How good is Kai Cenat at Elden Ring?

Kai Cenat made it his mission to conquer the Elden Ring DLC, but did the streamer “Git Gud” or did he just get lucky?

Kai Cenat is one of gaming’s biggest YouTube personalities, tackling some of the most popular releases while his legion of followers joins him on each journey. After Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree dropped, the streamer dedicated himself to completing it, something he eventually managed to achieve – but it was a bumpy ride, to say the least.

Let it never be said that Kai Cenat lacks persistence and tenacity, as, after nearly 100 hours and 1070 deaths, Cenat has earned the title of Elden Lord. However, the expansion’s final boss caused him considerable frustration, with Cenat even needing to take time out to speak to a mental health professional before returning to the battlefield.

The question remains, though: how good is Kai Cenat at Elden Ring?

The hardest boss ever?

To truly understand the scale of this challenge, you need to know that Cenat took on the last boss 31 hours and 30 minutes into his playthrough, with 389 deaths under his belt. By the time he emerged victorious, Cenat had reached over 99 hours and 6 minutes of playtime, with his death count now standing at a whopping 1070.

This means that the final boss alone took Kai Cenat over 68 hours to complete, during which time he was killed 681 times. Even by Elden Ring and other Souls game standards, this is a ridiculous amount of time and deaths just for one boss. It also creates some interesting questions that we’ll aim to answer below.

The first is whether Kai Cenat is good at Elden Ring, and what about the final boss caused him to struggle so much? Credit where credit is due, though, the streamer eventually overcame the troublesome boss and has more than earned his stripes.

So, with that in mind, let’s look at Cenat’s build, gear, and strategy to find our answer. Also, how did he fare with earlier tough bosses, and how did his playstyle evolve and adapt in this notoriously difficult game? This way, we can determine if Kai Cenat is any good at Elden Ring.

Kai Cenat vs. The Dancing Lion

When Cenat arrived at the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, the first major boss of the DLC, he only had eight deaths and just 2 hours and 44 minutes of playtime. By the time he slew the lumbering beast, he’d have 43 deaths and clocked in at 4 hours and 20 minutes of game time.

35 deaths to a boss is on the high side. It’s normal for seasoned Souls players to die a few times when fighting a new boss as they learn their move sets and weaknesses. But generally, the Dancing Lion isn’t considered too difficult – at least, compared to other Shadow of the Erdtree bosses.

In Cenat’s defense, he is what many players would consider under-leveled for the DLC. Going into the Dancing Lion fight at level 157, he was always going to face an uphill battle. In terms of build, it’s clear that Cenat knows how deadly a bleed build can be in the right hands, but unfortunately, these don’t appear to be his.

Cenat is rocking the Rivers of Blood katana along with the Nagakiba, which has been upgraded to hemorrhage, two favorites of bleed-build players. He’s also wearing the Bloody Surgeon’s Mask, which increases damage once an enemy is bleeding. Nice setup so far.

Due to his screen positioning, it’s hard to see what Talismans he’s using, although the two we can see are defensive in nature. That’s certainly not going to be a bad thing, but for him to maximize his build potential, he needs to equip Mohg’s Talisman and the Rotten Winged Insignia.

This way, the damage he does when enemies bleed will be increased even further. He’ll be a glass canon of sorts, but his defensive Talismans will help with that, as will the right armor set. Unfortunately, Cenat also kept removing his armor to remain “light”.

What he didn’t realize is that he can still move nimbly with his armor on – and benefit from its protection. After his first death, Cenat chose to remove his armor to increase his maneuverability, exclaiming, “Time to get those buttcheeks out.” However, all this really did was reduce his defense, making him much more prone to his next 42 deaths.

At this early stage of the Shadow of the Erdtree, Cenat hasn’t collected many of the Scadutree Fragments. These items are how you level up in the DLC. Chances are, he’ll have many more by the time he faces Messmer the Impaler, but if not, he’s going to struggle – no matter how “gud” he “gits”.

In terms of battling the Dancing Lion boss, though, Cenat does a good job of learning its moves and adapting during the fight. His problem is he’s not utilizing his build correctly and is woefully unprepared for what’s to come.

Kai Cenat vs. Messmer the Impaler

By the time Cenat gets to Messmer the Impaler, he’s halfway through the Elden Ring DLC but still has not realized he should wear some armor to increase his defense. The butcheeks, at least for now, remain out. His first interaction with Messmer lasts mere seconds, and Cenat goes on to die another 177 times to this boss.

