After battling through Castle Ensis, the player finds themselves locked in an epic duel with the Twin Moon Knight herself. This boss is no push over, and she will push your skills and build to their limits. In this guide, we’ll give some general tips on defeating her, as well as a detailed breakdown of the strategy — for both phases. Lastly, we’ll list her moveset, which will include dodges and counters.
Dodging backwards diagonally to the left will keep you safe for most of her melee combos. This is mostly useful for ranged attack users that can punish her at the end of combos.
Best time to attack her is at the end of her combos. Don’t get greedy; you usually only have time for one hit before she starts attacking again.
You have to parry her twice before you stagger her and get a critical hit. However, critical hits (paired with bleed) can do massive damage on this boss.
Strategy
The bosses in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC do a lot of damage, so take steps before traversing the mist to make sure your character won’t die in one hit. Not only will this help generally, but it will also keep you alive long enough to learn her combos and moves. Let’s list some damage protections you can do, and where to find them:
Spelldrake Talisman +3 – Is a great talisman for protection against magic. Lucky for you, this talisman can be acquired right before Castle Ensis, next to the Fog Rift Catacombs in Gravesite Plain.
Boiled Prawn / Boiled Crab – Provides player with substantial physical damage negation. Player will have to play through the Blackguard Big Boggart quest line to purchase these items. Both items last one minute.
Incantations – These require a seal and certain level of Faith to cast.
Golden Vow – Provides +10% to all damage negation, and a +15% damage increase. Last 80 seconds. Found on Mt. Gelmir in the Corpse Stench Shack (location early in “Part 1” of our guide).
The usual strong Spirit Ashes will be the play against her: Mimic Tear and Black Knife Tiche. If you don’t have one of these, then go with the tankiest summon you have. The important thing is that the summon can stay alive for at least part of her second phase. They can take some heat off you, allowing you to use your incantations / items to have some protection and do damage.
Phase 1
Ranged
Ranged is much easier and risk-averse than taking her on up close.For all of her melee combos, dodge diagonally backwards. If you can, always try to dodge back and to the left (since some of her combos attack your right flank). At the beginning, dodge her for a while without attacking and try to remember when her combos finish, those being the best time to attack. In most cases, you only have time for one hit after a combo before she starts another attack.
She does this combo a lot
Of course, another good time to attack at range is when she is attacking your summons. The main concern when doing that is that you’ll waste too much magic or items, since she’s frequently moving, which makes hitting her from the side difficult. This depends on the spells you’re using, too, but if you find you’re running out of magic, then wait for her to finish a combo on your summon before casting. If you are attacking her while she’s mid-combo, then be careful, as she will usually aggro to you in the middle of her attacks, making them hard to see coming.
On account of her physical attacks being easy to avoid by rolling diagonally backwards, your main threat will be her ranged attacks. The magic swords that she casts can be tricky to dodge, but become easier after you get the hang of them. The more difficult move of hers to avoid is the slash wave; it’s a quick animation, and the wave travels fast. You’ll know it’s coming when she assumes the slashing position and her sword glows blue.
Big magic sword slam followed by slash wave
When her big magic sword attack comes after a third of her health is gone, you’ll want to be ready to dodge. It isn’t hard to dodge, but it’s easy to get antsy and roll too early. Wait for her to actually take the sword back to swing before dodging sideways, then dodge forward or backward shortly after for the circular swing. If the fight continues long enough, she might do this attack again, so be ready. If she’s fighting your summon when she does it, and you’re pretty far away, you can back roll a couple of times to get out of the attack’s range.
Melee
Parrying is a very strong strategy against Rellana. It’s especially good in Phase 1 (when whiffing yoru parry doesn’t result in you losing 90% of your health bar) but can work throughout the whole fight, as she’ll do her phase 1 combos througout Phase 2. It takes two parries to stagger her, but you have a gigantic window in which to damage her after the first sucessful parry — experiment with your chosen weapon and make sure you know exactly how many attacks you can get off before she recovers. Just keep in mind that if you don’t have the timings down very well, it’s best to avoid parrying in phase 2 as she does significantly more damage with her combos.
