This Elden Ring Boss Nerf Is Seriously Confusing

While it's typically a cause for celebration when a player defeats a boss in most Souls titles, some recent news has many "Elden Ring" players second guessing their triumph over one of the title's most iconic foes. Starscourge Radahn is touted as one of the most powerful figures in all of the game's lore, but recently the boss has been getting its giant, horse-riding, meteor-becoming butt handed to him. Many players noticed a distinct change in Radahn's difficulty in mid-March, but chalked it up as an intentional nerf to the imposing boss after the expansive 1.03 update.

Now, it's come to light that Starscourge Radahn has actually been hitting well below his pay grade — having been unintentionally powered down after the 1.03 patch — and FromSoftware has come to players' rescue (or peril) to buff the brute back up to where he should be as of April 4th's 1.03.3 patch. While the uninitiated might assume the news would bring nothing but doom and gloom among players, a lot of fans are actually happy the boss can smack them silly again. Here's why some players are glad FromSoftware un-nerfed Starscourge Radahn and why others lament facing the foe at full strength. 

When the 1.03 update dropped in March, players knew something was off with Starscourge Radahn, but thought it was just a result of boss tuning to make the fight easier on those who were having trouble. In reality, many of the boss' traits were depreciated beyond what was intended. Players would go on to discover a reduction of Radahn's weapon hitboxes by around 40% on top of sweeping damage reductions and some mechanics allegedly not appearing at all.

Now that Radahn has been adjusted to represent the appropriate challenge, the "Elden Ring" player base is finding itself divided. For many longtime FromSoftware fans, the thought of defeating a boss — especially one as popular in the fan community as Radahn — fighting at anything less than its full potential feels like a cheat. Souls fans take their progress and accomplishments very seriously, and even a cursory glance at Reddit or Twitter will reveal players boasting about their felling of "Pre-nerf Radahn." For these players, Radahn's return to form is a welcome challenge added back into the game — but not everyone feels that way. There's another side of "Elden Ring" players, those that just want to get through the title while experiencing as little pain as possible. To these players, the Radahn's renewed strength either brings relief for those who'd already triumphed, or dread for those that have yet to face off against the demigod.