While Messmer is intended to be difficult, 177 deaths aren’t just on the high side (even for a Souls game), again, it’s patently ridiculous. We grew fond of Cenat while watching his stream on YouTube and started rooting for him, his charisma is contagious, but we have to face facts, when it comes to Elden Ring, he’s doing a lot wrong.

While he’s picked up some Scadutree Fragments, it’s unclear if Cenat has used them. At this stage, he really needs to leave Messmer alone, go explore, and come back when he’s more powerful. If we’re being completely honest, he probably should spend more time upgrading his character in the base game, too.

Alas, he chose not to do this and instead threw himself at this wall of fire and snakes for another six hours. While this isn’t the best strategy, at least in terms of time or preparation, Cenat eventually prevails. Once again, his prowess in battling the boss and his own extraordinary tenacity helped him win the day. Or possibly the day after.

It’s starting to become clear that while Kai Cenat is great at some aspects of Elden Ring; he seems oblivious to others.

Kai Cenat vs The Final Boss

Here’s where things get crazy. First, we’ve not put the name of the boss to help players avoid spoilers, but this is when Kai Cenat’s Shadow of the Erdtree stream really caught the world’s attention.

To recap, Cenat enters the final boss gate at 31 hours of playtime, and with 389 deaths under his belt. He’d emerge victorious 68 hours later after earning another 681 deaths, bringing his total death count to 1070 with a playtime of over 99 hours.

That. Is. Bananas.

It’s worth pointing out that Cenat also went for a therapy session while playing to help him get into the right headspace for this challenging boss. So, what happened?

The good news is that Cenat has finally put some armor (and pants) on his character, so is much more equipped to tackle powerful bosses – and keep his butcheeks untarnished. However, he did remove them again at one point, before opting for heavier armor to help keep him alive.

By this time, Cenat had used more Scadutree Fragments, but he was still woefully under-prepared for the DLC, in both base game level and in terms of DLC blessings. He also didn’t use spirit summons, which is likely a personal choice, but using the tools the game provides for you is perfectly acceptable.

He initially kept his bleed build, a good choice for the final boss who’s vulnerable to this status aliment, but switched out to strength weapons halfway through his attempts. This made his life harder for a while, but Cenat eventually developed a nice flow using this big bashing weapon and found it easier to get in some solid hits.

His build was, generally, set up to favor using Dexterity and bleed weapons, but he had enough strength to make it work. If, however, had he gone all in on bleed, or completed a respec to focus on strength, the battle would have gone much smoother – and likely not taken him 68 hours.

Is Kai Cenat good at Elden Ring?

Kai Cenat is a strange case when it comes to assessing his ability to play Elden Ring. In terms of persistence, Cenat has an almost superhuman ability to get figuratively kicked into the dirt hundreds of times, dust himself off, and try again.

This is an admirable trait and a great attitude to have in life, especially when playing Souls games, but with a little bit more thought and preparation, Cenat could have made his life much easier. It is nothing short of a miracle that he prevailed.

It wasn’t all just luck, though, or Cenat playing the laws of probability. The streamer genuinely developed a true understanding of the enemy he was dealing with by the end. Still, he never took the time to give the overall expansion and his own character this level of attention. 

Many of the hours he spent getting killed by this boss could have been spent exploring the world and leveling his character. However, we can’t help thinking that more than a few of his deaths and the outbursts of rage that followed were deliberate – he has an audience to entertain, after all. 

Also, where’s the triumph without the adversity that preceded it? Some of Cenat’s apparent ineptitude at times was likely performative, as was his reaction to dying so much, therein lies the fun. Sure, we wanted to see him succeed, but there’s a reason the underdog story is the most endearing form of a hero’s journey. 

However, some more preparation and exploration would have allowed him to see much more of what the expansion has to offer and greatly reduced the time he spent getting stuck on bosses. What Cenat needed to do was to engage more with the game’s mechanics, take some of the energy he applied to persistence, and channel it into strategy instead.

Cenat’s skill at playing Elden Ring, and by that we mean his ability in battle, should never be questioned. He’s excellent at this aspect of the game and has probably had more practice than anyone by now. However, Elden Ring isn’t a hack-and-slash game; there are a lot of moving parts, and Cenat showed little aptitude for them or interest in examining them.

It’s hard to say that someone who takes 68 hours to beat one boss is good at Elden Ring, but if Cenat had done more than race through the story, then he may be a challenger for Let Me Solo Her‘s crown.