or take a few) – keep an eye out and resummon as often as possible. The NPCs do meaningful damage and, more importantly, keep Radahn’s attention divided.
Phase 2: The Meteor
When Radahn’s health drops to around half, he launches himself into the sky and disappears. Don’t approach the other NPCs during this pause – Radahn returns as a blazing meteor, and anything in the impact zone takes devastating damage. Back off, wait for the screen shake, then move in once he’s landed.
The NPC summon signs respawn in Phase 2, so rebuild your army immediately. Radahn’s moves become more aggressive – he gains a gravity shockwave that pulses outward from his body, so the moment you see him charging energy, put distance between you. Torrent’s speed is your best asset here.
If you’ve been applying Scarlet Rot throughout the fight, Phase 2 is an excellent time to proc it again – the combined damage from the rot and your allies can end this phase surprisingly quickly.
Rewards
Defeating Radahn drops 70,000 Runes, the Remembrance of the Starscourge, and Radahn’s Great Rune – which raises your maximum HP, FP, and Stamina when activated with a Rune Arc. The Remembrance can be exchanged with Enia at the Roundtable Hold for either the Starscourge Greatsword or the Lion Greatbow.
What Radahn’s Death Changes
The stars fall. The map opens.
Defeating Radahn doesn’t just tick a boss off the list – it reshapes the world in a meaningful way. With Radahn gone, the stars he had been holding back with his gravitational power finally fall to earth. One of them strikes the Mistwood in southeastern Limgrave, opening a massive crater that leads down to Nokron, the Eternal City – a sprawling underground area central to Ranni’s questline and home to some of the game’s best loot, including the Mimic Tear Spirit Ash.
Radahn must also be defeated to access the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, making him required content for anyone who owns the expansion regardless of where they are in the main story.
After the fight, several NPC questlines also advance – Blaidd, Iron Fist Alexander, and others can all be spoken to near the arena after the battle, yielding valuable lore and quest progression.
What’s Next?
Southern Caelid is conquered. Radahn is down. The stars have fallen.
In Part 3, we head north into the Dragonbarrow – the harder, meaner, more unforgiving half of the region. Gurranq, the Bestial Sanctum, Fort Faroth’s legendary rune farming spot, and the lore threads that tie everything in Caelid together are all waiting.
Bring more Preserving Boluses. You’ll need them.
… and don’t forget to check out our other Guides & Tips as well.
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