Elden Ring

[Uncle Van]

Gotta say that @EmperorKinyagi is correct in that there's usually a hidden final boss that's never promoted.

The promoted boss and the final boss tend to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Artorious made it seem like the dark is truly horrific and needs to be suppressed. Manus proved the dark is the true nature of humans and completely natural. Maria and the Orphan of Kos were similar.

Based on this, Messmer would paint something as bad or in need of suppression. The final boss would do the opposite and odd lots of context to the base game story leading up to the endings.

 

[TheKnightOfTheSea]

It's not hard to make a boss more difficult than Malenia.

but it will be hard to make the hypothetical boss good/well-designed

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

It's not hard to make a boss more difficult than Malenia.

but it will be hard to make the hypothetical boss good/well-designed

I disagree, I think just a large moveset (like comparable to Morgott’s 20+ moves) and multiple phases with health bars (with each phase having that number of moves as well) would do it.

Although animating moves is super expensive.

I guess another way of putting it is that I think a good boss harder than Malenia would be very expensive to make but not impossible in theory

 

[Uncle Van]

It's not hard to make a boss more difficult than Malenia.

but it will be hard to make the hypothetical boss good/well-designed

It's all about giving the bosses acceptable weaknesses. Malenia was fast and needed to be parried 3 times, but what made her truly difficult was her healing. This made summons almost useless and forced you to 1v1 her, and you couldn't afford to be sloppy. However, she had some slower telegraphed moves, had low poise, could bleed, and could be stance broken quite often. Balanced her out nicely overall.

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

Personally I hope most of DLC bosses are around Mohg, Godfrey, Dragonlord Placidusax level of difficulty than Malenia level difficulty just because of how tough it is to get right

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

It's all about giving the bosses acceptable weaknesses. Malenia was fast and needed to be parried 3 times, but what made her truly difficult was her healing. This made summons almost useless and forced you to 1v1 her, and you couldn't afford to be sloppy. However, she had some slower telegraphed moves, had low poise, could bleed, and could be stance broken quite often. Balanced her out nicely overall.

Her low poise was lowkey a ridiculous weakness, any build with high stagger damage can maul her if you time it right.

 

[TheKnightOfTheSea]

I disagree, I think just a large moveset (like comparable to Morgott’s 20+ moves) and multiple phases with health bars (with each phase having that number of moves as well) would do it.

Although animating moves is super expensive.

I guess another way of putting it is that I think a good boss harder than Malenia would be very expensive to make but not impossible in theory

I feel like Fromsoft is more likely to give a Malenia tier fight a few gimmicks like waterfowl and regen that just make the fight unbearable

Personally I hope most of DLC bosses are around Mohg, Godfrey, Dragonlord Placidusax level of difficulty than Malenia level difficulty just because of how tough it is to get right

Imo it's very likely that the only Malenia level fight(s) will be optional. Like how Laurence is optional in the Bloodborne dlc

 

[Uncle Van]

Personally I hope most of DLC bosses are around Mohg, Godfrey, Dragonlord Placidusax level of difficulty than Malenia level difficulty just because of how tough it is to get right

Yeah those bosses will punish you for not knowing things. Some will ounish you for being too passive, others ofr being too aggressive. All can maul you if you get careless.

Her low poise was lowkey a ridiculous weakness, any build with high stagger damage can maul her if you time it right.

Don't really count that since it requires a specific build and set up. All bosses can be cheesed into a joke.

 

[TheKnightOfTheSea]

I hope the dlc has Elden Ring's first good gank fight

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

I feel like Fromsoft is more likely to give a Malenia tier fight a few gimmicks like waterfowl and regen that just make the fight unbearable


Imo it's very likely that the only Malenia level fight(s) will be optional. Like how Laurence is optional in the Bloodborne dlc

We'll see. I think FromSoft is probably taking a more quality > quantity approach to the DLC (evidenced by Miyazaki saying it's going to be denser and have a more interconnected world design) so I could see them making something that is comparable in difficulty to Malenia just by having a lot of moves and HP.

I'm someone who thinks that Maliketh or Morgott with actual high HP and double health bars would be harder than Malenia, and I can see something like that in the DLC.

 

[TheKnightOfTheSea]

We'll see. I think FromSoft is probably taking a more quality > quantity approach to the DLC (evidenced by Miyazaki saying it's going to be denser and have a more interconnected world design) so I could see them making something that is comparable in difficulty to Malenia just by having a lot of moves and HP.

