Promised Consort Radahn is often the tougher test of sustained execution, while Malenia can feel harder if her healing and Waterfowl Dance exploit your build or habits. There is no objective, agreed winner: players disagree, and the answer changes with build, summons, familiarity, and the conditions of the fight. Here, “Radahn” means the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree, not Starscourge Radahn from the base game.
Why Promised Consort Radahn often feels harder
Players commonly describe Radahn as a fight that demands consistency: he applies pressure through aggressive, dense sequences, and finding safe moments to attack can be difficult. The challenge is not just surviving one signature move; it is managing a long sequence of attacks without letting a mistake unravel the attempt.
That makes Radahn especially demanding if you struggle to read his attack strings, tend to commit to long attacks, or have not learned where his openings are. A build or defensive approach that leaves little room for mistakes can make the sustained pressure more noticeable.
Why Malenia can be harder for some players
Malenia’s difficulty is often tied to two features players repeatedly single out: she heals when she lands hits, and Waterfowl Dance can punish players who do not know how to respond to it. A hit therefore has a cost beyond lost health, while an unfamiliar Waterfowl Dance can turn a small mistake into a major setback.
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Those traits can make Malenia the more frustrating or difficult fight for players whose strategy depends on trading hits, or who have not found a reliable response to Waterfowl Dance. That is a build- and player-specific judgment, not a measured ranking.
How to compare the fights for your own playstyle
| What you find difficult | Fight more likely to trouble you | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping up with aggressive sequences over a full attempt | Promised Consort Radahn | Players often point to his pressure, varied sequences, and limited safe openings. |
| Recovering after taking a hit or handling a punishing signature move | Malenia | Her healing on hit and Waterfowl Dance are frequent sources of difficulty in player accounts. |
| Learning a fight for the first time | Either | Familiarity changes how threatening a moveset feels; there is no controlled comparison establishing a universal winner. |
Summons, build, defensive strategy, and familiarity all affect the experience. Community discussions offer examples of different players’ experiences, not a representative survey or controlled difficulty test, so use them as context rather than proof of a universal result.
Rank #2
- ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition
What published comparisons say
A 2024 GameSpot guide gives a clear editorial verdict: “We feel that he’s more difficult than Malenia.” That is one publication’s judgment, not an official ranking or a result that applies to every player. No comparable published statistic establishes which boss is harder, and no official developer statement in the reviewed sources declares a winner.
Which Radahn does “Radahn” mean?
Elden Ring also has Starscourge Radahn in the base game. This comparison concerns Promised Consort Radahn, the final boss of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Bandai Namco describes the expansion on the official ELDEN RING site and states that it requires the base game. The publisher’s June 21, 2024 launch announcement also covers the expansion and bundled editions.
Rank #3
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Patch context
Bandai Namco lists version 1.17 patch notes dated August 27, 2026, describing DLC support and gameplay balance adjustments. That broad summary does not establish a Radahn-specific change, so it should not be treated as evidence that the relative difficulty of these two fights has shifted.
Quick Recap
Rank #4
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