If you aren’t comfortable parrying, you can simply dodge roll. As with the ranged strategy, rolling backwards to the left is your best bet. In this case, it’s very, very important you learn where her combos end, as there aren’t very many good windows to attack her mid combo unless you’re a positioning god (in which case you probably beat Rellana arleady and aren’t reading this guide). You’ll want to be ready to dive in and get an attack or two off as soon as her combo ends. Players with heavy weapons can use jumping attacks, but only after her attacks with longer cooldowns: Double-Sword Diagonal Slashes, Three-sword Cast, Cutting Wave (see movelist below).
Alternatively, her shorter combos can be tanked with a shield if you have enough stamina, and she pauses long enough after most combos that you can guard counter her. Try rolling the attacks you’re confident rolling, and blocking the ones that you struggle against!
If you want to parry but can’t quite land it you may also consider the Deflecting Hardtear as an option — obtained from the first Furnace Golem you encounter, this crystal for your Elixir gives your regular block a ton of extra defense (and buffs your guard counter) if you time it correctly. It’s a great tool against many bosses, but Rellana in particular has fairly easy-to-read melee attacks that are therefore easy-ish to block.
Second Phase
It’s important that you keep an eye on her health, because around halfway she’ll give the sign that you’re entering into the second phase. It’s a long animation where she changes her sword stance, and one of her swords catches flame, while the other glows blue.
There are two critical things to do when this happens: do as much damage as possible (you can get in around three free attacks), then immediately get ready to dodge. She will either do an attack where flames sprout out of the ground, or she will launch five consecutive slash waves at you. The type of attack will depend on who has her aggro and how close they are.
You can do a lot of damage while she goes into second phase
When she has about a quarter of her life left, she will do her big two moon attack. She’ll float up into the air and turn into two moons. One moon will drop, then another will drop, and finally she will drop, each one sending a shockwave towards you that you have to dodge. The time interval between the first two shockwaves is shorter than the time between the second and third. The boss will keep doing this attack until you finish her off. It’s possible to tank at least part of this attack if you have enough damage negation (see start of guide). You can jump over this attack, and it seems a bit more forgiving than rolling timing-wise
Check the timing of the attacks, don’t dodge too early on the third one
Ranged
The second phase is very similar to the first for ranged attack users. The same left-back dodge works for her combo attacks. However, you want to be extra attentive, even if she’s attacking your summons, as more of her moves will send out the cutting magic waves — you don’t want to catch the collateral damage.
Additionally, another important factor is trying to keep your summons alive to help. If you’re using the Mimic Tear, then having a healing spell for it to use on itself can be a game changer. Otherwise, trying to keep the boss’s aggro as much as possible will keep it from melting your buddy’s health bar.
Melee
All the same rules as Phase 1 apply, but she does way more damage, including magic and fire damage on her melee attacks. Shield users will want to equip accordingly, and parry users will need to be very confident — consider only parrying attacks you know you can parry, like the attack that follows her slow sideways leap.
Moveset
As a result of her having many moves and combos, we decided to divide the list into her first and second phases, then further divide it by basic and special moves. Hopefully, this makes it easier to find the move with which you’re having issues.
First Phase Moves
Basic Attacks
Three Attack Combo– She uses this move a lot. She will lunge and swing her swords across, then back, and hold her position for a moment before doing the final swing. After this combo is a good time to land a hit.
Double Sword Lift– She slashes one sword upwards, then another. Usually only does it if you’re very close. If you remain close, then she might continue into another combo. Can hit her after this move with ranged attack.
Double-Sword Diagonal Slashes – She holds both her swords parallel and slashes them diagonally while stepping forward, then she takes another step and slashes them the other way diagonally. After dodging both of these slashes, she resets her stance and is vulnerable to an attack.
