How Many Crucible Knight Duos do you Need to Defeat Malenia? - Elden Ring

In this elden ring video I'm testing how many of the crucible knight duo (made of ordovis and siluria) it takes to beat the boss fight with Malenia, blade of Miquella. I've started by placing one single duo on the field against Malenia, and then added 2 knights every time they were defeated until I could determine how many it takes to beat the boss fight.
According to the elden ring lore Malenia, sister of Miquella, is the daughter of Radagon of the golden order and hence a demigoddess, who was cursed upon birth with a rotting body. Along with Radahn, she is considered to be the mightiest of the demigods and was the last warrior standing on the battlefield after the shattering, where she fought against Radahn in a battle which ended in a draw. After being carried home to the haligtree, she found out her brother's cocoon was gone and now spends her days awaiting his return.
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#bossfight #darksouls #eldenring

[@christianpena707]

It took almost every Crucible knight in the game to take her down damn

[@asta8153]

And they still died

[@FelixMBlume]

Nice bear, cute

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Or if her katana had Lifesteal when we used it.

[@pingouin3664]

*only every crucible knight in the game

[@jamesputterlik225]

It wouldn't be so bad if they backed off for the Scarlet Aeonia that kicks off phase 2. That seems to be the only real fail for pretty much every AI in the game.

[@ThePsuedo]

Them being clustered together was like food whenever she did her waterfowl dance in the first stage.

[@ZZMonkeysUncleZZ]

Which is why they won once they managed to burn down phase 1 before she could use it. Whenever she got even one off, it would mean the knights would take too much damage in the first phase to have a chance at surviving scarlet aeonia.

[@victord.monkey9081]

Yeah the RNG fucked them with her dance. If she does it P1 its already gg

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

If only our Scarlet Aeonia had, even, a fraction of the power that Malenia's Aeonia contains.

[@akocleol3856]

and waterfowl... we get crappy versions of what these boses can do lol

[@stansarecancer2175]

@@akocleol3856 waterflow is pretty good tho.

[@MrCritic77]

@@akocleol3856 We get the dollar store, chinese knockoff version Millicent has except we can’t just spam it.

[@ozytriestomeme5070]

malenia's scarlet aeonia is actually a fraction of it's original power because she released a lot of it in her fight with radahn

[@codaboggs8430]

@@ozytriestomeme5070 we aren’t talking lore here at all. Purely experience, fighting her. And when she uses it on us it’s absolutely absurd. When I use it for even PvE, it’s very impractical

[@moonlightmagician8279]

The single duo did way better than I expected

[@kingdice2578]

Yeah I didn’t expect them to do too great, ig it’s because she had less enemies to heal off of.

[@moonlightmagician8279]

@@kingdice2578 that and the crazy poise damage they dish out

[@nickhoude21]

It took 15 of one of the hardest miniboss enemies in the game (that are also sometimes bosses) to stunlock her to death, and it was *STILL* a tie

[@IchiroSuzuki97]

7:50 Ordovis: THIS IS WHERE WE HOLD HER, THIS IS WHERE WE FIGHT, THIS IS WHERE SHE DIES!!

[@33GLOCK]

LOL

[@MrThetruth1986]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@Jameswf96]

Malenia is the only boss that gets harder with more summons. She can easily get 5 hits per swing and heal from all of them.

[@grimreefer213]

Yeah the heal off hit is kind of BS, but I actually kind of like it because it forces you to git gud and stop abusing mimic tear XD

[@Jameswf96]

@@grimreefer213 exactly! I can only fight her naked and without summons now. The light roll makes the waterfowl dance a joke.

