How to beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Exploit Rellana’s one big weakness

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight presents a completely different kind of challenge in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC compared to what you faced in Belurat. Rellana is swift and merciless, with brutal, near-unbreakable combos, high defenses, and some deadly magic — but has one big weakness.

Our Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree guide explains how to beat Rellana, including details about her weaknesses, and how to prepare for the boss fight.

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RELLANA LOCATION IN ELDEN RING DLC

Rellana is waiting around in the Ensis Moongazing Grounds at the eastern edge of Castle Ensis. She’s a mandatory boss and impossible to miss if you want to make it to Scadu Altus this way, unless you skip Castle Ensis by taking the long way around via Ellac River. There’s a site of grace just outside her arena, as with all bosses, and two NPC summons: Dryleaf Dane and Needle Knight Leda.

Bear in mind that every NPC or human ally summoned will increase the boss’ health, but having both on hand also makes for a useful set of distractions while you learn how Rellana works — by watching her cut your allies down.

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RELLANA WEAKNESSES AND HOW TO PREPARE

Picking the best weapon for Rellana is something you’ll probably have to experiment with as you get used to her moveset to see what works best for your style. Heavy weapons can knock off a sizeable chunk of her HP, but the trouble is it’s tough to land a hit with one. Rellana moves quickly in general, and she can dodge heavy attacks and follow up with a strong flurry of counter strikes.

I struggled to land more than two hits at a time even with a katana. However, fighting styles with straight swords and light greatswords are lithe enough to let you execute a few attacks — even a well-timed Ash of War skill — and retreat while Rellana recovers. Milady, which you can find near the Miquella’s Cross at the Castle Ensis checkpoint, is a strong choice for this fight.

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Use a melee weapon that scales with intelligence or faith if you’re running a magic build, and bear in mind that spells will do little good against Rellana, as she has some of the highest magic defense of any enemy. Magic does have its place in this fight, though, as she’s prone to Frostbite.

She’s also weak to lightning, but it’s rather more difficult to get a good lightning build together if you don’t already have one. Frozen Lightning Spear takes advantage of both weaknesses, though since Rellana tends to dodge sideways, she often places herself out of reach of the incantation’s initial hit and its follow-up explosion. This one works best if Rellana is distracted with an NPC summon or your Spirit Ash.

An easier way to inflict Frostbite is with Glintstone Icecrag. It has high Frostbite scaling, and unlike Ranni’s Dark Moon, it tracks your target foe and has a faster casting animation. Its low intelligence requirement of 15 means even strength or dexterity builds can use this spell. Rellana won’t take much damage from Icecrag itself, even if you have a high intelligence stat, but it’ll trigger the Frostbite status after about four or five hits. Frostbite deals heavy damage and increases the amount of damage Rellana takes from magic and might for roughly 15 to 20 seconds.

You can also skip the spells and use Freezing Grease on your weapon instead, though Frostbite buildup happens more slowly if you can’t land several hits in a row.

Either way, you’ll know it worked if you see a frost cloud hovering around Rellana. You can potentially get away with just using Frostbite to wear her down If your Spirit Ash is aggressive enough to keep her distracted for most of the battle. However, when Frostbite is active, you should try to land some hits with your weapon and take advantage of the ailment while it lasts.

As always, make sure your weapon and Spirit Ash are upgraded as high as you can get them. If you’ve run out of Smithing Stones or Glovewort, take a trip back to The Lands Between to pick up some Bell Bearings for the Maiden Husks.

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HOW TO BEAT RELLANA, TWIN MOON KNIGHT IN ELDEN RING DLC

Rellana’s attacks are fast and fluid, and she strings multiple combos together. She sometimes changes which attacks she uses in the middle and sometimes even skipping them completely to deliver one powerful blow when you aren’t expecting it.

As we suggested with the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss, you may want to consider recording footage of your fight so you can look back later and watch how she behaves without trying not to die.

