How do you beat Rellana in Elden Ring? The bosses in the Land of Shadow hit harder and faster than anything in the base game, and few of them are as quick on their feet as Rellana Twin Moon Knight. Her twin greatswords have an insane reach that can melt even overleveled characters with high health and heavy armor.
One of the earlier encounters in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Rellana is a great way to see if you can stand up to the new Elden Ring bosses. If you’re still having trouble even after our guide, you’re going to want to take a peek at the best Elden Ring builds and make sure you’re up-to-date on the DLC exclusive Scadutree Fragments locations that will mitigate incoming damage.
How to beat Rellana Twin Moon Knight in Elden Ring
Rellana is found atop of Castle Ensis, a location you can access early on in the DLC across the great bridge in the Gravesite Plains; however, we do not recommend heading there until you have a Scadutree level of 4 or 5. It’s a location filled with magic-wielding enemies – luckily, found at the very base of Castle Ensis is a Spelldrake Talisman +3, which will greatly reduce incoming magic damage. It will also come in handy for Rellana, so if you’re having trouble finding it, head around the back of the tower near to the right of where you fought the Carian Giant at Castle Ensis’ entrance.
Rellana is through a fog door shortly after the Castle Lord’s Chamber grace. Take a moment here to prepare to fight Rellana: you want to avoid dealing magic damage as Rellana is strong against it, like most Carian Knight enemies. For yourself, equip the Spelldrake Talisman +3 to ensure you survive her magic-heavy second phase. You can also equip the Pearldrake Talisman +2 to mitigate her fire damage attacks as well. There is a Pearldrake Talisman +3, but you likely do not have it yet.
Rellana has two phases, the second one activating at about 50% HP. In the first phase, she will scarcely use spells; however, in the second phase her attack speed will vastly increase and she will ignite her swords with magic and fire damage. She will more frequently cast stronger spells, making dodging difficult.
There are three spells in particular to watch out for: Rellana will slash down, creating a large vertical wave of magic that travels far. Right after, she will sweep around her, creating a massive, difficult-to-dodge horizontal wave. It’s best to run out of the latter’s range after dodging the vertical slice. She will also spawn a massive flame tornado around herself; when she begins this move, begin rolling and running backward as she can cast it a few times in a row. Finally, Rellana will leap into the air and shoot two moon-orbs at you. These can be dodged to the left or right. After casting them, she will slam the ground so you must dodge once more.
Outside of the fog door and to the left, you’ll find a summon sign for Needle Knight Leda. She is a great option to bring into this fight as she can tank much more damage than a Mimic Tear spirit summon.
Rellana Twin Moon Knight melee strategy
Rellana’s weakness against a melee build is the ability to break her poise and stagger her. Ashes of War like the Savage Lion’s Claw (which is found northwest of the Three-Points Cross grace) work great when you can find an opening to smack her with it. We used the Stonebarb Cracked Tear to increase our chance to stagger Rellana and the Cerulean Hidden Tear to maintain FP in our Wondrous Physick, both from the base game, to make this easier.
Otherwise, bringing a shield with high magic negation, such as a Carian Knight’s Shield, for her first phase will make her multiple sword attacks much easier survive. When she enters her second phase, it becomes a game of patience as her spells are fast and frequent, especially the flame tornado, leaving you little opening to hit her. This is a good time to pop your Wondrous Physick as at 50% one stagger and a critical hit will bring her to near defeat.
If you’re running more of a dexterity build, consider trying to inflict bleed on Rellana because she doesn’t resist it. Get a couple quick strikes in, dodge out, dodge back in, build some bleed, and repeat. However, this will require you to meticulously learn her attack patterns. Consider swapping between a left-hand weapon and a shield for the first part of the fight.
Rellana Twin Moon Knight ranged strategy
Keeping your distance from Rellana comes with its own difficulties as she can close gaps quickly; thus, time-heavy incantations like Agheel’s Flame do not work against her unless she isn’t targeting you. As previously mentioned, she also resists magic damage, so if you’re running a sorcery build, you’ll want to use spells that deal physical damage and can stagger her like Rock Sling. Otherwise, we found success with fast-cast spells like Lighting Spear to chip away at her health.
It’s highly recommended to summon Needle Knight Leda from the sign outside of the fog door with a range build as she can draw Rellana’s aggression as you cast spells. Otherwise, her second phase is quite challenging for ranged characters.
Rellana Twin Moon Knight cheese strategy
We found the easiest way to down Rellana is to make her bleed, using the Bloodmoon Ritual from Moghwyn’s Sacred Spear, which you can obtain from the Mogh’s Remembrance. By summoning Needle Knight Leda, it’s easy to get behind Rellana and cast the Bloodmoon Ritual, building huge amounts of bleed on her and taking off large chunks of her health. However, without Leda it’s near impossible to get Bloodmoon Ritual off.
This works with pretty much any heavy-hitting incantation or spell: you could also use Ekzykes’s Decay to inflict her with Scarlet Rot, for instance.
With these tips in mind, you should be able to take down Rellana Twin Moon Knight after an attempt or two (or seven). You may want to check out the best Elden Ring weapons available to see if you can wield something a little bit more impactful. As she’s likely only the second major boss you’ve fought in Shadow of the Erdtree, you’re in for a ride in one of the best PC games this year – even if it’s DLC.