Malenia, Blade of Miquella |
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| Location | Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree |
| Drops | |
 480,000 Malenia's Great Rune Remembrance of the Rot Goddess |
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| HP | 33,251 |
| Strong VS | Weak to |
Malenia, Blade of Miquella and Malenia, Goddess of Rot is a two-phase Demigod Boss in Elden Ring. She's the twin of Miquella, the most powerful of the Empyreans, and gained renown for her legendary battle against Starscourge Radahn during the Shattering, in which she unleashed the power of the Scarlet Rot and reduced Caelid to ruins.
This is an optional boss, as players do not need to defeat it in order to advance in Elden Ring.
...Heed my words. I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Boss in Elden Ring
- This boss is optional.
- This is a Demi-God type boss.
- Closest Site of Grace: Haligtree Roots [Map Link]
- Multiplayer is allowed for this boss.
- Spirit Ashes can be summoned for this boss.
Elden Ring Malenia, Blade of Miquella Location
Malenia is located at the bottom of Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. Her arena is immediately down the stairs from the Haligtree Roots site of grace. [Map Link]
See Malenia's location on the Elden Ring Map here.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Combat information
- Health: NG (18,473 + 14,778), NG+ (18,750 + 15,000), NG++ (20,625 + 16,500), NG+3 (21,563 + 17,250), NG+4 (22,500 + 18,000), NG+5 (24,375 + 19,500), NG+6 (25,313 + 20,250), NG+7 (26,250 + 21,000)
- Malenia heals up to 80% of her health at the beginning of phase 2
- Defenses do not change between phases - she is more aggresive in 2nd phase.
- During recovery from Scarlet Aeonia, there is a damage reduction (~50%).
- Status Effects do not reset during phase transition
- Damage:
Standard, 
Slash, 
Pierce, - Inflicts:
Scarlet Rot (Phase 2) - Stance: 80
- Parryable: Yes, but 3 parries are required per stance break
- Is vulnerable to a critical hit after being stance broken or parried
- Can be toppled or knocked down.
- Albinauric Pot does not work to stop her from healing.
- Able to dodge most spells with ease.
- Frostbite/Blood loss can break out of her attacks.
Absorptions
- Phy (Standard): 10
- Phy (Slash): 10
- Phy (Strike): 10
- Phy (Pierce): 10
The absorption numbers are the % of your damage that gets blocked. For example, if an absorption is 60, 40% of that damage by that type will go through and 60% is absorbed. Bigger number = less damage. An absorption of 100 means no damage goes through, and a resistance of -100 mean the enemy takes 2x damage from that source. 0 means damage goes pretty much as is.
Resistances
Poison: 1,481
Scarlet Rot: 1,481
Hemorrhage: 420
Frostbite: 306
Sleep: 688
Madness: Immune
Death Blight: Immune
The resistance numbers are the buildup amount to trigger it. For example, if a resistance is 100 you must deal 100 points of whatever aux buildup to trigger it. Note that these go down over time, and increase each time the effect procs.
Elden Ring Malenia, Blade of Miquella Boss Guide
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Boss Video Guide
[video coming soon]
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Tips & Strategies
General Tips
- Malenia damage is physical only, so stack reduction against it such as the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, the consumable Boiled Crab, the Opaline Hardtear in your Flask of Wondrous Physick, or the incantations Black Flame's Protection or Golden Vow.
- 50-60% damage reduction should make this fight slightly easier
- Malenia has low Poise so it doesn't take much to break her stance and leave her open to a critical attack, builds with good physical damage may want to use Stonebarb Cracked Tear. Additionally, she is vulnerable to knockdown attacks in her first phase, so using a weapon or Spirit Ash that abuses this can be helpful. The Blasphemous Blade's Unique Skill: Taker's Flames is also good option for this as it deals good fire damage and will often knock Malenia down, while each strike heals the player a bit, and can stunlocked Malenia for what is essentially the entire fight.
- Malenia heals herself for a percentage of all damage she inflicts, even if the attack is blocked, making shields suboptimal. This makes it even more important to dodge attacks. Ensure you have enough stamina for dodging, the Green Turtle Talisman and Pickled Turtle Neck consumable can help. It is better to dodge towards Malenia's katana than away from it.
- Inflict status effects. Malenia is weak to Frost and neutral to Fire. You can Frostbite Malenia, which deals 7% of her maximum health on its own, then remove the frostbitten debuff by inflicting fire damage, and repeat the process. Malenia also has relatively low resistance to Hemorrhage, inflicting bleed on her can allow players to outpace her self-healing, this makes the Rivers of Blood's unique skill Corpse Piler a good option against her as it deals Physical and Fire damage and inflicts Bleed buildup.
- Frost debuff can be used to stun her from Waterfowl Dance
- Frost can be also used for minor damage buff when non-fire weapons/spells are used
- Players can use summons such as Redmane Knight Ogha Ashes, whose greatarrows will often stagger Malenia and can even interrupt her during the Phantom Spirits attack. Additionally, he will stay in the back and she will focus on you as long as you keep her attention. Black Knife Tiche is also a good option, as she can dodge Malenia's attacks and limit her self-healing. Latenna The Albinauric is also a good option as she can be summoned by the door while the player keeps Malenia away from her. Summons more focused on tanking are not recommended, as Malenia will just heal herself off of them. Dragon Knight Kristoff can stagger Malenia reliably, especially when chain casting Thunderbolt. He is also very tanky and can usually stay alive for the fight.
- Malenia is able to dodge spells, what makes most of spells useless
- Incantation user should consider Lightning Spear
- Sorceries user should consider Night Sorceries
Fight Breakdown
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is a two-phase fight, with the second phase beginning once her health is reduced to zero for the first time.
Phase one: Malenia is slightly less aggressive, and will mostly only attack if the player tries to attack her. Additionally, if the player does not target lock the camera on her, she is likely to stay away from the player just walking left and right, use this to your advantage when you need some breathing room for example to drink a healing flask. If attacked with projectiles, she will attempt to dodge them and then rush at the player to attack them. Malenia has a few attacks that she can use to quickly close to gap, the most notable of these is her grab attack, which deals obscene amounts of damage, thus healing her for a big amount. If she takes too much damage, Malenia will attempt to disengage by jumping backwards 2 times, distancing herself from the player.
Once Malenia goes below 75% HP, she unlocks her Waterfowl Dance attack: she leaps into the air sword ready and, after a brief pause, lunges at the player four times with a flurry of cuts. The third leap has more range than the two before it. The fourth leap has massive range, and Malenia will attempt to get behind the player with it. After this final fourth flurry, a final cut strikes around her. All steps of this attack deal massive damage, getting hit by it all will very likely kill the player even at full health. Read the attacks & counter section for tips on how to avoid this attack.
After getting Malenia to 0 health, a cutscene plays and phase 2 starts with Malenia at 80% health. Note that critical attacks will not trigger phase 2, Malenia will survive them even if she has 0 health. Only a non-critical attack will work.