[@grimreefer213]

@@Jameswf96 Yeah, the buff to light roll is pretty nice. I prefer wearing armor though because with no defense you take hella damage, so I can beat her with medium roll but it took a long time to learn how to avoid wf dance. Malenia isn’t exactly a fair boss and feels a bit inconsistent at times, but it forces you to get good on a whole new level. Simply rolling at the right time isn’t enough, you need to roll in the right direction too, for example she does multi hit attacks so if you roll backwards or in the wrong direction she punishes you. It took me awhile to learn how to avoid her attacks and manipulate her AI to avoid wf dance when I get caught up close, but I eventually figured it out and i’ve beat her several times now. Now that i’ve got pretty good at her maybe I won’t wear armor next time because I don’t get hit as often as I used to

[@renegade6578]

@@grimreefer213 by gitting gud I hope you mean abusing rivers of blood hitstun cause that's what I did lmfao

[@maxpash6133]

The fact that they were only able to beat her once she wasn't able to use her waterfowl dance is telling of how devastating that move is

[@JasonLuthor]

Yeah. Damages and grants a health gain for her. Gods I remember the first time fighting her and just screaming "WHAT IS HAPPENING!?"

[@jamesputterlik225]

Scarlet Aeonia is basically the end all for any AI controlled character. Their mindless rush to the enemy will undo them every time

[@fable23]

I'm like 99% sure Scarlet Aeonia was designed entirely to decimate summons. Since summons use the same AI as enemies, they know only attacking, and will rush in and get toasted 99% of the time. If we could teach the AI to not just try to face tank Scarlet Aeonia, their chances of victory would go up by like a factor of ten.

[@gb9884]

Unless your summon is ranged it has a better chance at not being a fool.

[@sahid2_-]

I like using mimic, even though people hate but if you pay attention at how mimic fights it can play smart. W her i only used frost breath and healing magic and blasphemous blade. Also equipped some healing stones. If you spam certain attacks the mimic will start to copy them

[@xXblackgaarangelXx]

I'm as dumb as the AI. I got hit and died immediately in phase 2 to the flower like 5 times in a row 🤣 so pretty sure it works against real people too (if you've never seen it before)

[@fable23]

@geta bagboy Tiche is a very boom or bust summon for me. Sometimes she is an untouchable ballerina of death, but sometimes her AI just doesn't feel like playing and she will eat every attack. It's a toss up

[@ididntaskverified3663]

If the game had no summons it would be better

[@aperson9847]

I was going to say the duo at the beginning did surprisingly well, but then I realized she never waterfowled. The whole fight really just is that one move, huh

[@Khazuki_]

that and bloom

[@systmerr9445]

On my recent NG+ playthrough, I fought her so many times and learned every part of that fight so well aside from that one attack that I died to Waterfoul Dance something like 20 times in a row.

[@MartinPurathur]

The fight is a good fight regardless and has decent difficulty The issue is that the move is unbalanced

[@jacobfreeman5444]

Her regeneration and her affinity for inflicting rot. Waterfowl dance is nasty less because of its damage potential, high as it is, but more that she heals for obscene amounts with every hit. So a move that is all about spamming dozens of blows over a wide area is just disgusting. And then she decides to inflict the rot status on you if you get near her. Which is an incredible DOT. Without those working for her I think a lot fewer knights would have been neccessary.

[@shreksmeatballs9435]

Pretty sure they did that well because she doesn't have an ounce of poise on her. She still decimates them, with or without Waterfowl.

[@AK-tr6lo]

No, it’s definitely that type of video but the knights are trapped in there with her.

[@BjornTheBear]

😂😂😂😂

[@Blasteronefr]

4:03 the one knight not willing to participate slayed me

[@ericbana191]

I always wondered where the term "waterfowl dance" came from, that too for a sword fighting technique or move. Then it clicked, oh GRRM was involved in Elden Ring, and the most elegant swordsman in Westeror or Bravos calls his technique water dancing. I may be over thinking, but looking at how gracefully and fast Malenia moves, it reminds me of Syrio Forel and Arya.

[@magnetronman298]

The description on hand of malenia mentions that it's because of continuous hops on one foot, this only really works on the 1.0 version of waterfowl dance unfortunately

[@s8theninjawarrior916]

​@@magnetronman298 just look at the present animation for waterfowl, you'll see she actually hops on one leg all the way through, so no, the version in 1.0 isn't the only version that works with the description...