I'm someone who thinks that Maliketh or Morgott with actual high HP and double health bars would be harder than Malenia, and I can see something like that in the DLC.

Maliketh? Completely agree. If he had a real health bar I wouldn't have finished the game.

Morgott? I disagree

 

[EmperorKinyagi]

Maliketh? Completely agree. If he had a real health bar I wouldn't have finished the game.

Morgott? I disagree

Morgott at level 1 was one of the hardest fights in the game for me.

I killed him in like three hits on my first playthrough because of his HP, but if you fight him as if he has high HP and damage then straight up he's a complete monster.

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Morgott+the+Omen+King

21 moves with variable timings is absurd when they can actually chunk your hp (like at level 1) which is what I think the meta for a Malenia-like difficulty boss could be in the DLC.

 

[Elder Lee Hung]

Gonna be a bit weird, but hear me out.

Behold, the final boss of the DLC:

At first, I thought this guy pulling a sword out of his head in a cutscene was not too major, but then I realized something.

He is the same character as this painting guy they show in the trailer that they slowly zoom in on.

Same emblem on his cloak, and the same cloak.

This is important because several important bosses in the base game were first shown in paintings.

What's more look at the object that is piercing through his head into his chest cavity. Does it look familiar?

That might be a great rune.

Now for more out-there speculation. Who is this character exactly?

We know that part of this DLC is going to explore Marika's past and how she rose to godhood.
I think this character has some relation to Marika before she became a god. Knowing GRRM's love for family drama, this may even be someone like Marika's father.

Another reason why I'm buying into this guy's stocks is that some old guy that we don't know about being the final boss unironically matches the them of a random slave knight being the final boss of DS3.

Welcome back.

And good speculation, I’ve seen others on YouTube talk about this guy as well. Is he the final boss of the DLC? I don’t know but he seems quite important given that there is a portrait of himself and there is a pregnant woman with him in the portrait. So he is somebody’s father, but who can say who lol.

He sort of reminds me of this recurring figure:

Though their designs are different.

Marika is a Numen, which I always thought meant she cane from the stars and this guy doesn’t seem like a Numen, idk.

But anyway, as for the “Midir” of SOTE, the original trailer for the Ringed City did reveal Midir so it’s possible this trailer does reveal the secret boss too.

 

[Ravagerblade]

Turns out, the three phase boss is actually a new version of Malenia that you unlock by showing up with Miquella gear after completing the DLC, and in her third phase she gets super waterfowl dance, with 6 flurries instead of three

Imagine this was the actual Malenia fight.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2024

It's all about giving the bosses acceptable weaknesses. Malenia was fast and needed to be parried 3 times, but what made her truly difficult was her healing. This made summons almost useless and forced you to 1v1 her, and you couldn't afford to be sloppy. However, she had some slower telegraphed moves, had low poise, could bleed, and could be stance broken quite often. Balanced her out nicely overall.

1v1 her is so satisfying though... ;D

 

[Elder Lee Hung]

Ratatoskr has an amazing theory: The SOTE land is “veiled” meaning it is hidden from us. What if the SOTE land is positioned right where the water is south of the Erdtree? We wouldn’t see it because it’s hidden, but it would make physical sense for it to be there.

 

[Plex]

Imagine this was the actual Malenia fight.

 

[Ravagerblade]

I feel it Sells Malenia being alot more Undefeated better than what we got. TBH I do hope they revamp her her to be harder, More skilled and technical. I want to see her in Prime, Base form as a truly Undefeated Scarlet Valkyrie or whatever other Red color or something.

 

[DarkestKnightofSpoilers]

Ratatoskr has an amazing theory: The SOTE land is “veiled” meaning it is hidden from us. What if the SOTE land is positioned right where the water is south of the Erdtree? We wouldn’t see it because it’s hidden, but it would make physical sense for it to be there.

you mean where the cloud is in the middle?

edit

arent‘t there all the towers surrounding this cloud?

edit 2
yes they are

found this on google here ,while looking for the tower locations on the map

Lee you are cooking …

 

[Elder Lee Hung]

you mean where the cloud is in the middle?

edit

arent‘t there all the towers surrounding this cloud?

edit 2
yes they are

found this on google here ,while looking for the tower locations on the map

Lee you are cooking …

Here is the full theory:

And yeah my guy is making a full course meal right now

 

[DarkestKnightofSpoilers]

Here is the full theory:

And yeah my guy is making a full course meal right now

Even the same picture ,really good stuff .
The detail about the dogs and the crows about Calied and The Mountaintops of the Giants