I knew it—Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss has some hokey freaking hitboxes the size of barn doors

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Time is a flat circle, but these swords' hitboxes are more like cylinders.

Elden Ring character in red cloaked armor and mask nodding thoughtfully
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Shadow of the Erdtree has, overall, gone down about as well as one might expect. It's one of FromSoftware's best expansions yet (snagging an esteemed 95 in our Shadow of the Erdtree review) and has, naturally, also caused a flood of discourse. The "bosses are harder than usual" being one of them and—hey, wait a minute, that's my article. Aw, man.

Listen, while I've since been proven wrong by Elden Ring players two-tapping (spoilers for the DLC's final boss, obviously) Promised Consort Radahn with a freaking bottle of perfume, the fact does remain that Erdtree's final boss is a step up, even for FromSoftware's new standard where every guy in armour comes equipped with a 100-step combo, exploding AoEs, and a level of aggression usually reserved for tilted MOBA players.

As outlined by YouTuber TheKevDev in the following short, Radahn's hitboxes extend far beyond the actual model of his weapon—considerably so. That boy's swords have some phantom girth to 'em.

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The YouTuber's complaints were also shared on Reddit, where you can see some particularly egregious freeze-frames that really illustrate the issue. There are, if I were to hazard a guess, about 12-15 phantom inches of Radahn protruding, ghostly, from the tip of his blade.

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Three images displaying the sheer size of Radahn's hitboxes in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
(Image credit: FromSoftware / TheKevDev on YouTube.)

Luckily, FromSoftware's already patched Radahn's hitboxes, though it had to be course-corrected after it made the boss a little too easy—what do you mean that's base-game Radahn? You mean to say it happened again?

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(Jokes aside, FromSoftware is yet to address Promised Consort Radahn similarly, it's just - if I had a penny...)

While this bosse's hitboxes have been a known bugbear for a while (as reported by Kotaku earlier this month), the whole debacle is certainly news to me, as it is to the players of the game's subreddit in the aforementioned post: "I KNEW HIS HITBOXES WERE WEIRD!" bellows one player, presumably on their knees and cursing the heavens like they've got a grudge against Bayle. Meanwhile, user TheWither129 notes: "I personally don't think this has ever been noticeable for me, but those are f*cking huge. A bit much, tbh."

I'm especially a fan of The KevDev's follow-up, in which he progressively makes Radahn invisible (first his weapons, then the entire dang model) to drive home his point. "He's got the same attacks and hitboxes so it's still fair, right?" It's delightfully passive-aggressive. Perhaps those greatshield-wielding monsters tanking every hit were onto something: the hitbox doesn't matter if you're always getting hit.

Harvey Randall
Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.