Hey, peeps! Please read the description, as there’s loads of additional info that had to be cut from the video, to keep it from being an hour long. Also, I try to leave you guys alone with the “Like & Subscribe” stuff, but as this video took me a couple of weeks to make, if you enjoyed it and found it useful, give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more Elden Ring stuff! As always, thanks for watching!
Hi @Thingfishy. Enjoy your videos. But I have one video you may want to look at. In this, I was playing co-op and we managed to stagger Malenia at the end of phase 1. If you can do a riposte at this time to trigger phase2, phase2 doesn’t happen at all😮😮😮. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZEny6C_ksLY.html
I sincerely hope that along with pvp arena's being added to the three coliseums that they add the ability to fight bosses like they did in the Sekiro update.
I started Malenia two nights ago and have been watching countless parry guide videos for her, and yours are by far the most in-depth and the answer to my prayers lol. Not gonna give up on this boss, well worth the adrenaline rush!
This is my thanks, not much but your wisdom have brought me my victory going solo against Malenia. Your parry series, especially Malenia video, I know took a lots of time to make so again, thanks so much.
Alice, that’s so ridiculously kind of you! Thank you so much. I’m so glad that this video helped you beat Malenia, and I’m so happy you’re enjoying the series and the channel. Thank you so much for your support. I’ll be finishing off the Black Knife Alecto parry guide on my twitch channel later today and editing that together this week. Sorry it took a while! As always, thanks for being here!
Finally managed a no-hit run on her - thanks largely to this video. Incredibly well-done and with a level of detail that most others lack. Thank you! I’m damn near 50, so my reflexes aren’t as sharp as they once were. This was super helpful in getting me there. Fwiw, I went with something like solo her’s approach on phase 1 with slightly less aggressive dual katana attacks (I would often get clipped when trying to pull off 2 power stance attacks, so I would do 1 then just an R1) then used parrying for phase 2.
That’s absolutely awesome, Nash! I haven’t no-hitted her yet so you’re way ahead of me! So glad you enjoyed the video and found it useful! I really wanna try dual katana’s for her. Need to sit down and learn LetMe’s roll dodge for waterfowl first though! GG, man! Great job. Thanks for watching!
Here's a couple things I figured out myself- hope it's useful to someone! -If you're playing solo and throw any kind of projectile at her (like throwing knives), Malenia will instantly dodge to the side, then dash towards you and aggro. This is great for making sure she's always in the middle of the arena, but it's _also_ good for provoking a waterfowl from a relatively safe distance. As you get a feel for how often she does the move, you can start to bait it out. She'll _almost never_ do two back to back, if you're dealing normal amounts of damage - I certainly never saw that happen. So once you bait it, you can feel safe enough to go back in. -I was playing with a Main Hand Nagakiba and an Off-Hand Moonveil for my build, and found that if I aggro her with a knife and try to R1 as she approaches, she would 90% of the time respond with a kick, which I could roll backwards, R1 to stagger her out of the follow up, and then R1 or L1 until she blocks and jumps away... at which point she's at a distance, so I knife again, the kick comes again, etc. Obviously, this A) isn't a hard AI loop, you still have to pay attention to what she's doing, and B) isn't going to work for you, depending on which weapons you're using, either due to a lack of range or lack of speed. -If you're not playing Parry Style, then you're not going to be interrupting her combo strings, so it's good that you know: this lady can combo her moves in almost any combination she wants, and she can do it for a long, long time, sometimes strings that are 5~6 moves long, many of these with multiple swings. Don't heal until you're certain she's back to neutral, and use trial and error to learn what you can safely punish, and which moves have limited or no follow-ups. All in all, I recommend patience. This isn't really a boss you can style on on your first run, so just pay attention and play methodically. Never greed.
I have had her waterfowl 7 times in a row... this was NG+4 and I was doing a bow only run. Your distance from her is very important when she's deciding what move to use. If you're really far away you have a higher chance of getting waterfowled. Also if your wondering the 7th one killed me so that wasn't my successful attempt.