[@phoenixbythefire4555]

Should be interesting. Malenia is very resistant to holy damage and The Giga Chads are very resistant to Scarlet Rot

[@julispears4949]

*Scarlett Aeonia kills all crucible knights*

[@nicholas4256]

@Makima pov: you’re not a giga chad

[@alastor8091]

@Makima Makima would never say this. She lusts after the biggest Gigachad in Hell.

[@francescocolasanti6245]

Ah! I see a Carbot reference!

[@cuteboy51]

@@francescocolasanti6245 I totally have a Giga Chad shirt, too funny not to get one for me!

[@entropicking6007]

Man if there is a boss that lived to its title and hype its malenia, it really takes a lot to defeat her.

[@marvinscheer1028]

Well, yes but also no. I used the Fallingstar Beast Jar on her last time and this weapon is as broken or even more broken than Rivers of Blood. Sure wasn't very sophisticated but it's also funny to destroy her with some builds.

[@terskataneli6457]

@@marvinscheer1028 yea the jaw can cheese any boss quite easily

[@davidtsmith33]

True.

[@gentleman5513]

Let me solo her

[@optic9065]

@@marvinscheer1028 did you use a summon? She should be able to dodge the AOW on the jaw without something distracting her

[@bradandsarahibbard1831]

It looked pretty sick when all of them just started going all angel wing together. Like a bunch of angels trying to kill a demigod.

[@kurtisjack3358]

A pack of crucible knights = nightmare fuel

[@Crichjo32]

2 of them are bad enough. 15 of them is truly a waking nightmare.

[@kicsiduda]

7:50 When Gug joins the fight, shit gets serious

[@ThatGuyOrby]

"Gug" -Crucible Knight Gug

[@geordiejones5618]

Seeing this makes me wanna see FromSoft make an entire legacy dungeon that's fighting itself. Like a whole seige in progress and you can fight in the front or sneak in or use a secret entrance. Just all the chaos of a huge battle with some destructible environment too. And the two bosses are the two commanders of the opposing sides.

[@blueeyeschaosmaxdragon8186]

Yo that'd be sick as hell

[@alejandrochavez213]

Castle morne in the weeping peninsula has a mini section in the ramparts where the soldiers and misbegotten are fighting each other and was fun as hell

[@lewie9432]

The edit for the last batch of knights was sick, great video!

[@EscanorChi]

It came down to how little damage they would take on the first half, but Malenia, what a beast

[@oliverl.9004]

The reason why even a big number of em isn't able to beat her is because they don't dodge her bloom at all. The majority is lumped together and getting wiped out together simply because the AI never understands to dodge that one attack.

[@lostgenius]

The number of knights doesn't really matter. Without the bloom pretty sure 1 or 2 duos could beat her. The AI not dodging really holds them back.

[@asta8153]

Without attacks, pretty sure 1 can beat her

[@albertogarciaprieto4637]

​@@asta8153 that doesn't make any sense

[@janner2006]

@@albertogarciaprieto4637 The joke is that if *Malenia* didn't fight back one could solo her.

[@albertogarciaprieto4637]

@@janner2006 I get the joke, but the guy up there is right, the bloom is what saves her, pretty much like an super upgraded version of the radanh meteor. If you took any other move from her she wouldn't care but if you remove the bloom she is pretty much fucked up

[@LS-mb4my]

I've noticed her rot damage is absolutely insane on NPCs and bosses as well, dealing up to 5% max HP per tic at a very rapid rate.

[@leonpaul7751]

I really like how almost everyone who manages to beat Malenia ends up dying to the scarlet rot. It very much gives me "sent there to die" vibes.

[@avalonjustin]

I've just discovered these Gladiator Ring videos and they are addictive. Thank you for the entertaining content.

