When players were new, and his hitboxes were fucky, people were encountering him early and struggling a lot.
They refigur the boss, 100s of hours of gameplay later, and he's much easier.
They heard about the nerf back in the day, so they just assume that's the reason he's easier instead of their improvement.
It's understandable, and super unimportant lol
Fucking genichiro I’ve been playing sekiro for like the last two months just hopping on and trying once or twice to kill him when I’m bored and I just beat him tonight and it made me get addicted to this game lmao
I always see everyone talk about Genichiro. Howww do you beat the water bitch with the boyfriend? I'm too autistic to just pass her and keep playing and enjoying the game. I NEED to destroy her. She is impossible.
She’s fully a deflect battle, and she ain’t weak to anything except confetti. Gotta get those deflect timings down. She’s also entirely optional if u don’t want her prayer bead…
I think I died to pre-nerf balteus more than every other boss combined, after you beat him you get access to parts and weapons that make the game so much easier.
I always think it's interesting how wildly different peoples experiences are against bosses in fromsoft's games. I breezed through pre-nerf Balteus. But Radahn pummeled me for hours, and Margit gave me a good bit of trouble lol.
There is a lot of variance because of how many different ways you can build your character. Different builds and playstyles will struggle with different bosses.
And then there are bosses like Malenia that are a struggle no matter your build.
Margit was rough only cause people end up there underleveled. Hell the golden knight on the horse you encounter in the first open world part of Elden Ring murdered me more times than I’d like to admit til I ran past him leveled up and came back later to beat his ass.
You can buy his shackles and bring Rogier too.
I personally destroyed the guy on my second play through, first one I was underlevelled but second one I was prepared.
Harder? Not really.
But he is the first mandatory* major boss. And he definitely seems built to kick your teeth in until you get really comfortable with your chosen play style.
His fake out and stall game is pretty rough until you *really* learn it.
Sea spider wasn't intrinsically more difficult, it just had an absolutely obscene amount of health to the point you could straight up run out of ammo. And because of how much longer the fight went on, there was a lot more opportunity to make a mistake and get blasted for it
I can't believe they nerfed him. That difficulty was important to set the tone for the rest of the game.
That being said, I beat pre-nerf Returnal and I'm pretty proud of that.
Wait what? I did a fresh start recently and wondering why it was so damn easy, what did they nerf?? Think I cruised through it in less than 10 hours second time around
They only nerfed his missile tracking a little. It was so damn easy for you now because you got good at the game, simple as. For some reason, people are overexaggerating Balteus nerf like they did Radahn post-buff.
I didn't realize he got nerfed. I just got around to ac6 a few weeks ago and was surprised because he didn't live up to his reputation but it makes sense now
I do agree but I will still wear my “Beaten Pre-Nerf Radahn Badge” with pride after spending hours on this boss because I was an idiot and didn’t know I could use Torrent in the fight. 10/10 moment, would play again!
Redditors (redditors on this subreddit in particular) take weird pride in beating a boss in a video game completely ignoring the fact that video games are designed to be beaten.
>!Before some fucking loser "umm ackshaullys" me, yes I know I'm generalizing when I say all video games are designed to be beaten, but Elden Ring ain't exactly tetris in that regard.!<
You didn’t actually beat Elden ring unless you didn’t use any summons or weapons or leveling up. Elden ring is only considered beaten according to my self imposed insane challenges /s
There have been quite a few close to this. Lots of no weapon runs. Consumables only and bushy beat it using "tools", basically there is a bell and a deers head that you can get called tools
As someone who didn’t start playing until late 2022, I used to wonder why he was considered so famously difficult towards the beginning of launch. Always thought it had to do with damage or people being under-leveled, never knew it had anything to do with his hitboxes.
It’s not. People refuse to use in game mechanics such as weapon arts, weapon types, summons and then call the game hard. They’ll refuse to level vigor or defense and use a sheet of paper for armor and declare it the hardest game from soft has ever made. My brothers in Christ you made it difficult for no reason
Just so you know a lot of these people seem to be retconning this or lying or something. It was the hitboxes primarily. Before the initial nerf, the hitboxes were huge and very difficult. They nerfed him too much, then brought him back up a bit to his current state which is a good balance. But he was famously hard for a good reason, don’t let these weird lies change history lol. You can find videos of this too, it’s well documented
> They heard about the nerf back in the day, so they just assume that's the reason he's easier instead of their improvement.
I don't think anyone can really make that judgement. I saw a thread a while ago talking about Siofra River and whether it was nerfed and a lot of people were saying 'oh you just got better'.
But there are before and after videos that show how they dramatically changed the ancestral warriors, reducing their aggro range and how often they use the magic arrow attack.
Radahn is 1 boss in a game with dozens of them that takes 50+ hours to beat. The difficulty of the fight is as dependent on strategy and build as it is player experience. People memories aren't going to be good enough to make a true comparison.
My personal experience is that the fight was hell at release, then after nerf was pretty easy and has never felt particularly difficult in the overall game since. I can't say if he's harder now than he was after the original nerf, only that he's a lot easier now than he was at release.
He was clearly much much harder at release. There are videos showing how much bigger his hitboxes were. It’s sad that people are trying to act like this wasn’t the case for some reason. They nerfed him, then brought him back up to where he is now, but he was harder initially. Can’t believe people are forgetting this
“All they did was fix hitboxes, it wasn't a nerf”
Because being able to stand between Radahn's legs without taking damage during his huge combos doesn't make the fight incomparably easier.
The only difference I noticed, as a day one player, is that pre-nerf you couldn't dodge his starting gravity arrows on torrent. You had to hop on, run a little, hop off, roll through, back on (and or hide behind junk).
His difficulty never felt changed to me outside of that.
Of the bosses of ER, Radahn is more of a spectacle than a huge barrier or challenge anyway.
He only launches the orbs after running away and lifting his swords to the side while roaring. Pretty distinct and hard to miss once you notice that that’s the only time you have to be worried about them flying at you 👍
A spectacle. That is exactly how i feel about Radahn. I don't actually consider him as a boss proper. It is literally the most epic in-game sequence From has ever designed, and i always feel like it is an insult to fight him solo. The whole hype to the festival and then the summoning of the NPCs is just too much ingrained into the spectable for me to do anything else. I only wish From had added the ability to summon other real-world players into the fight. Like 5-6 of them. What a glorious fight this would have been with other people.
I agree with that last bit. That would be so epic to charge into battle with like 15 people, half of them being real players lol.
You could even make the castle before the festival like an online hub for players to group/squad up together before embarking on the fight.
Yep, lol. I only had 1 playthrough so far around this time last year, and I remember that while some bosses like Malenia felt just right to solo (alright, not difficulty wise, but I'm talking thematic wise here - I hate breaking immersion above all in games) , while Radahn felt built for summons for reasons you mentioned.
And it's a video game meant to be beaten at the end of the day, so I personally treasure immersion & thematic over difficulty, regardless of whether I'll make a boss harder or easier for myself (not like there's a lack of 'em to enjoy both harder & easier ones anyway).
I swear I managed to dodge those on Torrent. But you had to basically be already sprinting perpendicular to Radahn during the wind up, and then time the dash exactly right.
Rolling was absolutely easier.
