Malenia, Blade of Miquella is notoriously known for being the hardest boss in the entirety of Elden Ring. Even for players who resort to beating the boss fight alone, with the proper build, players can ease the pain of being thrown into a waterfowl of death hundreds of times.
Elden Ring: How To Beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Malenia, Blade of Miquella claims to have never known defeat. Here's how to make her taste the bitter end of your God-slaying blade.
These builds focus solely on engaging 
Malenia, Blade of Miquella with endless staggering combos, fitting weapons along with fitting weapon art, and spells or incantations that can handle Malenia and her deadly attack moves. With a proper understanding of the stats and how to use them, these builds should help the players reduce their loss count against Malenia.
7 Marais’ Executioner Sword Build
Unique Greatsword With Incapacitating Weapon Art
- Has an absurd amount of damage
- Located in a secluded castle north of Leyndell, obtained through defeating area boss Elemer of the Briar
- Winged Sword Insignia is located in Stillwater Cave, Caelid. Obtained through defeating the area boss Rotten Winged Knight.
- Millicent’s Prosthesis is obtainable through Millicent's questline from Caelid, Leyndell, Mountaintops, and at last Miquella’s Haligtree.
- Thorny Cracked Tears is located at Minor Erdtree in Consecrated Snowfield east of Ordina Liturgical Town. Obtained through defeating the Putrid Avatar.
With the help of the powerful Marais’ Executioner Sword, the build deals an absurd amount of damage to Malenia without any strings attached. With the right Talismans, Crystal Tears, and stats, each of its weapon art removes a fourth of Malenia’s HP and leaves her on the ground.
Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree - Best New Talismans
Players can get their hands on a variety of new Talismans in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. These are some of the best.
The Talismans and Crystal Tears proper are Winged Sword Insignia, Millicent Prosthesis, and Thorny Cracked Tears. Winged Sword Insignia and Millicent Prosthesis give a 20% attack boost on each hit combined, which works in synergy with the weapon art Eochad’s Dancing Blade. Thorny Cracked Tears gives 20% on each hit for 3 minutes with a 1.5-second decay time.
6 Bloodflame Nagakiba Build
Long Katana With Bloodflame Incantation Build
- Nagakiba can be found wielded by Yura the Bloody Finger Hunter in Agheel’s Lake and obtained by either following his questline or killing him
- Bloodflame Incantation can be found near Rose Church at Liurnia of the Lakes
- Has 45+50 bleed buildup
- Has an additional 50 fire damage
- Nagakiba can still be used with either Normal affinity or Keen affinity to max the damage output
With Bloodflame Nagakiba build, players can utilize Nagakiba long-range swift swing combined with Bloodflame incantation. A powerful combination that has a built-in bleed from the weapon and another bleed with Bloodflame without needing to sacrifice a weapon’s damage by switching to the blood affinity type of weapon.
Elden Ring: The 16 Best Blood Weapons, Ranked
Blood weapons are quite powerful in Elden Ring, and the Tarnished has a few great options to choose from for their build.
Blood Tax ashes of war is heavily recommended for this type of build as the player can dish out a series of slashing damage while gaining HP. Moreover, Bloodhound Step is a viable option for increased mobility. Nagakiba’s swift swing and long range give an equal footing to Malenia’s attacks, while the bleed modifier compensates for the trade-off from Malenia’s HP stealing attacks.
5 Black Flame Blade Build
Straight Sword With Black Flame Incantation Build
- Pure high damage multiplier that pierces any defense
- Obtainable as early as getting access to Lothric Castle
- Simple yet efficient STR/DEX/FTH build
Black Flame Blade has a short duration yet quick cast time between actions, similar to any Drawstring Grease consumable item. The incantation should be used immediately before attacking for continued combos which makes a straight sword ideal for this build.
Elden Ring: All Black Flame Incantation Locations
Gather all Godskin incantations to wield the power of Black Flame and vanquish gods and demi-gods to ascend as the Elden Lord in Elden Ring.
The Black Flame Blade puts a 2-second damage over time effect on enemies struck while the buff is active. It deals 20 damage + 20 more for every 1000 HP the enemy has. This results in at least 2% of Max HP or more damage over time. With how big the health pool of Malenia is and how fast each of her attacks, the Black Flame Blade makes an ideal weapon. An enchanting incantation and the straight sword short swing cooldown can contest her blade.
4 Flaming Greatsword Pyromancies Build
Greatsword With Flaming Strike And Flame Incantation Build
- Flaming Strike has powerful damage combined with either Fire or Flame Art affinity
- Greatsword weapon type active poise makes the attack hard to stagger
Flaming Greatsword uses Flaming Strike and Greatsword Combos. The big damage from greatsword swing and Flaming Strike plus its enchantment can melt Malenia's HP and match her life-stealing attacks. Greatsword weapon type can be obtained through the first coffin carriage in the first Limgrave army camp.
Although Flaming Strike uses three different stats scaling as its damage modifier, the damage from the enchantment is multiplied greatly by either using Flame Art or Fire affinity, making the build deadly to counter Malenia's already huge HP pool that can take a long time to deplete.
3 Greatsword Giant Hunt Build
Greatsword With Giant Hunt For Stunlock
- Stunning continuous big damage combo with no downside
- Can be obtained early
- Pure strength build
Greatsword with Giant Hunt ashes of war build uses stunlocking tactic to hold down Malenia. This build's focus on the powerful Giant Hunt will plunge Malenia into the air, then a heavy attack swing will make Malenia either stagger or get knocked back. With this rinse and repeat tactics, players can fight Malenia almost without even taking damage or Malenia taking action.
Greatsword's active poise defense combo with Giant Hunt weapon art makes the move almost uninterruptible, so players can initiate the move at ease without being alert about any of the Malenia’s moves.
2 Carian Spellsword Build
Carian Slicer Spamming Build
- Continuous powerful swift slash combos
- Low int requirement that scales to high value
- Can be obtained early
The Carian Slicer spell replaces weapon swing to beat Malenia as a sword spell battle mage. Although Carian Slicer has little to no stagger/poise damage, each of its swings deals great damage to Malenia while matching the swinging speed of a dagger attack.
As for the Talisman to optimize the build, players may use Radagon Icon to fasten the swing combos, Magic Scorpion Charm plus Graven-Mass to enchant the damage, and Stargazer Heirloom to increase the int further. The weapon slot should be Carian Glimstone Staff on the left side for passive bonus damage, while the main right-hand weapon is equipped with Azur’s Glimstone Staff.
1 Crucible Knight Build
Crucible Knight With Godslayer Greatsword Faith Build
- Focused on the Strength/Faith build attributes
- Weapon art has huge pure type of damage
Besides its glamorously valiant knight design, the Crucible Knight set also has a huge defense and amplifies the Aspect of the Crucible incantations. Godslayer Greatsword works well with the set with its focus on Strength/Faith build, boosting its already huge damage to a new height once the player is familiar enough with its movesets.
Every Aspect of the Crucible Incantations can knock off and damage Malenia greatly, while Godslayer Greatsword could be the main arsenal to deal damage and its weapon art can deal even bigger damage given the opportunity window.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
- Released
- June 21, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- FromSoftware