I believe you and great advice but I’m not kidding when I say she did 3 back to back (9 flurries) and then did two of the sparking sword basic flurries and then finished me with a final waterfowl because I ran out of stamina. Back to back to back I was pissed
Never in a million years would I have thought I could solo Malenia, let alone parry the majority of her attacks. Yet here I am, wearing her winged helm. Thank you so much for putting together this guide. Needless to say, it was instrumental in my (eventual) victory. Truly the definitive guide. One interesting thing I came across that maybe others going for a parry win might like to try: If you're using the Misericorde and have the Assassin's Crimson Dagger Talisman equipped (the one that restores HP with criticals) you get a double healing effect. Once right as you stab Malenia and another as she's thrown to the ground. No other weapons seem to have this double heal., only the Misericorde. Not sure if this is common knowledge, a glitch, or maybe I was doing something else that caused this. Either way, if you're going for a parry approach this is an excellent way to conserve your flasks.
GG, Forest! That’s awesome! So glad the guide helped! Great shout on the crimson dagger, I was very slow to realise how good it was for this fight! Probably works the same for any weapon that has 2 hits during the animation, I would imagine, but I’ll test it! Thanks for watching!
You can get the Barricade Shield Ash of War by killing the Night's Cavalry just beside where you get the Turtle Shield, he only spawns at night. The advantage is you can put it in a 100% physical shield with higher Guard Boost, like the Brass Shield. With this you can tank most of the clone attack, but the last clone can usually get you by your side, so dodge roll it.
I am not even anywhere close to beating her yet, but I am still having fun figuring her out. She isn't as frustrating if you view fighting her as a huge challenge, and go into the fight knowing you aren't winning, but practicing for the time when you will have the skill to win. Honestly sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break. Go for a short walk, have a meal, watch a video, just clear your mind. Sometimes if you go too long 'practicing' you will get burnt out. Giving yourself some time away to contemplate without the pressure of battle is sometimes just the edge you need.
Oh my god the jumping swirling attack had me pulling my hair. I use golden parry, could never get it regardless, and assumed it might be due to elevation or something messing it up.. Thanks so much. Also, never use the flask when at midrange and she isn't locked into an attack. She reads your input and will immediately start the lunging attack. Tested a million times, it's always perfectly on sync with my input.
I just beat her RL1 a couple days ago. If you use good strats it's not that difficult. I used tiche and 2 blood bandit curved swords 1 sepuku 1 bloodhound step with the raptor chest.
I've been doing a parry-focused run of Elden Ring and these guides are really top-quality. This one in particular is spectacular. Malenia is the only (major) parryable boss I have yet to beat. This definitely deserves more views!
Thanks, M Yen. Really glad you’re liking the channel and finding it useful! Glad you like this one. A lot of love went into it! Let me know how you get on with Malenia. Thanks for watching!
Got her, parries/ripostes only! No idea how much time I spent on it, since I didn't really keep track, but as I think someone mentioned here, I quit out before getting the great rune so I can do it again. I'm sure I would have finished it sooner if I had used Bleed and done regular attacks. But I suppose the added difficulty was counterbalanced by being an extremely high level (220+). Equipment was Fire Miséricorde +25 with Bloodhound's Step, Buckler, the Jar and no other armor (as an homage to Let Me Solo Her). Talismans were Dagger Talisman, Assassin's Crimson Dagger, Fire Scorpion Charm, and Blue Dancer Charm. Physick was a 100% heal, and I had Fan Daggers and Starlight Shards on my hotbar (Fan Daggers to transition her into phase 2 safely, Starlight Shards to recover FP for Bloodhound's Step). Exalted Flesh on the pouch. I definitely had trouble with parrying the kick, and even if I rolled it I usually got caught by the next attack, so I just stopped going for that one. The stationary twirl wasn't nearly as hard to learn for me as when she jumps to the right, but I was fairly consistent at that by the end. For phase 2, the clone attack was brutal, I wound up just spamming Bloodhound's Step to get clear. Thanks again for your guide, it definitely saved me a lot of trouble!
@6:38 - I found that contrary to moving during this attack to parry, just totally letting go of the analog stick (provided I was close enough) was a far easier and more consistent way to parry it. ANYTIME she twirls, I just stood still. If it's a kick, no biggie, thing barely does damage. If it's the strike, I could parry it at the last second without moving. The only thing is this requires you to be right in her face. I religiously perused this guide multiple times over the 10 hours it took me to learn to parry Malenia. It's an incredible guide, beautifully put together and so aurally pleasing.
