Elden Ring Update makes Starscourge Radahn actually hard again

Elden Ring Radahn - An Elden Ring player squaring off against a boss
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Publisher Bandai Namco released a small update today to the larger Elden Ring patch 1.03 that hit mid-March. Specifically, they slid in a fix to give Starscourge Radahn’s back his groove. The original update reduced the intimidating swordsman and his tiny baby horse's damage, basically turning his giant swords into a pair of pool noodles, making him a total pushover compared to his brutal contemporaries like Maliketh. 

Developer FromSoftware continues to tinker with Elden Ring, tweaking the game to be just the right amount of challenging. Though, clearly getting Starscourge Radahn back to his formerly beefy self was important to the team as the only patch note in this update is “Fixed a bug in the balance adjustment of the boss 'Starscourge Radahn' in update 1.03, in which the power of some attacks was unintentionally reduced” making Radahn the star of a solo act update.

Elden Ring Radahn - A hero faces off against Starscourge Radahn

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Previously, Radahn took a pretty big whack over the head in patch 1.03, with his weapon and projectile hitboxes shrinking and slowing down, a reduction in his melee damage, and big changes to his homing attacks among other things. While it's clear he needed some adjustments, he'd gone from being a challenge to being a source of entertainment as you could watch summoned NPC's pummel him on their own.

Not that there's anything wrong with using summons. While magicking up aid in battle feels against the spirit of Soulsborne games, as Pat discovered, leaning into the Elden Ring's summons feels like cheating but makes for an immensely fun time.

If you’re tackling Radahn now, you’ll want to be prepared since he’s bringing his A-game again, and that means weathering a beating. If you need some help, check out our Elden Ring bosses guide for some specific breakdowns, and it’s never a bad idea to brush up on more basic Elden Ring tips.

TOPICS
Sarah Richter
Contributor

Sarah (She/Her) is a contributor and former Senior Writer for TechRadar Gaming. With six years of experience writing freelance for publications like PC Gamer, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.

Read more
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Update 2 fixes a bunch of frustrating bugs and improves global illumination on Xbox
Baldur's Gate 3
Don't panic! Baldur's Gate 3 players on PS5 who were affected by the accidental release of Patch 8 can fix their game using this easy solution
Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy 16 in Tekken 8
Tekken 8's winter update brings the nerf hammer down on Final Fantasy 16 guest character Clive Rosfield
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Yes, Elden Ring: Nightreign will feature a "small number" of enemies from the Dark Souls series, director confirms
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 now lets you turn off PSSR on PS5 Pro
Zero draws his sword
Phantom Blade Zero switches up the soulslike formula by introducing four difficulty options, will also feature 20 hours of additional side content on top of its 30 hour story
Latest in Consoles & PC
Asus ROG Ally using Steam
I think Asus could be the perfect partner for an Xbox handheld – but I have questions
Astro Bot PS5 bundle
Sony officially announces new Astro Bot PS5 bundles and they're available from PlayStation Direct right now for bargain prices we can barely believe
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Future PlayStation games could have AI-powered characters, if this leaked prototype of Aloy is anything to go by
The artwork for The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller
Where to pre-order and buy The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller today - UK pre-orders are live but stock has sold out already
Playing games on the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma without an external display.
The Razer Handheld Dock Chroma offers Steam Deck owners a premium design and, of course, plenty of RGB
Image of GTA 6 protagonists and PS5
GTA 6's console-only launch reminds me of how much I despise console exclusivity - is it worth waiting years for PC ports?
Latest in News
Brad Pitt looks over his right shoulder with 'F1' written behind him
Apple Original Films will take you behind-the-scenes of a racing cockpit in this new thrilling F1 movie trailer
AI writer
Coding AI tells developer to write it himself
Reacher looking down at another character from the Prime Video TV series Reacher
Reacher season 3 becomes Prime Video’s biggest returning show thanks to Hollywood’s biggest heavyweight
Image showing detail of the Leica D-Lux 8
Still can't get a Fujifilm X100VI? This premium Leica compact costs less, and it's in stock
Man using iMessage on an iPhone
Apple will finally enable encrypted RCS messages between iOS and Android, and it's about time
Google Messages update
Google Messages could soon follow WhatsApp with an upgrade that makes it much easier to join group chats