Elden Ring’s Malenia was originally much harder in 1.0

At this point, we all know the pain that Malenia, Blade of Miquella has caused players. In terms of difficulty, she’s one of the trickier fights in the game. That’s not all too surprising considering she’s an entirely optional fight towards the end of the game. With that said, it’s hard to imagine Malenia being any harder than she currently is. However, dataminers have discovered that Malenia was originally going to be a much harder boss in Elden Ring‘s pre-patched 1.0 version.

Elden Ring dataminer kotn3l posted a video showcasing Malenia from a 1.0 version of the game, which is only available via Elden Ring‘s on console. Along with a host of other changes, it seems that Malenia’s boss encounter plays out quite differently. The usual stuff is here, she still siphons health with each attack, has two phases, and plenty of her iconic moves remain. Her behavior is very different, though, and she even has an alternate form of her Waterfowl Dance attack.

The hardest boss just got harder

Immediately, you’ll notice that Malenia seems much more aggressive. Not only that, but she seems to block the player’s attacks more frequently as well. There’s also the fact that she can use her Waterfowl Dance move as often as she likes. Usually, she needs to be reduced to 80% health before she can use it, but that’s not the case here.

Toss in a few alternate combos, and you’ve got the recipe for a trickier boss fight. The real game changer here is a newly discovered attack. It’s similar to Waterfowl Dance in that it can defeat the player extremely quickly. It seems much more unforgiving at first, though. Malenia simply starts walking toward the player while unleashing the dangerous combo without allowing much time to react.

There’s actually a fair amount of speculation regarding this attack. It seems that the name “Waterfowl Dance” could actually refer to this new move, while “Malenia’s Blade” could be the name of the attack we’re all familiar with. This is how it’s referred to in the item description for Malenia’s weapon in 1.0. FromSoftware often alter these descriptions, so it may not be too important.

Malenia’s second phase doesn’t seem to be all that different from what it currently is in Elden Ring. If anything, it almost looks easier than it does now. This is mostly due to Malenia using her dive attack more frequently, which leaves her vulnerable to multiple attacks. Apart from that it looks to be about the same, with a few small differences here and there.

Try it out yourself

Judging from this video, Malenia could’ve been a real pain in Elden Ring‘s 1.o version. Thankfully, FromSoftware pulled back on its punches this time around. There’s also some good news for those who want to give this version of Malenia a try. Kotn3l posted a mod that alters Malenia’s AI to fight like she did in version 1.0. If that’s something you want to put yourself through, you can go ahead and try it out right now.