Basic guide on how to read and solo Malenia.

This is not a troll guide. Inside, you will see a detailed methods on how to read her, dodge her attacks, and fight her in a one-on-one battle.

Basic guide on how to read and fight Malenia solo

Hello. Today I will teach you how to solo Malenia.

Why should I believe you?

I have killed quite a number of Malenia. In solo play. In multiplay. At my best, I can solo her back-to-back at least 5 times without dying. I can use at least 4 types of weapons to kill her. Ultra GS, dual katanas, dual halberds, and whips. I am not a hitless runner though, and definitely not Let Me Solo Her, so keep this in mind. My guide is to teach new players who want to solo her honorably. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. See you. But if you want to try, read below. The major points of interest are written in bold.

How do I prepare?

Before you start, since this is not a hitless guide, get yourself some 40+ vigor for reasonable survival. Easy is about 50-60.

Get yourself Crimson Bubbletear. It is dropped by the Erdtree Avatar guarding the Minor Erdtree in the east of the Mountaintops of the Giants. It will heal you back to half health when you're lower than about 20% health. Put this in Physick Flask. It will not allow you to tank every hit, but it will act as a clutch save.

Get yourself all the Ritual Pots available in the game. You can get some from merchants. Google guides on how to find the rest. This will determine how much Ice Pots you can carry.

Get yourself all the Cracked Pots available in the game. You can get some from merchants. Google guides on how to find the rest. This will determine how much Fire Pots you can carry.

Get yourself some Mushroom, and Smoldering Butterfly. These are the ingredients for Fire Pots. Craft 20 Fire Pots.

Get yourself some Rimed Crystal Bud. This is the ingredients for Freezing Pots. The easiest farming spot is the small icy tree grove in front of Ordina, Liturgical Town, the assassin village before the portal to the Haligtree. Craft 10 Freezing Pots.

Go to menu, look to the top right of the screen at the pouch slots. Assign the pots to them in the slots that have directional shortcuts.

Recommended charms: Green Turtle for stamina regen for any melee build, Claw Talisman if you're using greatswords, dual katanas, or other heavy weapons, as you'll be jumping attacking a lot. Lord of Blood's Exultation if you're using bleed. Starscourge Heirloom if you're using strength. Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom if you're using dexterity.

Alternatively, you can load yourself with Talismans that increase your carrying capacity, like Arsenal Charm, Great-Jar's Arsenal, or Erdtree's Favor. Light loaders have easier time dodging some of her moves.

Phase 1

This is Malenia. Malenia is in phase 1.

Malenia is lazy. Malenia idles a lot.

When Malenia is lazy, her attacks are mostly reactive. Malenia will react only when you get into punching range, like close enough to stand nose to nose, or when Malenia gets hit.

It (relatively) is safe to attack Malenia when Malenia is idle. But act quick. This can change any time.

So how do I fight her?

You will not fight Malenia.

Malenia is too good. Repeat after me: I will not fight Malenia.

What you will do is ambush Malenia. Snipe Malenia. You will HIT Malenia when she's LAZY. And then you will RUN.

(DO NOT SKIP!) How do I know when Malenia is lazy?

Malenia will waltz side to side when she is lazy.

Or you can test her by locking on and walking in until your character’s head blocks/overlaps the view of her feet. Your head should block about the red dot just like the picture. That is her range.

If Malenia does nothing, she is lazy. Attack.

If Malenia is not lazy, she will take action. Anything that is not nothing, which includes but not limited to running at you, slashing at you, kicking at you, attacking you, means Malenia is active. Dodge and keep dodging until she’s done. DO NOT FIGHT BACK. Wait until she gets lazy. How do I know if she is lazy? Read above.

(Suggestion: go in and try this out. Walk in and test her range. Do not do anything. Just walk in and prepare to dodge. Do not fight her. You will find that often she just stands there and does not attack. You will know what I am talking about.)

So how do I fight her, really?

Test her if she’s lazy. If idle, attack. Then run. Test her again. Repeat.
If not idle, run and dodge until done. Test her again. Repeat.

Or you can counter her big moves, which will be described in its appropriate section.

But most importantly, repeat after me: I will not fight Malenia. I will hit once or twice or thrice. Then I will run.

NEVER DRINK IN FRONT OF HER. She will stab yo face! Go across the pond to drink.

You will also keep the fight in the water. The arena is very well-designed. The water marks the safe area that you can fight safely without getting cornered. It has visual clues AND audio clues to tell you where the safest place for the showdown is.