[@Psychx_]

The problem is that even when you increase their numbers, their smarts don't add up. It doesn't really matter if you have one monkey or 10 monkeys try to install a lightbulb - gather enough of them and the likeliehood to smash it increases though :P

[@ThatguyOverthereLLC]

Crucible Knight Duo? Nah I call them Poise Boys

[@GustavoEBarriga]

She was more likely to die by heal overdose with the waterfowl.

[@seapeajones]

Their poise and stun are so good. I was a little surprised it took that many to win.

[@jaromanderson2877]

I’ve always been curious whether dung eater could’ve fought his way out of the underground roadside

[@katrina561]

YAAAYYY. You finally did it thank you so much. It took alot more than i was expecting im surprised, all though it is malenia

[@akocleol3856]

her waterfowl doesnt get interrupted. she can win any number if she just spams that

[@perrytran9504]

I still hate this about waterfowl after beating the game at lvl 1 (including Malenia.) Godskin Noble's roll and Radagon's jumping AoE spam are both moves you can stagger them out of if you use something like Flame of the Redmanes. Malenia is not only immune to stagger during waterfowl but instantly regenerates her stance if it's broken during moves like that. The status proc trick only works twice per attempt for frost pots too due to increased resistance with each proc.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

@@perrytran9504 Poking Noble mid-roll with a lance or spear is hilarious because not only does he get staggered out of if, but he take massive counter-damage too.

[@akocleol3856]

@@perrytran9504 well you already beat her at lvl one. not like u want to make it easier right? lol

[@perrytran9504]

@@akocleol3856 Trust me, having beaten all the games playable on PC at lvl 1 (so everything except Bloodborne), it's not just done for the sake of masochism. Many of us take it as a reasonable jump in difficulty over a normal playthrough to force you to better understand all the levels and bosses. You don't need to be a god to beat lvl 1, but you do need to have a good grasp of all the boss patterns and AI, where all the enemies are placed and which are dangerous, etc. In doing this you can really deepen your appreciation for well designed fights, as the game becomes harder again like your first playthrough but now you're a smarter player who knows how to study the game more intentionally. But in the case of ER and especially Malenia, you become more aware of how dumb some design choices are in the arms race to keep challenging the player. Some things like Radagon's teleport or Mohg's blood splatters just add chaos that you can't easily react to, other things like Malenia's waterfowl you can but have such a tiny room for error it's better to try and exploit it than combat it directly (i.e. trick her to blowing it at a distance or use a frost pot if you get unlucky and she uses it point blank.)

[@davidtsmith33]

The boys did well. Thing is the scarlet rot dive in at start of phase 2 is what catches everybody. Basically game over. If they would only hang back to avoid it would be a different story.

[@zackhicks5320]

They had a better first run than most😂

[@jimmyhan2329]

Malenia is great boss but her mechanic now makes the next fromsoftware bosses even harder like there is gonna be a boss who drains health and mana with stamina like cmon now

[@plinfan6541]

Actully, I think she might be the difficulty limit for Fromsoftware games. The complaints about her are already pretty heavy, if they go even harder into the difficulty, they would have to break the "Hard, but fair" rule completly.

[@valkerionrides9879]

Shes not even "hard" shes lame her whole fight is forgettable if you remove that one move. Adding a spammable move that has insane tracking, insane damage and there is no way to stop it or interrupt it at all isn't hard its just cheap. A lot of bosses in Sekiro are exactly like her however in that game you have the mechanics to actually deal with it here you don't.

[@plinfan6541]

@@valkerionrides9879 Pritty much. After a certain moment Bossfights become a drag to fight or require Speedrun-tier Exploits to beat. Which is only "fun" for people that do hardcore challange runs, but not for normal Players

[@corpID]

I think it could have worked with 10 or at least 12 if she hadnt used her waterfowl dance Nice Video again, at first i hoped you maybe add all of the 16 Crucibles 1 by 1 sorted by strenght Would have been damn cool too

[@matheusaquinos]

on the other hand, if she used the waterflow with 15 that would be game over too

[@truepickle4956]

1 Crucible Knight has me shitting my pants, thinking of ever taking on more than 10 I would just uninstall the game

[@te6067]

New subscriber, your channel is amazing man. Phenomenal work!