Phase two: Malenia, floating in the air, rapidly crashes on the player using Scarlet Aeonia dealing massive damage, then blooms into an orange flower which deals massive damage and inflicts massive amounts of Scarlet Rot. To dodge it, simply run towards Malenia and get behind her, she will miss because she cannot steer that much while charging the attack. Malenia will repeat this attack every 3 minutes.
Each of Malenia's attacks in this phase inflicts Scarlet Rot, the player should ensure they have Preserving Boluses to cleanse this condition should they be afflicted.
In addition to all her previous attacks and the aforementioned Scarlet Aeonia, Malenia gains a few new attacks in this phase. Most notably, as a follow-up to other sword attacks, Malenia can jump and then slam her sword into the ground to create a delayed explosion. Finally, Malenia can leap very high into the air, leaving behind her a small vortex of rot that deals massive damage, she will then summon phantoms of herself to lunge at the player one after the other, before finally lunging herself.
Advanced notes
While standing on the shallow water puddle in the middle of the arena, Malenia (and the player) gain 10% damage reduction to Fire Damage and lose 10% damage reduction to Lightning Damage.
Using any ranged attacks, perfumes, or throwables will cause Malenia to not only dodge left or right to avoid them, but also cause her to rush the player. Spells or incantations that can track her are recommended. Once she reaches 75% health and starts using Waterfowl Dance, she will proceed to dodge any range attack as usual but may then use Waterfowl Dance directly afterwards. The only time the player should use ranged attacks is if Malenia is being distracted by a summon. Night Sorceries will not trigger her evasion, as they are invisible to non-player characters.
After avoiding the Scarlet Aeonia attack by running behind Malenia so she misses, there is a window of about 5-7 seconds where players can counterattack from range. Use this opportunity to unleash powerful ranged attacks or spells/incantations with a DoT area effect. If you have the FP, Comet Azur can take off a sizable chunk of her HP before she becomes active again. This can be repeated every time she does this attack and is your best opportunity for heavy damage.
If Malenia is running at you at the start of the fight, she will proceed to rush you with a horizontal spinning attack once you are in range. This attack is telegraphed and easily parried. If you're not good at parrying, then dodge toward Malenia's left side (the player's right). If she slows down or starts moving left or right, she will not do the spin attack.
In order to avoid her Waterfowl Dance combo you must start running away from her while maintaining lock-on as soon as she leaps, which will let you avoid the first two spin attacks entirely if done soon enough (if not you will have to roll the second one). The third spin attack has to be rolled through, and make sure to stay away from her until the final AoE triggers. If you are caught by the attack it is better to roll towards her than away; the extreme edges of the attack seem to have more hitboxes.
Ash of War: Bloodhound's Step makes dodging Waterfowl Dance significantly easier. Using that ability, you can completely avoid the combo, even if you're close to Malenia when she starts its windup. Dash away from her, out of range of the first and second flurries (possibly multiple times depending on how far away she is), and toward her (once) to avoid the third flurry. (During the third flurry she jumps to you regardless of the distance, but the first and second flurries have a fixed jump range.)
In Phase 2, make sure you are constantly topped up to full HP. Many of her basic combo attacks are strong enough to deal well over 1000 damage to heavy armour users very quickly, so sitting at 80% HP or below to save on flasks is liable to get you killed.
A weapon with the Ash of War: Wild Strikes and the blood affinity can trivialize the first phase of the fight.
Ash of War: Golden Parry is useful for easily parrying most of her attacks. The increased parry range and window can be of tremendous help to players with less experience in parrying her attacks.
Melee Strategy
The main trick here is to attack her when she's not in an attack animation in order to stagger her, typically after she is done with a combo. Once you hit her and it staggers her, keep attacking to keep the stagger going while paying attention to when she side hops as this interrupts the stagger. When she does so, roll out of the way, keep some distance, and dodge her attacks until you get another opening, while keeping a keen eye on the startup for her waterfowl dance, to which you should run away from the first two volleys and dodge through the final volley. Be mindful of your positioning at all times, you do not want your back to a wall when she does her waterfowl dance. Stay calm, do not panic, watch some videos of her attacks, and you'll realize her flashy moves just seemed intimidating/impossible at first. Do not rely on a shield to do the work for you due to her healing ability, at most you should only use it to block the stray hit. Talisman suggestions would be Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (or your best one), Ritual Shield Talisman, and Green Turtle Talisman to help mitigate damage and improve stamina regeneration.
In her second phase her attacks start to flow together more, but good ones to punish are her slamming attacks as she takes some time to create a rot burst in front of her.
Rivers of Blood and Blasphemous Blade are great options for weapons. If focusing on bleed damage, Curved Swords are a good choice as their dual-wielded jumping attack hits four times allowing quick Bleed build-up. This can be paired with the Raptor's Black Feathers, Claw Talisman, Beastman's Curved Sword, and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia for high DPS. The Scavenger's Curved Sword dual wielded with another Curved sword with a bleed affinity is a good choice for such a build. For Strength Arcane builds, Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear can be used for inflicting bleed from a distance rapidly by using Bloodboon Ritual weapon skill.
Magic and Ranged Strategy
For Incantation users, Swarm of Flies is a good option when summoning, especially Black Knife Tiche Ashes. Once Malenia focuses on Tiche, start casting Swarm of Flies. A slight delay between casts is a little more effective than constant spam, as it seems to catch her fully in each swarm rather than clipping her as she dodges out. If she leaps, just keep your distance and get ready to dodge Waterfowl Dance. With luck, one of your swarms will cause blood loss and she'll be staggered, but because you're keeping range, you should be able to dodge much, if not all, of the Waterfowl Dance. On phase 2, the recovery of Scarlet Aeonia is the perfect time to spam Swarm of Flies.
Other good incantations are Borealis's Mist to inflict Frostbite, Giantsflame Take Thee for its massive damage and high chance to knock Malenia down, Aspect of the Crucible: Tail and Aspect of the Crucible: Horns to knock down Malenia, or Dragonmaw which deals good damage and knocks her down. Protect yourself with both Golden Vow and Black Flame's Protection as they stack. Don't use offensive Holy incantations because Malenia has 40% damage reduction against Holy damage. Rotten Breath or Ekzyke's Decay are not terrible, but Malenia does have very high resistance to Scarlet Rot and Poison. For INT+FTH builds, Ancient Death Rancor is also a very good option, as it deals good damage, has good poise damage, and good tracking.
For Sorcery users, starting the fight with Ranni's Dark Moon can be helpful as it lowers her magic resistance and deals frostbite damage.
Do not use projectile attacks such as Great Glintstone Shard because she will just dodge them. Instead, use sorceries with good tracking capabilities such as the aforementioned moon or Stars of Ruin. Malenia, as all other NPCs, cannot see Night Sorceries so she will not dodge them, making Night Comet a fantastic option especially when paired with a Staff of Loss on the other hand to buff its damage (or, even better, with two Staves of Loss if you can get a second one from another player or a new game + playthrough).
Other good sorceries against her are Greatblade Phalanx for its high stance damage, which can be good if playing with a weapon that can inflict critical attacks once you stagger her, but this is not as good for pure mages that only use staves. Carian Piercer and Cannon of Haima are also good for knocking her down. For INT+FTH builds, Ancient Death Rancor is also a very good option, as it deals good damage, has good stance damage, and good tracking.
