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elden ring is full of tough bosses, many of whom have no problem quickly showing you the nearest gravesite if you’re lost, and defeating them is often a matter of slowly sniffing their long health bars until you breathe a big sigh of relief exhale The words “Enemy Felled” finally appear. However, one player wanted to dish it out to these bosses just as well as them, and even more so. So he beefed up his Tarnished to take down many of the game’s toughest opponents in one hit, including from Morgott to Radahn.
BushyGames, a Twitch streamer and elden ring speed runner, uploaded a nearly 50-minute video to YouTube on May 16th. The video showed Bushy attempting – and succeeding – to beat FromSoftware’s action RPG by killing each main boss with a single hit. There were a few rules Bushy made before embarking on such a difficult task. For example, he might only do one attack per enemy or per boss phase (for bosses like Rannala that have multiple phases, making it impossible to completely drain their health bar with a single attack) and needs to avoid using the cheap beam spells Comet Azure unless he “must absolutely complete the challenge”. Otherwise, he gave himself free rein to use any available item or technique to aid him in his quest. This included things like buffs, which Bushy needed plenty of to survive the hellish run.
After creating his tarnished named One Punch Man, Bushy scoured the Lands Between for gear. He collected items like that Ax Talisman and Spike Cracked Tear for increased charged attack damage. He collected various smithing stones and weapon skills, such as Ash of War: Determination, increasing the power of your next attack. He also kissed the mounted Night’s Calvary boss, forcing him to jump off the bridge before grabbing his idolized weapon: the colossal power scaling Giant crusher Hammer. Bushy also leveled up here and there, but he didn’t spend as much time on those screens as he did exploring the Lands Between for resources and killing enemies for runes.
Things picked up speed when Bushy got the giant crusher. Raising the hammer multiple times, he quickly traveled the map in search of higher quality materials – like advanced Forgestones to further strengthen his weapon – before testing his one-hit attack skills against his first real boss fight: the Deathbird in Liurnia from the lakes. Bushy tried it once and buffed with items like the HP regenerating consumable Blood boiling aromatic and the defense-enhancing spell Golden Vow, only to shave off about half of the boss’s health bar with a single, powerful swing of his hammer. A failed second attempt was significantly better, with Deathbird somehow holding on to the smallest of health after Bushy’s attack, but the third time was the appeal.
After farming for three hours and leveling his hammer once more, Bushy buffed up his tainted with the same items, went to the Deathbird and killed the rotten thing in one blow. “Bang! Whoo!” Bushy shouted excitedly. I won’t lie, I felt it too. He repeated the process for each main boss, from Margit, the Cruel Omen, to Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, leading in front of each Complete a self-cleansing ritual.
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Not every encounter went as planned. Radahn, for example, forced him to swap out some inventory items to maximize his damage and opted for those Flame of Frenzy cast spells until he was better able to wield it Jellyfish Shield‘s attack power-enhancing skill “Contagious Rage”. And the fire giant bullied him for about an hour. But after a bit of trial and error, Bushy did it all with one shot elden ring‘s main bosses, or in the case of those with multiple phases, obliterating each phase with a single hit. What made this even more impressive was that Bushy used buffing spells that also happened to deal damage themselves, such as the ability to increase attack power seppuku, he was very often at 10% or less health during the fight. Talk about a glass cannon.
Bushy tells kotaku that while he’s only killed the bosses “necessary to beat the game,” he’s confident that each boss phase can be dealt with in one hit. That means he called some elden ring Idiots who made his life miserable.
“The final boss Radagon and Elden Beast were the hardest to hit with one shot, and I even had to break my self-imposed rule that there is no Comet of Azure to properly hit Elden Beast with a single shot,” Bushy said. “Some people have suggested that Comet Azur shouldn’t be considered a one-shot anyway as it’s a series of hits rather than a single damage event, but I disagree. The analogy I’m giving is a shotgun, it fires one shot but hits multiple times.”
All in all, Bushy spent just over 25 hours collecting, testing, and executing the entire run. He said he learned a lot about it elden ring from it and even got tips from the game’s community and commenters on his video.
“It was a fun run with a lot of problem solving and I’m very surprised it was even possible,” said Bushy. “In addition, after posting the video, I received many comments and messages that brought my attention to other items that could have aided or improved the build, including the Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Bolt with a Faith build, the Rusted Anchor Greataxe, and the two-handed colossal sword – both have thrust attacks that allow for another damage buff called Counter Damage, which is not available with any weapon without a thrust – and the Marais Executioner’s Sword for its unique Ashes of War that can deal a ton of damage. I didn’t use any of these items in the run, but they are all options that can perform better in certain circumstances compared to what I used.”
I guess if there’s one thing from Bushy’s run, it might be this: In elden ringThe best way to win is to deal “a ton of damage” in one hit.
who knew If you’re curious, here’s the final build from BushyGames:
- Weapons: Giant Crusher, Lusat’s Staff with Comet Azur (both will eventually be upgraded to max level)
- Weapon Buffs: Resolve and Royal Knights Resolve
- Body Buffs: Exalted Flesh, Bloodboil Aromatic, Flame Grant Me Strength
- Aura Buffs: Golden Vow Ashes of War, Golden Vow Summon, Gathering Standard (Commander’s Standard)
- Shield Buffs: Contagious Rage (Jellyfish Shield)
- Unique buffs: Faith-Knot Crystal Tear, Strength-Knot Crystal Tear, Spike Cracked Tear, Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear, Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear, Terra Magica
- Talismans: Radagon’s Seal of Wound, Heirloom of the Stars, Two Finger Heirloom, Ax Talisman, Magic Scorpion Charm, Fire Scorpion Charm, Red-plumed Branch Sword, Ritual Sword Talisman, Kindred of Rot’s Exultation, Lord of Blood’s Exultation.
- Special Effects Armor: Black Dumpling, White Mask, Mushroom Crown
