Rennala is one of the major boss fights in Elden Ring and can be tricky for many players, especially for casters. We will show you how to master this fight and beat the Queen of the Full Moon, as well as telling you more about the special ability you get if you're victorious.
Elden Ring is full of super tough bosses, which will ask a lot of the player. The early parts of the game are especially full of hard bosses, like Margit or Godrick. If you get past these two chunky boys, you will eventually meet another major boss in the game: Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. She is not quite as tough as those other bosses, but she is very tricky and you need to be clever to beat her. That's why we will show you how to beat Rennala and what you get for finishing this fight.
We will first tell you, where you can find Rennala and give you a short breakdown of her stats, so you know what you are up against and what you should bring to the fight. If you just want to have help with the fight itself, skip the first two sections of the article and jump to the "How To Beat Rennala" sections.
Where To Find Rennala in Elden Ring
Rennala is located in the Raya Lucaria Academy in Liurnia of the Lakes. You have to make your way into the academy by finding a Glintstone Academy Key. You can find this on a little island west of the academy. Once you're inside, the way is pretty straight forward. The building looks huge, but it's actually not that big and you shouldn't have a problem with it... at least with finding your way.
We have one quick tip though: The closest Site of Grace is "Debate Parlor" and you can unlock a shortcut on your way from there to the boss fight. For this you need to stick to the west side of the square, make your way around it and unlock a door, that is connected to the Grace via a hallway. This should make the way to the boss on retries easier for you.
What Are Rennalas Strengths and Weaknesses?
Rennala has high resistance against magic, rot and poison, but doesn't have much physical defense. Also she is literally the wizard queen, so she obviously deals a lot of magic damage. You can still poison her if you really want to, but it will take a long time and not be super effective. We therefore recommend that you go into the fight with strong physical attack and high resistance against magic damage. Here is a breakdown of her defensive stats courtesy of Fextralife:
| Damage Type | Absorption |
| Physical | -10 |
| Physical (Slash) | -10 |
| Physical (Strike) | 0 |
| Physical (Pierce) | -10 |
| Magic | 80 |
| Fire | 40 |
| Lightning | 40 |
| Holy | 40 |
| Status Effect | Resistance |
| Poison | 252 |
| Scarlet Rot | 252 |
Frostbite | 154 |
| Bleed | 154 |
| Death | Immune |
Absorption shows the percentage of damage that Rennala will absorb, the resistance number indicates the amount of buildup you need to inflict on her to trigger the effect. So like we said, basically every status effect is useless, especially poison and rot.
How To Beat Rennala in Elden Ring: Phase One
The boss fight against Rennala is split into two phases. In this section we will discuss the first phase. This is in many ways the trickier of the two, as it doesn't work like any other fight in the game. Here the fight against Rennala really feels like a puzzle fight. In this phase, Rennala will shield herself with a golden bubble and you need to break it.
We said you should go into this fight with strong physical attack, but that doesn't concern this shield, as you can't damage it or Rennala directly. Instead, you should turn your attention to the many enemies, namely Rennala's students, that are populating the boss area. They are powering Rennala's shield, so you need to take them out to break her defense and get a chance to actually damage her. Among the sea of tiny nerds you will see three disciples with a shiny aura. Attack these disciples with one attack each and their auras will break, resulting in Rennala's shield to be destroyed. She will fall to the ground and now be open to attacks. After a few seconds, she will recharge her shield. Repeat this process until Rennala's health bar is depleted, triggering the second phase.
HOT TIPS FOR PHASE ONE:
- If you struggle with finding the students that have the golden aura, look out for the books that they are throwing at you to locate them. I told you they were nerds...
- Once Rennala is on the floor, don't get too greedy. You get a few seconds before she recharges her shield, causing a powerful AOE attack. Once you see her glowing, make sure to move away quickly enough.
How To Beat Rennala in Elden Ring: Phase Two
Now this is where things get difficult. Phase two is more in classic FromSoft fashion, meaning that it will kick your ass. It also means that Rennala becomes stronger and more resilient. She will teleport you to a new area and start to cast spells at you, as well as summon Spirit Ashes to aid her in the fight. These will cycle throughout the fight and she got a whole fantasy zoo at her disposal: Wolves, a giant and even a goddamn dragon. We recommend that you do like the Queen and summon your own Spirit Ashes, mainly to pull away some of the attention from you. You can let your spirits fight hers and not bother too much with them, since they disappear after a short while.
One of her major spells is a big energy beam, which looks scary and does a lot of damage, but can be avoided by well-timed rolls and if you run sideways towards her. This will give you a nice opportunity to land some hits. She also loves to (literally) shot moons at you which have a big blast radius. Look out for when they are about to hit and roll at the right time to avoid damage. For this fight, it is very important to read her tells and dodge at the right time. Since she is casting spells, she is pretty easy to read. So focus on her animations and wait for the right time to dodge roll or run away, then go in for the kill.
HOT TIPS FOR PHASE TWO:
- You can use pretty much any Spirit Ash but we recommend the Lone Wolf Ashes, because we love our doggos and also because you have multiple things pulling aggro while being versatile enough not to get hit by Rennala's spells
- If you are mainly using bows or crossbows, then obviously don't bother with getting too close and just fire away at Rennala. If you use magic (we really recommend you don't), then try the Rock Sling spell.
What Do You Get For Beating Rennala?
After you beat the killer queen, you get a whopping 40.000 runes and two very important items, the Great Rune of the Unborn and Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen. With her great rune, you will be able to re-spec your character by talking to Rennala (yes, she is still alive for some reason) and spending a Larval Tear. So even if you did something wrong while leveling up your character, you can undo it all and start anew. With Rennala's Remembrance, you can acquire the Carian Regal Scepter, one of the best staffs in the game, and Rennala's Full Moon, a sorcery that allows you to shoot moons. Literally.
If you are rocking an INT-build and are looking forward to getting Rennala's staff and sorcery, you should also look into getting the Moonveil Katana, one of the best weapons in Elden Ring.