Malenia, Blade of Miquella is the daughter of Queen Marika and Radagon, the Undead, a demigod and optional boss in the game Elden Ring.

Description

Queen of rot, twin sister of Mikella, great warrior and master swordswoman whose blade knew no defeat. At the time of the rift, she confronted Radan, claiming her right to the throne. However, neither she nor the scourge of the stars could win the duel. The battle of the demigods exhausted them and the world around them, throwing the continent into chaos. Little is known of her whereabouts after the duel, but legend has it that she returned to her homelands to regain her strength and begin the search for her missing brother.

Location

Malenia can be found slumbering at the roots of the Holy Tree of Michelle, having descended to the lowest location and bypassing the city of Elfael. Fighting with her will begin immediately after the short cutscene.

Combat phases

First phase

In the first phase Malenia competes with you in swordsmanship. In her patience she is deadly like a snake, slowly coming up to you to start the fight. You’ll have plenty of time to think about tactics. She’ll take her time, certain that it’s only a matter of time before you’re dead. In fact, it is.

  • Passive skill: Vampirism – each hit of the boss on you restores some of his health, even if you are covered by the shield.
  • Water dance – Malenia soars into the air and after a moment begins a swift combo of swirling attacks towards the player, which with a very high probability become lethal. Evasive Tactics:
  • As soon as you see the attack, turn around and run away from the boss, the attack consists of three swoops, the first two swoops are perfectly safe if you break the distance, the last swoop will catch up in almost any situation, so after the second Malenya swoop you should remove the target grip and run towards the boss, Malenya will fly past and not damage you.
  • If you are at close range, then roll three times at a certain angle towards her and then away from her. You can also try to dodge the boss by running without grabbing the target around it, but it’s very difficult and this method is worth using only at your own risk.
  • Charging – Malenia fastens her blade to her wrist, after which she very quickly strikes 5-6 blows and one final one at the end.
  • Hightime – Malenia mounts the blade to her wrist, then makes a bottom-up flying blow, followed by a crushing downward blow.
  • Air Lunge – Malenia rises into the air and makes a quick lunge in your direction (the attack differs from the Water Dance in that Malenia points her blade exactly at you, not in the other direction).
  • Grab – Malenia puts her free hand forward and grabs the character. The attack is guaranteed to kill any character with a Vitality rating below 50.
  • Rebound – Malenia blocks your attack and steps back.
  • All other attacks are 1 to 4 sword strikes, each of which can be interrupted with one exception. If Malenia darts sideways, turns around and makes a U-turn attack, it’s best not to try to attack her at this point. A U-turn attack gives the boss a huge amount of hyper armor and is often combined with any other attack.

Phase Two

In the second phase, enraged by her near defeat, Malenia unleashes her anger outward, taking on the true form of the goddess of rot.

  • Additional passive ability – from now on, some of Malenya’s attacks fill up the Red Rotten Scale.
  • Scarlet Aeonia – Malenia soars high, then lands in the form of a flower that blossoms after a while, dealing massive damage and spreading Red Rot. The flower’s blooming period lasts 10 seconds, it’s recommended to go in at 6-7 seconds, that way you won’t get the rot and do a lot of damage to the boss. If you are wearing light armor with low protection against scarlet rot, then do not go near the flower at all.
  • Summoning Clones – Malenia takes off and summons 4 clones, which attack once and disappear, after which Malenia herself dives into the character, dealing huge damage. Note that all 4 copies will be the same every time, as will the dive. Hiding under the boss won’t work – a pillar will form, dealing damage and applying Red Rot.
  • Some attacks also have an extra move where Malenia stabs her blade into the ground, and after a while the place explodes.

Tactics

TACTIC #1. Suppression by force.

Phase 1

Despite the seeming difficulty of this boss, Malenya can be humiliated in a matter of minutes.

The boss is vulnerable to bleeding and heavy hits, so it’s easy to kill with False Tear Ashes (+10) and heavy weapons like Sword of Maliket, Sword of Radan, Sword of Ruin, Axe of Godfrey, Wheel of Giza or Jaws of the Fallen Star Beast. Phantom copies your heavy weapons, often using the skill, dealing boss stan and normal physical blows. Paired with an ally with proper luck, Malenia, pinned against a wall, dies in less than a minute, because the constant heavy hits, microstans, and massive damage leave her no time for attacks and superstrikes. The main thing is that the moment you and the phantom surround her, you need to discharge a series of blows and try to use jump kicks more often to provoke a stun. Also, don’t spare mana for weapon skills, they are extremely effective.

After the stun, keep repeating the attack without activating the critical hit, because while the boss is inactive you will deal MUCH more damage with the sum of your normal blows and phantom hits than with one critical attack. It should be noted that the boss is invulnerable to the friendly phantom during the critical attack, making the efficiency of this trick to zero.

Phase 2

In the second phase, to survive the unfolding of the rot flower, you have to run right under the boss. If you can’t do that, you can try a simpler method – two rolls at the right moment:

The first time at the moment Malenya lands in the center of the battlefield after the cut scene, can take away all health.
The second time at the moment of flower deployment a moment after landing (you can survive if you have a lot of health and retreat from the rot area in time).
You can’t run away from Malenya’s landing at the beginning of the fight, so you need to roll exactly on the run.