Thank you so much for this guide! At this point I've fought her for 300+ attempts (100+ on RL150 with one victory, and the rest on RL1), but this video has still taught me a few new strats. 18:40 I actually did tank all the clone attacks (but NOT the final Malenia stab, I think that's what saved me) with Barricade Shield on an RL150 character with like 40 END. I will probably try outrunning it on my current RL1 playthrough, though -- but I've yet to survive that long, lol. Thank you for this guide. I don't really like using Ashes of War OR blocking, but I've found myself forced to Barricade Shield her 1st couple of flurries all the same, which is massively annoying. :C I guess at this point I might as well Bloodhound's Step and deny her the heals. Fun fact: the first time I beat her after like 15 hrs of parrying @ RL150, I just silently put down the controller, went to my apartment balcony to have a smoke, and cried a little bit. Man... What a boss fight.
Glad it’s helped, Quest! Yeah I suspected that would take a whole bunch of endurance to block. Yeah I’m gonna keep her alive and keep trying some no AoW/shield strats. But I think they’re just gonna require far quicker reactions. Haha! She’s certainly up there with the best FS bosses for me! Keep up the good work on your RL1 and let me know how you get on! Thanks for watching!
I really appreciate this video. I doubt I will actually try to parry Malenia. However, many RU-vidrs show footage where they make the fight look easy, because they are only showing the bits where everything went to plan. It makes normal people like me believe that we just suck at FromSoft games. However, here you are quite clear about how long it took you to work out a lot of this, and how many times you fought Malenia before it went well. That sense of "Anyone can do it, it just might take a while" really helps people like me who sometimes believe certain bosses are impossible without some non-reflex based advantage.
Thanks, Garrick! Yeah it’s difficult to put across in every video, as for most of the guides the only important footage is when things do go well, but I do try to stress as much as possible that I’m just a normal player, and these things are doable with practice! Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching!
This fight can go from "This is the coolest thing in video game ever" to "I'm going to throw my controller through my TV" really quick. I'm with you, Fishy. When I beat her in my first playthrough, it was an incredible moment and I just wanted to get back into it. I'm now fighting Malenia in Ng+ and man do I remember how frustrating this can be. Your video was super helpful for timings as a Dex/Strength player. Waterfowl is manageable once you get the hang of it, and the whole fight can feel like a dance when it's right. But phase 2 is another animal. You just have to find the balance between aggression and keeping your distance. So challenging, so rewarding.
For Scarlet Aeonia (the phase 2 opener), there's a much easier way to dodge it. 1. Disregard Thingfishy's advice and un-lock-on (just bear with me) 2. Sprint almost straight at her, but slightly to one side. I favor the left (her right). You'll know you're far enough to the side if you don't hit the invisible pillar beneath her. 3. As soon as you're past her, turn so you cut behind her (if you passed on the left, turn right). Doing this will make her fly off in the wrong direction.
@@ThingfishyGaming After 9 hours and 147 tries. I finally got it. Then I went back with full armor and got it on my 2nd try. Thanks again for the guide XD
On my first playthrough I watched this video when looking for a way to dodge waterfowl. I found my own method of dealing with it, and beat her using a mimic to power through phase 2, after I got consistent enough to beat phase 1. But I got inspired. And after I beat the game, I started my own parry build. This very weekend I was there again. Me vs her. No Summons. No Help, just me, my Buckler and Reduvia. I died about 200 times. And then I did it. In the final fight I dodged 6 Waterfowls, 4 Scarlet Bloom attacks 2 clones and landed a total of 30 parries, ending the fight with a riposte. I had a hell of fun. Thank you
Thank you so much for the guide. I really wanted to pass a lot of bosses using parry, but I didn't understand anything about it. After watching your videos I had nothing, but after many attempts I was able to parry a boss once and after that I started to understand how it works. And after killing many bosses through parrying I ended up on the "How To Parry Malenia, Blade of Miquella" video. I didn't even think I could kill her with parry, but you explained it so well and after a few hours of practice I was able to do it. The feeling of victory I experienced was only because of you, thank you so much. When you know all the boss's attacks and don't even give him a chance to win, that feeling is inexpressible
I finally did it boys! I beat this nightmare with a dagger/parry build! I even did it without frost and blood too! Thanks so much for your work Thingfishy. This video was my bonfire that I'd return to in times of doubt. 🔥 🏆
Pretty late, but I haven't tackled Malenia up until now. For the stationary twirl attack, you can actually just walk forward and to the right when parrying (slightly more right than forward), this also allows for more time to react to the 1-2 Combo.
