How to easily beat Rellana in ER Shadow of the Erdtree
Rellana, Twin Moon Knight is the first really difficult boss in Shadow of the Erdtree, but there is a cheese strategy to exploit her weakness!
In her resplendent azure regalia, Rellana, Twin Moon Knight is one of the first main bosses in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC who can really make you turn the air blue in frustration.
With relentless melee pressure, devastating magic attacks and powerful resistances to most ailments, Rellana is a true test for even the most hardened Elden Ring fanatics.
However, with a little preparation, it is possible to implement a cheese strategy that exploits Rellana’s weakness and lowers her difficulty dramatically, to the point where only her most powerful attack is a big concern.
Once you defeat Rellana the Shadow Realm really opens up with new areas to explore, but so you can experience them for yourself, here’s what you need to do!
Alternatively, if you are truly stuck, it is possible to skip Rellana if you wish. We'd recommend toughing it out for the rewards and experience, but remember it's an option.
How to easily beat Rellana in Elden Ring
The key to easily beating Rellana is using resilient summons to draw her attention away from you, then use a ranged, non-magic-based Ash of War or spell to deplete her health bar from a safe distance.
Rellana has very high magic defence, meaning spellcasters will have a particularly difficult time taking her on, but if she has one weakness, it’s elemental damage like Lightning and Frostbite.
To run this cheese strategy to beat Rellana, you need:
- One NPC ally, either Dryleaf Dane or Needle Knight Leda - NOT BOTH
- One magic-resistant, resilient Spirit Ash - Mimic Tear and Greatshield Soldiers are both great
- An upgraded weapon with a long-range Ash of War or a spell which deals elemental damage - I used Thunderbolt on Milady, but something like Glintstone Icecrag to inflict Frostbite also works
- A Spelldrake Talisman +3 is optional, but recommended
Two is a party, but three is a crowd. The main mistake most people make when fighting Rellana is summoning both Needle Knight Leda and Dryleaf Dane. Nowhere does it tell you this in-game, but you should only summon one NPC ally against Rellana.
As to not make NPC allies overpowered in Elden Ring, a boss’s health increases with each NPC summoned. If you bring both Leda and Dane along for the ride, Rellana’s health balloons to such a ridiculous degree that it’s extremely difficult to wear her down, even with more resources available to you.
Knowing From Software, this is definitely a metaphor for how taking more than you need can lead to overwhelming problems in the future. It can’t just be unbalanced game design, right?
To get the Spelldrake Talisman, go to the Castle Front Site of Grace on the eastern side of the Ellac Greatbridge. On the left-hand side of the smaller bridge that leads to Castle Ensis, there’s a path underneath that leads down and is full of bats. At the end of the path is a secret room with the talisman inside a treasure chest. This bolsters your magic damage resistance, which will help you to tank Rellana’s strongest, and most unfair, attacks.
If you don’t have Thunderbolt, the Ash of War I recommend for this fight, take a quick detour to Leyndell back in the Lands Between. From the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace, take the stairs down, go through the door and hop over the balcony to your left. Here there’s a wandering scarab who drops Thunderbolt! I was running a Dex-focused build, so this worked great, but really anything similar will do. I've embedded a third-party video from Axiom above if you find it easily to track down that way.
Alternatively, if you're magic-focused, you can get Glintstone Icecrag from Seluvis at his Rise near Carian Manor, or from his bell-bearing shop if you've done his quest.
Rellana Weakness Strategy
As soon as you enter Rellana’s boss arena, don't summon your Spirit Ash, instead lock-on to Rellana and be ready to dodge roll her attacks until your NPC helper can draw her aggro.
Next, retreat to a safe but in-range distance and refill your health if necessary, then summon your Spirit Ash and start firing off your ranged Ash of War, drinking to restore your FP when empty.
Don’t do this completely blindly, you still need to watch for a few situations. First is her Carian Phalanx attack, where blue swords appear and home in on you. Either strafe sideways or roll forwards through them to dodge.
Second is the Carian Slicer, which is the big beam-like attack that fires from her swords. Again, roll forward through them to dodge.
Finally, if you start dealing a lot of damage her aggro will switch to you and she’ll begin to hunt you down. When this happens, stop attacking and back off until your helpers get her attention again.
At 50% health, Rellana will imbue her swords with magic and fire damage. This doesn’t really change your strategy, keep up the pressure with your Ash of War, but just be more aware of the big AoE attacks you now have to roll through.
Then, at around 25% health, the most difficult part of the fight begins. Rellana’s Twin Moon spell will devastate the entire boss arena with a triple wave which deals unbelievable damage - seriously, it will one-shot most characters.
The dodge timing to avoid the Twin Moon is very strange, since it almost seems to hit you before the wave reaches your character. Therefore, you need to roll just before the first wave hits the ground and keep rolling after that to avoid the other two hits. However, this attack is the sole reason I suggested getting the Spelldrake talisman +3, since its magic damage-reduction can turn this one-shot rocket into just a very hard hit.
If you survive the Twin Moon, you’re very, very close to victory.
In the final stages of the battle, you might find yourself in a tough spot where all of your help has been vanquished. The important thing here is to not panic in the face of Rellana’s almost relentless pressure. Stay on strategy, retreat to the edge of her attacks, and the wind-up of her animations should give you the opening you need to get the last few hits in.
Rellana Rewards
Once Rellana is defeated you not only have the bragging rights of taking out an extremely tough opponent (no one will know you cheesed her with thunderbolts from the other side of the room), but you’ve completed the early game of Shadow of the Erdtree!
You now have access to the area behind Rellana’s boss area, which itself leads to a host of other new areas, each more hideous and deadly than the last.
But don’t forget, with Rellana’s Remembrance you can return to the Finger Maiden in the Roundtable Hold in the Lands Between to get your hands on her items! Depending on your build, you can choose Rellana’s Twinblade or Twin Moon spell. You can also buy her outfit for a relatively affordable fee. Here’s what you can get:
- Rellana’s Twin Blades - Remembrance
- Twin Moon Sorcery - Remembrance
- Rellana’s Helm - 10,000 Runes
- Rellana’s Armor - 15,000 Runes
- Rellana’s Gloves - 10,000 Runes
- Rellana’s Greaves - 10,000 Runes
Rellana’s Twinblade is extremely good, with a solid moveset when wielded two-handed. It has a great running poke to start off a combo or rush down an enemy, as well as a high-damage follow-up which can finish off weaker enemies.
As for its unique Ash of War, it functions similarly to the Sword of Night and Flame, but with less intensive build requirements. Press L2 to activate the stance, then either R1 to fire a medium-range magic slice or R2 for a wide area-of-effect fire attack.
The R2 fire attack is very good at both crowd control when you’re swamped and for fast-moving bosses who’re difficult to hit or stagger.