Six-step Combo– This is a long combo, so you’ll want to be sure to not try and attack her too early. She starts with a double sword lift, slashes while stepping to your left, performs a lunging stab, then follows up with a double-sword diagnol slash, and finishes with a double-sword stab. You have a moment to attack after this combo.
Lunging Swords Uppercut – This is a move she does pretty often if you’re far away, and an easy one to punish. She leaps at you while slicing both her swords upwards to create an “X”. She then lunges at you again while bringing her swords down and apart. Dodge backwards away to evade. It’s an easy move to recognize, and you can always get a hit in afterward.
Flanking Combo – The boss leaps to the left while twirling and slashes with each sword, then leaps to the right and slices with each sword. This is best to just back roll away from unless you’re parrying. The attacks are fast, and it’s hard to get a counter in afterward from her moving around so much.
Special Attacks
Three-sword Cast to Lunging Backslash – She summons three swords in front of her, then points her sword forward for them to home-in and attack you. Usually, while the swords fly at you, she spins and lunges at you, doing a backslash. Dodge magic swords first, then immediately dodge backwards after if she lunges at you. While she is summoning the swords, it is a good opportunity to attack her with melee if close enough.
Three-sword Cast (above head) – Same as the above move, except the swords hang above her head for a moment before seeking you. This is worse because sometimes you have to dodge her physical attacks, and the swords fly out and hit you right after your dodge. Back dodge away from her until you’ve dodged the magic swords.
Cutting Wave – Rellana holds her sword at her side, and the blade starts to glow blue. She then slashes horizontally, sending out a cutting wave of magic energy. You can dodge this by rolling any direction, but you’ll want to have good timing. It has a far range, so never think you’re out of the attack zone.
Magic Greatsword Combo – This is the attack she does after a third of her health is gone. She summons a massive magic great sword, and swings it downwards at the target, then does a 360 degree twirl. Players will want to side dodge the first slash, then forward or backward dodge the second. This move does have a limited range, but it’s pretty far away.
Second Phase Moves
Basic Attacks – She uses all the same attacks from the first phase, but the swords are usually doing magic damage, or fire damage on their final swings.
Flame Sword Slash – She does two quick slashes with her flame sword, spreading some exploding fire. It’s easy to think she’s done attacking after the flame slashes, but she might continue into a combo, so don’t try to counterattack.
Lunging Sword Uppercut to Combo – This move combines the uppercut one above with various other combos. The game conditioned you to punish her after the uppoercut, so now it added some extra moves to catch you off guard. The combo often ends with a ranged cutting wave of magic.
Special Attacks
Five-cut Barrage – Rellana always does this or the fire eruption at the start of second phase; her choice depends on how close her target is. The boss does a combo of five slashes, sending out waves of cutting magic energy towards her enemy. This is difficult to dodge, but if you just keep rolling one direction, then you should dodge most of them.
Fire Eruption – Rellana always does this or the five-cut barrage at the start of second phase; her choice depends on how close her target is. She does a twirling combo towards her foe, while pillars of fire leap out of the surrounding ground. Back dodge away from her for this.
Jump to Cutting Wave – This is just like the first phase cutting wave, but she jumps to the side and sends the wave out much quicker.
Six-sword Cast (above the head) – Just like the three-sword variation above, but if it hits you then it does way more damage.
Moon Drop – The boss floats up into the air and transforms into two moons. As they drop, they will send out shockwaves that must be dodged, or they will hit you and fling you up into the air for big damage. The first moon will drop, and right after the second moon drop. Then after a very short delay, the boss will drop, creating a third shockwave. It’s easiest to dodge forward, going into the shockwaves, but you don’t want to get too close, or else you’ll have less time to react to the next shockwave. So dodge backwards for the first and second, then forward for the last.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
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