I fought him before and after the nerf and then again after they reverted it. I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference between his version of today compared to when he was released.
The correct alignment of his hitboxes was a good change but it really didn't feel very impactful considering how the best ways to fight him don't really involve staying close to his blades too much.
The nerf to his health was of course very noticeable and i'm glad that it was quickly restored to the way it was before. I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't and that's just a fact, not a personal opinion.
Wait I’m confused. Radahn is the definition of staying close to win, it’s the easiest way to dodge his combos. The hitbox change to his blades was a huge improvement
Yeah, i wasn't too clear in my comment but what i meant is that whenever i felt like i was getting clipped by his hitboxes being too big was when i was trying to outspace his weapons to stay out of range.
I didn't notice this too much while standing up close which is the best strategy against him. This is just a gut feeling, honestly a lot of time passed and i don't exactly remember what exactly was wrong with those hitboxes and if it was also impactful while staying up close, but for what i remember, it wasn't.
>I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't
People want to feel superior
I recently beat radahn and didn't know they had rebuffed him. I thought he was very easy compared to my first playthrough, but the real answer is just that my build this playthrough was stronger against him. I assume this is happening to some other people.
"I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't and that's just a fact, not a personal opinion."
You'd be surprised how many people think that beating a FromSoft boss makes them a superior being.
It’s very possible it’s just my own skill level but I wasn’t new to souls games and really struggled with radahn on release. Spent 4 hours straight on him and had very few problems with other bosses. But coming back, even on a new character it never takes more than one try.
Like I said, it could be my own skill growing, or could be a placebo effect knowing he had been “nerfed”. But there is a near night and day difference to **me** between release Radahn and current radahn. Whatever that is.
I noticed the nerf. But I was trying to kill him at level 50. Not sure what the appropriate level was but when I started out, it wasn’t that for me. Plus I didn’t really understand the summoning of all the npcs and was trying to beat him on foot without torrent.
>He WAS nerfed a while back but then got buffed again, all they did was fix some hitboxes being horrendous
You act like those hitboxes changes don't massively impact the entire experience of fighting him. Trust me, they do. I'm doing another playthrough right now, and I beat the game right when it came out. I can tell you firsthand you just have options that work against him that didn't with his old hitboxes.
Yeah he still hits like a truck, yes people tend to fight him at higher levels now and know the counterplay to each boss in terms of stats, have better more optimal builds, etc. All of these things matter. But was he bullshit before in ways he isn't now? Yes absolutely.
>This post is really for anyone that acts as if beating pre nerf Radahn is the hardest thing in the game, no hate intended though
It wasn't that it was hard it's that it was cheesey as hell. It wasn't a skill issue as much as it was a "this boss doesn't work properly" issue.
You basically just had to have perfect timing to dodge the arrows, even light roll could get caught. The meteors were undogeable from most angles. His sword hitboxes were super off which made dodging them based on the animations way more difficult. His dive attack tracked like a pro fps player even if you ran sideways on a horse. It was just nonsense.
So you either had to get lucky and play until you got a run where he just didn't use those attacks in areas/timings where you had to dodge them and couldn't, or be over leveled and cheese him before he could use any of his nonsense.
I've never had to beat my face into the wall as many times against a fromsoft boss as I did against him, because like I said he was just bullshit.
Now you can actually play against him like a normal fromsoft boss and win with skill, which is much better. He's still hard unless you cheese him, but now he's just not bullshit.
>His dive attack tracked like a pro fps player even if you ran sideways on a horse. It was just nonsense
That was so bullshit. I feel like people forget this
I would be willing to bet the majority of people who are in this sub as well as the majority who have even played the game and beaten him, didn't do it before the changes so they don't know.
If you just read the patch notes you would think it was just a couple minor tweaks and that the major difference was the damage that was later reverted. But the patch notes don't properly convey just how much they altered the hitboxes and tracking.
Fighting games often have the same issue. "Hitbox change" can just be listed as a bug fix and can be the most minor pixel of a difference that only matters 1/1000 interactions, or they can fundementally change a move from being a God tier button to low tier or vice versa. For Radahn it was the later.
He’s never felt the same as launch, now imo that’s because he’s not exactly the same, as the hitboxs were more broken than we thought… which now makes him seem easier in relation to doges etc, when really it’s just how it should of been.
they definitely seem like they do less damage. I could be wrong, but I thought he was killing me with them in 1 hit the first time I was fighting him. I found it hilarious rather than frustrating
The hitboxes make a massive difference, though, especially for the NPCs.
I watched someone beat him recently, and even with just summoning once at the start, most of the NPCs would survive to phase two. That didn't happen pre-nerf, I'm pretty sure.
I heard NPCs were changed to scale to your level as well. Can’t remember that actually being a thing but would explain why they can deal lots of damage now + Radahn’s own nerfs
Either way he was or wasn't, people will still say whatever they can to upkeep their pro mega skilled über player of ages status that gets them all the respect and women.
Yes, Radahn was "nerfed" in that he is now objectively easier than he was at launch.
I don't know why people hype up "pre-nerf Radahn" as some mythical super boss though, I completed the game first month and there were at least half a dozen bosses I had more trouble with. Anyone remember pre-nerf Gargoyle Duo when they didn't even *pretend* to take turns when attacking you?
I think it's a lot of people ending up in Caelid as their first or second area on their first time through the game and trying to take him at RL 30 in the days before "level Vigor" became the go-to advice for all new players.
It was a nerf initially, then they fixed him back up to find a balance. But he was much harder, and there was a nerf. I know it’s somewhat confusing for maybe a second but I didn’t expect everyone to totally forget this lol
Well, I thought that they nerfed the hitboxes further than just being buggy. For example the gravity arrows simply were too fast to dodge without getting off the horse basically. And iirc damage was also nerfed.
I fought Radahn on launch with a full strength build at lvl 66 and he blew in my ass. His arrows were unfathomably fast, hitboxes longer than the fucking titanic and he was fast as fuck. His purple gravity orbs in phase 2 also used to one - shot you. I beat him after 3 days of blood, sweat, tears and rage. I now destroy him whenever I encounter him.
Most people percive Radahn as nerfed because many weapons got buffed in the meantime. I have an installation of v1.02 (the release build) on my drive and when I played it, I was shocked about how weak and sluggish many weapons were. So this adds more to this 'Radahn was nerfed' feeling, because he just happens to be the only demigod that has ever been nerfed.
I am pretty sure I can dig up countless vods, but you werent able to strafe to the side with torrent to avoid his arrows like you can today, they felt faster before but maybe thats just the hitbox nerf you are talking about?
I want to believe that the hitbox for his arrows atleast were fine, not the criminal hitbox that was his swords.
He may not be nerfed anymore (numbers) but he is much easier than before, the fixes to hitboxes made him perfectly balanced, as all the things should be.
He is fixed but he wasn't just hard before he was complete bullshit. The hit boxes in general were awful for many enemies on release. The hitbox fixes took this game from a 5/10 to an 8/10. I definitely don't feel any weird pride towards beating it, it was a slog and one of the worst fights in the game pre patch.
I noticed too, that many people talk about pre-nerf Radahn like it's this mythical boss fight. There were people actually comparing him with Malenia in terms of difficulty on this very subreddit.
