Elden Ring streamer finally beats Malenia on their 3,000th attempt

After 32 days, over 100 hours, and 2,999 deaths, one Elden Ring player finally beat one of the game's most challenging bosses. 

Like many of us this year, content creator Dan Gheesling has been playing through Elden Ring. Also, like many of us, Gheesling has been slapped around by Malenia, Blade of Miquella – a lot. One month and 3,000 attempts later, though, they've finally picked up the win. 

Gheesling has been streaming their progress through the game, so you can see every moment, though the eventual victory proves the highlight. The streamer wears a wide-eyed, intense look on their face as they near the final blow, bursting out phrases like "this is it chat" that ring with a sense of both excitement and exhaustion (who can blame them). Once Malenia is down for the count, Gheesling gleefully celebrates while appearing pretty dang relieved. 

It's worth noting that Gheesling isn't running an optimal build -somewhat by design. They haven't put anything into vigour, so most shots from Malenia will take them down in one blow – that doesn't require going entirely hitless for the fight, but its pretty dang close. Gheesling also isn't using spells or parries, and consumables are limited to heals.

As you'd expect from a run that stretches to  3,000 runs, there are plenty of other highlights. Gheesling goes close in a couple of encounters, even getting Malenia to one blow before failing. 

In other Malenia-related news, Bandai Namco has sent community legend Let Me Solo Her an actual freakin' sword to celebrate all the times they've taken down Malenia. To be fair to Gheesling, they've also done the deed solo, though not quite over 1,000 times.

Elden Ring is predicted to be the best-selling game of 2022, which would mean beating Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.