If using summons, Malenia might dodge fewer projectiles as she's busy focusing on the summon. This opens the door for spells such as Comet or Shard Spiral. Alternatively, spamming Ranni's Dark Moon while Malenia focuses on the summons is also a valid strategy, though this requires a lot of FP. If not spamming the moon, Glinstone Icecrag can help trigger Frostbite. Finally, Comet Azur can be considered for phase 2 to punish Malenia during her Scarlet Aeonia after dodging it.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Attacks & Counters
| Attack | Description | Counter |
| Malenia's Dance (1.00 only) | Malenia raises sword to her left and makes 4 long steps - after each steps she attacks with a flurry of attacks. After that she jump towards Tarnished with attack and performs a final whirl strike, knocking down the target. | Attack not used in current version of the game. However, if player wants to face her in 1.00 version of the game, it is best to simply run away |
| Waterfowl Dance | Malenia leaps into the air, after a short pause she dives onto the player and slashes around her in an AoE. She then slashes two more times, closing the gap with a smaller dash each time. Her final slash is then followed with a short AoE that she doesn't move for. This attack also builds up scarlet rot very quickly in phase two. This attack can be blocked. | There are several methods in dodging the attack, the method depends on the distance between you and her: 1) If you are distanced about four or more meters out of her sword's reach, immediately start running back the moment she leaps in the air. The first two slashes will miss as long as you keep running. Immediately stop running after she finishes her second slash and roll towards her, the third slash will miss since it's programmed to send her behind you. If you've timed this right the fourth slash will miss as well without requiring any additional inputs from you. 2) If she jumps up while you're within her sword's reach, immediately start running back. The timing is precise and requires some training. The moment her foot touches the ground to begin the first slash, jump or roll away from her, this move will dodge the first slash. She'll now wind up her second slash, move towards her while keeping your eyes on her sword arm, then roll towards her left arm (right side from your POV) the moment her sword arm starts to move for a second slash. If timed right this will dodge her second slash. For the third slash, simply roll towards her again and then roll away from her to avoid the fourth slash. 3) If you have a weapon with high bleed build-up (such as dual curved swords with Ash of War: Seppuku), the bleed effect will stagger her out of the Waterfowl Dance attack. 4) Ash of War: Bloodhound Step can also be used to easily dodge through this attack. You can apply the Ash of War to an off-hand dagger and quickly switch to it whenever she begins the Waterfowl Dance animation. 5) Ash of War: Vow of the Indomitable can be used to partially dodge the first volley with the right timing. The I-frames don't last long enough to completely dodge the first volley, but you can dodge afterwards and still take no damage. Another way to dodge this attack when you're at close range (albeit a lot more difficult), is to circle her (without locking-on) when she's in the air, double roll away from her for the first dash, lock-on to her again and do the same thing as above for the other three dashes. Alternatively, block with a shield that has relatively high stability. She will recover her health, but it is more preferable than dying. At this point in the game you should deal enough damage to make up for health regained. Note: She tends to use this attack more often, if she is engaged with range weaponry/spells (needs further testing). |
| Kick | Malenia will rush the player before she swipes at the player with her leg (unparryable), which can then be followed up by one of four attacks. A slightly delayed stabbing dash attack, a sword swipe followed up by an overhead slam on the ground, or two quick slices followed by another slice. It can also be followed up with a grab attack (see below). |
The kick is fairly easy to avoid. Creating distance can keep you safe from the latter two follow ups. The stabbing dash attack is telegraphed by a small flash on her sword, helping you time a roll. The kick can also be blocked, but consumes high amounts of stamina. |
| Thrust | Malenia will slightly jump into the air, followed by a very quick thrusting attack, dealing a huge amount of pierce damage. This attack usually catches player off-guard. Can be parried at melee. |
Malenia usually does this attack when the player is healing at mid-range. So if you want to heal, make sure to run far away from her first before healing, or wait for the thrust before healing. To avoid the thrust, simply roll left or right (backwards works as well but it's a bit risky). Because of pierce damage, this attack deals increased damage if the player is in counterattack frames. If the player is far enough away from her, it's possible to jump over the thrust. If the player is close enough, they can parry it. |
| Rapid Prosthesis Slices | Malenia will shorten her blade (indicated by a ping sound) then rush the player, do three quick attacks in succession, followed by a final horizontal attack that can be delayed. This attack can end up quickly healing her along with devastating the player's health. This attack can also occur on its own, in the middle of a combo, or to end a combo (usually indicated by her delaying the final sweep). Can be parried. |
Malenia uses this attack only if her blade is to her right (the player's left if they are looking at her) which means you can be better prepared for it. Listen for the ping sound to indicate the weapon change, then roll towards her (into the attack) to her right. Back up and if needed roll away from her once you are clear to avoid the final sweep. Do not rush in for an attack unless the final sweep is delayed, which would indicate the end of a combo and an opening for the player. Avoid dodging backwards, as the third hit will clip you. She may sometimes follow it up with the same attack - this can happen multiple times in a row. |
| Uppercut + Slam OR Charge + Spin | Malenia will hold her sword back, then do one of the two damaging attacks depending on the player's location: (i) If the player is at close range, she will do an uppercut, then leap upwards and slams down. (ii) If the player is at long range, she will charge towards the player at fast speed, then spin her sword, followed by a slam. |
The two attacks are very delayed and extremely damaging, so make sure you recognize the starting animation (indicated by her holding her sword back) immediately and be prepared for the attacks. For Uppercut + Slam: Roll backwards to avoid the uppercut, then wait for her to slam down and roll forward left or forward right. If you are brave enough, you can get a few hits in before her uppercut, then dodge at the very last second. For Charge + Spin: Roll twice as soon as you see her charging towards you to dodge both the spin and the slam altogether. Malenia will be wide open for attacks after performing these two attacks. You can either do a charged strong attack or even a weapon's skills such as Lion's Claw or Spinning Slash. |
| Lunging Grab | Malenia will raise her hand in preparation for a grab attack, then lunge in a straight line towards the player very quickly. If the grab connects she will toss the player into the air and impale them, dealing 2225 base thrusting damage, before tossing their body onto the ground. During Phase two, this attack can be immediately followed by a flying sweep + thrust attack. This attack cannot be blocked or parried. |
Dodge roll when Malenia lunges, preferablyto the sides (backwards works too if you time it right). During Phase two, be prepared for the flying sweep + thrust attack (See below) as it may catch the player off-guard. While this attack can be interrupted by most player attacks while she winds up the grab, it's not suggested to do so because of the risks. |
| Scarlet Aeonia | Phase two only. Malenia will dive onto the player and summon a giant flower that explodes around her. This leaves a lingering mist that applies scarlet rot and a DoT effect in the area. This attack is always used as her first attack in phase two. | Roll as soon as you see her sword is lifted, then sprint away for her for a little bit (around half a second), then roll away from her again. Remember to not attack her right away after the explosion as the rot will linger for quite a bit (around 4 - 5 seconds), use this time window to heal, recover FP, reapply buffs, or even cast some spells if you're a ranged user. After the scarlet rot is gone (indicated by the flower disappearing), she will be unable to move for a while, and is wide open for attacks, use this time window to use your skill (or a charged strong attack) on her to deal massive damage in a single hit. |