Watched just about every Malenia tutorial & video by now, here almost a year after release, and this one is by far my fav. It covers so much detail and has a great audio track to back it. It really helps you appreciate the boss, more than just fight & beat it. Amazing job.
I know you have more recent videos, but it's thanks to you Thingfishy, and this video, that now when my friends and I have finally gotten to Malenia in our Seemless Co-op playthrough, I was able to make an impressive clutch after the other three had died. Parrying and dodging through the waterfowl dance, I felt better than ever before. Thanks for helping me be a chad for a night ThingFishy c:
I’ve finally started my solo attempts at Malenia (having used summons successfully), and this guide is extremely useful. Very high quality work, as always!
This has to be your best boss breakdown to this day, and I'm even willing to say it'll remain your best video for a while. Can't wait to see how you top this one off. Analysis and script aside, I want to congratulate you over the editing. The music choice and overall "storytelling" felt really engaging. And those shots were exquisite. I didn't expect to get emotionally invested in a parry guide, lol You've encouraged me to go try soloing her again and your breakdown has given me a better idea of the timings and the windows I can punish. I'll let her live though. Gotta wait for my hommie to get there so we can fight her together.
I’m glad you think so, Kokoro. I agree, a lot of love went into this one. If I manage to top it, it will probably be on whatever awaits us in the DLC. So glad you enjoyed it and found it engaging. I hoped it would turn out that way. Let me know how you get on with your solo attempts! Thanks for watching!
@@ThingfishyGaming update: I was able to get her down to about 25% HP and succesfully dodge Waterfowl for the first time today! I might have found a range I can retreat to after every attack to make sure I have enough time to react to her windup if she decides to use it Also, your guide helped me figure out her spark combo and I've incorporated it into the repertoire of attacks I can safely parry I can't thank you enough for this guide! Edit: got her to phase 2 and cleanly dodged the clones first try but I ran out of flasks and she destroyed me lol. I'm not even mad, this bitch is going down before next weekend!
Hey fishy, not sure if you knew this but both the stab attack and the charged slash can be parried. For the charged slash I noticed that the key was to look at the height of her sword, the moment she zooms in your direction and slightly raises the blade, it’s safe to parry just as she’s inches away from you. For the thrust attack, I time it right as she finishes her little hop. There’s one small problem with this one though, it has the same kind of hitbox issue that the stationary twirl has, where if you’re just slightly off course to her line of sight or too close, the parry can fail and chip you. Personally I use golden parry to sort of mitigate that. Great guide by the way, very detailed! Cheers! 😁
Thanks for posting this, Brandon. It’s really funny that no matter how many times the game tells me “You can parry more attacks than you think”, there are still attacks that I don’t even bother trying because my instincts say “that’s not gonna be parriable”. Glad you enjoyed the guide. Thanks for watching!
In the DLC it'll be Miquella himself. His attack will be a nuke that has a 5 mile radius, does 10,000,000 damage, and cannot be dodged, blocked, or parried.
Beautiful intro, she really is like a dancer, her move is aptly named. Honestly, I wish it was possible to do a custom version of this fight. Its so cool, with so many great moves, I wish it was possible to do it in slow motion, just to enjoy it.
I've been smashing my head against Malenia (not a parry build), and your 1 o'clock-1 o'clock-6 o'clock was a REALLY useful cue for the final flurry. I was able to beat her earlier in part due to that, because it doesn't matter how good you are against the rest of her moves if you have no reproducible strategy against Waterfowl, which I didn't. Appreciate it very much.
I want to thank you for this awesome video! I've beaten Malenia once; with a 'roll & dodge' approach... That took me so many tries, that the second time i'm facing her now I wanted a new approach... And here I am, thanking you for this video! I haven't beat her yet, parrying. But i'm getting there :) It feels awesome! Only parry I can't get,is the one when she floats to the right and then attacks ("when she nods her head")... Don't know why... Thank you so much!
