Rakshasa is a Samurai-esque demi-human who wields a long katana and can be found in the eastern wing of the Nameless Mausoleum. Compared to some of the other optional bosses in Elden Ring DLC, Rakshasa is a tad easier to deal with once you learn more about her.
While she is on the lower end of the difficulty spectrum, she can give you a run for your money if you jump into the battle blind. To make sure that doesn’t happen, we have put everything there is to know about Rakshasa in this guide to help you along the way.
Fighting Rakshasa
Moveset
Rakshasa doesn’t not particularly have an extensive moveset but her attacks are fast with little to no recovery time. Here is what you will be up against:
- Double Slash: Rakshasa will swing her katana twice in quick succession. She can do this attack multiple times without any pause.
- Counter: You can roll to either side but that depends on the direction she decides to swing in. You can also roll backward to put some distance between yourself and her. This attack is parriable and if done correctly, will break her stance, leaving her open to a heavy attack.
- Katana Thrust: It is another classic Katana swing where Rakshasa will bring her katana above her head and then thrust it downwards.
- Counter: You can either parry this attack or roll to either side to avoid it.
- Slash: If you are at a distance from the boss, she will run towards you while violently swinging her katana.
- Counter: The slashes are almost always from right to left so if you roll to the left, you will be able to dodge it. Although you have time your roll perfectly, exactly at the moment the blade is about to hit you, to dodge it properly.
- Leaping Slash: Rakshasa will jump in the air along with her katana and will do a downward slash.
- Counter: This is her only attack that cannot be parried. You can dodge it by rolling forward. If you have the range, attack her mid-air to not only cancel the attack but also break her stance.
- Heal: This boss can heal herself. If her HP drops too low, she will run at a distance and heal herself.
- Counter: Although rare you can interrupt her healing by attacking her multiple times.
Weakness
Rakshasa is weak against Lightning Attacks.
If you are looking for weapons to use against Rakshasa, Death Knight’s Twin Axes, and Dragon Greatclaw are good choices. For magic users, Ancient Lightning Spear, Lightning Slash, and Storm Kick are great picks.
Strategy
It wouldn’t be wrong to call Rakshasa one of the easier bosses in the Elden Ring’s DLC. There aren’t a whole lot of attacks you need to look out for but despite the lack of variety, all of her attacks pack quite the punch.
Soon after the battle starts, Rakshasa will rush towards you and will do her Double Slash most of the time. This attack can come more than once without pause so you should be wary of that. Simply roll back each time and you should dodge it with ease.
The thing that makes this fight relatively easier is that you can pretty much stop all of Rakshasa’s attacks halfway through the animation either by parrying it with a shield or by hitting her back with a heavy attack. If you are using ranged attacks, just find yourself a safe spot and start spamming her with spells.
Occasionally, you will have to relocate and evade a couple of her combos but for the most part, if your spells are dealing a decent amount of damage, she will be more focused on evading them rather than running at you.
If you are running a more melee-focused build then we suggest you bring a shield to make the fight even easier. Roll, parry, hit, and repeat.
Rolling will help you evade the first half of the combo and parrying will put a stop to her attack. If you manage to break her stance, you can do a critical attack and deal even more damage.
Rakshasa can heal herself but she only does it once during the altercation so it should not be much of a problem. Other than that, keep parrying her with every chance you get and you will melt through her HP like butter.
How to Cheese Rakshasa in Elden Ring
Rakshasa might be a great warrior but she leaves herself open to attack with the way she holds her sword. That is exactly what we are going to exploit in this cheese method. For this to work, you will need a weapon with a dash and poke attack. We used the Milady Lightsword for this one.
Similar to most cheese methods, it is going to be a spam strategy as well. As soon as the fight starts, you are going to walk up to her and let her attack you. Roll back to dodge and as soon you stand up, use your Implaing Thrust attack.
This will not only disrupt her combo but will also stun her for a fraction of a second. From here, it is going to be roll back, use Impaling Thrust, and repeat.
There might be instances where you will have to dodge a couple of times but once you get back into the flow, you can keep spamming the attack until Rakshasa’s health drops to zero.
Rewards For Defeating Rakshasa
Taking down Rakshasa will net you the following rewards:
- Rakshasa’s Armor Set
- Rakshasa’s Great Katana
- 90,000x Runes
The fight against Rakshasa is one of the more enjoyable fights because you get a ton more breathing room and you aren’t getting spammed by spells that can kill you in a single hit.
Regardless, if you learn about her tricks and the attacks she uses, you can breeze through the battle without breaking a sweat. As always, Happy Hunting!