| Scarlet Explosion | Phase two only. Malenia will retain its original moves from Phase one, however there is a chance that she will do a follow-up on most attacks, where she flies up into the air briefly, then slams down her sword, dealing a huge amount of damage and creating on the ground a small vortex of rot, which then explodes after a brief delay and builds up scarlet rot. The explosion can also occur from the slamming attacks from Phase one, which she can follow up and result in a double Scarlet Explosion. | This attack usually occur when she is done with her regular Phase one combo. Roll in any direction to avoid the slam, roll again if you're unsure whether exploson will hit you. This attack can be heavily punished if you roll into her and get to her back, as she will be wide open for attacks after the slam. To differentiate between this attack and the Waterfowl Dance (as these two attacks have similar starting animation), if she twirls before flying up, it's the Waterfowl Dance; if she flies upwards without twirling, she's doing the Scarlet Explosion attack. |
| Flying Sweep + Thrust | Phase two only. Malenia will fly up into the air, and glides down onto the player from the left, followed by a very quick thrust attack. This attack can be followed up with the Scarlet Explosion attack. | She will usually do this attack when you're at long range. Roll left to avoid the first sweep, then roll left or right to avoid the thrust. Or, roll the sweep, then jump the thrust. See above to learn how to dodge the Scarlet Explosion follow-up. Because of pierce damage, the follow up thrust attack deals increased damage if the player is in counterattack frames. |
| Counter Kick | Phase two only. Sometimes, when the player hit Malenia, she will follow-up by countering the player with a kick (different from a regular kick). Although this kick doesn't do a lot of damage, it'll usually catch the player off guard and stagger them greatly. | Never attack twice in a row when she's in a walking/running animation and always be prepared for the counter kick, roll backwards when she begins to lift her leg to avoid the attack. Unlike the regular kick, Malenia will not follow this up with another attack and will stand still for a solid second. You can exploit this weakness by doing an attack after dodging the counter kick (either doing a running attack, quick weapon's skills, or just a simple attack if you have a long weapon). |
| Phantom Spirits | Phase two only. Malenia will fly into the air, creating a pool of scarlet rot on the ground below her, and consecutively fire out four phantom versions of herself that will do two horizontal sweeps, a vertical slam, a third horizontal sweep followed by a quick thrust, one final thrust, before Malenia herself comes down with a high speed flying thrust to player, dealing high damage. The first and last phantom will stay longer in order to do a single thrust attack each, occurring after the fourth's sweep attack. | Roll in the directions as the following order: Backwards twice (delay a bit between these two rolls), followed by two forward rolls (immediately after one another), then roll to the left twice (immediately after one another). The timing for the third and fourth roll might be a bit difficult to get a grasp on (and will usually result in death as you'll get hit by two phantoms), but once you get those two rolls right, you'll never get hit by the phantoms. Note: This attack can target more than 1 player.
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Elden Ring Malenia Lore, Notes & Trivia
FAQ: Is Malenia the hardest Elden Ring boss?
- The Souls games are well-known to be one of the most challenging games around; forcing players to adjust to each encounter and improve their Combat skills and reactions according to the opponent's movesets. Amongst all the Bosses, the community has been polarized on Malenia. Her design, fighting style, arena, and voice acting have been universally prasied. Conversly, some of Malenia's mechanics have been strongly criticized, such as her ability to lifesteal without even damaging the player, as well as the massive range and damage of Waterfowl Dance. Some critics deem Malenia as an unfair boss, while her supports argue that this is why she is an optional boss. Polls have even previously been conducted surveying players on who they believe is the hardest Elden Ring boss, and most people agree that it would be Malenia.
- In Elden Ring, FromSoftware has given the tools to allow players a choice in how difficult they want their combat encounters to be. A few returning souls players will opt to face these bosses without the additional aid, 'OP' Weapons or Spirit Ashes. The available tools that the developer provided in the game is said to determine the gameplay difficulty since there are no official difficulty settings in the game. However, a little assist for players does not hurt if it helps them progress and improve. Some ways to alleviate the difficulty would be to experiment with different Builds, Weapons and equipment. A Faith or Bleed build could prove to be more effective aginst her. Spirit Ashes can also be summoned for additional help in the arena against her. There are plenty of Spirit Ashes to choose from depending on how much help the player needs during her encounter.
Elden Ring Malenia Other Notes
- "In the first year after launch, From Software reported that Malenia had killed players 329 million times" - How Many Times Players Attempted Malenia
- In version 1.04 of Elden Ring, there was a bug related to the healing mechanic, which was present only when players fought Malenia in co-op - each attack would result in heal, even if the attack missed due to i-frames. This has since been fixed as of update 1.04.1
- Malenia first unleashed the Scarlet Rot in her battle with Radahn, destroying the region of Caelid in the process.
- She is an Empyrean like Ranni and her brother Miquella.
- Melina's armor set can be found in the area directly before Malenia's boss room. This and the similarity of their names has led many fans to speculate that they are related in some way.
- In the Elden Ring trailer shown at E3 2021, Malenia's arena is slightly different, with a much darker appearance and fewer roots in the background. However, the clip from her pre-battle cutscene has the final arena design.
- First phase can't be finished with a critical strike or damage caused by inflicting status effect - Malenia will remain with 1 HP left, even with poison or rot damage. In a very earlier version of the game, if the player managed to finish that phase with critical strike, 2nd phase Malenia would spawn with 1 HP.
- After the player parries her three times and she enters the animation that allows for a critical hit, she can be staggered by any attack (including things like throwing knives), knocking her out of the critical animation.
- Malenia is featured in the game's Collector's Edition, which includes a statue of her and a replica of her helmet.
- Bug: If player depletes her poise while she performs attack with hyper-armor, she will not be put in a state that allows to perform a riposte.
- Bug (possible only in co-op or with Spirit Ash): If player manage to end first phase with a riposte while Malenia's HP is 0, she will spawn with 1HP in 2nd phase.
- This can cause some odd situation in her attacks, as her first one will not be Scarlet Aeonia.
- Game-wise, this boss is treated as 1 encounter instead of 2 as it is more common in case of bosses where phases are separated by cutscene
- Identical thing happens in case of Godrick the Golden
- Voice Actress: Pippa Bennett-Warner
Dialogue
Introduction:
I dreamt for so long.
My flesh was dull gold...and my blood, rotted.
Corpse after corpse, left in my wake...
As I awaited... his return.
... Heed my words.
I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella.
And I have never known defeat.
During Fight
Defeating player in phase 1 (1.00): Now do you understand? I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella...
Defeating player in phase 1 (after 1.00): I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella...
Defeating player in phase 2: Let your flesh be consumed. By the scarlet rot.
Intermission
Wait.
The scarlet bloom flowers once more
You will witness true horror.
Now, rot!
After Fight
Your strength, extraordinary...
The mark...of a true Lord...
