As if Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss wasn't difficult enough, an Elden Ring player's attempt to call for help ends in disaster when his cheerful cooperator is killed before entering the room.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks Elden Ring: The Shadow of the ErdtreeThe final boss is the hardest fight in the entire action RPG, and one unlucky player getting killed before even entering the room is pretty solid proof of that. Warning, there are spoilers ahead for the final fight of the DLC.

Radahn, the Promised Consort, is a real menace. As soon as you enter the arena, he tends to launch himself at you with a massive flying strike, which also causes a stack of spikes to erupt from the ground in a radius around him, dealing damage if you get too close. This is the move that Reddit user davidoff-sensei first encountered when he was summoned into another player’s game to help them with the boss, when they were simply trying to enter the fog gate to help them. Unfortunately, their misfortunes didn’t end there.

In the disconcerting clip shared below, Radahn quickly follows up with his gravitational pull move, which pulls you close to him if you’re in range, or pushes you away if you’re on the edge of it. Unfortunately, the latter case applied to the poor cooperator, who got caught with the move as he tried to enter the arena once again, quickly launching him off the side of the stairs and killing him instantly. “Wow, he’s so tough he won’t even let me in the room!” they joke.

Wow, he’s so tough he won’t even let me in the room! from r/Eldenring

The unfortunate part of all this is that the host player who summoned Davidoff-sensei was clearly hoping to get some help from the community (and there’s no shame in that, it’s an incredibly difficult fight), but by dying instantly, his co-op got the exact opposite. Summoning players or NPCs outside of a boss arena increases the enemy’s health, which in this case would have made Radahn even harder to kill than usual since he didn’t have the summoned player to make up the difference. We also briefly see that a second summoned player was in the same boat as Davidoff-sensei – it’s unclear if he was also killed by the gravity blast, but if so, then this poor host was in for a real treat. Really thick health bar all by itself.

If you want to avoid this happening to the players you summon, it’s probably best to wait outside the arena for them to charge before entering, as it’s clear that the host has already started the fight in this case. It’s also worth refining your strategy – you can find some great tips in our battle guide The final boss of Shadow of Erdtree.

You can also check out our guide for all areas and locations of Shadow of the Erdtree to help you explore the entire DLC map.