Me as well, most attacks the timing is parry right as the weapon/hands are making its way to you, but that one just has such an odd timing, she’s almost still moving right when you need to input it so it just feels wrong
I’m working on my parry defeat of her right now. One thing to point out, is the footage of those guys doing it, have been mainly light rolling. When I switched to light rolling is when I could first avoid waterfowl completely. I don’t know if that’s necessary, but that’s what all those guys seem to be doing. It really helps a lot in this fight in particular, although I would like to be able to do it with medium roll too,
ik im a year late, but malenia gets one waterfowl every 25% of her health. a throwing weapon WILL trigger it. bring fan knives or something of the sort. dodge waterfowl by running backward, away from the first burst. dodge into the second. dodge backwards (or into, i forget, i have it in muscle memory moreso than normal memory) on the third, then run (or dodge) away from her.
Just coming back to this to say this video helped me parry Malenia into an early grave. It still took me a long time but it was worth it. Invaluable video.
I have never played a fromsoftware game before this is my first, and I decided to do a parry playthrough for my first becuse apparently im a masicist or somthing. and THanks to you i was able to beat malania at level 90. Thanks for you help!
Turn off ads blocker just for your videos. I defeat her with my pals, after this video I will solo her, thanks for the inspiration and effort into creating this guide.
It is now day 3 of non stop Malenia. I can get her to phase 2, dodge the clones, and waterfowl. The 1-2 combo is the _only_ attack I can't consistently parry. Once I get it figured out I know I'll mop the floor with her. Wish me luck boys.
Am I the only one who can’t parry the 1-2 combo? I’ve gotten the parry timing down pretty well for pretty much every other move. I can even avoid water flow consistently. Despite this though I’m never fast enough to parry her 1-2 combo. Any tips?
I personally didn’t want to watch parry videos before I take on bosses with my parry style gameplay, but once I defeat them it’s nice to come and watch and see how many moves I managed to figure out!
My quick process update: took one day off and beeing found right back at day one .. nearly.. but seriously, the 1-2 attack , we say Der Wischer in german, and the stationary swirl give me constant death…
I actually remember thinking of this theme in the cutscene when I first met her, long before I had a RU-vid channel! Glad I could bring it to life! Thanks for watching!
I feel like the freezing pot is the most mild and borderline level of cheesing, if it's cheesing at all. It requires you to not have frostbite already in effect, so it essentially either locks you out of using this useful status on her or requires you to carefully track and manage the status. It also only works at close range, maximizing risk in case for some reason you can't get off the throw in time or it doesn't proc frostbite. I feel a similar way about Bloodhound's Step, though that's a little more cheesy than the pot IMO. In the end, WFD is a deliberately cheap move and singlehandedly responsible for why she's hard in the first place. The threat of it defines the fight and turns what would be just a standard hardcore mechanical one-on-one into a much more frustrating and low-success encounter.
After cheesing her with Mimic Tear + Blasphemous Blade at launch and never attempting her again until NG+7, I finally did it with Golden Parry. I’m playing a very strict paladin build with Banished Knight Shield and Miquellan Knight Sword (so 40% of my holy damage was absorbed and no status effect could be procced) so it felt like hell for the first few tries But you gave me the motivation to do it and my mentality quickly went from thinking this was impossible to believing I could do it! Thanks a lot Thingfishy, for what is probably my proudest achievement in video games
If it’s the attack I’m thinking of - you have to dodge quite early, don’t wait for the lunge! HST, it can be hard to dodge, if the camera is panning, or if she does it really close to you..
You can actually parry the far lunge attack and also the stab attack. However for the stab attack, unless you know you're going to stagger her it's best to dodge since you get a good long window for damage if you dodge it well.
you might be aware of this already, but if you quit out right after beating her (before receiving the rune), and spawn back in outside the arena with her still alive and healthy. I've done this hundreds of time now, one of my favourite fights for sure. Once we are comfortable enough with her moves, we can use basically any weapon to fight her.
First, fantastic video. That said, "possibly hardest in gaming history" is extreme hyperbole. I can name SO many bosses that are harder than Malenia. Sans and Lingering Will come to mind, for two well-known options.