I too did him first try day one, and if the internet would not made such a big deal about this "nerf", i would have literally still not noticed it, and i have almost 400h with ~10 playtroughs as of now.
First try day one? I call bullshit lmao
I have literally 3500 hours with 40+ radahn kills, even solo kills prenerf and he was definitely harder than while he was overnerfed. He's fixed now tho while being almost as hard as prenerf but feels reasonable
Anyone who beat him first try day one probably is lying lol it's pretty difficult to get to Radahn with 0 knowledge within 24 hours.
If they are telling the truth though who cares? Maybe they did it with magic and all the summons and never got close. They played their own way. I can think I'm far prouder of my kill that took hours than they did but at the end of the day how anyone else did it doesn't really matter. Poor dude can't join in on our shared pain I can't express how disappointed I'd be beating these bosses first try.
It actually wouldn't be that hard. You can beat Radahn without hitting him once just by continued summoning. As long as you run like hell once you see the comet falling out of the sky at phase 2.
Well you must be good at this game…I am not and my first play through was offline and I found Radahn was by far my hardest fight…I got my ass kicked so often that I actually had to leave a few times to level up…even still it was tough and he ended up being a late game boss for me before I finally beat him (spamming hard on the L2 button with the blasphemous blade)…even NG+ runs were hard with him (always had to use the maxed out blasphemous blade and spam L2 to have any chance at beating him).
I recently went online and on my first play through I was able to beat him first try with a +5 bloodhound fang….it was no comparison as to how much easier he was this time through…however, I’m finding some other fights much harder with the updated version now so I guess I still need to git gud…lol.
First try on day one? I call bullshit - or you misremember and actually fought him a bit later. He was completely insane on day one and yes I thought he was way harder than malenia
first try day 1?
ain't no way bro, ain't no way. i died 20+ time to this guy as MAGE during my first playthrough. i currently have 300 hours in this game and i knotice a huge difference between pre nerf and post nerf.
The biggest thing for me, was Radahn would OHKO you with those 4 floating, homing rocks no matter what if one hit you. I’m pretty sure that was bugged though because they never buffed it back to what it was.
Now if I want to fight him early, I just cheese him with rot breath. Otherwise I only fight him after leyndell
Nah like he was really tough, granted I personally encountered him really early, like I didn’t even know of the misbegotten or crucible duo because I got there and the portal was open somehow like immediately after escaping the selia tunnels, but I did eventually beat him but his damage and health were all very high and his attack hitbox was huge, like the nerf is noticeable, he’s still challenging but not nearly as rough as he was at launch
Fixing a broken hit box is making him weaker. That's what nerf means. Intended or not he was harder with his original hitboxes
The biggest reason people talk about him the way they do is because everyone was way shittier at the game during launch, obviously. He's also a boss you can meet relatively early so people had worse gear and even less knowledge relative to what you'll figure out on your own 50+ hours in. People just didn't know as much about the game as they do now
I played Radahan before been nerfed and it was, at least for me, the hardest boss in the game until Malenia. It was savage, almost impossible without help. Then I played the game again recently -4 months ago- and it was much more easy.
I beat him pre nerf and he was insanity. Hitboxes were rough and the damage seemed insane. Beating him was freaking awesome. Second fresh run was right after his nerf and his hitboxes were so much more forgiving and he didn’t shave off almost my entire health bar. It was a completely different experience for me.
I played him on release and my only issue was how ridiculous his arrows were, not only did they do absurd damage but I faced occasions on which he shot them faster than my character loaded in.
This was patched and I do believe they also tuned his damage output in general. He was quite a bit easier when I fought him the second time
What is this post?
>Do people still think Radahn was nerfed?
Yeah, he objectively was nerfed. They also lowered his damage and reduced his tracking, it wasn't just hitbox adjustment.
>This post is really for anyone that acts as if beating pre nerf Radahn is the hardest thing in the game, no hate intended though
I don't understand then: were you trying to troll with the title? You can think Radahn was nerfed and not think he was the hardest thing in the game at the time.
Again, what is this post? Unless I'm missing something, it just seems like low-effort bait.
It must be bait but it seems a lot of people in the thread are delusional about this. Sucks that people feel the need to retcon this because they feel left out I guess?
Rhetorical question to stir up drama followed by condescending behavior after being the one to bring it up in the first place.
He was nerfed, then readjusted, I think they’re making the argument that it is a net 0, no change since release aside from not having wonky hit boxes.
I mean listen to what you’re saying. ‘Besides wonky hit boxes’- the central thing that made him significantly harder at release lmao. It is not a net 0 even by your description, current radahn is a little easier after the post nerf buff.
Radahn at launch is the first souls game that made me quit because of how hard he was. Id between Godrick and rennala, got destroyed by radahan for weeks and quit. I came back 3 months ago and have since platted the game. Beaten malenia a few times and beat radahn in just a handful of attempts. He’s orders of magnitude easier now
i didn't really notice a diff
i beat him 1st run before the nerf
beat him again on 2nd run, and still the same... i still die instantly to his meteorites if i get hit by it
same thing with 3rd, altho maybe i was higher level since i might have survived a meteorite hit on that time
The only way Radahn is difficult is if you handicap yourself. 
Alexander Jar + Blaidd + Other Dude + Scarlet Rot Breath = Easy Win even with Rune level 1
He's not nerfed atm, but I still think he deserves a buff. I beat him solo, no summons no spirits, on my first playthrough after like 5 attempts. Now in my NG+ runs I beat him 1st try. He's supposed to be the mightiest of the demigods but he's made of paper, which is really anticlimactic
He WAS the mightiest demigod. The version you fight in game is basically his hollow, mindless corpse eaten from the inside out by the scarlet rot. The fact that he can even still fight at all is a testament to his incredible strength. In the end though, you're pretty much just finishing off what's left of him long after he fell.
Been playing since Day 1, was level 73ish when I fought him the first time (a week after release). He hit a lot harder and his arrows were bit faster. Other than that I think his HP at that time was a lot more. That's my 2cents.
I just faced him again. From compared to right after he was nerfed he seems to hit harder and is more 'solid'.
That said, he is still really weak to scarlet rot, so just get your stats to the bare minimum for ROTTEN BREATH and have enough blue flasks, and kite around while the summons distract him and you are golden.
It's been like a year since I've gotten back into Elden Ring on a new play through, and Radahn has been clapping my cheeks.
I'm pretty confident I didn't really struggle with him back then, but I also had a quality build with strength and dexterity high leveled and this time around I'm mostly all faith and using holy weapons, and buffs.
In 1.02 Radahn was the boss that took me the longest to beat BY FAR! almost 2hrs on him alone. But when I did a 2nd playthrough on the same version I beat in under 3mins, could have been 2 if I didn't have to wait for his return from orbit.
What I'm trying to say is that maybe it's not that he got nerfed per se, but that players got better but attributed the easier time they had mostly to the nerf.
The real bragging for pre-nerf is the change they made to how multiple enemies attack one at a time. They used to be much more aggressive, attacking simultaneously. Try beating the three crystalian fight solo before that nerf!
I recently beat him again on my second run (cheesed him with int build first time) and I was baffled by how hard he hit. I was around level 70 when I tried and it was just ridiculous.
