How to Beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella: Boss Fight Guide

This is a guide on how to beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella, a boss in Elden Ring. Read on to learn more about Malenia, Blade of Miquella's drops, weaknesses, and recommended level!

Malenia, Blade of Miquella General Info

Stats and Rewards

Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Weakness	Resistance	Immune
Fire Bleed Frost	Standard Strike Slash Magic Holy Lightning Thrust	Scarlet Rot Madness Instant Death
Affected By	Bleed, Frost, Poison
Spirit Ashes Available?	Yes
Rune Rewards	480000 (NG)
Summonable NPCs	None
Location	・Miquella's Haligtree, Mountaintops of the Giants
Item Drops	・Malenia's Great Rune ・Remembrance of the Rot Goddess

Malenia, Blade of Miquella Location

Where is Malenia, Blade of Miquella?

Map Location
View Full Image
Recommended Level	Lv.130

Malenia, Blade of Miquella can be found at the bottom of Miquella's Haligtree, in the Mountaintops of the Giants region. The nearest Site of Grace is the Haligtree Roots site.

When to Fight Malenia, Blade of Miquella

You can fight Malenia at the the depths of Miquella's Haligtree in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.

Fight at Level 130+

Malenia, Blade of Miquella is one of the most challenging bosses in the game and is capable of easily taking out even fully geared and upgraded players with just a couple of combos. She also recovers health every time she lands a successful hit, and has a second phase that inflicts Scarlet Rot.

Malenia is also found in arguably the most challenging optional Legacy Dungeon in the game that is home to several powerful enemies. Get your character to at least Level 130 so you can successfully get through Miquella's Haligtree and face Malenia.

How to Beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella

Tips for Beating Perfumer Tricia
Use Spirit Ashes to Summon Spirits
Stagger Malenia with Charged or Jumping Attacks
Use Weapons that Deal Bleed and Frostbite
Use Night Sorceries
Throw Sleep Pots to Interrupt Waterfowl Dance
Use Bloodhound's Step to Evade Waterfowl Dance

Use Spirit Ashes to Summon Spirits

Malenia's speed often makes it difficult to land attacks whether you're using a weapon or spells and incanatations. The best spirit ashes to summon in this boss fight are either fast or very tanky Spirit Ashes.

Black Knife Tiche is one of the best choices for this boss as she is actually faster than Malenia and is capable of using powerful combos that can stagger her. Additionally, she can use the Blade of Death skill that will reduce Malenia's max HP temporarily and will deal drain her health for 5 seconds.

Ancient Dragonknight Kristoff is another great summon who functions as a tank. While less mobile compared to Tiche, he is very durable and can still dish out respectable damage with his spear and even attack in range with Thunderbolt.

Summon the Mimic Tear

The Mimic Tear is another great Spirit Ash to use against Malenia as you can tweak its gear and skills according to your needs. It also has more health than your character, making it an effective tank that can still keep pace with your own attacks.

Stagger Malenia with Charged or Jumping Attacks

Malenia's speed and power is offset by her relatively low health and durability for a lategame boss, and she is very easy to stagger when using Colossal Swords or Colossal Weapons.

Heavy weapons like the Starscourge Greatsword, Greatsword, and the Giant-Crusher will easily stagger Malenia with their regular attacks and even interrupt her own attacks if you use a charged or jumping attack.

Use Weapons that Deal Bleed and Frostbite

Malenia is very weak against Bleed and Frostbite and it's possible to take huge chunks out of her health with the right weapon. The Rivers of Blood Corpse Piler skill will proc bleed against her in just a few hits and does additional damage due to also dealing Fire damage.

A popular strategy is to dual-wield or powerstance Rivers of Blood with a frost-infused Uchigatana so you can deal two status effects. Additionally, Rivers of Blood's innate fire damage will reset the frost proc, allowing you to deal frostbite damage again.

Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear is a Good Alternative

Another great bleed weapon to use against Malenia is Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear. Its Bloodboon Ritual weapon skill covers a wide range and will stagger Malenia before it procs bleed. When using this weapon, make sure you summon a tanky Spirit Ash that will distract Malenia so you can spam the weapon skill safely.

Use Night Sorceries

Malenia is one of the few bosses that will evade incantations and spells and is very challenging to fight as a pure caster. However, she can't evade Night Sorceries such as Ambush Shard, Night Shard, and Night Comet.

Keep in mind though that while useful, Night Sorceries tend to deal less damage than other sorceries. It's still a good idea to swap to stronger spells when fighting Malenia, only using the Night Sorceries when she's walking, winding up for an attack, or otherwise distracted by the Spirit Ash.

Throw Freezing Pots to Interrupt Waterfowl Dance

Waterfowl Dance is Malenia's strongest move in both phases, but she has a very noticeable wind-up before she actually uses it.

Instead of attempting to stagger her out of the attack, simply throw a Freezing Pot when she winds up to use the attack. This will interupt her attack and give you an opening to attack her with your strongest attacks and spells.

