Malenia, Blade of Miquella can be considered the hardest boss in all of gaming let alone Elden Ring. If you don’t know what you are doing, this fight will be over before you know it. Hopefully, our ultimate guide to Melania will help you better react to this boss. There will be some weaknesses that you can exploit. Strategies for both melee and magic builds.
Melania’s relentless attacks will make your life miserable in Elden Ring. The boss will give you short windows after some attacks to get some damage in. Hot her only once or twice and do not over-commit to your combos. Reaction is the key to this fight, not punishment. Don’t let her land her attacks or else she will heal up. Keep the fight in the middle of the arena, if you are cornered then you are as good as dead.
Let’s take a look at the best strategies and builds in this boss guide that can help us easily defeat Malenia, Blade of Miquella in Elden Ring.
Is Malenia, Blade of Miquella Optional?
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is an optional boss in Elden Ring. She is one of the Shardbearers found in the secret area of Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.
Strategies for Defeating Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Below are some strategies for defeating Malenia, Blade of Miquella boss in Elden Ring. The build you selected will determine the approach you should go for. Before we get into it here are some things you should consider when facing this boss:
- Talismans like Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman will lower her physical damage output.
- Having a fully upgraded shield will lower the stamina damage from her attacks. This will allow you to withstand her many hack-and-slash attacks.
- Stamina regeneration boosting items and talismans like Great Turtle Talisman are a godsend during this fight.
- If you see the boss strafing left or right, do not attack her. She is going to dodge your attacks and very likely deal damage to you.
- The boss heals from every hit she lands on you even if you are blocking so dodging is preferable. Do not be bothered by it though.
- DO NOT GET GREEDY! Stick to 1 to 2 attacks and if she gets staggered only then go for the third strike.
We will cover the basic melee/magic caster strategies here:
Melee Strategy
If she starts off the fight moving straight toward you, go in and attack her. Only attack twice because she’s going to dodge after the second one and then do some sweeping strikes. You can roll away from those. She has a kick attack which she pulls out instantly. Roll into it so that you can land a strike.
When she does her thrust-stab attack, roll backward. This way you land right in front of her and then you can lay some damage into her.
Whenever the boss glide-strafe to the side you want to move in the opposite direction to keep everything square. You never want to get yourself into a corner. While hitting her, if she gets staggered a bit only then go for a second hit, and if that staggers her too then follow it up with a third attack.
When you see the boss disconnecting the sword from her wrist and holding it in her hand, there are two variations of this move. One with sparks and the other without. For the sparks attack, you need to roll up and to the right to avoid it and then roll backward to avoid the next flurry.
If the boss does this with no sparks with it, the second attack of the string will be delayed and has an extremely long recovery time that you can very easily punish.
The dreaded Waterfowl Dance, where she becomes a blender, has to be reacted just right otherwise it will be the end of you.
Block the first flurry of attacks then roll right twice and then walk into her when she’s above you and then move back when she lands with her finishing strikes. On a side note, if you are really good at timing your dodges, you can completely roll through this attack.
Sometimes the boss lets out a few sparks and then does a sweeping strike into a jump and downward strike. Roll twice into her to avoid this attack and you will have a window to deal damage.
Keep exploiting these openings and please do not over-extend your attacks. Soon Melania will go down and the second phase will begin. She will now sprout butterfly wings, her health will be restored, and her attacks will get even more crazier. She also deals Scarlet Rot build-up during this phase so keep some Preserving Boluses on you just in case.
As soon as the second phase starts, start running forward and onto the right or left and roll away as soon as she is about to land. When she lands, she will bloom into a giant Scarlet Aeonia flower. Do not approach her until the flower disappears. Take this time to recover your HP/FP, reapply buffs, use a Great Rune or if you have a ranged option then lob some attacks at her. As soon as the flower vanishes, run in and deal some damage.
Many of her attacks will stay relatively the same in this phase so react to them accordingly. Even the Waterfowl Dance stays the same so do what we have told you before when you see it coming.
She flies and then dives into you and then does an unsparked flurry. Bring up your shield during this attack or if you can dodge the first dive attack you can ignore the flurry with enough distance. Some of her regular flight attacks can be canceled if you strike her as she levitates.