Easist way for me to do phase 1 (NG+1 for me now) In short: Spam R1 I use the goat armor set for the balance points Greataxe "anchor" (bleed) with the pierce damage type buffing trinkets for massive damage Melina gets staggered for every status you put on her. Walk at her and throw a frost pot. When you are close enough, she either iniciates a dodge but is too close and gets hit, frozen and staggered (20% more damage in the future) Then you spam R1 with no regard of her actions. She get staggered on almost every hit until she retreats. Repeat. Its really easy. Phase 2 idk yet. I don´t want to watch a tutorial since I wanna beat her on my own. I got no idea what you do on her spin to win move. Guess you are just dead if she starts it while you next to her.
I'm slowly getting the hang of it but I gotta say her 1-2 combo is kicking my ass real good. it happens so quickly that I don't even try parrying it after a while and just dodge out of the way.
A man this literally came out 1 day after I beat her. I didn’t really too much trouble. Tbh when waterfowl came I just spammed rolling until it’s over. There’s so many opportunities to punish her and stagger her. I mean she’s hard, but not one of the top hardest bosses for me. It took me 3 tries and the first 2 were just experimenting with bad strats. Still a very useful video.
Thx for the vid, i was waiting for it since i saw your first parrying guides. Few days ago i decided to try to beat her only with parries and repostes, and i find myself in a point in which i can consistently parry her attacks, but the waterfowl kills me if she does it at point blank range (btw i'm doing this in NG+5). Hope i can manage to dodge her attack now after seeing those strats. One last thing, i found myself more confortable using golden parry rather than using the buckler since i can land the parry even if i'm not close to her and i have more frames to do it. Keep it up with the vids, ur killing it!
Oh, about her Aeonia Scarlet move in the start of phase 2, actually we can just unaimlock and run toward behind her, she will just slam on somewhere else behind you, you know it's right when you run toward her at the place she's floating on, you will get lightly strafed to other side because of the game hitbox, this is pretty consistent for me since it works everytime
She has a quick 1-2 slash when she's right in front of you that's damn hard to parry as it comes out so quick. You don't mention it in this guided interestingly.
Really useful video. Started playing again recently without leveling or upgrading. Haven’t beat her this way yet but getting close. You can walk to her right or left instead of back and parry her jumping swirling slash. Right seems to work best for me.
Thanks for these parry guides cause all my time on this game I just gave up on shields or blocking done farely well just stuck on malenia and the elden beast
In my opinion, the hardest boss is Queen of Valkyries from God of War 2018 on the hardest difficulty because she has so many different attacks and abilities, also she chooses them randomly (so even with the best gear you don't have options other than learning how to deal with each of her attacks). Malenia is as difficult as you want her to be. There are so many tools and strategies to deal with her (like bleeds/frostbite/ash summons/human summons/magic/cheese/parry/ash of war for dodging/etc). Of course, you need to learn something but anyway there are options to kill her very easily. P.S. Great guides!
you are telling me you have trubble registering the waterfowl dance but u are able to consistently parry the 1-2 combo? I always get caught if she opens with the 1-2 combo and i have never managed to parry it so far. But imma keep trying!
For Waterfowl, I ended up just using a shield with Carian retaliation and really high stamina (188) which allows me to simply block first wave of attacks and then roll subsequent ones. The first wave uses roughly 75% of stamina, so if it's not full, I'll get stagger. But if not being too aggressive to survive, it's very hard to get low on stamina on this boss. Of course not RL1, so the turtle shield approach still makes a lot of sense.
Great vids just started parrying on Elden ring so been a big help - and just like you as soon as I beat her started ng1 and rushed straight back to do it again haha
This is how this fight should be for everyone. A categoric dance of pure knowledge and skill. It's fucking disgraceful how easy it is to cheese with some bs mimic tear and projectile/magic attacks. I bet only 10% of the player base have beat her without some corny ass build. This is why people are screaming that the dlc is too hard because the bosses are way more aggressive and these corny ass summons players are in shambles.
On a parry build right now and this fight is one of the most satisfying pure skill fights that test your reflexes and persistence/patience. Only way I’ll play this boss is with parrying
So funny to find out that the last advanced atack is buggy, like i always missed the parry on that one and made me think that maybe im just too slow or something
