Elden Ring Datamine Suggests Malenia Used to Be an Even Tougher Boss

Elden Ring is an open-world RPG with a vast number of weapons and play styles available. This means that each Elden Ring player’s experience with the game is likely to be unique to them. Players will have differing opinions on separate areas of the game’s map, which bosses should be done in which order, and even which ending is the best. But surprisingly, most Elden Ring players can agree on which of the game’s bosses is the most difficult, namely, Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

Malenia is one of the Elden Ring’s many optional world bosses, and she reaches the top spot on most boss difficulty lists due to being a deadly combination of fast, punishing, and extremely hard hitting. Malenia also has a unique life-stealing effect which causes her health bar to regenerate with every hit she lands on the player, and this coupled with her various combos means that all of a player's progress during the boss fight can quickly be undone in a matter of seconds.

It may be hard to believe, then, but this boss fight was once even tougher in the 1.0 version of Elden Ring, which is the version of the game that can be found on game discs before any patches or updates. A FromSoftware-focused Youtuber named Kotn3l has made a video showcasing all the differences between the 1.0 version of Malenia and the version that was seen in Elden Ring upon the game’s release.

The video reveals many subtle changes that were made to Malenia’s boss fight, such as timings for attack animations and an increased propensity for blocking the player’s attacks. This 1.0 version of Malenia seems to have had increased aggression towards the player as well. Kotn3l’s video also reveals that an attack similar to Malenia’s notorious Waterfowl Dance attack was cut from Elden Ring.

The Waterfowl Dance is Malenia’s most brutal attack and features a flurry of blades swiping around the rapidly moving boss. This combo secretly acts as an AOE attack, which is why it has caught so many Elden Ring players off guard when they try to dodge through it. What Kotn3l’s video reveals, however, is that this notorious attack may not be the original Waterfowl Dance. In the 1.0 build of Elden Ring, this attack is known as Malenia’s Blade. The Boss’ second AOE flurry attack is also far more suited to the name Waterfowl Dance.

As pointed out by a commenter under Kotn3l’s video, this removed second attack has Malenia perform a similar AOE flurry of blade swipes, but this time while hopping on one foot. This is visually similar to how cranes are often depicted standing on one foot and could be where the attack originally received the name Waterfowl Dance.