Use Bloodhound's Step to Evade Waterfowl Dance

The Ash of War Bloodhound's Step lets you easily evade most of Malenia's attacks, including her deadly Waterfowl Dance. This takes some practice to do though as spamming the Ash of War isn't enough due to the attack's great tracking and large hitbox.

To evade Waterfowl Dance with Bloodhound's Step, you need to use the skill twice during the attack's first and second flurry. Finally, you will need to use Bloodhound's Step to dodge towards Malenia's attack on her third delayed flurry.

Malenia, Blade of Miquella Attack Patterns

Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Phase 1)

During her first phase, Malenia will attempt to overpower you with her speed and powerful combos that deal very high damage.

Getting caught in one moveset is often enough to one-shot you and her lifesteal ability means blocking with a shield isn't recommended as she can recover almost all of her health back with just one combo.

Blade Attacks

Blade Attack Variations
Waterfowl Dance: Malenia jumps up, then dives at you and does three sets of AoE slashes. She dashes forward after each slash. After the third set, she does one final AoE slash when she lands. The best ways to the Waterfowl Dance is: •By running straight back from mid range when she jumps to avoid the first two flurries, then rolling into the third set of slashes as she passes overhead. Do one more roll to the side to avoid the final set. •By using a throwing knife or an arrow to bait the Waterfowl Dance from a distance and then roll through the final set of flurries. •If at close range immediately switch to a great shield, block the first set of flurries, and then roll the rest. •At close range it is possible (but extremely difficult and inconsistent) to dodge by running in a circle around Malenia and rolling just as she launches the first set of flurries.
Quick Slashes: Malenia dashes towards you and does multiple swipes. You can telegraph this when her right arm briefly lights up. Block or roll backward to avoid this.
Double Swipe: Malenia swipes at you then slams her blade to the ground. Roll to the side twice.
Lunging Swipe: Malenia does a short hop to lunge and swipe at you. Roll into the attack to dodge this.
Jumping Stab: Malniea jumps up before dashing towards you and shoving her blade forward. Your timing to dodge this is when she briefly lands before dashing towards you.
Grab: Malenia throws you up in the air and stabs you. Roll to the side when you see her pull her left arm back.

Kick

Kick Attack Information
Kick: Malenia does a spinning kick that staggers you. This has high poise damage so it's best to roll instead of block. She'll follow this up with another attack pattern so don't try attacking after dodging it.

Malenia, Goddess of Rot (Phase 2)

Malenia gains the ability to inflict you with Scarlet Rot with all of her attacks in her second phase and has increased damage. She also retains all of her combos from her first phase along with a couple of new ones that can cover a very large area of the boss arena.

Additionally, Malenia can briefly fly and levitate when winding up for her attacks. This makes her slightly more challenging to fight as a pure melee build and also gives her a slightly faster dodge.

Blade Attacks

Blade Attack Variations
Flying Swipe: Malenia flies towards you and does a sweeping attack before doing another forward stab. Roll to the left both to dodge both moves.
Phantom Strikes: This is telegraphed by a small circle of Scarlet Rot that appears beneath her. It'll be difficult to avoid these attacks up close, so back away when she does this while keeping your shield up.

Scarlet Rot Attacks

Scarlet Rot Attack Variations
Scarlet Aeonia: Malenia dives at you and tries to stab you. After hitting the ground, a flower will explode and leave a mist that can inflict you with Scarlet Rot. You can use your shield to block both the stab and the flower's explosion. Make sure to roll backward after the flower bursts to avoid the Scarlet Rot. She'll always start Phase 2 with this attack.
Scarlet Burst: Malenia flies straight up then slams her sword to the ground, creating a small geyser that damages and applies Scarlet Rot. Roll away when she flies up to avoid this.

How to Parry Malenia, Blade of Miquella

List of Parry Timings

All Attacks That Can Be Parried
Charging Slash Parry: As Malenia Leaps toward you hit the parry button when she is directly in front of you.
Multi-Slash Parry: When you see Malenia's blade spark, hit the parry button as she moves in towards you.
Quick Slash Parry: When you see Malenia's blade flick outward immediately react and parry. This is one of the more difficult parry timings to get consistent with as it comes out very fast.
Side Step Slash Parry (Right): When you see Malenia side step, she will always follow up with a slash. When her feet touch the ground hit the parry button. It also helps to be moving forward for consistent positioning.
Side Step Slash Parry (Left): When you see Malenia side step, she will always follow up with a slash. When her feet touch the ground hit the parry button. It also helps to be moving forward for consistent positioning.
Spinning Slash Parry: This parry timing is more delayed than you might think. Wait until the very last moment when Malenia's blade is about to connect with you before hitting the parry button.

Note: All parry timings for the above attacks were done using the Buckler which has more active frames for parrying than your average small shield. In phase two Malenia still performs all six of these attacks with the same timing. The only difference in phase two is that she has more attacks available (none of the new attacks are able to be parried) and occasionally her wings may make it harder to see which attack she is doing. In which case, it's best to dodge out until you can clearly see which attack is coming.

Elden Ring Related Guides

List of All Bosses

DLC Bosses

Main Bosses

Optional Bosses

Mini-Bosses

Hostile NPCs and Invaders