I have no clue how the online features work for console, on pc you get to see the messages all the time everywhere and you can only get invaded if you cooperate with another player.
I reckon console players without subscription can not do multiplayer cooperation or get invaded but that they do see messages.
this is how it worked when i played dark souls remastered on ps4.
sekiro doesnt have an online mode (messages were added in an update and there isnt any co-op in that game) whereas elden ring can be played in online or offline mode so i would imagine ps+ is needed to play online
Over these past few days I’ve been attempting to kill the baddest bitch in the lands between, Malenia, Blade of Miquella, Goddess of Rot and The Undefeated Warrior of the Shattering. This fight is hard, I’m certain I’ve tried her over 25 times already and holy canolli she is hard.
This fight might be my favorite duel in the series if it weren’t for one pesky attack, the waterfowl dance, a three hit attack that deals insane damage, is insanely quick and is incredibly difficult to dodge to the point where I’ve only been able to perfectly dodge all the damage once. It’s also an instant kill if i get hit by all 3 hits.
This attack is such a detriment to the fight as it discourages aggression. which is the best way to fight this fight imo, as she has very low poise and you can interrupt a lot of her attacks. making it a fierce back and forth where you dodge through her beautifully animated attacks and try to get your first hit in between to stagger her into a large amount of damage. which is incredibly fun, but the fact she can pull out a “no you die now” move turns this fight from a 9/10 to a 7/10.
Unrelated to the gameplay, but her boss design is gorgeous in both phases and her voice actor is one of the best ones. I haven’t beaten her yet but i think ill get a Midir level of relief when i finally do.
This, but also the hover into the air attack. I was so friggin’ disappointed when I saw an SL1 no cheese version of the fight, checked how they dodged it, and they didn’t, they just used a shield Ash of War to tank the entire thing.
Malenia (and the endgame bosses in general post-Fire Giant) are probably the worst thing about Elden Ring compared to other Souls games as I described a while back. She comes SO CLOSE but those handful of attacks kill the fight IMO.
It’s a real shame because giving a boss lifesteal is a genius FU to players as well as a way to design a boss you can’t powerlevel through to finish off Elden Ring. It’s just a shame she’s nowhere near as tight as The Nameless King or etc
oh, im on malenia right now. trying to get to grips with her. she’s murdering me, but i think she’s ace. her grab move is stylish as all hell. there’s a lot to learn.
now, waterfowl dance is dodgable; it’s hard as fuck, but doable. another one where you have to read it and dodge into it each time. this dude explains/shows it:
this is one of those fights where i just have to solo it. could take a while.
i love her design but she’s the worst example so far of fromsoft making bosses hard for the sake of being hard. she has no business having 2 full health bars + heal on attack + horseshit special move + clearly tuned for summons. i beat every boss in every other souls game solo (except the two tigers in ds2 which i used summons for) but i switched to a bleed build just to get malenia over with because she was so unfun to fight
I’m happy that i do have fun fighting her, as due to my build i do about a quarter of her healthbar each time i get a long combo on her. And with my spirit summon i once managed to do half her health with one combo.
And @Screaming_Meat thanks for that tutorial, i hope i can pull that off in game! So that attack wont ruin the fight for me anymore.
I didn’t have any trouble with that one actually, but different people have different difficulties
i think she’s meant to be hard for hard’s sake; she’s the game’s optional super boss.
what makes you say she’s tuned for summons?
THE BITCH IS DEAD , SHE IS DEAD , IAM BEYOND ECSTATIC AND MY HANDS ARE SHAKING AS I WRITE THIS. god what a fucking final fight (final as in last attempt) to have, my mimic tear did its job excellently and i had a perfect flow with dodging, it got tight near the end where she used the scarlet rot waterfowl dance on my mimic who died on hit 2 so she retargeted to me but i dodged through it like a fucking champion, taking minimal damage. god im so happy.
the rewards for beating her genuinly do make it seem like shes the super hard optional boss meant for hardcore players, as you get her katana with waterfowl dance, a miracle that is an explosion of scarlet rot and her rune that gives you the rally mechanic from bloodborne.
bloody great work, my man!
that doesnt make it better though, demon of hatred is an example of an optional super boss thats really hard but still fair. same with nameless king. malenia feels like they felt pressured to make a super hard boss and just phoned it in a bit
just the insane focus this game has on spirit ashes made me feel like i wasnt playing the game properly by not using them and by the halfway point i just started summoning mimic tear for every boss because i wasnt really having fun fighting them solo anymore. i think most other bosses i could reasonably beat solo on a future run but malenia having an attack that is essentially certain death if you’re too close to her and dont have bloodhound step is just begging you to use a summon and let her aggro on them. not fun at all
I don’t think they phoned Malenia in as the superhard boss of this game, because apart from one attack the rest is all dodgeable and doable once you’ve played the fight a bit. And even then, waterfowl dance can be dodged enough to were your hp isn’t half or fully gone. Or you can be good and dodge it fully, or you can use bloodhound step.
