How to beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
Defeating the boss of Castle Ensis is a song of fire and ice.
Rellana, Twin Moon Knight is one of the main bosses of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. She resides in Castle Ensis, and beating her will allow you to progress to Scadu Altus (though you can also skip Castle Ensis and get to Scadu Altus without beating Rellana if you're finding her too difficult).
But if you've made it all the way through Castle Ensis, then you don't want all that effort to be for nothing - and we're here to help. Rellana is a very difficult boss in Shadow of the Erdtree, and has two main phases to get through. So if you're looking for some extra tips to help defeat her, we're here to help. Here's how to beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight in Shadow of the Erdtree.
How to beat Rellana, Twin Moon Knight
Before you enter the boss door for Rellana, you're able to summon not one, but two NPC cooperators to help you in battle: Dryleaf Dane and Needle Knight Leda. You'll need to wait until one has been fully summoned before you can summon the other one, but I'd recommend summoning both, because you're going to need all the help you can get taking Rellana down.
You can also use Spirit Ashes in this fight, so summon your favourite Spirit Ash as soon as it's safe to do so here. Sure, four (or five) vs one might not seem like a fair fight, but trust me: you're going to need it.
First phase
Rellana doesn't waste any time trying to attack you when you step into the arena, and will often send a long-range wave attack toward you - which even shields won't absorb fully.
She also has a trio of spectral swords she can fire at you, and will often twirl and spin around behind you to hit you where it hurts. The spectral swords can be dodged easily enough, but you'll need to watch out that she doesn't catch you off guard with her swirling evasion techniques. Keep dodge rolling into her to try and avoid her sword swings, as absorbing them with your shield will cost too much stamina to make it worthwhile.
As you might have guessed from her name, Rellana attacks with two swords, and she's a fast melee fighter that can deal devastating combo attacks. This is why having other sources of distraction are so important in this fight, as your assistants can absorb the bulk of Rellana's attacks while you strike from behind.
With enough people attacking her, though, there will be moments when she drops to her knees for a few seconds - take advantage of this and hit her for all you've got!
Watch out for her follow-up attacks, though, as she'll occasionally summon an enormous blue sword and slice it down straight in front of her, before dragging it around in a large circle - this attack has huge range, so this is best avoided with two, well-timed sideways dodge rolls.
Second phase
When Rellana's health drops to 50%, her twin blades will turn into swords of fire and ice, adding a pair of nasty elemental effects to her attacks.
You can help mitigate some of this damage by consuming a Fireproof Dried Liver at this point, as some of her sword swings will now have added fiery explosions trailing after them.
All of her attacks become more fierce in this stage. The trio of spectral blades she summoned before now balloons to seven, her ice sword can send out wave after wave of long-range slash attacks, and one of her fire attacks includes a large tornado of fire spiralling up around her.
When she's about to add a nasty elemental effect to her sword swings, each sword will glow and pulse briefly, giving you a small signal to get out of the way and hang back.
The main thing is to keep going on the offensive as much as possible. As tempting as it is to sit back and let your mates do all the hard work, they'll only be able to bear the brunt of Rellana's attacks for so long - if you don't help out in equal measure, both Dryleaf Dane and Leda can die around halfway through the fight, leaving you to become the sole focus of Rellana's wrath.
Keep up the pressure and eventually you will succeed. On defeat, you'll be rewarded with Remembrance of the Twin Moon Knight, which you can take to Enia in the Roundtable Hold to exchange for one of two items:
- Rellana's Twinblade: A light greatsword weapon that allows you to wield two swords as a single armament. When two-handing, a straight sword will be carried in your left hand. It also has a unique skill: Moon-and-Fire Stance, which can be used to follow up normal attacks with casting glintstone light waves, or strong attacks with a flaming spin attack.
- Sorcery: Rellana's Twin Moons: A Sorcery spell that costs 47FP and requires an Intelligence attribute of 72 to use, this casts twin moons to repeatedly strike the ground.
Congratulations on defeating Rellana! Now you can move on to explore Scadu Altus and head toward Shadow of the Erdtree's next main boss.
Continue to next boss: Messmer the Impaler
Need more help? Jump back to our list of Shadow of The Erdtree bosses or our Shadow of The Erdtree tips and tricks.