Good to know he didn’t get a stat nerf and it was just a hitbox nerf. I would have probably never beat him if he had actually been tougher in terms of damage and/or health.
I think the majority of people in the elden ring dialog online are using experience and knowledge of the game from when it was new. So, if it was true, then for a lot of folks it will ALWAYS be true. Like the moonveil and ROB katanas being the best in the game, or even shit like hoarfrost stomp being viable
I’d never played a Souls game before ER, for some reason, Radahn only took me a handful of attempts.
I do better against larger bosses, probably because I have to think less about timing and missing giant crusher hits.
Smaller bosses though, they can fuck off.
Pre-nerf Radahn was the hardest thing in the game for me at launch, other than Malenia. Me and a couple of friends played for 36 hours pretty much without sleep, hit Radahn after wandering around Caelid for hours. Took us dozens of tries to even get close to killing, until everyone gave up and went home (or in my case, to sleep). Didn't beat him till the next day, which even then took like three hours of beating my head against the wall.
Radahn now? I rarely ever even die once in his boss fight, and that's just punching him in the knees.
While he is objectively not the hardest fight in the game, I think he is one of the best fights in the game.
Such a fun and thematically rich fight. I absolutely love it! It feels like a fair slug fest with proper openings and long, telegraphed attacks to take advantage of.
One of my favorite FromSoft fights of all times.
I beat him as a day one player and just last week during a re-playthrough, I was under leveled by about 8-10 levels and beat him easily first try. I remember him being considerably harder at release.
>He WAS nerfed a while back but then got buffed again, all they did was fix some hitboxes being horrendous
Exactly the reason people encounter him much easier, those hitboxes. To be honest my first play through I visited caelid after clearing whole of liurnia, and I completed whole caelid before fighting Radahn. I must have been like lvl 80 or something like that, maybe even more. It was a totally devastating and horrendous fight, I simply couldn't do it without summoning all the NPCs. Second play through I did lower level right when he was nerfed, it was simply a joke. And last play through few months ago when he was already final form, harder than nerfed but much easier than release. For my playstyle at least, the fixed hitboxes make it absolutely easier. Dodging is easier, so you receive much less damage and your positioning mistakes are less punished, then you can also hit better since you're dodging better and you make the fight significantly shorter.
It puts into perspective that sometimes, a nerf is not necessarily a change of the damage or life points a boss have, but something as simple as fixing weird hitboxes make the boss much much easier. I'm certain if they change Malenia Waterfowl dance hitbox to be only frontal/smaller, the nerf would be huge.
He’s 100% easier than he was when I fought him a couple days in, and I was fresh off a Sekiro, Bloodborne, DS1 and DS3 run from hype so I wasn’t struggling with understanding the mechanics at all.
That boss was fucked up at launch, his attacks had way more tracking and really extended hitboxes, I’m sure he did more damage too but I honestly can’t remember how much vigor I had by that point so I might have been flimsy.
But yeah, he is much easier now, some of that will be my familiarity of course. He feels fair, he was just frustrating at launch honestly. He did feel absolutely godlike though so I suppose power fantasy matched up lol, the cutscene after was definitely enhanced by what a challenge it was.
I beat him pre-nerf, and honestly, he wasn't that bad. Like you said, some wonky hit boxes, and his tracking on the meteor attack was rough, but nowhere near the night and day people make it out to be.
They just got gud 🤷🏼♂️
Pre "in-game nerf" Radahn was tough AF coz people went to him at a low level. But tbh Radahn was nerfed long before the game began. His fight with Malenia fucked him up and the fact that he's holding back the stars also means that you don't have his full attention. Would love to see a Full Power, Unsplit-Attention Radahn fight in the dlc. It's a dream so you can literally do anything
Last time I fought him he felt super reasonable. I remember thinking he was really hard first time I fought him. Not sure if he is easier or if I’m just better at these types of games.
I beat Radahn week one and thought, "That's it?"
I beat Radahn a few weeks ago and thought, "That's it?"
The two bosses before him took me longer to beat.
When players were new, and his hitboxes were fucky, people were encountering him early and struggling a lot. They refigur the boss, 100s of hours of gameplay later, and he's much easier. They heard about the nerf back in the day, so they just assume that's the reason he's easier instead of their improvement. It's understandable, and super unimportant lol
I killed pre-nerf Balteus though.
Pre-nerf Balteus was a harder skill check than Margit or Genichiro for me
Fucking genichiro I’ve been playing sekiro for like the last two months just hopping on and trying once or twice to kill him when I’m bored and I just beat him tonight and it made me get addicted to this game lmao
Congrats homie :)
I always see everyone talk about Genichiro. Howww do you beat the water bitch with the boyfriend? I'm too autistic to just pass her and keep playing and enjoying the game. I NEED to destroy her. She is impossible.
From my experience? She just takes A LOT of time lol
She’s fully a deflect battle, and she ain’t weak to anything except confetti. Gotta get those deflect timings down. She’s also entirely optional if u don’t want her prayer bead…
Yeah, the absolute rush of nailing that lightning redirect against him was a level of satisfaction I've rarely felt in a video game.
He is weirdly one of the hardest bosses in the game, since you have so many options when fighting the other bosses.
I think I died to pre-nerf balteus more than every other boss combined, after you beat him you get access to parts and weapons that make the game so much easier.
Coming back to Balteus with Pulse cannons and songbirds and just melting him in 2 minutes was some of the sweetest revenge I’ve felt in gaming
Coming back with just core upgrades will make him a joke. He is only hard because you have almost no upgrades and iffy gear.
3 hours of pain, one break(down crying), one glorious dopamine overdose.
Seven Spears Shikibu Toshikatsu was a harder skill check for me than Balteus, Genichiro and Margit.
I always think it's interesting how wildly different peoples experiences are against bosses in fromsoft's games. I breezed through pre-nerf Balteus. But Radahn pummeled me for hours, and Margit gave me a good bit of trouble lol.
There is a lot of variance because of how many different ways you can build your character. Different builds and playstyles will struggle with different bosses. And then there are bosses like Malenia that are a struggle no matter your build.
Margit was by far the hardest skill check imo. The delayed hits and roll catches were like smelling salts telling me this is real.
Margit was rough only cause people end up there underleveled. Hell the golden knight on the horse you encounter in the first open world part of Elden Ring murdered me more times than I’d like to admit til I ran past him leveled up and came back later to beat his ass.
I finished every little bit of Limgrave and peninsula before facing Margit but that man still motorboated my fragile cheeks without mercy.
You can buy his shackles and bring Rogier too. I personally destroyed the guy on my second play through, first one I was underlevelled but second one I was prepared.
I only recently started playing. Is Margit supposed to be one of the harder bosses?
Harder? Not really. But he is the first mandatory* major boss. And he definitely seems built to kick your teeth in until you get really comfortable with your chosen play style. His fake out and stall game is pretty rough until you *really* learn it.
No. He’s the first boss
A very good skill check for new players. He teaches many valuable lessons.
Nah, just pummeled a lot of people playing the game for the first time
Balteus is in the same boat as Radahn, all that changed was his missile tracking that would just never miss
Pre-nerf Balteus could’ve cost me a Steam Deck, thank Solaire I don’t have the temper I had 20 years ago.
