An Elden Ring streamer killed Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss in one hit and only needed to juggle 5 consumables, 3 weapons, 4 helmets, and 5 talismans to do it

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree earned an immediate reputation for its punishing difficulty, to the point that it suffered a brief barrage of negative reviews from players who thought its boss fights were excessively brutal. The DLC's final boss, as you might expect, is particularly nasty—so nasty that it took legendary boss-deleter Let Me Solo Her three hours of attempts. Seems like all the fuss might be a little unnecessary, though, because over the weekend, Elden Ring streamer Ainrun killed Erdtree's last boss with a single hit.

There will be spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree's final boss ahead, considering—well, you saw the headline.

Before you get your hopes up about walking through that last fog gate and one-shotting the boss yourself, I should clarify that Ainrun's setup is… pretty involved. Bending Elden Ring's combat math enough to pull off the instant knockout entailed an elaborate inventory juggling routine, where Ainrun stacked buffs from 5 consumables, 3 weapons, 4 helmets, and 5 talismans—some of which were actively killing him.

I'll do my best to explain Ainrun's procedure here, informed by IGN's excellent writeup. You might want to take notes.

First, Ainrun pops a Lulling Branch consumable, gaining a damage boost from the St. Trina's Smile trinket after falling asleep. The Flask of Wondrous Physick then provides a charged attack boost from the Spiked Cracked Tear and a flat damage buff from the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear, which starts draining his health. He tosses a Frenzyflame Stone, which will eventually inflict him with madness to gain damage buffs from his equipped Madding Hand weapon, Black Dumpling helm, and Aged One's Exultation talisman.

Next, he eats a Sacred Bloody Flesh, which gives an immediate damage buff and another when bloodloss occurs nearby (that'll come soon). Further damage buffs come from a Bloodboil Aromatic consumable and the Rallying Standard weapon skill from the Commander's Standard polearm. After his building madness