How to beat Rennala and respec your character in Elden Ring

The second demigod of Elden Ring holds the secret to the respec option for your character, so here’s how to defeat Rennala.

Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon is the non-optional area boss for Raya Lucaria Academy. Rennala can be accessed by parkouring up to a winding staircase after the Red Wolf of Radagon fight, avoiding a boulder, and heading up a lift to Raya Lucaria Library.

How to Beat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

Rennala’s first phase is very simple and quite easy to complete if you know what you’re looking for. From the very start of the fight, Rennala is hovering in a golden orb that shields her from harm while her followers mill about on the ground below her. Each time, there is one follower singing a song of protection that keeps Rennala from being harmed. This follower will both have the audio cue of singing as well as a golden aura about them that matches Rennala’s orb.

Find this follower and kill them, this is most safely done from the outer ring of the room as you can hide from Rennala’s few attacks behind the bookshelves. This follower can also be tracked by following the books that are telekinetically thrown during this phase, which will spawn from the chosen follower. Go through this process three times and Rennala’s bubble of protection will fail and fade.

This causes Rennala to crash to the ground and opens her up to damage. Make sure to stand back once her bubble starts to reform to avoid unnecessary damage. The process of eliminating three followers and then damaging Rennala can be repeated until her health bar is empty. This is when Rennala’s second stage begins.

How to beat Rennala and respec in Elden Ring

After emptying Rennala’s health bar, you’ll be teleported to a new arena to fight her at full strength. It’s worth saving your spirit summoning ashes for this part of the fight as they don’t offer a lot in the first phase. Be prepared to immediately dodge sideways to avoid Rennala’s cast of Comet Azur, which can end a fight before it starts.

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From there, look to avoid Rennala’s spells before closing in to dump damage into her. She has two sorceries that look similar but can be avoided easily. One sends motes of light into the air where they float for a moment before beginning to hone in on the player. These ones need to be dodged, often best done by rolling through forward through them.

The quicker-moving attack that sends a barrage of crystals can simply be outrun by running sideways while locked onto Rennala. It’s important to dump as much damage as you can into her early as she’ll eventually start summoning spectral allies who make the fight a lot harder. This is where spirit summons come in handy.

Once you’ve unlocked Rennala, speak to her in the Library and she’ll introduce the way to re-level your character if you want a new build.

How to reset your levels in Elden Ring

Players can reset their levels in Elden Ring by respeccing their character through Rennala.

Respeccing will reset a character to level one, but allow the player to retain all earned levels. This allows players to instantly redistribute all earned levels.

This allows players to effectively transform their character into something else entirely. A character heavily invested in strength can be turned into a sorcerer instantaneously and vice versa. This has been a feature in multiple FromSoftware titles, most recently with Rosaria in Dark Souls 3.

How to respec your character in Elden Ring

Players can respec their character in Elden Ring by visiting Rennala with a Larval Tear after beating her.

Rennala will remain in her boss arena as an NPC after the player defeats her. In order to do this, simply speak to her and select the “Rebirth” option. This will require a Larval Tear, which are a limited resource.

The two easiest Larval Tears to find are in Siofra River and Limgrave. The first can be purchased from the Siofra River merchant who rests by the Siofra River Bank Site of Grace for 3,000 runes. The second can be found near the Agheel Lake South location in Limgrave, simply turn around upon traveling to the site and follow the path up. A lone enemy will transform into a huge bear that drops a Larval Tear.

By the time you’ve beaten Rennala, you should know if you’re playing a character that you like. If you’re happy with your build, simply carry on and use rebirths later to tune your late game build to perfection.

You won’t need many Larval Tears right out of the gate, as changing your build more than twice in short succession is generally a poor decision. This is a method for those who want to try out some of Elden Ring’s most powerful spells, but reversing a respec requires another Larval Tear so do be careful.