O, dear Miquella...
O, dearest Miquella, my brother...
I'm sorry. I finally met my match...
Malenia, Blade of Miquella Image Gallery
Ah yes, love when the boss has an insta kill attack if you're at point blank range and you gotta exploit her AI to probably survive it. If she ever rises to the air when at point blank, you might as well just let your controller rest in your lap and take a deep breath before your inevitable next attempt
- Anonymous
On my first playthrough I had enough and decided to cheese her with double affinity Wild Strikes Omencleavers, but this time I came back mentally prepared and managed to beat her using plain old Magma Wyrm Scale Sword. After what is like 300 attempts overall I can finally reliably dodge her 2nd and 3rd Waterfowl Dance flurry, but the 1st one still ends up taking 40-80% of my HP. Once I learn how to play against this and the clone attack better I will have officially mastered her. Overall, after countless deaths it's a very fun fight, but I can't help but feel that for most players it's either cheese or get cheesed, because too many mechanics are simply too counterintuitive and basically require the player to watch a youtube video about them. Waterfowl is obviously the guilty one here, but the clone attack takes the cake imo. On my first playthrough I didn't even know these clones linger on the ground and hence I didn't even know what was killing me. And from what I'm seeing lots of people either don't even know this attack exists or spam roll and it somehow works out. Now imagine if those lingering clones didn't exist- the fight becomes less chaotic, still requires a few consecutive dodges and is more intuitive. Weird design choice imo.
- Anonymous
Every single victory over her feels like an exceptionally lucky roll of RNG. EVERY single one.
I don't think I can call this a good boss... I've tried every angle I can take on this. Beating her isn't satisfying. It just feels like she took hours and hours of my life for a fight that was just average once you cut the deaths out. Watching the replay shows it the most.
- Anonymous
Lady Maria (fire and blood) = looks awesome!
Sister Friede (frost and black flame) = very cool combo!
Malenia (scarlet rot + lifesteal) = it's okay, but lore-wise that lifesteal makes no sense and feels like a failed boss design
- Anonymous
Beat her with a greatsword and blocking + guard counter + charged attack playstyle (solo, no spirits or even spells) after more attempts than I want to admit to. With barricade shield ash and enough endurance (I had about 40) you can block both waterfowl and the phase 2 phantom attack with a medium unupgraded shield, though in phase 2 you'll want some kind of immunity-boosting solution (I went with the talisman) or you'll just get rotted and die anyway.
I thought it would be really hard due to lifesteal, but it's actually not that bad. if she gives you a bunch of bad combos in a row then it can get pretty bad but once you've developed a counterstrategy for literally every move she has after throwing attempt after attempt at her, you turn into a fine-tuned clockwork machine of stancebreaking, riposte, and charged attack, and I was able to consistently beat phase 1 by the end of my attempts.
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She's a difficult boss but the bigger issue is how "RNG" her fight is. Not literally RNG obviously, but imo the game kinda shoehorns you into using freezing pots if you want a consistent fight. Sure, you CAN dodge waterfowl dance with sprinting and rolls, but the positioning and timing is so tight that the average player just doesn't have the time or patience to learn it. It's just unfortunate that the only real alternative outside of hoping she doesn't do it feels like cheesing her. Not a very satisfying fight for what is supposed to be the pinnacle of difficulty in the base game.
- Anonymous
Curse this fiend, her childern too, and their childeren forever true.
- Anonymous
"OH NO! Malenia killed my mimic and me, i couldn't steamroll her without engaging in her mechanics. What an unfair boss NOOOOO. I WILL NEVER PLAY FROMSOFT GAME EVER AGAIN"
- Anonymous
Imo quickstep is better than Bloodhound's step if you're going up against her with short range weapons, ie fists and claws. You'll have an easier time dodging her Waterfowl with Bloodhound's sure, but with all of her other attacks you wind up creating too much distance to even punish them.
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It makes zero sense why Malenia can use lifesteal on stamina, it just adds more annoyance to the fight on top of the already existing problems like the quick windup to her waterfoul dance, her followup attacks that come out instantly with no windup at all, her hyper aggressiveness where she will never stop attacking at times, and the worst of all her random stagger mechanic.
- Anonymous
Honestly, I have been playing souls games for a long time, and some of my favorite bosses are the hardest ones. But when I get to this one, it was hard yes but after beating it. I had no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment, I just felt annoyed and ticked off since this was a horrible boss. Hope FS never makes a boss even close like this one. 2/10 boss, difficulty felt forced and generally a disappointment.
Fixed a spelling mistake where it said 'waterwolf' instead of 'waterfowl' <3
- Anonymous
It's been a while since I beat her, and since I've played the game. It took about 36 attempts. Yeah, this boss blows. It's not the worst boss in gaming, not at all. The healing and water fowl is the problem. Don't take water fowl out, just make the first part of it Dodgeable at all ranges. Either take the healing out or reduce it by 50%-75%.
- Anonymous
I’ve beat her 5 diff times on diff characters. Not even counting the amount of times I’ve helped people beat her. Ffs, watch a couple YouTube videos and learn how to dodge and you can beat her.
- Anonymous
Truth be told, this lady definitely is the Blade of Miquella hands down
- Anonymous
Dark Moon Greatsword + Mimic works like a charm against her. Frostbite can also knock her out of Waterfoul.
- Anonymous
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her resistances don't increase after each proc like with other bosses?
- Anonymous
my experience fighting Malenia today:
I used Oleg, right? Yeah it doesn’t really fit with my literal Gehrman build, but… yeah I was having a bad time lol.. anyways, we get her to about 60% hp, and she jumps into Waterfowl. She’s looking at Oleg so I’m like, “Oh good luck with that buddy,” and run away. Then karma decides to be a jerk and she goes after me, I tank the entire first part of Waterfowl Dance lol. I survived and somehow beat her on that same attempt, thank you RNJesus!!
- Anonymous
The only thing difficult is the heal regain. Even waterfowl can be blocked so most of waterfowl's threat is her health regain.
- Anonymous
So after taking 6 hours to get her on my INT build, I hoped on my STR heavy armor dual colossal grug build and got her on my third try.
gg I guess
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I think the DLC is gonna change at least some kind of interaction of Malenia, because I refuse to believe a character so intrinsically tied to Miquella would remain untouched in any way once we beat Shadow of the Erdtree. Even different dialogue during her fight would be fine with me.
If she really does go unchanged after release, then I guess I am the biggest of fools for expecting more...
- Anonymous
"I'm Malenia, Blade of Miquella"
I heard that so much, that i literally dreamed about it. Best boss in the game so far, lets see if Messmer is on the same tier as her
- Anonymous
Honestly, this fight is horribly balanced. And in both ways, there is so many methods just to trivialize her, but also moves such as waterfowl can be nearly impossible to deal with unless you have bloodhound step or freeze pots.
