Elden Ring legend Let Me Solo Her might want to watch his back, as another Tarnished is out here making a name for themselves by killing Malenia, Blade of Miquella in record time. Sure, Let Me Solo Her might have beaten her over 1,000 times, but this guy has killed Malenia in roughly 15 seconds. It’s one of the quickest times I’ve seen yet.
Read More: Elden Ring’s Malenia Tells The Fairytale I Always Wanted To Hear
Scarlet Rot Queen Malenia is an optional boss in FromSoftware’s most popular Souls game yet. Encountered in Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree, a legacy dungeon located in the northernmost part of The Lands Between, Malenia is notorious for her difficulty and one-hit kill potential. In stats FromSoft dropped earlier this month, it was revealed that Malenia was attempted some 329 million times. While that number doesn’t reflect player deaths, I’ve no doubt Malenia’s body count is in the millions at this point—though struggling Tarnished could always call up Let Me Solo Her via his summon sign to get a little help with the two-phased fight.
Or they could just watch redditor RS_Lionheart for useful tips, who absolutely murked the Goddess of Rot in 15 seconds on, get this, New Game+7, the highest difficulty Elden Ring has to offer after you’ve beaten it eight times over. That’s a lot of journeys through The Lands Between.
Beating Malenia the fast way
In an April 20 YouTube video, RS_Lionheart showed off exactly how he bodied Malenia. He starts the clip with a dizzying array of buffs and consumables ranging from the Golden Vow (an incantation that increases attack and defense) and the Frenzyflame Stone (a consumable that continuously restores your HP), among others. After almost 50 seconds of getting swole via performance-enhancing goodies and rotting steroids in front of Malenia’s fog gate, RS_Lionheart walks into the depths of the Haligtree to begin the fight. He skips the intro cutscene and finishes the first phase of the battle in seven seconds, using the cross jumping slash attack of two Bandit’s Curved Swords.
Once her famed second phase begins, RS_Lionheart throws a Freezing Pot consumable to ground Malenia, then proceeds to jump-attack the winged queen to death. The total time it took? Just a little over 15 seconds.
The Elden Ring build for beating Malenia’s ass
In Reddit messages with Kotaku, RS_Lionheart, who has 15 different characters across two accounts and nearly 2,100 hours in Elden Ring, explained that he stacked a few different buffs onto the character he mained in order to beat the brakes off Malenia so quickly.
“Before the start of the video, I used Seppuku twice to bring down my health and sorted my inventory by recent acquisition,” RS_Lionheart said. “Then, I used a Frenzyflame Stone to start the buildup of madness, followed by Golden Vow. After that, I drink a Cerulean Flask and used the Ash of War: Cragblade on my left-handed Bandit’s Curved Sword. I then switched my Dragon Communion Seal to an Antspur Rapier and used Bloodboil Aromatic. After this, madness should be inflicted, so I swapped the Black Dumpling Helm to the Mushroom Crown and drank another Cerulean Flask, followed by my Physick (Thorny Cracked Tear and Stonebarb Cracked Tear). Then, I inflicted poison on myself with two Roped Fetid Pots, swapped the Mushroom Crown to the White Mask, and inflicted blood loss using Seppuku again with the Antspur Rapier. Once blood loss was inflicted, I swapped the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation and the Lord of Blood’s Exultation to the Red-Feathered Branchsword and Claw Talisman. After that, I switched the Antspur Rapier to my other Bandit’s Curved Sword and applied Cragblade again before heading through the fog gate. Also, it’s important to note that the other talismans I used were Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia to boost successive attack damage. I also wore the Raptor’s Black Feathers to increase my jump attack damage.”
According to RS_Lionheart, he’s helped a good number of other players struggling against Malenia either by placing his summon sign near her gate or offering advice on his YouTube channel. She already has a massive health pool, but in New Game+7, her HP is increased by nearly 40 percent, making her all the more challenging. While he couldn’t recall exactly how many players he’s lent his dizzying buff-based strategy to, it’s not something RS_Lionheart is particularly fond of doing for one simple reason: Lag.
“I have a more simplified version I’ve used at a lower level (around 150) which has higher survivability (considering co-op can be unpredictable at times with lag and latency),” RS_Lionheart explained.
Lag aside, co-op is difficult for another reason: enemy scaling due to the number of additional players. Bosses take less damage, have more health, and hit way harder when playing Elden Ring with a friend or two. That’s part of why RS_Lionheart would prefer not to embark on such a challenge in multiplayer—and understands why many players may not want to attempt besting Malenia at all.
“The reason I enjoy a challenge like this so much is because it’s a thrill to try to do something that hasn’t been done before,” RS_Lionheart said. “That’s all the motivation I need when I’m doing research on a boss to figure out exactly how much damage I need to do before I do it. It’s very fun to me and in my opinion, takes a very full and complete knowledge of Elden Ring to attempt in full.”
Read More: Elden Ring Player Will Keep Crushing Malenia With New Builds Until DLC Comes
That said, while the feat is very impressive, just one day later on April 21, a friend of RS_Lionheart smashed his 15-second record kill on Malenia, defeating the notorious Queen of Rot in a little over 10 seconds! Though his friend did not defeat the Queen of Rot on New Game+7, aside from a different weapon choice he went in with the exact same build as RS_Lionheart.
“He is a very skilled creator who runs the Sax Slave Gael YouTube channel,” RS_Lionheart said of the 10-second-killer. “I’ve learned a lot from him as I’m sure he’s learned from me through the past few months. I think competition like this is great because it pushes the boundaries of what is possible in Elden Ring.”
Elden Ring is already a punishing experience. Being one of the most difficult bosses in the game, Malenia strikes fear in the hearts of many players, myself included. But now that we’ve got a solid buffing strategy for breaking her down, maybe she isn’t so scary anymore?