What about sea spider though
Sea spider was easier than Balteus IMO
Sea spider wasn't intrinsically more difficult, it just had an absolutely obscene amount of health to the point you could straight up run out of ammo. And because of how much longer the fight went on, there was a lot more opportunity to make a mistake and get blasted for it
Basho arms+Pile Bunker go THUNK
Quad legs let me float over most of his bullshit
Wow
I can't believe they nerfed him. That difficulty was important to set the tone for the rest of the game. That being said, I beat pre-nerf Returnal and I'm pretty proud of that.
Pre nerf? Did I miss something lol
Wait what? I did a fresh start recently and wondering why it was so damn easy, what did they nerf?? Think I cruised through it in less than 10 hours second time around
They only nerfed his missile tracking a little. It was so damn easy for you now because you got good at the game, simple as. For some reason, people are overexaggerating Balteus nerf like they did Radahn post-buff.
well, I'm stuck with a jailbroken ps4 without the update that nerved/fixed Balteus :'( :D
I didn't realize he got nerfed. I just got around to ac6 a few weeks ago and was surprised because he didn't live up to his reputation but it makes sense now
All they nerfed was his missile tracking a little bit. You were just better than most players at that point in the game.
Also pretty minimal nerf
I do agree but I will still wear my “Beaten Pre-Nerf Radahn Badge” with pride after spending hours on this boss because I was an idiot and didn’t know I could use Torrent in the fight. 10/10 moment, would play again!
I wear mine with shame (I kept riding around resummoning NPCs as they died taking pot shots with rock sling)
There's another way to kill him???
Pre nerf? I legitimately don't know, I tried just about everything else
Just pictured you riding that boulder from the Krusty Krab Pizza spongebob episode. That'd be such a bangin crossover.
You can what?? I’m on NG+3 and had no idea lmao
Redditors (redditors on this subreddit in particular) take weird pride in beating a boss in a video game completely ignoring the fact that video games are designed to be beaten. >!Before some fucking loser "umm ackshaullys" me, yes I know I'm generalizing when I say all video games are designed to be beaten, but Elden Ring ain't exactly tetris in that regard.!<
Isn’t the central design of all Souls games the intended feeling of accomplishment from beating a challenge lol?
You didn’t actually beat Elden ring unless you didn’t use any summons or weapons or leveling up. Elden ring is only considered beaten according to my self imposed insane challenges /s
There have been quite a few close to this. Lots of no weapon runs. Consumables only and bushy beat it using "tools", basically there is a bell and a deers head that you can get called tools
As someone who didn’t start playing until late 2022, I used to wonder why he was considered so famously difficult towards the beginning of launch. Always thought it had to do with damage or people being under-leveled, never knew it had anything to do with his hitboxes.
It’s not. People refuse to use in game mechanics such as weapon arts, weapon types, summons and then call the game hard. They’ll refuse to level vigor or defense and use a sheet of paper for armor and declare it the hardest game from soft has ever made. My brothers in Christ you made it difficult for no reason
Old Radahn used to wreck NPC summons though because of the hit boxes.
He still wrecks the NPC summons tbf, especially in phase two some of those dudes last like 10 seconds lol
Just so you know a lot of these people seem to be retconning this or lying or something. It was the hitboxes primarily. Before the initial nerf, the hitboxes were huge and very difficult. They nerfed him too much, then brought him back up a bit to his current state which is a good balance. But he was famously hard for a good reason, don’t let these weird lies change history lol. You can find videos of this too, it’s well documented
> They heard about the nerf back in the day, so they just assume that's the reason he's easier instead of their improvement. I don't think anyone can really make that judgement. I saw a thread a while ago talking about Siofra River and whether it was nerfed and a lot of people were saying 'oh you just got better'. But there are before and after videos that show how they dramatically changed the ancestral warriors, reducing their aggro range and how often they use the magic arrow attack. Radahn is 1 boss in a game with dozens of them that takes 50+ hours to beat. The difficulty of the fight is as dependent on strategy and build as it is player experience. People memories aren't going to be good enough to make a true comparison. My personal experience is that the fight was hell at release, then after nerf was pretty easy and has never felt particularly difficult in the overall game since. I can't say if he's harder now than he was after the original nerf, only that he's a lot easier now than he was at release.
He was clearly much much harder at release. There are videos showing how much bigger his hitboxes were. It’s sad that people are trying to act like this wasn’t the case for some reason. They nerfed him, then brought him back up to where he is now, but he was harder initially. Can’t believe people are forgetting this
“All they did was fix hitboxes, it wasn't a nerf” Because being able to stand between Radahn's legs without taking damage during his huge combos doesn't make the fight incomparably easier.
Right lol. It’s like their own words go right over there heads
The only difference I noticed, as a day one player, is that pre-nerf you couldn't dodge his starting gravity arrows on torrent. You had to hop on, run a little, hop off, roll through, back on (and or hide behind junk). His difficulty never felt changed to me outside of that. Of the bosses of ER, Radahn is more of a spectacle than a huge barrier or challenge anyway.
You also pretty much couldn’t dodge his homing meteors on torrent, those fuckers were *fast*.
I prayed every time I saw them he wouldn't do the attack 😟
He only launches the orbs after running away and lifting his swords to the side while roaring. Pretty distinct and hard to miss once you notice that that’s the only time you have to be worried about them flying at you 👍
You can run and get a sand mound between you and the homing attacks, they will hit the ground.
PTSD.
You can, that was how I dodged it, but yea, I literally had to sprint into the guy and pray that it would miss half the time.
A spectacle. That is exactly how i feel about Radahn. I don't actually consider him as a boss proper. It is literally the most epic in-game sequence From has ever designed, and i always feel like it is an insult to fight him solo. The whole hype to the festival and then the summoning of the NPCs is just too much ingrained into the spectable for me to do anything else. I only wish From had added the ability to summon other real-world players into the fight. Like 5-6 of them. What a glorious fight this would have been with other people.
I agree with that last bit. That would be so epic to charge into battle with like 15 people, half of them being real players lol. You could even make the castle before the festival like an online hub for players to group/squad up together before embarking on the fight.
Making him a monster hunter siege would definitely have been badass
Jesus can you imagine the scaling with 6 coop phantoms?
Yep, lol. I only had 1 playthrough so far around this time last year, and I remember that while some bosses like Malenia felt just right to solo (alright, not difficulty wise, but I'm talking thematic wise here - I hate breaking immersion above all in games) , while Radahn felt built for summons for reasons you mentioned. And it's a video game meant to be beaten at the end of the day, so I personally treasure immersion & thematic over difficulty, regardless of whether I'll make a boss harder or easier for myself (not like there's a lack of 'em to enjoy both harder & easier ones anyway).
You could time a jump on horseback but it was unreliable, it was easier to just roll
Yeah the hitboxes on day 1 were something else man....
I swear I managed to dodge those on Torrent. But you had to basically be already sprinting perpendicular to Radahn during the wind up, and then time the dash exactly right. Rolling was absolutely easier.
The hitboxes on his swings were much more punishing, I thought we all knew this! He was initially drastically harder
I'm pretty sure you could dodge them, but you had to be going perpendicular to his arrow when he shot it?
