Hard to believe, I know, but dataminers have discovered that Elden Ring's most notorious boss, Malenia, used to be even more difficult to beat than she already is.
By analyzing and playing through the 1.0 version of Elden Ring - that is, a version that's been untouched by patches or changes since the original game was pressed to disc and played offline to avoid just such updates - Kotn3l discovered several key differences with her attack pattern and abilities, making her significantly more aggressive.
"Upon encountering Malenia, her AI was [a] tiny bit different, unpolished even in this version of the game," explains Kotn3l in their video description (thanks, PC Gamer). "The most noteable change that she still has access to her 'old' 'Waterfowl, which modders have discovered before. This video aims to showcase some of her differences to the patched version."
The dataminer goes on to detail the differences which include her being more aggressive in Phase 1, boasting "slightly different combos", her improved blocking - "she blocks many, especially consecutive attacks" - and the recently-discovered "old" Waterfowl Dance. It also shows that the Phase 2 clone attack doesn't do scarlet rot build-up.
Talking of Malenia; an Elden Ring player has vowed to beat the infamous boss with a different build every day until DLC is announced… even though FromSoft has yet to confirm DLC is even coming to the RPG. And did you see the speedrun attempt in which someone completed Elden Ring without leveling up or getting hit… without skipping the optional Grafted Scion boss fight?
Someone also recently completed a full three-hour run without getting hit, whilst another world-record speedrun has completed the entire game in less than seven minutes.
A survey of Elden Ring players recently revealed what we love most about FromSoftware's open-world RPG, from our favorite weapons and spirit ashes, to our favorite NPCs, areas of the map, and boss battles, of course. And yes, it's still the best-selling game of 2022 in the US.
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