[@builtlikemotomoto]

The beginning of the two duos was so satisfying when the ones in the middle commenced in a rush-in while the other too walked slowly in sync as if they are the back-up squad.

[@Wryler8]

Watching these make me honored to have beat her. I struggled with every single crucible knight.

[@poopuswoopus35]

I like how you can tell the AI takes a shit trying to find you and then realizes that you aren't the target

[@marbzirc376]

The more I watch these videos of Malenia taking on so many, the more I fall in love with her character. And this is coming from somebody who actually hates fighting her.

[@danielholguin7621]

I feel like Malenia was designed to do stuff like this instead of fight a human player. There is absolutely nothing they can do against Scarlet Aeonia or Waterfowl Dance, and she gets almost her entire health bar back.

[@zerozone5848]

the Free Bird solo rift is definitely playing as the music on Malenia's end.

[@ivan92571]

Would’ve been cool if all the crucible knights all jumped up and used their wings whenever malenia would use scarlet aeonia

[@skendig214]

I was rooting hard for those knights. So many brave souls laid to waste.

[@fathercosmic8061]

Bro, the way they made her flop in the beginning was fucking hilarious 😂😂😂😂

[@balajikamalesh3338]

The more enemies you put in, she would gain back her health faster while she does that waterfowl dance

[@joesshows6793]

She hits ya with the blooming onion and they all die of heart burn

[@slushygamer8237]

Man her attack on her second phase just destroys almost all npcs unless they get very lucky. Also did you make each number of knights fight multiple times in case of flukes?

[@ryananjaniarmunggaran4490]

the boys give Kamikaze at 8:50, no quarter none given up

[@lordderppington4694]

So, it actually looks like you could do it with far fewer knights. Unlike the earlier rounds where they all hit Malenia at once and instantly baited her waterfowl, she got hit by a few single hits, before being poise broken and phase transitioned in that poise break. That gave them enough health/time to decimate her during Aeonia

[@Addyboy0190]

Bonus idea, recreate Godfrey's army of 16 crucible knights 5 tree and 11 axe

[@mana.related]

If there were ever a screenshot for might itself, it'd be the 15 crucible knights staring down a single opponent they wouldn't come back from fighting.

[@dylanbeasley3093]

Good to see even malenia has a problem with those guys

[@trackert3358]

Love how all 15 of them still rotted to death in the end lolol

[@LiegeMaximo]

4:03 That knight at the back : "What a show"

[@thenomadmagician3417]

I personally would like to see some Seal Prison Bosses vs normal Bosses if possible, but also some variation in the Boss Battles. Like as exaple i would like to see Bosses team up or a certain Number of Bosses vs other bosses. A suggestion would be Morgott, Margit & Godrick vs all Bosses or like 5 Seal Boss Giants or 5 Godefroys vs Bosses.

[@nickzimmer2753]

From about 4:00 - 4:20 I rather enjoy the supervisor to the right of the making sure they get her good 😂

[@Angeldelinfierno8000]

The problem of NPCs/Bossses fighting Malenia is their AI doesn't have self preservation, so they go directly to the Scarlet Aeonia like kamikazes

[@Txhop11]

The fights that you put together are unmatched, let me say that first. Have you ever thought about doing your build versus some of these situations tho? Like, you vs crucible knights until you lose, or you vs x amount of bosses until you lose?

[@FoxySpartan117]

4:00 up until her second phase my boy is just recording that GB.

[@caiodiniz7371]

As always, it needs to be enough of them for a few to be out of range of the scarlet blossom 2nd phase first attack

[@scruffy5812]

Malenia: nice to see u again. Whose the red? Knights: our bucket

[@stevesmith9447]

This is obviously unfair to the Crucible Knights. Since Malenia never reaches for a potion, they have absolutely no idea when they're supposed to attack. Edit: Geez, even if it's every Crucible Knight in the Lands Between, they still have to just hope she doesn't do Waterfowl Dance.