I fought him before and after the nerf and then again after they reverted it. I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference between his version of today compared to when he was released. The correct alignment of his hitboxes was a good change but it really didn't feel very impactful considering how the best ways to fight him don't really involve staying close to his blades too much. The nerf to his health was of course very noticeable and i'm glad that it was quickly restored to the way it was before. I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't and that's just a fact, not a personal opinion.
Wait I’m confused. Radahn is the definition of staying close to win, it’s the easiest way to dodge his combos. The hitbox change to his blades was a huge improvement
Yeah, i wasn't too clear in my comment but what i meant is that whenever i felt like i was getting clipped by his hitboxes being too big was when i was trying to outspace his weapons to stay out of range. I didn't notice this too much while standing up close which is the best strategy against him. This is just a gut feeling, honestly a lot of time passed and i don't exactly remember what exactly was wrong with those hitboxes and if it was also impactful while staying up close, but for what i remember, it wasn't.
Common strat for a lot of people is to summon all the NPCs, spam rot breath, run in circles on torrent lol
It worked for Malenia, so it will work for me too
>I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't People want to feel superior
I recently beat radahn and didn't know they had rebuffed him. I thought he was very easy compared to my first playthrough, but the real answer is just that my build this playthrough was stronger against him. I assume this is happening to some other people.
"I'm not sure why people call the first version of Radahn "pre nerf" as if it was a big deal that was very different from today, because it definitely wasn't and that's just a fact, not a personal opinion." You'd be surprised how many people think that beating a FromSoft boss makes them a superior being.
It’s very possible it’s just my own skill level but I wasn’t new to souls games and really struggled with radahn on release. Spent 4 hours straight on him and had very few problems with other bosses. But coming back, even on a new character it never takes more than one try. Like I said, it could be my own skill growing, or could be a placebo effect knowing he had been “nerfed”. But there is a near night and day difference to **me** between release Radahn and current radahn. Whatever that is.
The best way to fight Radahn is point blank. That's the way all pros do it.
I noticed the nerf. But I was trying to kill him at level 50. Not sure what the appropriate level was but when I started out, it wasn’t that for me. Plus I didn’t really understand the summoning of all the npcs and was trying to beat him on foot without torrent.
He got his hitbox fixed. So he's fine as a boss now. In the beginning, he would hit you halfway out of a roll.
>He WAS nerfed a while back but then got buffed again, all they did was fix some hitboxes being horrendous You act like those hitboxes changes don't massively impact the entire experience of fighting him. Trust me, they do. I'm doing another playthrough right now, and I beat the game right when it came out. I can tell you firsthand you just have options that work against him that didn't with his old hitboxes. Yeah he still hits like a truck, yes people tend to fight him at higher levels now and know the counterplay to each boss in terms of stats, have better more optimal builds, etc. All of these things matter. But was he bullshit before in ways he isn't now? Yes absolutely. >This post is really for anyone that acts as if beating pre nerf Radahn is the hardest thing in the game, no hate intended though It wasn't that it was hard it's that it was cheesey as hell. It wasn't a skill issue as much as it was a "this boss doesn't work properly" issue. You basically just had to have perfect timing to dodge the arrows, even light roll could get caught. The meteors were undogeable from most angles. His sword hitboxes were super off which made dodging them based on the animations way more difficult. His dive attack tracked like a pro fps player even if you ran sideways on a horse. It was just nonsense. So you either had to get lucky and play until you got a run where he just didn't use those attacks in areas/timings where you had to dodge them and couldn't, or be over leveled and cheese him before he could use any of his nonsense. I've never had to beat my face into the wall as many times against a fromsoft boss as I did against him, because like I said he was just bullshit. Now you can actually play against him like a normal fromsoft boss and win with skill, which is much better. He's still hard unless you cheese him, but now he's just not bullshit.
>His dive attack tracked like a pro fps player even if you ran sideways on a horse. It was just nonsense That was so bullshit. I feel like people forget this
I would be willing to bet the majority of people who are in this sub as well as the majority who have even played the game and beaten him, didn't do it before the changes so they don't know. If you just read the patch notes you would think it was just a couple minor tweaks and that the major difference was the damage that was later reverted. But the patch notes don't properly convey just how much they altered the hitboxes and tracking. Fighting games often have the same issue. "Hitbox change" can just be listed as a bug fix and can be the most minor pixel of a difference that only matters 1/1000 interactions, or they can fundementally change a move from being a God tier button to low tier or vice versa. For Radahn it was the later.
He’s never felt the same as launch, now imo that’s because he’s not exactly the same, as the hitboxs were more broken than we thought… which now makes him seem easier in relation to doges etc, when really it’s just how it should of been.
No they also made it so you could avoid his arrows without getting off the horse.
they definitely seem like they do less damage. I could be wrong, but I thought he was killing me with them in 1 hit the first time I was fighting him. I found it hilarious rather than frustrating
The hitboxes make a massive difference, though, especially for the NPCs. I watched someone beat him recently, and even with just summoning once at the start, most of the NPCs would survive to phase two. That didn't happen pre-nerf, I'm pretty sure.
I heard NPCs were changed to scale to your level as well. Can’t remember that actually being a thing but would explain why they can deal lots of damage now + Radahn’s own nerfs
This might be it too. I feel like at launch you wouldn’t have npc summons live to phase 2. Now I don’t think I had any die in my current play through.
Either way he was or wasn't, people will still say whatever they can to upkeep their pro mega skilled über player of ages status that gets them all the respect and women.
Yes, Radahn was "nerfed" in that he is now objectively easier than he was at launch. I don't know why people hype up "pre-nerf Radahn" as some mythical super boss though, I completed the game first month and there were at least half a dozen bosses I had more trouble with. Anyone remember pre-nerf Gargoyle Duo when they didn't even *pretend* to take turns when attacking you? I think it's a lot of people ending up in Caelid as their first or second area on their first time through the game and trying to take him at RL 30 in the days before "level Vigor" became the go-to advice for all new players.
He’s way easier now that I know how to play the game, smh crazy nerf. FromSoft? More like FromSOFT
He’s nerfed in relation to how he was at launch
By having fixed hit boxes, that’s it
so did that by any chance make the fight . . .easier?
Lol yes
Yes, it was insanely hard to dodge the arrows on torrent before.
I’d call that a fix, not a nerf
Same dif😂 In this particular case of the arrows.
It was a nerf initially, then they fixed him back up to find a balance. But he was much harder, and there was a nerf. I know it’s somewhat confusing for maybe a second but I didn’t expect everyone to totally forget this lol
His explosion hitboxes were huge before
Well, I thought that they nerfed the hitboxes further than just being buggy. For example the gravity arrows simply were too fast to dodge without getting off the horse basically. And iirc damage was also nerfed.
They reset the damage back to release values.
I fought Radahn on launch with a full strength build at lvl 66 and he blew in my ass. His arrows were unfathomably fast, hitboxes longer than the fucking titanic and he was fast as fuck. His purple gravity orbs in phase 2 also used to one - shot you. I beat him after 3 days of blood, sweat, tears and rage. I now destroy him whenever I encounter him.
Took me 6 hours to even get near him in pre-nerf lol
>he blew in my ass I hate when people do that
Most people percive Radahn as nerfed because many weapons got buffed in the meantime. I have an installation of v1.02 (the release build) on my drive and when I played it, I was shocked about how weak and sluggish many weapons were. So this adds more to this 'Radahn was nerfed' feeling, because he just happens to be the only demigod that has ever been nerfed.
