The Red Wolf of Radagon is found in Raya Lucaria Academy and must be defeated in order to reach Rennala. How to defeat the boss? What is the boss weak to? What strategies can you use to beat it? Are there ways to cheese the boss? All will be answered in this ultimate boss guide to beating Red Wolf of Radagon in Elden Ring.
Red Wolf of Radagon is a ferocious canine that wields magical projectiles and swords. Although his health is not that much, his ability to constantly move and jump around makes it harder to land your attacks. You need to identify openings in his attacks to move in with your counters which is quite an ordeal.
Let’s take a look at the best strategies and builds in this boss guide that can help us easily defeat the Red Wolf of Radagon in Elden Ring.
Is Red Wolf of Radagon Optional?
Red Wolf of Radagon is essentially an optional boss. However, since you have to defeat two Shardbearers to progress in Elden Ring, if you choose to beat Rennala Queen of the Full Moon, you need to defeat this boss before her.
It is a necessary boss if you are going for the Age of the Stars ending.
Strategies for Defeating Red Wolf of Radagon
Below are some strategies for defeating the Red Wolf of Radagon boss in Elden Ring. The build you selected will determine the approach you should go for. We will cover the basic melee/magic caster strategies here:
Melee Strategy
In the fight against the Red Wolf of Radagon, there are only a couple of attacks you need to be on the lookout for. The first one is when he uses Glintblade spells that home on to you. He usually charges through you right after summoning them.
Time your roll so that you not only roll through him or away from him but also dodge the blades in the process.
It can be very tough to do this as sometimes RNG is not on your side. You want to make sure that you’re timing your roll so that you dodge both of those attacks.
The other attack you want to be on the lookout for is where he leaps into the air with the sword and then plunges down on top of you. This is a great opportunity to get in some damage.
Roll through this attack so you position yourself right next to him and then go to town on him for a few swings before getting ready to dodge or block if you’re using a shield.
If you’re using a shield for this fight, it is highly recommended to use Barricade Shield as it’ll reduce the amount of stamina you consume when blocking.
You can also block a lot of his sword sweeps which deals physical damage, and you’ll end up blocking 100 of that damage. Additionally, it’ll give you an opportunity to get an attack sometimes, or you can use the block counter if you get the timing right.
Most of his attacks are two or three-hit combos, he rarely does one single attack other than the jumping sword plunge. If you see him leap at you and you start to swing, be prepared for a second and/or third attack.
He attacks faster than you so you will get hit. Make sure you wait for at least two attacks before you swing and three if you want to be extra cautious.
Magic/Faith Strategy
This boss is strong against magic attacks, but they deal enough damage to him to make them a viable option. Fast-firing spells like the Glintstone Pebble, and Glintstone Cometshard work just fine. You can even opt for magical melee spells like the Carian Slicer to play as a melee sorcerer.
Weapons that scale with INT or FAI will do wonders too. Rock Sling will deal physical damage, and the delay between casting and actually firing will confuse the boss as well.
Faith builds will have a better time with the boss since he is relatively weak to Holy, Lightning, and Fire damage. Again quick casting spells will be most beneficial since the boss tends to move a lot. For melee Faith spells, use the Catch Flame spell.
Ranged Magic/Faith builds will have trouble landing their projectiles on the boss as he is quick on his feet and will dodge as soon as you fire your spell. Baiting him into a corner will allow your spells to hit him more often however he will get out of there eventually. Try to keep cornering him for better results as a ranged character.
The boss doesn’t have a huge dodging distance. Constantly casting your spells is the right thing to do as one of them is bound to hit the boss. Keep it up, and he will go down soon.
You can use the melee strategy in the previous section with the melee spells mentioned before. Weapons scaling with your respective stats will be even better as they will ignore the boss’s elemental resistances and will deal pure physical damage.
What is the Red Wolf of Radagon Weak To?
Red Wolf of Radagon is weak to the following damage types:
- Slash Damage
- Poison
- Scarlet Rot
- Sleep
- His spell attacks can be parried using either Carrian Retaliation or Thop’s Barrier.
What is the Red Wolf of Radagon Strong Against?
Red Wolf of Radagon is strong or resistant to the following damage types:
- Strong
- Magic
- Hemorrhage
- Frostbite
- Immune
- Madness
Can You Parry Red Wolf of Radagon?
Red Wolf of Radagon can not be parried. He can be stance broken which can lead to a critical strike.
Can You Cheese Red Wolf of Radagon?
There is a cheese strategy that allows you to fight the Red Wolf of Radagon while he stands in place. The cheese is hard to pull off, and it might require multiple attempts to trigger.
What you need to do is clear out the enemies right before the boss’s fog gate, only keep one of them alive. One should survive for this cheese to work.
After the enemies are defeated, stand right in front of the boss’s fog gate. The prompt to traverse the fog should be visible. Wait for the lone enemy to make their way towards you and let him use his projectile spells to hit you.
The trick is to traverse the fog right when you are hit by the projectile, and you are in the collision animation. This can be hard to pull off and what seems to work is the animation from consuming a Crimson Flask, getting hit by the projectile, and pressing the traversing button altogether.
If you enter the arena at the right time, the boss will stay in its initial position and won’t be activated so to speak. The boss health bar won’t come up. You can simply move to the boss and start whaling on him.
He can be killed without any sort of retaliation. Bail out of the arena if the trick didn’t work and try again.
The Red Wolf of Radagon in Elden Ring is just another From Software’s cruel attempt at us taking out a helpless pup just like Great Grey Wolf Sif. This boss is extremely agile but doesn’t have much HP to back up. He is relatively easy to fight if you just figure out when to hit him.