What are my options?

There are many. You can pick any, but I find these following the most efficient:

If you use great swords, hammer, halberds, or any other heavy weapons, try equipping two of the same type and dual wield then jump attack using L1. One big chunk of health. Then run. Biggest hit per risk of one engagement.

If you use fast swords, like katana, try equipping two of the same type and dual wield then jump attack using L1. Hit her once or twice. Then run.

If you use whips, try equipping two of them and hit her at just outside her range with L1. You can do a full combo. As your whips are longer than her sword, she cannot hit you back and will usually run. You still however have to be mindful of her hardened counters.

What are her attacks?

I will not list all attacks nor all methods to dodge her, only the important ones and the easiest methods that I know. There are many other methods, but you will have to find them yourselves.

1. Her standard combo

This is Malenia.

Malenia has her favourite combo. Malenia swipes right, like picture 1. Then Malenia swipes left like picture 2. We'll call these slashes 1 and 2 respectively. This 1-2 combo is her standard combo. She will use it most often. She will almost always use it to counter when you attack.

When you attack and want to disengage, you will time your roll against her 1 and roll out.

Or if you jump attack and hit, her 1 will swipe over you and miss. Time your roll out against her 2 and roll out.

Do not panic roll out.

2. Her front flurry (NOT the Waterfowl Dance.)
She lunges forward and does a series of small slashes. This is one of the most dangerous moves besides the Dance.

Rolling back from this attack does not work unless you have light load. You will get hit unless lucky. It will not kill you outright if your dodge fails, but since new players always dodge backwards without light load, it will do serious chip damage and will add up if you always dodge wrong.

So how do I dodge? This move always starts from her 2. Look at picture number 2 again.



Anytime you see her hand in position 2, watch out for the sparks from her sword hand. Her 2 USUALLY comes after 1. BUT it can come from anything, even nothing. If you see the sparks from her sword hand, immediately roll towards the sparks in the direction of the green arrow to stand next to her shoulder and roll away from her again when she turns to swipe you. Remember: roll to sparks. Then roll away from her.

3. Stab
Roll sideways at the stab. This attack has steady rhythm. Hop. Click! STAB! Count 1, 2, 3. Roll at 3. Hop. Click! ROLL!

4. Uppercut
Roll back twice. Counter.

5. Charge up, dash in, swipe, SLAM!
Wait until she lunges and roll back twice. Counter.

6. Overhead slam
Roll back twice. Counter.

7. Kick
Roll back. Do not attack through it. It cannot be interrupted normally.

8. Charge up, lunge, grab
Roll sideways after she starts dashing.

9. Waterfowl Dance (The tornado)
Her undisputedly most dangerous move that will shred you into confetti if you don't know what you're doing.

This move never starts before she is below 75% of her health and can come up anytime after.

If you’re right next to her, spam roll twice into the first burst, perfect roll into the second, walk back from the third.

If you have a good shield, guard against the first burst, perfect roll into the second, walk back from the third. YOU CANNOT GUARD EVERY HIT.

If you’re far enough to outrun only the first burst, run away from the first, perfect roll into the second, walk back from the third. (You can do an extra roll towards the screen for safety.)

If you’re very far, outrun the first two bursts, then roll into the third.

The optimal ways to dodge are the second and the third methods. So don’t get too close. Test her. Hit. Run. Keep your distance.

I’ve survived everything so far and have reached the second phase. Now what?

This is Malenia. Malenia is in phase 2. Malenia is angy.

In this phase, she is much more aggressive and will actively chase you. You must be even more patient with the wait. Still, the same rules apply.

Repeat after me: I will not fight Malenia. I will hit once or twice. Then I will run.

You will spend the majority of time dodging and running. Dodge and run until she’s done. Again, DO NOT FIGHT BACK. Once she gets lazy, attack. Run. Repeat.

So how do I know now when she’s lazy?

In her second phase, she no longer gets lazy as much. It’s more like getting tired. She will relentlessly pursue you, then she just stops and WALKS. That’s when she’s tired/lazy. IF SHE WALKS, ATTACK.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen too often, so you will also have to counter her big hits too.

You will also NEVER drink until you’re REALLY far away, or she’s tired, or she's doing big hits that you’re safe from. Drinking outside these conditions and she is pretty much scripted to stab yo face. You will lose health and heal her besides.

So what are her new attacks?