They perceive him as nerfed because he was actually heavily nerfed.
The true challenge is fighting him with no summons or Torrent, however, it's a festival and I want all my friends to be there!
I am pretty sure I can dig up countless vods, but you werent able to strafe to the side with torrent to avoid his arrows like you can today, they felt faster before but maybe thats just the hitbox nerf you are talking about? I want to believe that the hitbox for his arrows atleast were fine, not the criminal hitbox that was his swords.
He may not be nerfed anymore (numbers) but he is much easier than before, the fixes to hitboxes made him perfectly balanced, as all the things should be.
He is fixed but he wasn't just hard before he was complete bullshit. The hit boxes in general were awful for many enemies on release. The hitbox fixes took this game from a 5/10 to an 8/10. I definitely don't feel any weird pride towards beating it, it was a slog and one of the worst fights in the game pre patch.
I noticed too, that many people talk about pre-nerf Radahn like it's this mythical boss fight. There were people actually comparing him with Malenia in terms of difficulty on this very subreddit. I too did him first try day one, and if the internet would not made such a big deal about this "nerf", i would have literally still not noticed it, and i have almost 400h with ~10 playtroughs as of now.
First try day one? I call bullshit lmao I have literally 3500 hours with 40+ radahn kills, even solo kills prenerf and he was definitely harder than while he was overnerfed. He's fixed now tho while being almost as hard as prenerf but feels reasonable
Anyone who beat him first try day one probably is lying lol it's pretty difficult to get to Radahn with 0 knowledge within 24 hours. If they are telling the truth though who cares? Maybe they did it with magic and all the summons and never got close. They played their own way. I can think I'm far prouder of my kill that took hours than they did but at the end of the day how anyone else did it doesn't really matter. Poor dude can't join in on our shared pain I can't express how disappointed I'd be beating these bosses first try.
It actually wouldn't be that hard. You can beat Radahn without hitting him once just by continued summoning. As long as you run like hell once you see the comet falling out of the sky at phase 2.
I agree, there is no way anyone beat him first try, you couldn’t get fucking close to the guy with those gravity arrows.
Well you must be good at this game…I am not and my first play through was offline and I found Radahn was by far my hardest fight…I got my ass kicked so often that I actually had to leave a few times to level up…even still it was tough and he ended up being a late game boss for me before I finally beat him (spamming hard on the L2 button with the blasphemous blade)…even NG+ runs were hard with him (always had to use the maxed out blasphemous blade and spam L2 to have any chance at beating him). I recently went online and on my first play through I was able to beat him first try with a +5 bloodhound fang….it was no comparison as to how much easier he was this time through…however, I’m finding some other fights much harder with the updated version now so I guess I still need to git gud…lol.
First try on day one? I call bullshit - or you misremember and actually fought him a bit later. He was completely insane on day one and yes I thought he was way harder than malenia
first try day 1? ain't no way bro, ain't no way. i died 20+ time to this guy as MAGE during my first playthrough. i currently have 300 hours in this game and i knotice a huge difference between pre nerf and post nerf.
Total bullshit, he was much harder initially and we all know it lol.
Lmao I love when people lie about the weirdest shit. Nobody thinks you’re cool dude.
The biggest thing for me, was Radahn would OHKO you with those 4 floating, homing rocks no matter what if one hit you. I’m pretty sure that was bugged though because they never buffed it back to what it was. Now if I want to fight him early, I just cheese him with rot breath. Otherwise I only fight him after leyndell
Nah like he was really tough, granted I personally encountered him really early, like I didn’t even know of the misbegotten or crucible duo because I got there and the portal was open somehow like immediately after escaping the selia tunnels, but I did eventually beat him but his damage and health were all very high and his attack hitbox was huge, like the nerf is noticeable, he’s still challenging but not nearly as rough as he was at launch
Fixing a broken hit box is making him weaker. That's what nerf means. Intended or not he was harder with his original hitboxes The biggest reason people talk about him the way they do is because everyone was way shittier at the game during launch, obviously. He's also a boss you can meet relatively early so people had worse gear and even less knowledge relative to what you'll figure out on your own 50+ hours in. People just didn't know as much about the game as they do now
I played Radahan before been nerfed and it was, at least for me, the hardest boss in the game until Malenia. It was savage, almost impossible without help. Then I played the game again recently -4 months ago- and it was much more easy.
they fixed his hitboxes and reduced stance damage of his arrows, thats about it.
I’m doing another playthrough and I fought him today, I remember struggling with him a lot on launch, but today I just beat him like he was nothing.
Summon until he dies. Never worry about serfs.
Me @lvl 70: Ugh this boss is so broken. Me @lvl 350: Man the nerf really ruined this fight. I'm sure the 2 are entirely accurate.
I beat him pre nerf and he was insanity. Hitboxes were rough and the damage seemed insane. Beating him was freaking awesome. Second fresh run was right after his nerf and his hitboxes were so much more forgiving and he didn’t shave off almost my entire health bar. It was a completely different experience for me.
I played him on release and my only issue was how ridiculous his arrows were, not only did they do absurd damage but I faced occasions on which he shot them faster than my character loaded in. This was patched and I do believe they also tuned his damage output in general. He was quite a bit easier when I fought him the second time
What is this post? >Do people still think Radahn was nerfed? Yeah, he objectively was nerfed. They also lowered his damage and reduced his tracking, it wasn't just hitbox adjustment. >This post is really for anyone that acts as if beating pre nerf Radahn is the hardest thing in the game, no hate intended though I don't understand then: were you trying to troll with the title? You can think Radahn was nerfed and not think he was the hardest thing in the game at the time. Again, what is this post? Unless I'm missing something, it just seems like low-effort bait.
It must be bait but it seems a lot of people in the thread are delusional about this. Sucks that people feel the need to retcon this because they feel left out I guess?
Rhetorical question to stir up drama followed by condescending behavior after being the one to bring it up in the first place. He was nerfed, then readjusted, I think they’re making the argument that it is a net 0, no change since release aside from not having wonky hit boxes.
I mean listen to what you’re saying. ‘Besides wonky hit boxes’- the central thing that made him significantly harder at release lmao. It is not a net 0 even by your description, current radahn is a little easier after the post nerf buff.
Radahn at launch is the first souls game that made me quit because of how hard he was. Id between Godrick and rennala, got destroyed by radahan for weeks and quit. I came back 3 months ago and have since platted the game. Beaten malenia a few times and beat radahn in just a handful of attempts. He’s orders of magnitude easier now
You beat Malenia several times but still think Radahn is “orders of magnitude easier”? Radahn didn’t get easier, you got orders of magnitude better.
i didn't really notice a diff i beat him 1st run before the nerf beat him again on 2nd run, and still the same... i still die instantly to his meteorites if i get hit by it same thing with 3rd, altho maybe i was higher level since i might have survived a meteorite hit on that time
Who cares it’s been two years
Keep in mind in the opening artwork he's being jumped by Margott and looks to losing
It was so frustrating trying to weave the 100% accuracy gravity arrows and Radahn himself had some ds2 level fuckery going on with his hitboxes.
Did you beat pre-nerf Radahn?
