How to Beat Malenia

Waterfowl Dance: Malenia will rise into the air before leaping forward with many slashes. She will leap forward again with more slashes, and then yet again with more, finished off with a wide area slash. If you get caught by even some of these slashes, you will likely die, and each of these many hits will heal Malenia. Run backwards for the first two slash combos, then dodge forward for the rest of the combo. The Bloodhound's Step Ash of War trivialises this attack.

Grab Attack: Malenia will leap forward and attempt to grab you. If she does, she will deal massive damage, likely killing you. You can simply dodge sideways to avoid this as it is quite easy to see coming when she raises her hand up. In phase 2, she will follow this up with a jumping slash and a long range thrust, which must both be dodged sideways.

Kick Combo: Malenia will kick the player and then follow up with a slashing or stabbing combo with her sword. Avoiding the kick is easy enough by dodging backwards, and you should then dodge diagonally backwards a couple more times to avoid the subsequent hits.

Uppercut: Malenia will raise her sword before performing an uppercut, after which she will jump into the air and slam her sword down. These both deal huge damage. Dodge backwards for the first hit, and then sideways for the second hit.

Spin Combo: Malenia will charge forward and perform a spinning attack, hitting twice and dealing high damage. This is easy to see coming when Malenia raises her sword up. Dodge backwards twice to avoid this hit.

Swift Combo: When Malenia's prosthetic arm activates, indicated by a metallic noise and a spark animation, she is about to leap forward and slash at you four times very rapidly, with a delay on the final hit. You cannot dodge each individual hit - you most avoid the first three rapid hits in one dodge, meaning you rely on perfect timing for your i-frames to protect you. When you hear the metallic noise, dodge forward, then pause, and dodge backwards to avoid the final hit. Be warned that Malenia can spam this attack multiple times.

Thrust Dive: Malenia can jump up and then thrust her sword forward a very long distance with almost no warning. If you see this coming, you can avoid it by dodging sideways. Malenia has a habit of using this attack if you back off to heal.

Phase 2 Only:

Petal Blast: Malenia can finish off any of her attack combos by jumping and slamming her sword down into the ground, causing a small explosion of scarlet rot petals. This deals very high damage, but is fairly easy to avoid.

Scarlet Aeonia: Malenia will always begin phase 2 with this attack. She will raise into the air, presenting the scarlet flower around her, and after a few seconds will slam down into the ground. After a very short delay, a wide explosion will occur around her, dealing massive up-front damage along with damage over time. It is likely these attacks will one-shot you, but if you survive the hit, you will be infected with Scarlet Rot. Avoid this attack by running forward while she is in the air to avoid the initial slam, and then dodging away repeatedly to avoid the secondary explosion.

Kick: If Malenia is not performing or recovering from an attack, then you should be conservative with melee hits. She will retaliate after a hit or two by kicking you away, dealing minimal damage but opening you up to a follow-up attack.

Copies: Malenia can summon copies of herself to attack in succession over a prolonged period of time. She will raise into the air, and then four or five copies will appear and perform a sweeping or thrusting attack one after the other, after which Malenia will follow up with a long-range thrusting stab. The first two summons can be avoided by dodging backwards, the third and fourth by dodging forwards, and the fifth by dodging sideways. Malenia's thrust can similarly be dodged sideways.