- Anonymous
Could have been a good boss but i will say thats she's the worst shardbearer boss in the game because of the amount of game mechanics she breaks and waterfowl is the worst move i have ever seen in a game just watch "malenia doesnt play by the rules - elden ring boss analysis" for a good video on why she's a badly designed
- Anonymous
Having completely missed Malenia on my first play through and coming back to her on my second with nearly 6 hours of cumulative attempts over the course of three day, I can say with all confidence: Despite how challenging this fight is, defeating Malenia didn't spur any feeling of catharsis or elation, it just left me bitter and longing for a better fight that never was.
Sure, it is meant to be the ultimate test of skill in ER but it doesn't feel like she was balanced with gameplay in mind but rather cool anime swordsman moves first, player second. The way some of her attacks are downright malicious in their design feels almost insulting. Wombo combos she can randomly abandon and return to with no rhyme or reason, powerful attacks that take time and skill to practice evading both because they have such small time windows to evade, need clockwork precise timing on your rolls, while dealing so much damage even decently tanky builds get shredded in the first volley, thus giving you barely enough space to even learn anything. And as many others mentioned, it would take so little to make this fight great while keeping it's infamous difficulty. Like nerfing her life steal by making it proportional to damage dealt, keep Waterfowl and Phantom attacks as once per phase occurrence and or at the very least keep them on invisible cooldown so that she can't
willy nilly spam them several times in a row.
Call me a casul, I know I am. But it won't change my opinion in the slightest. Ishin The Sword Saint still clears as the best fight and a fair challenge.
- Anonymous
Thanks to her, I am no longer sure if I am tarnishedless or maidenless
- Anonymous
I never beat her, it's too far.... And Ordina is so boring and hard.
- Anonymous
about waterfowl dance;
at mid distance, run away from the first hit, right after that time a little bit when she is going to follow with the second hit and dodge into malenia direction and right after that dodge into her again. Also, after dodging the final wd hit, dont dodge too much anymore if you are locked into malenia because it might put you into WD active range again.
at long distance, just wait for the first 2 hits that will miss because of distance, and dodge into her again.
at close-point blank distance, the safe way for me was using bloodhound step quickly in a secondary weapon that i could quickly switch for my primary one. I used bhs to get enough distance to dodge the first flurry and then dodge into her 2 times with normal rolls like the one from mid distance. If you are reading this and want a safe way to survive wd, try to use bhs on a secondary weapon, it might save your life.
- Anonymous
The clone move is not really that much of a problem at single player (since you can run away if you are at a distance) but its kinda broken at multiplayer because you have no way or tell that she is going to pull that move and if you hit her and she pull this at the same time (again, theres no tell) its instant death without any chance of fighting back. This move feels broken when theres no tell and its instant damage and scarlet rot at close range when she pulls the move at multiplayer.
- Anonymous
She cancels out of stagger animations. WTF. This punishes the player for punishing her.
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As a monster hunter player I must say, she felt like the Risenglow Valstrax of elden ring
- Anonymous
the only hard thing about this fight was me during her second phase, "the soundtrack hits too tho"
- Anonymous
2 and a half hours later, I finally defeated She Who Has Never Known Defeat. And with a parry-stagger critical attack! While incredibly difficult, this was probably one of my favorite bosses, very fun (although I never managed to completely dodge the dreaded Waterfowl Dance). To anyone stuck on this boss, I believe in you! It may take you 3 hours, it may take 30, but you can do it!
- Anonymous
Finally got her with Blasphemous Blade. Boosted by Flame Grant Me Strength, Golden Vow, and a Fire boosting Tear.
Got talismans for Erdree Favor +2, Fire Scorpion, Shard of Alexander, and the usual Faith booster.
Seem to have landed a couple of Blasphemous Blade fire skill or four, got me into phase two with plenty of life on my pal Tiche.
Then it all got confusing and she almost got me with her Aeonia, surprisingly I could recover my health and could land 3 or some skill shots and yeah, couldn't believe it.
- Anonymous
okay someone asked me to make a review on this boss. and this is my thoughts on malenia as a boss fight in elden ring.
lore wise, she is pretty good, i think there other characters with better lore and a over all character. but all in all she is a solid character with a great visual design
But my main problem with this fight is well, the actual fight it self. first phase is fine, i enjoy first phase a lot, aside from waterfowl being horribly balanced as a whole this first part is fun. the second phase is where a lot of the problem start. first off this fight didn't need a second HP bar, with the heal on hit they could of just added a bit more HP onto her first HP bar. her hyper armor is fine in first phase then she is a bit more passive but second phase feels too agressive for how many attacks have hyper armor. even though her wings look gorgeous, it's annoying and it hids too many of her attacks do to there size. not to mention that even though i think she is fine, she doesn't feel as enjoyable as a fight such as mohg, dragonlord, godfrey, morgott. she isn't a awful fight such as godskin duo and like. but she is by no means a master piece.
over all I give her a high B.
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I know this isn't a popular opinion, but she is my favorite boss in this game.
- Anonymous
I went to fight her on NG+7 with my beloved BHF (level 160 quality build) and I must say....you either get obliterated, or completely obliterate her, there is no inbetween, but all in all it wasnt too bad, took me around 10-15 attempts after not playing for 2 weeks
- Anonymous
in case this might help anyone, destroyed her for the first time ever on my second try with my build:
DRAGON COMMUNION SEAL (essential since i pumped every rune into Arcane)
talismans: Roar Medallion, Godfrey Icon, Shard Of Alexander (,+ a filler talisman, i think i used rotten sword insignia so it literally doesn't even matter)
buffs: Flame, Grant Me Strength & Golden Vow & Mixed Physick: Fire damage boost (mixed with anything else you deem useful)
summon any spirit that can draw her aggro, cast Greyoll's roar, cast Borealis' Mist until you trigger frostbite for 20% damage boost (you should achieve this in just one cast), and finally beam her with Agheel's flame.
and basically just repeat.
from my experience, dragon communion incantations trivialize almost, if not every single boss in this game lol
- Anonymous
Doesn't mention consistent greatbow knockdowns. Not recommended, but fun.
- Anonymous
Phantom Spirits is EASILY my favourite move in the entire game...
It's visually GORGEOUS, Decently telegraphed, and both fun as well as satisfying to dodge.
Say what you will about Malenia being broken...but there's no denying the insane amount of detail fromsoft put into her...
...that being said...I kinda wish that the Crepus's Vial Talisman and the Black Knife Armor actually had an effect on her AI...would have been a great nod to fact that's she's blind...oh well...
- Anonymous
everybody gangsta until she initates waterfowl while youre still in melee range
- Anonymous
Wanna cheese Malenia? Read on. Not sure how folks will react to this lol but… the 1st time I faced Malenia, I decided to face her honorably. No cheesing, no spirit ashes. I got REKT like 50 times before I finally killed her with like a sliver of HP. The 2nd time I faced her, I was like nah. Now it’s time for revenge against this boss that uses a ridiculous ash of war (Waterfowl Dance) with HP Regen. So I used mimic tear (duh) and Blasphemous Blade’s Taker’s Flames AoW spam. She died soooo fast lol. Not even fair, but I must admit it was very… cathartic to watch her going flying while I was the one GETTING HEATH REGEN Muahahahaha
- Anonymous
NPCs crying about Malenia in comments get fed their opinions and beliefs by mainstream media hitpiece articles and shitty youtube videos made by seething casuals and then regurgitate and parrot everything on this page, with not a single original thought existing in their empty head. First of the all, the boss is not unbeatable as demonstrated 1000s of times in the last 2 years. Second, it is supposed to be challenging, it was deliberately designed like that and third its optional (I wish it wasn't)
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Ranni's dark moon causing frostbite status effect (so 10 % less magic damage negation + 20 % increase in damage taken) was finally was enough to kill her. Together with fully upgraded staff of loss in off-hand. And Tiche, the real MVP.