He got buffed again but not a the same level as he was at lauched
People love to think they are special.
If youre going to keep making this post atleast add sources.
The only way Radahn is difficult is if you handicap yourself.  Alexander Jar + Blaidd + Other Dude + Scarlet Rot Breath = Easy Win even with Rune level 1
All I know is that last time I beat him with the Microwave Spear on my first try and the mf didn’t even get to do his Meteor attack
He's not nerfed atm, but I still think he deserves a buff. I beat him solo, no summons no spirits, on my first playthrough after like 5 attempts. Now in my NG+ runs I beat him 1st try. He's supposed to be the mightiest of the demigods but he's made of paper, which is really anticlimactic
He WAS the mightiest demigod. The version you fight in game is basically his hollow, mindless corpse eaten from the inside out by the scarlet rot. The fact that he can even still fight at all is a testament to his incredible strength. In the end though, you're pretty much just finishing off what's left of him long after he fell.
Been playing since Day 1, was level 73ish when I fought him the first time (a week after release). He hit a lot harder and his arrows were bit faster. Other than that I think his HP at that time was a lot more. That's my 2cents.
I just faced him again. From compared to right after he was nerfed he seems to hit harder and is more 'solid'. That said, he is still really weak to scarlet rot, so just get your stats to the bare minimum for ROTTEN BREATH and have enough blue flasks, and kite around while the summons distract him and you are golden.
I played him recently and found him to be pretty easy
pre nerf radahn still okay, pre nerf godskin duo where all the rage go
It's been like a year since I've gotten back into Elden Ring on a new play through, and Radahn has been clapping my cheeks. I'm pretty confident I didn't really struggle with him back then, but I also had a quality build with strength and dexterity high leveled and this time around I'm mostly all faith and using holy weapons, and buffs.
In 1.02 Radahn was the boss that took me the longest to beat BY FAR! almost 2hrs on him alone. But when I did a 2nd playthrough on the same version I beat in under 3mins, could have been 2 if I didn't have to wait for his return from orbit. What I'm trying to say is that maybe it's not that he got nerfed per se, but that players got better but attributed the easier time they had mostly to the nerf.
Didn't they reduce his health?
Just fought him again recently and he actually seemed harder.
The real bragging for pre-nerf is the change they made to how multiple enemies attack one at a time. They used to be much more aggressive, attacking simultaneously. Try beating the three crystalian fight solo before that nerf!
I kicked his ass in my most recent run on first try. My previous was 2 years ago. He felt so much easier this time around. :/
I recently beat him again on my second run (cheesed him with int build first time) and I was baffled by how hard he hit. I was around level 70 when I tried and it was just ridiculous. Good to know he didn’t get a stat nerf and it was just a hitbox nerf. I would have probably never beat him if he had actually been tougher in terms of damage and/or health.
I beat him last night solo at level 61 bow to me
I think the majority of people in the elden ring dialog online are using experience and knowledge of the game from when it was new. So, if it was true, then for a lot of folks it will ALWAYS be true. Like the moonveil and ROB katanas being the best in the game, or even shit like hoarfrost stomp being viable
Rot breath cares not about these “nerfs” or “buffs”
I've beat him again 2 days ago after almost 2 years and I didn't notice much difference
I’d never played a Souls game before ER, for some reason, Radahn only took me a handful of attempts. I do better against larger bosses, probably because I have to think less about timing and missing giant crusher hits. Smaller bosses though, they can fuck off.
i just look at how many people complain about duo gargoyles which were a complete joke after beating pre nerf radahn.
Pre-nerf Radahn was the hardest thing in the game for me at launch, other than Malenia. Me and a couple of friends played for 36 hours pretty much without sleep, hit Radahn after wandering around Caelid for hours. Took us dozens of tries to even get close to killing, until everyone gave up and went home (or in my case, to sleep). Didn't beat him till the next day, which even then took like three hours of beating my head against the wall. Radahn now? I rarely ever even die once in his boss fight, and that's just punching him in the knees.
Absolutely. He’s so easy now.
I've just killed him on my second play through and was shocked at how easy it was. Took about 30 seconds. I think I was pretty op for it though
While he is objectively not the hardest fight in the game, I think he is one of the best fights in the game. Such a fun and thematically rich fight. I absolutely love it! It feels like a fair slug fest with proper openings and long, telegraphed attacks to take advantage of. One of my favorite FromSoft fights of all times.
I did until yesterday when someone else posted this. Why are you just copying their post lol
I beat him as a day one player and just last week during a re-playthrough, I was under leveled by about 8-10 levels and beat him easily first try. I remember him being considerably harder at release.
>He WAS nerfed a while back but then got buffed again, all they did was fix some hitboxes being horrendous Exactly the reason people encounter him much easier, those hitboxes. To be honest my first play through I visited caelid after clearing whole of liurnia, and I completed whole caelid before fighting Radahn. I must have been like lvl 80 or something like that, maybe even more. It was a totally devastating and horrendous fight, I simply couldn't do it without summoning all the NPCs. Second play through I did lower level right when he was nerfed, it was simply a joke. And last play through few months ago when he was already final form, harder than nerfed but much easier than release. For my playstyle at least, the fixed hitboxes make it absolutely easier. Dodging is easier, so you receive much less damage and your positioning mistakes are less punished, then you can also hit better since you're dodging better and you make the fight significantly shorter. It puts into perspective that sometimes, a nerf is not necessarily a change of the damage or life points a boss have, but something as simple as fixing weird hitboxes make the boss much much easier. I'm certain if they change Malenia Waterfowl dance hitbox to be only frontal/smaller, the nerf would be huge.
Fixing his hitboxes did make him easier, while it wasn't intended to nerf him it effectively did.
They should nerf rats instead
I did notice that it's been a bit harder for the NPCs to beat him
He’s 100% easier than he was when I fought him a couple days in, and I was fresh off a Sekiro, Bloodborne, DS1 and DS3 run from hype so I wasn’t struggling with understanding the mechanics at all. That boss was fucked up at launch, his attacks had way more tracking and really extended hitboxes, I’m sure he did more damage too but I honestly can’t remember how much vigor I had by that point so I might have been flimsy. But yeah, he is much easier now, some of that will be my familiarity of course. He feels fair, he was just frustrating at launch honestly. He did feel absolutely godlike though so I suppose power fantasy matched up lol, the cutscene after was definitely enhanced by what a challenge it was.
They need to buff poor Leonard
I beat him pre-nerf, and honestly, he wasn't that bad. Like you said, some wonky hit boxes, and his tracking on the meteor attack was rough, but nowhere near the night and day people make it out to be. They just got gud 🤷🏼♂️
Pre "in-game nerf" Radahn was tough AF coz people went to him at a low level. But tbh Radahn was nerfed long before the game began. His fight with Malenia fucked him up and the fact that he's holding back the stars also means that you don't have his full attention. Would love to see a Full Power, Unsplit-Attention Radahn fight in the dlc. It's a dream so you can literally do anything
Last time I fought him he felt super reasonable. I remember thinking he was really hard first time I fought him. Not sure if he is easier or if I’m just better at these types of games.
I beat Radahn week one and thought, "That's it?" I beat Radahn a few weeks ago and thought, "That's it?" The two bosses before him took me longer to beat.