As for the focus on spirit summons, i get that. And i think the point is that you’re supposed to use them. And i think they’re a fun mechanic that aren’t detrimental to a fights fun
i think they put serious thought into her combat design.
malenia has got a strong moveset for 1 on 1 fights that somehow works with multiple opponents too. that isn’t something i think you can phone in. she can reposition to avoid cheese, she has good flow between moves, lots of attacks (but not too many to learn), and clear - and in some instances - unique telegraphing (the prosthesis is a pretty cool tell).
her on hit healing makes her difficult to cheese. you have to bring your ‘a game’ and minimise the damage you take. if she wasn’t an optional, end game challenge, that’d be frustrating but she’s not. you can’t over level or flask your way through the fight, either; you have to either learn her or her weaknesses (bleed, frostbite and stagger). even then, she’s still a challenge.
i’m still working on reacting correctly to two of her moves (flurry and water fowl), but they are learnable. she’s fast, fun and demands focus, which to me is the sign of a quality fight.
she’s the game’s final challenge: to defeat an undefeatable swordswoman. i think she’s ace and i haven’t got close to beating her in 30 attempts 
here’s a great video showing someone who clearly knows her moves, with no gimmicks, beating her solo as a third summon (double health, i think):
i dunno, i think the game is doable without them. i’ve used them on a handful of fights. they’re fun and i think they make the game more accessible, but i don’t think they’re necessary.
to clarify the phoned in comment. to me it feels like malenia is the first or second draft of a boss. she doesnt feel finished in the sense that there are some quirks that need to be ironed out (waterfowl dance needs to be easier to dodge completely for people up close without bloodhound step and she shouldnt have two meaty healthbars) that would make the fight way better if they were changed. i honestly love her character design and her second phase is interesting, she really only needs more fine tuning and she could be one of the better bosses in the series but right now she’s probably dead last for me
it is definitely doable without them, but you’re definitely pushed towards them. and for me they are detrimental to the fight because rather than having to learn the moves you can just stand back and go for cheap hits/stunlocking. im not saying i felt forced to use them or anything but it almost felt like peer pressure with how often you’re given them 
don’t let the game bully you into doing anything you don’t want to!
She should, i havent finished the game so i might be wrong, but every demigod/shardbearer had two phases. Not every shardbearer had two healthbars, but the one singular healthbar of radahn and mohg seems to be 2 healthbars in one with a phase change in the middle.
Shardbearers ive beaten:
Godrick, Renalla, Radahn, Rykard, Morgott, Malenia and Mohg
I’ll just say that I largely agree with this take. Compared to From’s many other banger endgame fights Malenia just doesn’t do it.
There’s a pretty good execution (and a little analysis in the description and etc) of pointblank Waterfowl Dance dodging here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiRZED7AJAs
A very experienced Soulsborne player could only do this consistently with an unbuffed medium roll after two hours of practice with a modded Malenia only using this attack. It’s essentially the Dark Souls equivalent of Moment 37 and IMHO should not be necessary to dodge a fairly common attack, which can easily kill you and will give the boss extra HP.
IMHO Spirit Summons work very well in the early segments of the game where they are essentially the AI equivalent to jolly co-operation.
However, in my experience running a STR/FAI greatsword build, there was a HARD climb of HP in bosses towards the end of the game, Malenia included, which was pretty abnormal for this subgenre, but returned to normal feeling, easy even, ONLY when I used a Summon. Add that with the fact Malenia’s achilles’ heel designed to let mere mortals beat the fight is the ability to stagger her, and… Yeah, you are kinda pushed into using them.
Mileage probably varies a lot based on weapon choice, though. For what it’s worth, I noticed no HP issues on regular enemies.
So, my experience essentially boiled down to rolling the dice on if my Mimic Tear would effectively stagger Malenia that run or not, as opposed to something like the vivid LEGENDS I can recall on beating Sword Saint Isshin, Slave Knight Gael, Soul of Cinder, The Nameless King, or etc for the first time
i dont mind her having two phases, honestly the more the better. she just shouldnt have two large health bars in addition to healing and an attack that will one shot you thats essentially undodgeable if you’re too close
this is exactly how i feel, the only reason i beat the fight is because my mimic helped me stunlock and bleed her. learning the fight never really felt like an option because theres no room for mistakes in practicing dodging her waterfowl dance. i could probably beat sword saint isshin blindfolded now bc of how well i rehearsed the fight but malenia i never want to touch again
i dunno, man. i think that might be over egging it a smidge?
it’s a very hard move to counter, for sure, but is it really “moment 37” material? we’re talking 4 well-timed dodges (or a sprint and three, or a block with an upgraded shield and two/three dodges or a sprint a raptor in the mists and a roll or three uses of bloodhound step/quick step or a frost pot during the relatively long wind-up) to counter it. when you take out the flash of it which causes a lot of players to panic (the biggest killer, i think), are those kinds of counters an unusual demand from players…? i’m not so sure. your man there was learning to do it point-blank when most other methods immediately run away during wind-up.
i don’t think it’s all that common either; her dash/flurry is much more frequent and has a very short tell. waterfowl is undoubtedly hard to practice against though, primarily because if it catches you it’ll likely kill you. a lot of players don’t pump vigor either, so that doesn’t help…
i dunno. i haven’t beaten her yet so maybe i’m not getting it (or i’m a masochist). i think she ranks up there with isshin, artorias, etc. in terms of great souls duels. it’s a fun fight. indubitably tough, but it feels great to engage and (try to) learn and unpack her.
me who is five days in total game time into the game and hasn’t seen the credits yet