RELLANA BOSS FIGHT PHASE 1

In general, you can expect three parts to Rellana’s combos.

1. The first is an opening strike, usually a single swipe from one of her swords.
2. Then comes a follow-up from the other sword, which might be an upward slash or an overhand strike. Rellana may add several of these in the middle of her combo, or a downward slash from both swords, or even a little twirling slash.
3. The combo ends with a strong finisher, as she crosses both swords before bringing them down in a powerful thrust.

Rellana can cancel her attacks and switch to a different combo move and seamlessly swap between targeting a summon or you. It all sounds a bit overwhelming — and it feels overwhelming to play, initially — but Rellana’s attacks have one thing in common: They’re all forward-facing. Your first instinct might be to back up and get away when she starts her barrage of attacks, but dodging forward puts you out of harm’s way more effectively.

Still, Rellana pivots quickly, so you won’t have much time to rest after you get away unless she gets distracted by something else.

Her other attacks include a strong thrust followed by a second thrust or a slash from her other sword. Rellana also summons Carian swords that fly at you after a few seconds, similar to what the Carian Knight earlier in Castle Ensis did, and will sometimes fire off an arc of magic energy at you. Dodge forward or to the side when you see her hand and sword glow blue.

The fallen Carian princess also has a devious trick that makes most strong attacks and elaborate weapon skills obsolete. When you start performing one of those attacks, Rellana sweeps around at a 270-degree angle — that’s three-quarters of a circle — and hits you with an upward strike from one of her swords. She’ll sometimes follow that with a downward strike as well. Your skill misses, and you get a big chunk of your HP taken off as well.

Stick to normal attacks when Rellana is facing you, and only opt for something fancier if she’s occupied with another character.

After a few minutes, Rellana will summon a Carian Greatsword and perform a vertical slash, which you can dodge sideways to avoid, followed a second later by a sweeping horizontal slash. Dodging forward or sideways works for this one, but if you miss the right timing, you’ll take heavy damage.

RELLANA BOSS FIGHT PHASE 2

Things kick off even more once Rellana’s HP drops by about half, and now’s the time to summon your Spirit Ash if you haven’t already. She pauses for a moment and ignites her right-hand sword with magic and her left-hand sword with fire, and she’ll follow that either with a firestorm that spreads in a diagonal pattern around her or with a flurry of sword strikes that deal fire damage if they connect.

If it’s the firestorm, make sure you’re not standing on a flame spot before it erupts. If it’s the sword strikes, try dodging them.

Rellana’s basic attack combos are unchanged in this phase, though they can deal magic and fire damage if they connect. She does have some new tricks as well, though.

Her sword summons are more like Greatblade Phalanx than Glintblade Phalanx now, but even though they’ll deal more damage if they hit you, you can still dodge them in the same way as before. Rellana will also use her Carian sword slash skill more frequently and aggressively, often firing several arcs in quick succession.

Rellana will also occasionally thrust both swords forward and create a small tunnel of flame. Dodge sideways from it, and use the few seconds while she finishes the animation to land one or two hits.

Once Rellana’s HP reaches about a third of its maximum total, she will occasionally leap into the air and summon two moons. One moon crashes into the ground after a second or two and sends a shockwave of magic out, and the second moon follows right after. Then, Rellana herself crashes back onto the battlefield and sends an even bigger magic wave rippling out.

These moves happen quickly, and not only are they difficult to dodge, but getting hit by all three — or even just Rellana’s final descent — is enough to send you back to the nearest site of grace. Given the nature of the attacks as circular waves, your best bet for avoiding them is dodging forward right when they connect with the ground. Alternatively, if you’re very quick and Rellana isn’t in the arena’s center, you could retreat to the room’s far edge and avoid damage that way.

You might also get lucky and avoid this final trick of hers altogether, if you press the attack hard enough and keep Frostbite going.

Defeating Rellana earns you her Remembrance, which you can give to Enia at Roundtable Hold in exchange for Rellana’s Glintblade Swords or her twin moon sorcery.