[@stream_gene]

15 Crucible Knights?! I've had anxiety dreams like that lol

[@agioezio8338]

Im not sure if you did yet or not but can you make a video of all the bosses battling and see who comes out on top?

[@grimreefer213]

Nice to see even Malenia gets pieced up by the crucible knight duo so i’m not alone lol

[@beowulfforce]

The beahavior of Malenia and in general the all bosses change when fight again more opponents become more aggresive, in some cases more is not the best solution. The thing that made Malenia special is the fact that absorb HP though deal 0 damage to opponent, also the continuos Scarlet Rot damage is obscene.

[@woundedduck]

7:49 lord of the rings two towers when elf's came into town lol

[@williamnichols9877]

I want to see how the crucible knight duo does against other bosses

[@thehellogoodbye]

bosses vs the biggest mountaintop of the giants carian hand

[@bdrizzy4479]

Lol this but war by Edwin Starr plays at the beginning of each battle.

[@spinyslasher6586]

99% of the boss vs Malenia has the same problem of the boss not knowing how to dodge her scarlet aeonia and dying as a result.

[@angelcm156]

After seeing all the Malenia vs bosses fights, I can conclude that indeed miss Blade of Miquella is broken in her poise mechanics, once she starts some combos or the dance attack, there is no way of stopping her, you either run or saw all her health growing back

[@chrislaverick6413]

I guessed 12 off the bat, the flower bloom move is just unfair against the comp ai

[@dart.115]

Almost was lore accurate given there were 16 Crucible Knights under Godfrey. Actually, would love to see a vid of Godfrey and his 16 Knights vs bosses, just to show off why he ruled

[@caopi9783]

It doesn't even need a Duo to defeat me xD

[@GodKillerKRAT0S]

The ammont of stagger they do is crazy but the health she regains from waterfowl dance is appalling

[@ainsly19]

That last one gave me 300 vibes.💯💯 'tonight we dine in hell!'

[@phoenixbythefire4555]

If they could dodge the first Flower, probably 6 could take her down.. Alas the hyper aggressive AI was their downfall

[@lordaizensama8852]

2:32 that Crucible Knight was like: Hmm, Damn Malenia you are really cool.. Oh wait, fighting!

[@07kilswitch]

Almost poetic it took a whole battalion of the strongest soldiers in the land to take her down but in the end they all perished soon after to the scarlet rot

[@jack710i2]

Malenia was like "dead or alive you're coming with me"

[@johnweaver311]

Fifteen knights and she still killed them all.

[@ThomasDesJardins]

This would be cool to see with demigods instead of knights.

[@XxvaultlegendxX]

theres only one man i know of who does not make a mistake when malenia starts her waterfowl dance

[@dungeonmaster8342]

The crucible knights are my favorite enemy the look cool and have a cool moveset

[@keksikunkku]

This video really shows how broken Malenia healing is.

[@willcarmichie698]

0:33 Funniest moment in a game that I’ve seen in a long time. JUMP PARRY!

[@Paddywakker]

Black knives vs leyndell army gotta do it

[@kyuzona]

do Crucible Knight vs Banished Knights please

[@CrusasTheOrc]

Despite how strong her lifesteal is, her poise is so abysmal that almost every attack floored her, the first hit from Ordovis even launched her into the air lmao

[@samsmart7924]

Tactical nuke makes short work of bosses.

[@leonardodavi2695]

They don't even try to dodge the Scarlet Aeonia, so they keep falling like flies.

[@lunotarr]

That's nice. All her enemies downed. I hate to see when she looses.

[@Vampunz]

I love watching her destroy everyone.

[@SkyFlg]

First phase is enough for me. Because in the second phase ai does not work against the area damage of her.

[@Irreverent_Izzy]

Basically it´s just about how many Knights can take her down before dying, because the AI does not even try to dodge the 2nd fase bloom. Malenia will always kill all of them even after she´s dead and that´s only because nobody tries to evade the bloom.