If you survived the flower, wait 6-7 seconds and then start attacking. Otherwise you risk filling the poison rot scale very quickly, which will be fatal for you if you don’t have the right consumable or spell. Once you’ve survived all of this, continue to act all-out press Malenya with heavy blows, but be a little more careful as the boss fight becomes more complicated with a couple of new attacks. Try to attack the boss only when she switches her attention to the phantom. Use amulets and enhanced flask for increased damage and stamina.

If you’re lucky, the boss will die quickly and without agony, without having time to use the bud re-deployment and other nasty attacks. Otherwise, follow the evasion tactic again.

TACTICS #2. Bloodlust.

The boss is very good at killing with a weapon that deals a passive “Bleed Builds” effect. Ideally, take a weapon with a fast attack and additionally harden it for bleeding (the best ash would be Seppuku) or take a weapon that will accumulate a lot of bleeding, the ideal option would be Mog’s Spear, another option could be Rivers of Blood, Eleanor’s Paired Blade. If at the same time there is a good ashes tank, the boss will die very quickly, you should choose between Kristoff, Oga and Lutel.

TACTICS #3. Dark Moon Rennie.

You will need:

Dark Moon Rennie spells, Quick Shard of Shiny Stones, Karian Cutter.
Karian Royal Scepter/Lusat Staff +10
Staff of Azur on his back (do not pump and use it, it replaces the Badge of Radagogon)
Hat of the Snow Witch
80 wisdom
Headless Lutel +10
Magical Cracked Tear, Secret Azure Tear

Phase 1

Enter the arena, immediately summon Lutel. You immediately start casting Dark Moon. It has a huge range, damage, blast radius and it additionally casts frostbite, to which Malenia is very vulnerable. So the tactic is simple: use the Moon until frostbite hangs on Malenia, as soon as it triggers, start using the Shard of Glittering Stones, and when the boss gets closer to the player – the Cutter. Sooner or later, Malenia does pay attention to you and uses the Water Dance. If everything goes smoothly, she either won’t have time for the first phase or will only be able to attack you once with the Water Dance.

Phase 2

Starts with a Scarlet Aeonius attack. You either catch the timings and roll back twice, or tank everything with your shield. While the petals are dropping you need to drink the flasks and drink the Miraculous Potion. After that, continue, as in the first phase, stay as far away from it as possible and cast spells. In the second phase, the main danger is the Clone Summoning attack and the red rot-enhanced version of the Water Dance. All other attacks are fairly predictable and don’t pose a threat. The ideal scenario is when Malenia didn’t make a move on you after petal drop. In that case you can finish her off in ±1-1.30 minutes.

TACTIC #4. Maximum DPS

You will need:

Two curved swords/two rapiers in combat stance. In the case of sabers the best option would be Gross Messers and Shamshires (The second option is possible only with NG+). In the case of rapiers you should choose between Pure Rotten Rapiers and Estocks.
Physical hardeners with two ashes: Ice Mist in the main hand and Golden Vow in the left hand. If you wish, you can replace Ice Mist with Flames of the Redheads to knock down the boss’s stance and deal huge amounts of damage. Two uses are enough to make the boss become a stunner.
Heaviest Armor: Veteran’s Set and Heavier.
Millicenta Prosthesis, Winged Sword Emblem, Shroud of Divine Skin, and Grace of the Erd Tree+2
Exquisite Meat, Spiny Cracked Tear, and Hard Opalescent Tear
Ashes of the False Tear, Kristoff, Oga, and Lutel.

Phase 1

Enter the arena, immediately summon Ashes, then use the miracle potion and meat. While Ashes distracts the boss you have a chance to do a lot of damage. Get close with a rush attack and land a successive series of strikes. If you chose Flames of the Redheads as your weapon ashes, don’t spare mana to use them. After knocking down the boss’s stance continue hitting with a series of blows, by no means make a critical attack, it will do very little damage. Try not to be greedy and after a few series of attacks you should break the distance with Malenia to avoid dangerous attacks, like the Water Dance.

Phase 2

Starts with a Scarlet Aeonia attack. After dodging the attack, wait 6-7 seconds and attack the defenseless boss. With luck, you’ll be able to take out half of his health at the very beginning of the fight. Otherwise, the tactics are the same as in the first phase. Don’t be greedy and attack when Malenya is distracted by Ashes or doesn’t use hyper armor attacks. With a little luck the fight may not last more than a minute.

Notes

  • The boss can be parried. Some single boss attacks can be paired, but you must parry the boss 3 times in a row to land a critical hit.
  • When summoning False Tear ashes using River of Blood katana and applying it consecutively after ashes you can make the boss bleed twice and take out about 1/3 hit points in a row. Boss can’t do anything with it since katana blows are fast and unbalance it (won’t work for some hyper armor blows), also with the same katana skill you can take out Waterdance cast three times in a row.
  • Also, the water dance is successfully knocked down by frostbite trigger.
  • The amount of boss hyper armor in some attacks is so huge that it is difficult to knock them down even with Huge Weapon or special war ashes.
  • Most vulnerable to the effects of frostbite, slightly less vulnerable to bleeding.
  • Weakly vulnerable to sleep effects.
  • Least vulnerable to the effects of poison and red rot.
  • Vulnerable to the effects of insanity.
  • Interesting Facts
  • Malenya’s limbs may not have been lost in combat, but were amputated due to dying off. Along with her twin brother, the demigod was sick at birth. The power of rot was eating away at Malenya’s body from the inside, eventually affecting large areas of skin.
  • Malenya’s ability to unleash the flower of rot may be a reference to Kitsune, a Japanese mythical creature representing a fox with nine tails capable of transforming into a woman.