- Anonymous
Can comfortably block waterfowl with a greatshield if you let stamina regen between flurries, although the 2nd and 3rd are still dodgeable. Remember to back up when she starts the waterfowl windup though, if not she'll fly around and dead angle you to death. Same for the spirits attack in phase 2, just back up and block, ezpz
- Anonymous
Honestly I could see how someone might not like this boss, you know, if they don't like actual challenges
- Anonymous
One inconsistency I don't understand is how everything with scarlet rot is super weak to fire damage except her. Like, take dragons and Erdtree Avatars. Agheel, a dragon, has 40% fire damage negation. However, Ekzykes (cool name are lore, annoying fight), who is also a dragon except he has scarlet rot, takes literally DOUBLE damage from fire. All Erdtree Avatars are weak to fire, taking 140% damage from it. However, Putrid Avatars ALSO take double fire damage, at 200%. So why isn't the literal Goddess of Rot taking more fire damage in phase 2 when I'm trying to defeat her with a fire damage dealing weapon?
- Anonymous
This boss is an absolute menace on ng+7, even with 72% physical negation some attacks, namely phantom sprits, 2 tap. Other than that, this boss isn't too bad on ng+7.
- Anonymous
I like her and Radahn just because of the great reddit war they've caused, watching Malenia glazers and Radahn ****riders whip it out is just plain hilarious. Most of the time their debates look like one of those "my dad is stronger than your dad" arguments and I'm so here for it.
- Anonymous
You can kinda "cheese" her in phase 1 using mohgs spear. Basically keep your distance from her because she will only walk to you. Then summon nihil all over her. It shreds her to pieces, although she can still use waterfowl and it doesn't work in phase 2
- Anonymous
Casual killer and purifier of the souls community, best boss after isshin
- Anonymous
Those phase 2 intro vocals got me feeling like im fighting and undefeatable warrior and winning
- Anonymous
is it normal to, on your first playthrough, to blaze through malenia like a hot knife in butter, but struggle for hours against fire giant?
- Anonymous
That's just a copy and paste of raiden shogun from genshin impact with different colours!!!!!!
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Apologies to everyone who helped last night... after having no trouble dodging scarlet aeonia on my first playthrough... I was 50/50 last night. Even on the win against Malenia, I had to flame cleanse me heal heal. Not sure what happened to my timing.
- Anonymous
Fighting this Boss be like
1. YES!! EASY! GET CLAPPED B-
2. You will witness true horror
3. Oh fu-
- Anonymous
Millicent did tell me that her mother can be difficult but...I didn't really expect my new mother in law to be THAT difficult
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Dual dismounters (flame strike + bloody slash) and a few hours of attempts shows how lame this game is.
Notable points:
1. The sheer RNG is the blame for why sometimes I win, sometimes they win.
2. I get that I'm using a very niche str build that gets buried fast or they die and yet I feel like this game has too much RNG going on at this point.
3. Malenia is a good example of this problem and so is the Fire Giant. The latter repeatedly killed me rolling over me and then orb explosions over and over again until I stopped trying to melee him.
4. The problem with Malenia isn't her healing or her rot attacks. It's the fact she can either be impossible to hit (constantly moving) or impossible to survive (constantly attacking). There's no in between that I could notice. That's a departure from DS design where for example Pontiff would have very aggressive behavior all the time.
5. Malenia's movement sometimes is just incredible. Jump R1 misses, lunge R1 misses, jump R1 misses. This happens a lot with her emptying out your stamina bar so she can return a 1-2 to deplete your health. So much movement sometimes I R1 when she's in front of me and she's now behind me hitting me.
6. Her recovery is nuts too. I stunned her once and when I stepped forward to get the crit she had already recovered!!
7. The biggest gripes I have about bosses like this (Elden Ring specifically) remind me a lot of DS2 where the devs tried to make something more challenging and it just feels dirtier than it ought to be.
- Anonymous
Her rotating kick is gonna be the death of me, there are just way too many instances that she would randomly cancel her current attack into a rotating kick, which has hyperarmor, to punish me punishing her doing another attack.
- Anonymous
now that i've mastered this fight my only complaint is that the ghost attack doesn't need an instagib AoE. it's not a problem solo cause her AI only does it while you're far away but if you're summoning then she can explode you any moment
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A decaying husk who has lost most of her senses, her vision and part of her limbs, and this is as close as we have gotten to facing an Empyrean at full power, DLC is gonna be WILD!
- Anonymous
Does her status effect resistance not increases on consecutive procs and NG+?The page doesn't has any info on NG+ resistances, only on HP
- Anonymous
This boss changed my opinion on the game. Like, I've tried to finish it 6 times, getting bored on different stages of the game. But after I finally got in the mood and decided to beat her... God damn, that was so emotional and nostalgic. I felt like I was fighting Artorias for the first time back in 2013. For the first time in 80 hours in this game I was feeling something. This rush, anxiety, anticipation and pure excitement. The thrill of the fight. I think I came to her with quite a cancerous combo of Zamor CGS and bloodhound fang on pure dex build without summons or minor consumables. On 125 rl. I felt to tanky, being able to take her swings recklessly. So now I really want to try beating her hitless, or almost hitless.
I finally was able to feel this thrill again. Not even DS1-3 SL1 runs brought me this amount of emotions in the process.
Thank you, From Software, for doing what you do best.
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Had luck dual-wielding flamberge and forked greatsword, both with flame art affinity. The bleed, fire and stagger combo was pretty effective against her.
- Anonymous
Weirdly fitting that the Starscourge greatswords I found were the most effective.
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I beat her at rune level 1 and still dont have a clue on how to dodge waterfowl. Just used the deaths poker and spammed the ghostflame ignition. Her 2nd phase transition it will take out half her health and if you fast you can set off 3 flame attacks before she gets up.
- Anonymous
I beat her rune level 1 and still don't know how to dodge waterfowl.
- Anonymous
God that Waterfowl dance feel's like such BS when she hop's between you and a friend on opposite end's of her arena lmao Slowly, Slowly learning the points in which to dodge in it but starting to feel like the Man from Resident Evil (2002) in the Laser Defense room trying his best to dodge and survive the beam's.
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If you wanna bully her :
- Pick a skill that knocks her down.
- Pick a good shield.
- Wait for her to do a move she can be staggered out of, or the end of a move with hyperarmor ( don't bother rolling, just walk backwards or to the side with the shield up UNLESS she does a grab or thrust attack )
- Wait for her to get back up and wait for her next move. If she does waterfowl, either block the whole thing or block the 1st flurry and dodge the other two/
- Repeat until victory.