The boss has an evident stagger animation in phase two so only attack her twice if she flinches twice. If not or if you are behind her and you can’t see her reaction then only hit her once. She sometimes recovers really fast and her follow-up might catch you off guard.
She also flies up and performs a swipe attack followed by a thrust attack. It is easy to roll into and avoid, giving you time to attack her. Whenever the boss does a straight vertical flight, she’s going to stab the ground. When that happens there’s going to be an explosion of rot after a delay so you want to roll behind the boss asap. This way you can punish her while she is stuck in the explosion animation.
In the attack where she hovers in the air and sends out multiple phantoms to attack, you need to do the following; roll backward twice with a bit of delay, two quick forward rolls, and then two quick rolls to the left. Take your time to learn this pattern and the right delays between each roll and you will come out scratch less.
She has a grab attack which you can see coming when she winds up her empty hand. Treat this as a stabbing attack and roll backward. You will land next to her, giving you the opening to land a strike or two.
She will perform the Scarlet Aeonia attack at around 50% health. Do the same thing as before but if you are further away from her, roll backward when she is about to land and start to run to the opposite side to get out of the explosion radius. Start attacking her after the flower fades.
A lot of her moves in phase two have a similar wind up so you will have to learn these patterns. This will be a constant battle between her healing and you whittling down her health. Take your time and we can’t stress this enough, do not get overzealous with your attacks. Take it slow and identify her moveset.
Magic/Faith Strategy
Ranged Magic users should learn her patterns too. Staying far away from her will force her to use her distance-covering moves which can be quite devastating. Read the previous section to understand the right reactions for her combos. Regular projectile spells are pretty much useless as she likes to dodge away a lot.
Also, as a ranged character you would want to employ the help of a Spirit Summon to take some attention off you while you pummel her with spells. Tanky summon won’t work for this boss as they can die easily and end up healing her. Fast-moving and ranged summons will work better.
The best summons for this fight are:
- Redmane Knight Ogha
- Black Knife Tiche (best summon)
- Latenna works great too for sniping
Sorceries for INT builds are:
- Most Night Sorceries especially Night Comet are invisible, she won’t dodge away from them.
- Comet Azur. The only viable place to use this spell is after she performs the Scarlet Aeonia and is stuck in recovery.
- Ranni’s Dark Moon will lower her magic damage resistance for your other spells and also inflicts frostbite.
- Stars of Ruin for their good tracking capabilities.
Incantations for FAI builds are:
- Swarm of Flies. These can track the boss while she is distracted and will lead to bleed procs.
- Borealis’s Mist to inflict frostbite. This is a great attack for the Scarlet Aeonia opening.
- Giantsflame Take Thee. To exploit her fire weakness and she can get knocked down by the spell.
Summons will let you land more of the better spells like Comet and Glintstone Icecrag.
What is Malenia, Blade of Miquella Weak To?
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is weak to the following damage types:
- Fire
- Lightning
- Magic
- Frostbite
- Hemorrhage
- Standard Physical Damage
- Slash Damage
- Strike Damage
- Pierce Damage
What is Malenia, Blade of Miquella Strong Against?
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is strong or resistant to the following damage types:
- Strong
- Holy
- Poison
- Scarlet Rot
- Sleep
- Immune
- Madness
Can You Parry Malenia, Blade of Miquella?
Malenia, Blade of Miquella can be parried. However, it is extremely hard to parry her moves and she needs to be parried thrice before she can be riposted. Additionally, she can be poise-broken which opens her up for a critical strike.
Can You Cheese Malenia, Blade of Miquella?
All the cheese for Melania has been patched. However, there are certain builds and steps that you can perform to end the fight much quicker. You might have to respec for these methods and/or get the necessary items needed for the build. We will post a video of a working “cheese” below from Tyrannicon.
Get ready to see the “YOU DIED” screen a lot when facing Melania, Blade of Miquella. This boss is all about patience and learning moves. You need to hone your skills before you face her. There is no brute way of finishing this fight. It will take everything you got and more! Good luck Tarnished!