In Elden Ring, there is no challenge more overwhelming than Malenia, Blade of Miquella. She’s powerful, fast, and capable of stealing HP from you. You’ll need everything in your arsenal to beat the demigod who has apparently never known defeat.
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Where To Find Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Malenia can be found at the end of Elphael, Brace of Haligtree. This area is entirely optional. You don’t necessarily have to get here to beat Elden Ring. That means you don’t necessarily have to beat Malenia in order to beat the game.
If you’re a completionist or want to get the game’s platinum trophy, however, Malenia is one of the challenges you’ll need to overcome.
What You Need To Know About Malenia
Malenia is undeniably the hardest boss in Elden Ring. If you play Elden Ring and haven’t gotten to her yet, there’s a huge chance you’ve already heard of this boss. You may already be dreading it.
Malenia is very difficult to beat for multiple reasons. One, her attacks can be very fast. She has even one attack known as the “Waterfowl Dance” that is notorious for being close to impossible to dodge away from.
Second, like almost every end-game boss in Elden Ring, she deals a huge amount of damage. A lot of her attacks can easily one-shot you if your Vigor isn’t high enough.
Third, her health replenishes whenever she lands a hit on you. She recovers about 300 to 400 HP per hit. That may not sound like a lot, but a lot of Malenia’s attacks are stringed together and she’s a very aggressive boss. This means she can easily stack her health back up after hitting you multiple times.
Fourth, she has two phases, and she gains attacks that inflict Scarlet Rot during the second one.
These should already give you an idea of how terrible of an adversary Malenia is.
You can pretty much expect to fight this boss multiple times before you can beat her. Get used and become familiar with her attacks, be patient, take advantage of the game’s mechanics, and you’ll eventually beat the unbeatable.
Malenia’s Attacks & How To Dodge Them
As stated above, Malenia has two phases. All of the attacks she uses in the first phase will persist in the second. She might even add an attack or two, extending their combo. She gains a couple of new attacks that inflict Scarlet Rot during the second one.
These are her attacks she’ll do during the fight.
Waterfowl Dance
Let’s start with Malenia’s most infamous attack: the Waterfowl Dance.
She begins this attack by leaping in the air. After levitating there for a few seconds while drawing her katana back, she’ll then proceed to dive towards you, slashing at you at inhuman speed, covering a circular area of effect. She does this two more times.
After the third series of slashes, one more AOE slash happens around her.
Get hit by one of her slashes throughout all this and there’s a high chance your HP will go from full to zero.
This attack is insanely difficult to dodge. However, you have a total of four ways to avoid it.
How To Dodge The Waterfowl Dance
As soon as Malenia leaps into the air, run as far away from her as possible. If you’re far enough, you’ll be able to outrun her first two sets of slashes. Then, face her and dodge towards her as she does the third set. Dodge away once more to avoid the final hit.
If you’ve run away from her but not far enough to outrun two slashes, you can simply outrun the first, dodge into her second slashes, and do the same for the third and final ones.
How To Dodge The Waterfowl Dance Up Close
If you happen to be close to Malenia as she’s about to perform the attack, stop locking onto her and stay directly beneath her.
As soon as she dives to perform her slashes, dodge towards her back. Quickly turn around and lock-in on her then dodge towards her as she does the second set of slashes. Dodge towards her once more as she does her third set and dodge away one last time to avoid the final flurry.
This one is very difficult to do and requires perfect precision. Only consider this if you absolutely have no time to run away from her before she does the Waterfowl Dance, which is a much safer option.
How To Stop The Waterfowl Dance
There is one item in the game that completely stops Malenia’s Waterfowl Dance, and that’s the Freezing Pot.
If you can manage to throw a Freezing Pot at her while she’s still in the air before she does the first slash, the Waterfowl Dance will get canceled.
You can craft this item by getting the Glintstone Craftsman’s Cookbook [6]. You can get this cookbook by starting from Caria Manor’s main gate and immediately heading right. You’ll arrive at a small room that holds this.
Just remember that if Malenia is frostbitten, the Freezing Pot will not have an effect on her. To remedy this, throw a Fire Pot at her to remove the frostbite buff.
Dodge The Waterfowl Dance With Bloodhound Step
This is the easiest and the best way to dodge Malenia’s Waterfowl Dance. The Bloodhound Step Ash of War basically allows you to “teleport” a short distance, giving you a longer and faster dodge.
You can get this Ash of War by defeating the Night Cavalry on the bridge north of Lenne’s Rise in Dragonbarrow, Caelid. This enemy only appears here during nighttime.
Replace the dodges listed above with Bloodhound Step and you can basically be assured of safety from Malenia’s Waterfowl Dance.
Horizontal Slashes
She begins this attack by “snapping” her prosthetic arm, which is indicated by a sharp ring. She then proceeds to dash towards you while quickly swinging her katana horizontally thrice. The combo then ends this with one more slash.
You can avoid getting damaged by this by dodging to her side. Never dodge backwards as you can still get caught by the attack afterwards.
As for the follow-up slash, as long as you’ve dodged to her side and you’re far enough behind her, it won’t hit you anymore. If you feel you’re closer to her, dodge towards her one more time.
There are instances where the follow-up slash is delayed, so be sure to watch out for that when dodging.
There are also a few instances where Malenia will follow the combo with two more attacks. She’ll do one upward slash, and end with a downward slam.
Wait for a second after the follow-up slash to see whether she’ll do the next attacks. If not, attack her once or twice. If she does, dodge inwards for both attacks then attack her after.
Spinning Slash
Malenia will also occasionally do a spinning slash. She’ll pull her sword back before swinging it as she spins around. You can easily avoid getting hit by this by dodging towards her.
