After nearly 70 hours, 700 deaths, and a visit from a counselor, Kai Cenat beats Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss

Jun. 26, 2024

He died 1,070 times over the course of the expansion

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It finally happened – after almost 100 hours of streamingElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreeand over 1,000 deaths, Twitch streamer Kai Cenat has beaten the expansion’s final boss, and absolutely no one can fault his sheer willpower.

Just last month, Cenat beatElden Ring– including its notoriously difficult Malenia fight – for the first time, and there’s no doubt that it was, uh, a little rough at times. Ittook him 24 hours to beat Maleniaalone, but that’s now been completely overshadowed by the time it’s taken him to beat the DLC’s final boss.Be warned that there are spoilers aheadfor exactly who that boss is, so proceed with caution, Tarnished.

When Cenat first reached Shadow of the Erdtree’s final hurdle, Promised Consort Radahn, he’d been streaming for around 31 hours, in which time he’d racked up 389 deaths across the entirety of the expansion. You might think that his time with the DLC was coming to an end, but no, his battle was far from over, as those numbers gradually rose to 99 hours and a whopping 1,070 deaths by the time Radahn wasfinallyslain. Considering how long it took, you can understand Cenat’s very loud reaction, which you can watch below (but maybe turn your volume down a bit first).

But what happenedduring the almost 70 hours that the streamer was stuck? Well, thankfully he wasn’t just sat there repeating the boss over and over again for the entire duration – he did end up running back to fight some of the other big foes like the Scadutree Avatar and the Putrescent Knight, so not all of the almost 700 extra deaths were down to Radahn himself (even if many,manywere). Understandably, he spent some of that streaming time asleep, too – he had been playing for an obscenely long time, after all.

Notably at the 92 hour mark, the stream took a very different turn, as Cenat was joined by ‘The Model Counselor’ Aubri Ebony to talk through his feelings, get him into a positive mindset, and try to boost his confidence so that he could go back into the Radahn fight feeling refreshed. While the complete change in tone for the stream was rather amusing, Ebony’s talk with him was actually quite wholesome, and it seems it really did help considering that he went on to beat Radahn within the next seven hours. Perhaps we could all do with a mindful pep talk from her to help us through our own Shadow of the Erdtree struggles.

After all that, it’s definitely safe to say that Cenat deserves a break from Elden Ring, but if you’re struggling with it yourself, you can check out our guide onhow to beat the Shadow of the Erdtree final bossfor some tips. Much of Shadow of the Erdtree can be made easier by making sure you grab plenty ofScadutree FragmentsandRevered Spirit Ashes, too, so don’t shy away from exploring a bit to collect more of those – it’ll be worth it in the end.

You can also check out our guide tothe best weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree for all builds.

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I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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