This is a guide on how to beat Maliketh, The Black Blade (Beast Clergyman), a boss in Elden Ring. Read on to learn more about Maliketh, The Black Blade's strengths, weaknesses, attack patterns, and lore!

Maliketh, The Black Blade General Info

Stats and Rewards

Maliketh, The Black Blade
Weakness	Resistance	Immune
━	━	━
Affected By	━
Spirit Ashes Available?	Yes
Rune Rewards	220000 (NG)
Summonable NPCs	None
Location	・Crumbling Farum Azula, Crumbling Farum Azula ・Crumbling Farum Azula
Item Drops	・Remembrance of the Black Blade

Maliketh, The Black Blade Location

Where to Find Maliketh, The Black Blade

Map Location
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Recommended Level	Lv.110

Maliketh, the Black Blade can be found in the temple to the right of the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace, in the region of Crumbling Farum Azula. You are required to beat this boss to progress in the main story.

How to Beat Maliketh, The Black Blade

Tips for Beating Maliketh, The Black Blade
Use pillars in the area as cover from attacks and to safely heal
For Phase 2, try to immediately heal if you get hit by the greatsword since this will do immense damage-over-time
The Blasphemous Claw can be used to parry the attack by Maliketh when his greatsword glows yellow and he stabs the ground
Summon the Mimic Tear Ashes to tank and distract the boss while you freely hit him, another option would be Lhutel the Headless

Click a link above to take you to that section.

Ranged Strategy

Maliketh, The Black Blade Boss Tips
Use Comet Azur when Maliketh, the Black Blade is focused on your summons
Use poison spells to slowly whittle down Maliketh, the Black Blade's health

Use Comet Azur when Maliketh, the Black Blade is focused on your summons

Comet Azur is extremely powerful against Maliketh, as it drains his health much quicker than other spells. The trouble is finding the right moment to use it on him. Make sure you use your tankiest Spirit Ash and let them take aggro. You'll be able to freely spam Comet Azur and have an easier time defeating Maliketh.

Use poison spells to slowly whittle down Maliketh, the Black Blade's health

While this method may take longer, it's similar to using Comet Azur in that you should always use it while your summon takes aggro. Cast spells such as Night Maiden's Mist or Rotten Breath at Maliketh and watch as his health gets cut down.

You can use the pillars to have some cover and to reposition for a more advantageous spot for using these spells.

Melee Strategy

Maliketh, The Black Blade Boss Tips
Exploit Maliketh, the Black Blade's weakness to bleed

Exploit Maliketh, the Black Blade's weakness to bleed

Maliketh is susceptible to bleed so using a weapon that causes it or the Bloody Slash Ash of War will let you deal heavy damage once you stack bleed hits. If you don't have either of the two, you can coat your weapon in Blood Grease instead.

Maliketh, The Black Blade Attack Patterns

Beast Clergyman (Phase 1)

For Phase 1 of this boss fight, Maliketh, the Black Blade will appear as a Beast Clergyman. While he seemingly has a lot of moves at this phase, they can all be fairly telegraphed and avoided with practice.

It's important that you don't lose too much health or use too many flasks at this point since the second phase is much harder.

Melee Attacks

Melee Attack Variations
Backing Swipe: Beast Clergyman quickly swipes at you before leaping away. This is usually done at the end of a combo, you can block this attack.
Lunging Stab: Beast Clergyman does a short hop and lunges at you with his weapon. Dodge into the attack after he pulls his right arm back.
Ground Shock: Beast Clergyman slams his fist to the the ground then creates trails of aftershocks from the epicenter. There are small spaces in between each trail that you can stay in to avoid getting hit by them but they're hard to predict. The safer option would be to back away when he starts this move.
Sliding Slash: Beast Clergyman drags his dagger on the floor and swipes at you. This is similar to his other swiping attacks, you can dodge into it.
Four-Swipe Combo: Beast Clergyman does two quick swipes from side to side, then follows these up with two more delayed swipes. You can block the first two attacks, then it's up to you whether you want to be aggressive and dodge into the last two attacks, or dodge away entirely.
Falling Debris: Best Clergyman creates spots in the ground from which debris rises and drops back into. This is easily telegraphed to when craters start forming in the floor. Avoid these spots since you'll be hit when the debris rises and also when it drops.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged Attack Information
Stone Shards: Beast Clergyman throws a wave of shards at you. Dodge to the side as he throws these.
Debris Toss: Beast Clergyman pulls from the ground and tosses a piece of debris at you. Similar to the Ground Shards, dodge to the side to avoid this.

Maliketh, the Black Blade (Phase 2)

Once you bring the Beast Clergyman to around 60% health, he will reveal his true form as Maliketh, the Black Blade. In this phase, he will wield a greatsword that can deal damage-over-time if you're hit. Maliketh can also use the weapon to fire blasts of energy at you from a distance.

Greatsword Melee Attacks

Greatsword Melee Attack Information
Sweeping Combo: Maliketh, the Black Blade sweeps at you with his greatsword twice, then slams it to the ground. The dodge timing for the first two swipes is predictable, but the final slam has a bit of delay. Watch for when his left foot is about to hit the ground to know when to dodge.
Spinning Slashes: Maliketh, the Black Blade jumps and slams his greatsword to the ground, then spins in mid-air to create a huge trail of flames. He follows this up with one more slam that creates a whirlwind of slashes in an area. Dodge away from this attack when he slams his weapon down, then do another dodge to avoid the extended range of the weapon.

Greatsword Blast Attacks

Greatsword Blast Attack Information
Blast and Swipe Combo: Maliketh, the Black Blade shoots three fireblasts at you, then dashes past you to make a circular swipe. For the three fireblasts, dodge from side to side. To avoid the swipe, try to remove your lock-on after he does the third fireblast then dodge forward. If you don't remove your lock-on, your camera will follow him as he runs past you so you could end up dodging into the trail of the attack instead.
Blast and Slam Combo: Maliketh, the Black Blade shoots two fireblasts at you, then slams his sword to the ground and creates a small earthquake. It can be hard to predict if he'll be doing a slam or continuing with a Blast and Swipe combo instead. The tell for this attack will be if he raises his greatsword overhead instead of preparing for another blast.
Pillar Attack: Maliketh, the Black Blade leaps onto a pillar then hops off before throwing a fireblast at you. Dodge to the side to avoid this.

Lore and Trivia

Lore

• Maliketh and Gurranq the Beast Clergyman are the same being. He was charged to wield the fearsome Black Blade which contained the Rune of Death, and was feared by the demigods for he wielded the ability of Destined Death.
• On the Night of Black Knives, a fragment of Death was stolen from the blade. This marked Maliketh's chief sin, having him bind the remnants of the blade within his own flesh to prevent it from being stolen again.

Trivia

• An easy way to confirm that Gurranq and Maliketh are one and the same is by looking at Gurranq's sleeves. From certain angles, players will be able to see the grafted blade of death on his right arm and the medallion he punctures with the blade on his left arm.
• Another giveaway of them being the same is the Black Blade Kindred that stands guard outside the Bestial Sanctum. Once defeated, it drops the Gargoyle's Black Blade and Black Halberd. Both are described as bearing the mark of those that serve Maliketh the Black Blade.
• After you calm down Gurranq the Beast Clergyman when he becomes hostile, you can get close to his prone form and clip the camera through his hood. You will see Maliketh's head and helmet if you get the right angle.

Elden Ring Related Guides

List of All Bosses

DLC Bosses

Main Bosses

Optional Bosses

Mini-Bosses

Hostile NPCs and Invaders