Aside from all the attacks she has in phase 1, she gains a new variety of them.

1. Scarlet Aeonia (The Flower)


This Malenia. Malenia is doing Scarlet Aeonia. Malenia can rotate at a very limited rate. Malenia's tracking is bad.

Aside from her actual body in the air, she also has her collision box that extends down this vertical pole to a spot on the ground, represented in red. You cannot occupy this spot. The easiest way to dodge this is to SPRINT in and run around this spot like the green circle. She will miss and crash behind you. Once she crashes, leave.

Or you roll the instant she dives and roll the hell back out. This, however, has a greater risk of failure than the above method if you master the above.

While she’s blooming, don’t just forking stand and watch. This is the largest attack opportunity. If you’re mage, do your Comet Azure. If you’re not, throw pots at her. Hold the read button and press the directional button your pots are assigned to. The best combo is ice, fire, ice. Then go in and hit.

Beware: the next time she blooms, you will need to throw TWO ice pots to inflict one instance of frostbite. So throw ice, ice, and then go in.

2. Swoop
This happens when you’re far away from her. Drinking far away from her will always trigger this move. Don't worry. You have plenty of time to dodge. She will fly up, swoop at you, and U-turn to stab you. Roll sideways twice.

3. Uppercut
Pretty much the same as the first phase. Roll back twice and counter. This is one of the few major opportunities to attack. Except that this move might not be a definitive end to her combo now. While you’re trying to counter, she might chain this up to her…

4. Ground Slam
It's an overhead slam with a big butterfly explosion. Once you see this one coming and you're close, wait for her to plunge down and roll to her side or behind her. Counter.

If you're far, hold sprint when she's still in the air and sprint as soon as she lands. Go in from the sides around the explosion to counter. But again this might not be a definitive end of her combo. She might do another slam. Dodge the same way and counter. Do not miss this chance to counter. This is one of the few major opportunities to attack.

5. Shadow Clones

This is Malenia. Malenia is preparing to do her Shadow Clone attack. Shadow Clone attack is the second deadliest move beside her Waterfowl Dance. She will fizz like Pepsi and goes up like the picture before this happens. The easiest way to dodge her is to sprint towards the camera but a little to the left, at about 7-8 o’clock, just like indicated in the green arrow. Count the clones. 1, 2, 3, 4. The forth clone will stab. Roll left. Then she will stab. Roll left.

Remember: when you see this move, run away from her but a bit to the left, count 1, 2, 3, 4, roll, roll. Keep the rhythm and count just like you would 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but instead of counting, you roll left at 5 and 6.

You don't have enough room to run? Your fault. Fight in the forking WATER.

So in phase 2...

Run. You run and dodge until she's done.

Attack her when she's tired. Then run.

Counter her flower by throwing pots at her.

Counter her ground slam by going in from the sides.

Counter her uppercut.

Otherwise, run until she's finished.

Keep calm and be patient. Fight conservatively and methodically. You have clear conditions of engagement and how to disengage. Keep doing it and you will win.

Soon, Malenia will meet her match, but when? It's all up to you.

Hope this helps.

If this works for you:

You're welcome.

[MutantVampire]

Also of note: the butterfly ground slam & the one where she slashes down and does a front flurry are actually the same move - it's a stance move, and she decides which attack to do based on how close you are, so you should run in to get her to do the ground slam.

[MutantVampire]

Small correction: she doesn't only do the front-flurry after the 1-2. She can flow into it from most attacks that can combo, and also can occasionally do it from a standstill.

The flurry is also punishable under certain conditions - if the flurry will be the end of her combo, both prosthetic clicks will sound slightly different (the first click can be one of many different "non-combo" click sounds, though), and the final slash will be significantly delayed; she'll then suffer enough endlag to be easily punished.

[borgar]

this is a good guide, already beat her but I wish I had read your guide before I fought her lol

[Step on me, please]

My reaction speed is so garbage so i had to play hyper defensively against her

[solzy]

this is malenia

[mYTHEstar]

just mimic and nuke the hoe

[Arcadia]

If you are sooo unga bunga for this matchup, you can also use Kukris for bleeding. but expect a summon who can heal himself, buffs himself, tank lots of damage. In second phase, it only takes 15'ish kukris to destroy malenia.

[eXsanguinati]

nice guide
git gud

[River Victor]

Good luck, buddy. A samurai will definitely match her mettle.

[Squatting Samurai]

About to fight Malenia for the first time ever, wish me luck lol