Since its release in 2022, Elden Ring has challenged millions with its punishing boss encounters, but few have sparked as much debate as Starscourge Radahn. Over the years, the demigod general has been nerfed, buffed, and rebalanced multiple times—yet the community has never stopped searching for clever ways to trivialize the fight. Now, in 2026, a resurrected trick from the game’s early days has resurfaced, demonstrating that even the mightiest warriors can be felled by a single misstep into the environment.
Radahn’s notoriety stems largely from his dramatic phase transition. Once his health dips below 50%, he launches into the sky and disappears, only to return as a blazing meteor that homes in on the player’s position. The spectacle is unforgettable, but a Reddit user going by u/HomeGrownCrown7 revisited an old cheese that weaponizes this very mechanic against him. By manipulating the positioning at the moment of impact, the fight ends in an instant—no flasks, no summons, no frantic dodging required.
The setup is deceptively simple, though it demands a bit of battlefield awareness. During the first phase, the player can focus on chipping away at Radahn’s health while riding Torrent through the vast Wailing Dunes arena. This initial segment remains unchanged; the real trick begins as soon as he ascends for his cataclysmic return. Instead of bracing for the meteor’s crash, the player must gallop to the extreme edge of the map, specifically where the dunes meet a shallow riverbed near the cliff boundary.
⚠️ Critical Timing: As the comet scream grows louder and the ground shakes, the Tarnished needs to position themselves precisely on the lip of the ravine. Radahn’s re-entry targets the exact spot where the player stands at the moment he starts his descent. The sloped terrain at the river’s edge causes his collision detection to behave unexpectedly. When the massive general slams down, he does not land on solid ground but instead clips through the geometry, sliding helplessly into the watery gap below. The health bar drains from 100% to zero in under a second, accompanied by the classic “GREAT ENEMY FELLED” message.
This exploit has drawn comparisons to similar environment kills in FromSoftware’s previous titles, such as the infamous Ceaseless Discharge cheese in Dark Souls or the Dragonrider fall in Dark Souls II. What makes Radahn’s version particularly satisfying is its sheer cinematic irony—the boss’s most intimidating attack becomes the instrument of his own defeat. Several video captures from the Elden Ring subreddit show the moment unfolding with slapstick precision: Radahn’s massive frame somersaults off the cliff and vanishes into the river, leaving bewildered players laughing in disbelief.
Of course, the cheese is not entirely risk-free. Mistiming the dash to the edge can result in the player themselves being clipped by the meteor’s splash damage or, worse, tumbling into the river alongside the boss. Additionally, the horse controls can be finicky under pressure, and accidental dismounts during the sprint have led to some hilarious failures. Despite these hiccups, the method has quickly regained popularity in 2026 as a nostalgia-fueled shortcut for new playthroughs and challenge runners eager to skip one of the game’s mid-game hurdles.
The community reaction has been a mix of amusement and appreciation. Veteran players fondly recall the pre-patch era when Radahn’s damage was absurdly overtuned, and the cheese feels like a poetic karmic payback. Newcomers who missed the initial launch window are delighted to discover that even the Legendary generals can be humbled by clever terrain use. One commenter on the original post summed it up perfectly: “After all these years, Radahn still can’t handle a river.”
FromSoftware has not patched this specific interaction in any of the recent updates, and given that the game has entered its final balance state, it is likely to remain an enduring piece of Elden Ring folklore. The developers seem content to let these community-discovered quirks exist as part of the game’s charm, much like the zip glitches in older Souls titles.
For any Tarnished looking to bypass the Festival and claim the Starscourge Great rune without breaking a sweat, this tactic remains an evergreen option. Whether you view it as a cheat or a creative application of game physics, there is no denying its entertainment value. In a land defined by brutal difficulty, sometimes the sweetest victories come not from mastering the blade, but from understanding the map—and maybe a little luck with gravity.