As someone who spent hours playing Elden Ring, the boss that gave me the hardest time surely is Malenia, Blade of Miquella. At first, it was quite tiresome to counter her moves as she was quite fast and agile.
But, with a bit of analyzing and strategy planning, Maleina is just another fortress to be taken down. So, let me show you exactly how I managed to counter her moves and apply an enormous amount of damage in a short time.
Defeating Malenia in Elden Ring: Dodging Her Attacks
After countless attacks that ended up wounding or killing me, I learned that Malenia has a certain set of moves and attacks to be aware of. She is fast, agile, and quite hard to deal with.
On top of that, she heals with every attack, so learning how to dodge her is of the essence here. Also, don’t think of summoning anyone to aid you in this fight since you’ll only create more ‘’healing targets’’ for her.
Since fighting against Malenia is done in two phases, I’ll divide and describe her attacks accordingly.
Malenia Attacks in Phase One
Most of her attacks come down to speed, so be prepared to jump, move backward, left, right, and do whatever it takes to avoid her. Here’s the whole set for Phase One:
- Jumping Lunge – This is a unique attack only Malenia is able to execute. She jumps on top of you and starts unleashing a round of heavy-damage attacks. Don’t even think about standing your ground, instead, simply run backward and hope she’s out of range.
- Charge Attack – As the name suggests, this attack enables Malenia to surge into you and deal an AoE attack dealing a solid portion of the damage. Move backward or jump left.
- Combo with the Uppercut – Malenia will perform an upward slash with a slam. And, since she’s fast, you have to anticipate this movement and jump away from her in any direction.
- Waterfowl Dance – This one is her signature move. She will jump in the air and stay there for a second. Once you see that, just run away as she will unleash a series of attacks toward you. Yes, you can block it with a shield, but you’ll end up in a very difficult position after the attack.
- Impaling Grab – She will run toward you in order to grab your body and throw it up in the air while her sword impales you on your way to the ground. It’s a one-hit one-kill move, so make sure to jump in front of her at the very last second.
- Simple Kick – This move is actually a prep for some other attack. She will try to surprise you with the kick in order to break your stance. After that, you’ll find yourself in a very nasty combo and your HP will most definitely suffer. Don’t let her kick you by jumping left or right.
Malenia Attacks in Phase Two
This is where the fun starts. If you thought that Phase One was hard, just wait until you see her transform into the Goddess of Rot in Phase Two.
- Scarlet Aeonia – She will rise above your screen and lock your position to perform this attack. After a second or two, you’ll see her rapidly charging while dealing damage. It doesn’t end there as she will perform an explosion after she storms you onto the ground. In order to avoid this, don’t look at her and just run in a straight line.
- Scarlet Rot-Infused Attacks – This is her new passive ability which further enhances her attacks. If you get hit by any attack from Phase One, the Scarlet Rot buff will inflict 0.33% of her MAX HP into damage and additional 26 damage per second for 300 seconds. You can’t dispel or dodge this as it’s already connected to her attacks.
- Phantom Barrage – Again, she will rise into the air and send her illusions or phantoms to attack you. Don’t even think of running towards her as you’ll end up dead. To avoid this, follow this pattern – Dodge, dodge, jump left, jump right, and again jump right.
Popular Strategies for Defeating Malenia in Elden Ring
Some would say that going against Malenia without any kind of potions or support-like items is possible, but I would strongly disagree. For me, it was mind-blowing how the effect of Bloodhound’s Step Ash of War eased the dodging of her attacks. So, stack up, and let’s see what you’ll need to do to beat her.
Stay One Step Ahead
As you become more familiar with Malenia’s moves and animations, you’ll be better prepared for this challenging Elden Ring boss battle.
The goal to kill Malenia is to always know what’s coming next. For beginners, this is super hard, but if you fight against her a couple of times, you’ll eventually learn her moves and animation.
For example, if she moves her hand in front of her, you know that Impale Grab is coming, and therefore, you should act on it. Also, if you see her pointing her sword at you, be aware of the Simple Kick.
The bottom line is to try and play against her a couple of times until you learn exactly what’s coming. Also, it helped me a lot to count seconds for each animation and learn exactly what was going to happen and when.
Punish Her Attacks
To punish Malenia’s attacks, you must be quick, on point, and definitely clever. Every time she performs one of her attacks, you’ll be given an opportunity to attack her after she’s finished.
Basically, there will be a one or two-second window opening for you to quickly attack her or heal up with some Starlight Shards.
Consider Using The Freeze Pot
By throwing the Freeze Pot at her, you will be able to stop her attack move in the middle of her animation. However, I find this strategy quite hard to execute as it requires quick reflexes.
I personally wasn’t able to stop her attacks at the first couple of tries, but after I learned the timing, it was easy. The most important part here is that Malenia will give you a one-second opening to attack her after she is hit with the Freeze Pot.
The Freeze Pot can be an effective tool in overcoming this difficult Elden Ring boss fight if used correctly.
Bait Her with Frost Stomp
By using the Frost Stomp ability, you can lure Malenia into performing either a Charge or Simple Kick, allowing you to gain control of the fight and easily counter her moves. In my own experience, I was successful in baiting her to perform the Charge attack and then counterattacking her every time.
Also, it helped a lot to use the Exalted Flesh to boost my damage by 20%.
Tips and Tricks to Consider
I’ll leave you with a couple of times you can use to fully obtain control over the fight:
- To avoid her combo moves, you need to roll forward and right, and then immediately backward.
- To avoid flurry attacks like the Waterfowl Dance and the Jumping Lunge, sprint backward as soon as you see her going in the air.
- Either block Phantom Spirit’s attack or learn how to dodge it. If you decide to block it, know that she will heal after the attack.
- Punish her right after the animation of the Scarlet Aeonia. Wait until the animation is over and run toward her and attack.
- If you’re down on HP, always heal instead of attacking, even if you have the chance to inflict a lot of damage.
- Don’t be afraid to confront her when she’s in Phase One.
If you enjoyed this guide and want to further enhance your Elden Ring experience, be sure to check out our other helpful articles: discover the Top 10 Best Weapons in Elden Ring, learn the optimal Elden Ring Boss Order: Main Bosses You Should Kill First, and uncover the secrets of How To Get To Miquella’s Haligtree Secret Area In Elden Ring. Happy gaming!Master defeating Malenia in Elden Ring with our comprehensive guide! Learn her moves, phases, and strategies to conquer this challenging boss.
