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Of all the bosses inElden Ringnone is more feared thanMalenia, Blade of Miquella. She’s technically an optional boss, but that doesn’t mean she can be taken lightly – in fact, a pretty vocal part of theElden Ringcommunity believes she is the hardest boss of any FromSoftware game.
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Malenia is tough, to be sure, but she’s not impossible. When facing seemingly insurmountable bosses inElden Ringit’s always a good idea to come back later on once leveled up a bit more. Beating Malenia ultimately comes down to knowing her moveset and beingopen to changing your buildto counter Scarlet Rot.
Updated June 18, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: There isn’t any particular Malenia weakness Elden Ring players can take advantage of to make this tough fight easier, but there are a few things to keep in mind to avoid the worst of it. The first of course is to equip Scarlet Rot preventing items, but that’s only half the Malenia boss fight: the other half is knowing how to dodge her moveset, in particular the Waterfowl Dance. When it comes to the best way to beat Malenia, heavy weapon users have the easiest go of it, but they also have the hardest time avoiding her fast attacks. Before wondering how to beat Malenia, the Tarnished has to know how to avoid Malenia, and that means memorizing the Waterfowl Dance in and out.
Malenia’s Moveset (and How To Counter It)
Maleniais a fast boss, and even with the distractions of summons to create opportunities for attacks she can close distance on a new target incredibly quickly. It doesn’t help that her two signature moves, Waterfowl Dance and Scarlet Aeonia, are both reliable gap closers for the Goddess of Rot. She also heals with every hit on the player or summons, and some of her moves easily fill her Health bar in seconds.
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Two things that can be worth incorporating into a build to counter Malenia’s worst attacks are the Bloodhound Step Ash of War and the Flame Cleanse Me Incantation. Bloodhound Step is essentially a better dodge that cloaks the player and covers a larger distance. Flame Cleanse Me cures Scarlet Rot and only requires 12 Faith, though a Seal is required to cast it.
How To Avoid Waterfowl Dance
Waterfowl Dance is Malenia’s signature move that just about everyElden Ringplayer fears. For this attack, which will appear several times over the fight, Malenia rears in the air for a second, thendeals a series of extremely rapid attackswhile homing towards the player over an enormous, inescapable distance. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s then followed up with another series of attacks, and capped with a final aerial AoE slashing attack (and a damaging echo a second later)
Using a high Guard Boost shield to block attacks helps mitigate damage, and sprinting in the opposite direction can help to avoid the initial barrage. It is possible to completely avoid damage at close range with precise dodges, asexplained by Reddit user Accomplished_Pie.
Strategies for Beating Malenia
Easiest Strategy: Staggering, Greatshield Ashes, and Bloodhound’s Step
By far theeasiest way to cheeseMalenia is to take advantage of her staggerability in Phase One and use the Bloodhound’s Step Ash of War to avoid almost all of her attacks. Colossal weapons can interrupt just about every one of Malenia’s Phase One moves, and weapon abilities that knock down enemies like the Blasphemous Blade’s can keep her down the entire time, and Gravity spells can be used to great effect too.
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The Bloodhound’s Step Ash of War is ridiculously good against Malenia as it lets players phase through her rapid moveset with ease, including the dreaded Waterfowl Dance. It’s well worth respeccing to use this Ash of War when having a lot of trouble against this boss. On that note, if one decides to use Spirit Summons, the Greatshield Soldier Ashes are great as they can each distract Malenia and guard against the majority of her melee attacks, too.
Melee Strategy
The best melee strategy for beating Malenia is to use thebiggest, baddest Greatswordyou can find. Phase One Malenia is easily staggerable, and players will likely be able to get two or three Critical Hits on her with Jumping attacks in the mix. If Colossal weapons don’t sound like something worth trying, Malenia is susceptible to Bleed, so consider using a dual Katana build with lots of investment into Arcane to trigger this effect reliably.
To sound like a broken record, the usefulness of the Bloodhound’s Step Ash of War can’t be overstated. Being in melee range for this fight is a veritable death sentence, but this Ash of War makes it possible to stay in the fight to keep Malenia’s Posture down.
Ranged and Spellcaster Strategy
Ranged and Spellcasting players will find Malenia to be a bit easier as they naturally stay further away from melee range, though Malenia’s gap-closers can makefinding room to cast spells difficult. Choose spells that can be cast quickly and deal lots of posture damage, like Gravity sorceries, or spells that can be timed to launch when Malenia gets near, like Magic Glintblade or Carian Phalanx.
Ranged players should take advantage of Malenia’s susceptibility to being knocked down in Phase One by using aGreatbowor theHand Ballista. In Phase Two she can’t be knocked down anymore, but she is still vulnerable to Frostbite and Bleed. Equip arrows and throwable items that take advantage of this, like theColdbone Arrowor Bloodbone Arrow.
Rewards For Beating Malenia
For beating Malenia players unlock the standard rewards for major bosses as well as the ability toprogress in a game-changing questline. The Remembrance of the Rot Goddess is Malenia’s associated Remembrance and gives players either 50,000 Runes or a choice between her Katana, the Hand of Malenia, or the Scarlet Aeonia Incantation. She also drops Malenia’s Great Rune, which grants a retaliatory Health recovery effect.
After beating Malenia and reloading the area players will see a dying Aeonia in the middle of the boss room. If the Tarnished is in possession of the Unalloyed Gold Needle, it can be used at this Aeonia to create Miquella’s Needle. This item is a consumable that subdues the power of the Frenzied Flame, and is the only way to reverse the inheritance of the Three Fingers – which frees players from being locked into the Age of Chaos ending.
To get the Unalloyed Gold Needle, players must have progressed Millicent’s own questline to the point that she bequeaths it to the Tarnished. When she is found in the Haligtree, over a small jump beyond the Scarlet Rot pools, she asks the player to help her defeat her sisters. If they are successful, she will give this valuable item back and succumb to her own Rot.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S.
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ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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