With each knockdown you have time to reposition, heal, buff etc, making the fight manageable.
- Anonymous
I struggled a lot on my first playthrough with Malenia (50+ attempts), despite having a very powerful powerstanced spears build, mostly due to my inability to dodge waterfowl. Recently though, as I was planning to do another playthrough in prep for the DLC, i also watched some no-hit runners do the fight, among other things, and took note of how much distance they keep from the boss (which seems to affect her aggressiveness a LOT) as well as how to properly dodge waterfowl from touching distance.
It took me 3 attempts to beat her with cragblade star fists, after having successfully taken no hits from 3 waterfowls and getting clipped twice overall on the winning attempt.
Very fun (and fair) fight, but admittedly unintuitive to learn compared to the rest of the game.
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Like her for making the Casuals seethe and mald, she made them f right off the game and out the souls community, good girl
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"Heed my words, I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and I have never known defeat," Dumbledore said, calmly.
- Anonymous
The fun soulsborne dance (mastering the boss moves, get a consistent and guarantee counter widow if you succesfuly doge to punish them back) is completely lost with this boss. becease of these things.
-Her inconsistent hyper armor on attacks. This b*** is able to be staggered, yet she can cancel out of stager to punish the player using an hyper armored regular attack for the players attempt to hit her. Making it a trading game instead of the dance that lady maria, gerhman, and sister friede (humanoid bosses in previous soulsborne games) actually consistency followed the rules off, making you able to even stunlock them to death if mechanicly masterd/understood as a optional choice to use consistently against them if chosen. (You know if you wanted to kill them like that. Not that you had to do so. But it brought variety in how to approach it, to make it as fun as you can make it for yourself.) Malenia's kick, is one of those speciale attacks she uses that have hyper armor to counter the player for being to aggressive to her. Which is a great example attack for her to use if it was a bit more delayed like maria's 2 handed swing. Making it a hit you could avoid if you attacked her too mutch but it allows the player to finish there last attack animation to doge after it ends like maria's attack. (It is a punish for over aggression, and allowes attacks to finsh without being punshed if you accidentally attacked her when she was doing so) And if that where the only problam with Malenia's hyper armor then it wouldn't be a problem at all. But she has multiple attacks that have hyper armor, (most comon is her combo extension that makes her leap in the air while performing an attack and when landing performs her 2nd attack) and most of the time if you wanna hit her and it isn't a kick, she uses an regular attack that has hyper armor, it is gonna hit you if you try't to counter her after she was done with an attack/combo, or uses a hyper armor combo extension randomly in one of her attacks to trade hits with you. Which isn't really all that fun to overcome.
-waterflow dance and scarlet clone. Yes it can be negated with frost or bleed (even though you can't relie to mutch on them Becease she gets with each proc more resistance against it.) And yes you can circle her water flow when she does it up close to the player to doge it with great timed doges and positioning. But the fact that this boss can do it after she is what 75% health randomly is 1 of 2 bs reasons it is a problem. 2nd reason is that she also uses it some times in response to a punch to player gives her, and the problem with that is if it is an ash of war, or any other weapon with slow recovery, you are guaranteed hit by atleast the 1 combo of her 3 combo water flow dance. Which is bs. If her water flow dance and clone attack where attacks that was consistent in when she uses it (example after a specific attack she would always follow up with waterflow dance or the cloness) you can prepare for it. But as it is it makes it hard but not fun to get consistent fights with her, or if she is gonna even do it or not if you tried doing somthing to her when she is vulnerable for a punish.
The rest of malenia is great but these things just ruin the fight for me. And i love mastering bosses to have that dance with them again as i had in the previous soulsborne games, that made me fall in love with these games, getting good at the hard but fair bosses learing there mechanic and mastering it to the point of making it the most fun dance it could be. (Example look at sir alonne from ds2 trying to no hit him but being creative in how and when you attack with what when he is done with an attack. Is basically the idea) and That i was always for. And this coming from a vetran who killed Malenia multiple times but never consistently becease of my issues in the fight.
But hey that just my opinion of what i dislike about her.
And it is fine if you wanna dislike my comment, for not agreeing with it. After all i am intrested what you all think of malenia.
- Anonymous
With a fully upgraded brass shield, you can block her waterfowl in its entirety w/ stamina regen tear. But if you get caught inside the waterfowl the hits can't be blocked and you'll still die.
For noobs like me this is probably the easiest way to deal with her. She still has a lot of other bullshit moves though.
- Anonymous
you have never known defeat? I have never know your feet. STEP ON ME.
- Anonymous
Not a fun battle, most of her moveset is not too hard to deal with but if she chooses to do the Waterfowl Dance it´s roll for luck and if you don´t know how to dodge it then it´s good night and try again
- Anonymous
I walked through the door with a black bow, and got thrown back out of it as a human shish kabob. She’s wife material if you ask me.
Alright so, Malenia eh? Im not gonna have an opinion until I beat her on RL1,(my record was 3/4 of the fight) and as my controller broke instead of giving an advice of the whole full fight, im gonna instead give advice to deal against Top 3 Calmest Souls attacks: Waterflow Dance.
So, I seen a lot that the best way is breaking her AI on close for making her to miss? True is, I never got this trick and much less consistently, so instead , im gonna give you guys a far better advice.
Lets watch the average case; you are getting closer to her and she jumps, what you want to do is run away of her as soon as you can, and on the first barrage, when she is very close to you, jump. I was surprised that this works! But if you pulled it out well, you had completely ran away of the first barrage. The second barrage is straightfoward and only requires timing, just roll towards her , very easy too pull it off with enough practise.
The third one got me more times than I wanted to admit haha. Well, normally if you are gonna rely on timing you might be surprised that the timing on the third barrage can make you roll where Malenia is attacking (oof), until I realized this was an lock-on problem, as the third barrage she goes behind you. Simple, you desactivate the lock on short after the second barrage, short enough for the camera to point her. If you desactivate it, its the exact same as the second barrage.
Congrats, you just completely avoided WD on average case!
But what about worst case? She jump in the middle of a R2 attack of yours. Oof. Well, in my case, on a RL1 its a 95% guaranted loss. If you have more health you can time you roll and afford a couple of hits, you are gonna loose health, yet you are very likely to survive (Specially with the defensive options, if damage its an issue for you, I recommend to check it out stuff, with talismans and such, you can even have , no armor included, about 35% damage reductions with the help of defensive tear and dragonshield talisman! Very good for the people who wants more wiggle room for hits, right?)
Back to the worst case, what i do is to assure an attack and only R2 on long windows, always keeping my distance, better safe than sorry eh?
And as an extra advice , you know the multiple shashes she does after an spark comes out of her weapon, right? Well, did you know that you can know if she is gonna have follow ups or not depending of the speed of her final shlash?Indeed, in case she takes longer, no follow up should worry you about!. Pretty convenient, right?
Well, thats all, I know this fight its very controversial, and although I see the attractive of a difficult fight, I can perfectly understand the reason for controversy. Nevertheless, as one genious said, hesitation is defeat; dont let a bs attack to break you, we guys are much better than her.
Good hunting.
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