An Elden Ring player spent months fighting the boss Malenia before an unexpected exploit brought her down in the most anti-climatic way imaginable. While not the satisfying ending the player was hoping for, they did at least stumble upon a valuable exploit for anyone who doesn’t mind getting a cheesy win over Elden Ring’s most challenging boss.
Malenia is the daughter of the god-queen Marika, who rules over Elden Ring’s setting of The Lands Between. She is also a poster girl for the game, featuring heavily in its marketing. While technically optional, her boss fight is widely considered the most difficult in the game, effectively making Malenia Elden Ring’s final boss. Her second stage, the Goddess of Rot, is notoriously challenging due to Malenia’s ability to infect players with the health-draining Scarlet Rot status effect.
Reddit user PinkPicklePete is one of many Elden Ring players who needed to find creative ways to beat Malenia, and claims to have spent months trying to defeat her. He finally found his solution when he summoned a fully upgraded Redmane Knight Ogha. When the player retreats to cast some spells, the spirit knight proceeds to knock Malenia down with a shot from his Great bow. Malenia got up only for the next shot to knock her down again, and the cycle repeated until PinkPicklePete achieved his anti-climactic victory over Elden Ring’s most challenging boss.
This unexpected victory was partially due to Malenia’s relatively low Poise stat, which leaves her vulnerable to knockdowns. Her AI also doesn’t seem to know how to deal with players who stay at range, seemingly having no strategy beyond walking or running directly at them. The combination of these factors allowed Malenia to get caught in a cycle of repeated knockdowns, unable to close in on her opponents. Unfortunately, while this technique seems effective, it’s not the most satisfying way to win Elden Ring’s hardest and most iconic boss fight.
Elden Ring fans had some fun with the clip when PinkPicklePete posted a clip of his disappointing victory to the game’s subreddit. A few characters noted that it seemed like Ogha was getting revenge for Malenia’s defeat of his lord Radahn. Another commenter quipped that the ghostly knight must have learned from his first encounter with the sword-wielding demigoddess. Meanwhile, the Reddit post’s top commenter questioned how Radahn even lost to Malenia since he was happy shooting arrows at players during his boss fight.
While PinkPicklePete seemed disappointed with the outcome, there’s no denying that Redmane Knight Ogha was very effective in the fight. Elden Ring players might want to consider using his Spirit Ash if they struggle to take Malenia down.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.