Elden Ring players have worked out that Malenia has averaged killing ten players every second since the game launched – and they're stunned.
"How has she been able to kill 10 players per second since the game's release? Are we stupid?" posited one amazed player on the Elden Ring subreddit.
"I'll tell you just one word: Waterfowl," said one succinct commenter, garnering over 4000 upvotes.
"Waterfowl is the only reason I can't include Malenia amongst the best Souls bosses," added another. "It's not good, mechanically. It can be avoided, and I've solo'd her so it's possible and everything, my main problem with it as a mechanic is to a player who hasn't looked up a guide or had 100 attempts, it's not clear at all what the game expects the player to do. And I can't think of any other good Souls bosses that are designed that way. I don't even mind the lifesteal honestly."
"There's also the Scarlet Rot nuke that starts the second phase," said another. "The number of times I've tried to help other players with that fight for them to immediately die at the start of the second phase is probably over 50 per cent of the time (yes, it's avoidable by running you don't need to keep telling me, it doesn't change the fact I see people die to it all the time)."
"Admiring the pretty bossfights is normally what kills me," admitted another subredditor. "Rykard's probably one of the easiest bosses in the game, but his animations and arena are such a spectacle that I found myself not hitting him for a while just so that I could watch the fight. Radahn, Malenia, and not-sewer Mohg are also pretty fights."
Elden Ring players were also recently blown away by a late starter who's somehow reached the Godskin Apostle without understanding a basic function of the game: fast travel. It kicked off a wider conversation about how some players were several hours into the game without understanding other key features, too, with one player admitting that they'd gone all the way to the Capitol before they realized you could level up your flask.
Murdering people is all part of the fun in Elden Ring, but have you ever tried to take out Melina right at the start of the game? Well, this player did, popping up on the Elden Ring subreddit to share a brief clip of them setting the ground alight before stopping at a site of grace and summoning Melina.
By setting a fire before she arrives, Melina will kneel down amongst the flames, converse with you, and then finally succumb to the fire, killing her.
Don't forget, Elden Ring's DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, has finally been confirmed. Earlier this week, FromSoftware announced "an upcoming expansion" that is "currently in development" and attached an image showing a mysteriously extinguished Erdtree, with a lone figure in the distance standing among a field of spectral gravestones…
Celebrate a year of Elden Ring with some of our favourite moments from The Lands Between.
