Elden Ring‘s hardest boss, Malenia Blade of Miquella, was originally supposed to be harder than she currently is.
Elden Ring dataminers love picking apart FromSoftware’s latest title and have been doing so since its release back in February, but earlier this month, they seemed to have found a much harder version of Malenia in the pre-patch 1.0 build (via pc gamer).
Dataminer kotn3l discovered that the 1.0 version of the boss featured more aggressive mechanics, like pursuing the player in the first phase, and better, more regular blocks from the players’ attacks. She even had a second variation of her signature move.
You can check out the dataminer’s breakdown video below:
Kotn3l uncovered in the 1.0 item descriptions that her ultimate boss ability was originally called “Malenia’s Blade” and she also had a second moving flurry attack that didn’t feature long pauses and didn’t allow her to travel across the arena at long distances. The dataminer believes this to be the original Waterfowl Dance.
Additionally, while in the current Elden Ring build, the player has to take Malenia’s health down to 80 per cent for her to start her initial flurry attacks, in the 1.0 version there isn’t a requirement and she is able to use her two different flurry abilities back-to-back.
Kotn3l explains in their YouTube video that during the beginning of the fight, Malenia “very rarely” follows up her dash with her kick attack. With her de ella more regular blocks and aggressive phase one attacks, she looks way more challenging than her current build de ella and the dataminer seemed to have some trouble catching up with her.
After failing to beat her in the video, it also looks like she doesn’t have any death dialogue either, although kotn3l points out that they may have done something wrong.
In other news, developers at Gamescom Opening Night Live could pay over £71,000 to show their game.