There are times when she follows this up with one or two more slashes. Be sure you can react right away by holding off hitting her until she’s already standing still.
Sometimes, she also moves backward as she spins. As long as you dodge into her, you’ll be close enough to her to land an attack as she settles.
Two-Slash/Four-Slash Combo
This is a simple two-hit slash that you can avoid by dodging away if you’re at a fair distance, and dodging to her side where the initial attack comes from.
There are also times when she follows it up with two more attacks, creating a four-slash combo. After the first two, she’ll follow it up with an upward spinning slash and end with a downward slam. If she does this, dodge into her during both attacks.
Land a hit of your own or two after she finishes the combo.
Dash Slash
Malenia will sometimes dash to her side or towards you and perform one slash at the end of it. She’ll often follow this with another combo, so be mindful of that too.
Once again, dodge towards the direction the attack comes from. Attack her only when she finishes the combo.
Kick
Malenia will perform a spinning kick attack which she sometimes follows up with another combo.
What you can do here is to dodge towards her and wait to dodge the other attacks that follow. Attack only when she’s done.
Upward Slash + Downward Slash
Malenia’s prosthetic arm will spark as she brings her katana back and up. She’ll then perform an upward slash and bring it down as she reaches the apex of her height.
Dodge to her right as she slashes upwards and dodge again into her as she brings it down. Hit her once or twice after.
Forward Lunge
Malenia begins this attack by jumping slightly, bringing her katana to her side as her prosthetic arm sparks, then dashing towards you with her katana pointing forward. She has a tendency to do this while you’re healing at a distance from her.
You can easily avoid this attack by dodging to either side.
Grab Attack
You’ll know Malenia is about to do this when she raises and brings her off-hand to her side before dashing at you. Similar to the lunge attack, you can avoid this by dodging to the side.
This attack is very dangerous and she can one-shot you with it. Avoid it at all costs.
Scarlet Aeonia
This is the first attack Malenia does when the second phase of the fight begins.
Keep locking in on her and wait for her to drop. The time window here is very slim, but you can deduce she’s about to drop when she raises her katana over her head.
Her scarlet bloom will explode as soon as she drops. Dodge away as she drops, then run away from her to avoid the explosion. Wait for the scarlet flowers to fade before running towards her to land an attack.
Scarlet Explosion
Malenia only does this attack during the second phase. This is when Malenia jumps into the air and slams her katana to the ground. This is then followed by a Scarlet Explosion a few moments after.
When dodging her slam, be sure to dodge to Malenia’s side to avoid the explosion.
Aerial Slash + Forward Lunge
Malenia only does this attack during the second phase.
She’ll hover in the air, dive towards you while slashing her katana, then proceed to lunge at you while pointing the weapon forward.
This attack can be easily dodged as long as you can time it properly. Dodge towards Malenia’s direction as she slashes at you, then dodge to the side as she lunges.
Be mindful, though. She has a tendency to immediately follow this with a Scarlet Explosion attack.
Scarlet Spirits
Malenia only does this attack during the second phase. This is when Malenia hovers in the air as scarlet whirls around her and summons four spirit versions of herself which will then plunge towards you.
The best way to avoid this attack is to run as far away from Malenia as you can. As you’re running away from her, count the spirits as they drop. After the fourth spirit lunges at you, which won’t reach you as long as you’re far away, dodge to the side immediately. The first spirit who’ll stay in place will lunge at you then. This has a high chance of still reaching you.
After that, dodge to the side once more as Malenia will end this attack by plunging at you herself. Attack her once the attack is completely done.
Other Tips To Beat Malenia
Throughout the duration of the fight, Malenia has a tendency to randomly swipe her katana at you. Sometimes she may seem like she’ll do a whole combo, but stop after the first swing. She’ll also string multiple combos together.
Whenever her attacks become too unpredictable for you to read, just dodge towards the direction where the attack comes from.
Malenia is weak to hemorrhage and frostbite. Use bleed or frost weapons against her to deal more damage. On the other hand, don’t use the scarlet rot and poison buffs on her as she’s highly resistant to them.
Only heal after dodging an attack from her. She’s prone to immediately target you when you heal and she’s simply standing still or pacing around.
If the fight proves too difficult for you alone, don’t forget that you can summon Spirit Ashes for this fight. Redmane Knight Ogha, Mimic Tear, and Black Knife Tiche are very effective against her.
One last thing, try to bombard her with jump attacks as often as you can. This has a chance of eventually staggering her, allowing you to deal a critical hit to her.
If you’re skilled enough, a lot of her attacks are also can also be parried, but they’re tricky to pinpoint. She staggers after the third consecutive parry. Unless you want to take the time to learn this, though, you’re better off just dodging her attacks.
What Do You Get For Beating Malenia?
Given that Malenia is an optional boss, you absolutely have no reason to seek her out and defeat her if you just want to beat the game. That is, of course, you’re a completionist, since defeating her nets you an achievement or trophy.
You get her Remembrance and Great Rune for beating her. You also earn 480,000 Runes on the first playthrough, which is an astounding amount.
If you go to Enia with Malenia’s Remembrance, you can get one of two things.
You can get the Hand of Malenia, the weapon she uses. This comes with the Waterfowl Dance Ash of War, the same pesky move she uses during the fight. If you want other players during PvP or other enemies to feel Malenia’s wrath, this is the way to go.
You can also get the Scarlet Aeonia Incantation, the same attack she does at the beginning of her second phase.
Alternatively, you can get both if you duplicate her Remembrance at a Walking Mausoleum.
