This page offers a guide on how to beat the Beast Clergyman / Maliketh, the Black Blade, found in Crumbling Farum Azula in Elden Ring.

Where to Find Maliketh, the Black Blade in Crumbling Farum Azula¶

Maliketh is one of fifteen remembrance bosses, and he’s also a non-optional boss if you want to progress through the main story. He can be found in the large arena like area southeast of the Beside the Great Bridge site of grace in Crumbling Farum Azula. When you first begin this fight, you’ll be fighting a Beast Clergyman but when you deplete his healthbar to 50%, he’ll reveal his true form as Maliketh, the Black Blade.

Beast Clergyman Attacks¶

During the first phase of this fight, you’ll be facing the Beast Clergyman. He will only reveal his true form as Maliketh, the Black Blade after damaging him to half health.

Blade Attacks¶

The Beast Clergyman is very agile and seemingly erratic in his attacks. He’ll slice and slam his sword around as well as perform spins and jumps to distance himself or get closer to you. You’ll need to be prepared to match his agility and be ready for some pretty heavy and quick attacks!

Rock Throw Attack¶

There are two main variants of this attack. Sometimes the Clergyman will throw smaller rocks in your direction. These will do some damage and are quite hard to avoid given the speed at which he throws them. He will utilise this attack whether you’re in close melee range or at a distance.

The second type of rock throw attack is when he throws one large boulder at you. This is a bit of a slower attack and easier to avoid, but if you are hit by it you’ll be damaged quite a lot and be knocked to the ground.

Ground Tremor¶

Occasionally he will cause a small tremor in the ground like an earthquake which could potentially knock you over. It will typically happen when you are in close proximity to him.

Conjure Rocks from the Ground¶

During this attack, the Beast Clergyman will cause rocks from around you and him to burst from the ground. The area of impact can vary but in general it’ll be a big enough area to encircle the both of you. When the rocks go up, they’ll knock you over or stun you a little, and what goes up must also come down. The Clergyman will also cause the rocks to slam down onto the ground (in the same are of impact), causing even more damage. So, if you were caught in the first phase of this attack, try your best to roll out of the area before the rocks come crashing down again - you’ll only have a second or two!

It’s worth noting that this attack only seems to be performed when he is in close combat with you or in your immediate proximity. This may mean that melee players might see this attack a bit more, but given that the Beast Clergyman has a lot of movement and agility, ranged players will constantly find themselves too close for comfort so they will also experience this brutal attack.

Maliketh will also perform a variation of this rock attack, except his red and black flame sword will also make the ground in the area of impact all fiery, meaning not only will you be pummelled by rocks, you’ll also have to deal with magical fire damage over time too!

Maliketh Attacks¶

Maliketh definitely has some different elements to Beast Clergyman, but will also utilise some of the same attacks such as the various rock attacks - but they’ll be more powerful, of course. Below, however, you’ll find some new attacks to expect from Maliketh. He also uses a much larger sword than the Beast Clergyman, which has a longer range and can also perform some interesting magical attacks, as detailed below.

Red and Black Flame Sword Attacks¶

As noted above, Maliketh has a pretty huge sword meaning you risk being caught out by it even more so than during the Beast Clergyman phase. And to make matters even worse, he seems to spin more, jump higher and just do more damage in general. The Clergyman is a taster for the fighting style that Maliketh will bring but he is far stronger and just has a lot more vigor and power behind his movements and attacks.

In the second phase, his sword will glow with a red-black flame and if hit by the sword, you’ll more than likely “catch on fire”. If you catch on fire (it’s pretty obvious as you’ll glow bright red), you’ll experience decaying health for a few seconds until the fire has dissipated. If you stay in any lingering red flames on the ground, which can sometimes be created by Maliketh’s powerful sword attacks, then you’ll take damage over time until you exit the flames.

It’s important to note here that the flames don’t do fire damage. It certainly acts like fire and looks like fire, but is actually magic damage and therefore any fire resistances you might have equipped won’t help you unfortunately.

Magic Slashes¶

Occasionally his sword swipes will also generate separate magic slashes directed towards a specific target. They can be difficult to dodge at times, but the upside is that they’re pretty easy to spot because they glow bright red and head directly for you (or your summon)!

Sometimes, Maliketh appears to just randomly shoot out one of these magical slashes. Most of the time, however, he will perform a grand spinning jump that lasts for a couple of seconds, and during this period his sword will shoot out magic slashes. Unfortunately, if you’re a melee player, you won’t have much chance getting in any melee damage during this attack as he’ll be off the ground and spinning with a giant sword meaning going near him is very risky. During this attack your safest option as a melee player is to run around like a headless chicken and hope his magic sword slashes can’t predict your movement - at least the magic slashes can’t home in and lock onto a target.

But, if you’re a ranged player and your summon is being targeted by the magic slashes, then you have a couple of golden seconds to send out some free and uncontested hits. Don’t get too greedy though as he will often exit his spinning state by executing a jumping plunge attack, which is described below.

Jumping Plunge Attack¶

This attack is relatively self explanatory - Maliketh will jump up high and come crashing down sword first in an attempt to (essentially) one shot you.

Often, though not always, this attack will also lead into another of his special moves. Sometimes, he’ll perform a backflip and bring his sword up and around in a huge blaze of fire. Other times, he might slam his sword into the ground and cause a rocky earth quake - a more powerful iteration of the Beast Clergyman’s ground tremor move. Both potential outcomes might result in you being one shot, or if you do survive by dodging the direct line of his blade, the area of impact may cause you to take burning magic damage.

Roar¶

When Maliketh roars, he’ll emit a red and black flame-like magic and if you’re caught in it, you’ll be damaged. Luckily, if your summon is targeted or you dodge around as he’s performing the roar, you’ll be able to get one or two free hits in before he starts spinnning and slashing again.

Strategy to Defeat Maliketh¶

Both Beast Clergyman and Maliketh do standard physical damage and piercing damage too, but Maliketh will also do magic damage too when his sword sends out huge bloody sword slashes towards you.

This can be a difficult fight because both the Beast Clergyman and Maliketh are chaotic and semi-unpredictable in their movements, making it tough to dodge his attacks. This is made all the worse by the fact that their respective swords are quite large and have a big range - though Maliketh’s is a far bigger problem than the Clergyman’s.

Before you fight the big and scary Maliketh, you’ll need to first beat his initial form - Beast Clergyman. The Beast Clergyman looks quite haggered in his dirty robes but don’t be fooled, he’s still quite a worthy opponent with a lot of attack moves up his sleeve (as listed above). Although the Beast Clergyman phase is tricky, it’s likely universally agreed that Maliketh is a fair bit more powerful. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to reserve your resources for Maliketh - try not to use your summon or too many of your flasks in the fight against the Beast Clergyman. However, if your summon is pretty tanky and you make it through the first phase pretty quickly, then perhaps you’ll find it easier to summon it at the very start and hope for the best!

But, saving your flasks for the second phase is definitely in your best interest, given that Maliketh also applies a magical burn damage (not fire damage) with every sword hit, and even dodging the direct swipes of his sword might leave you vulnerable to the area of impact that can cause magic damage. The health depletion is pretty minimal so long as you get out of the fire as quick as possible, but it will mean that you want to have some flasks handy to heal up. Afterall, an extra 10% health can often be the difference between surviving a big hit and getting one-shot, and Maliketh has a lot of one-shot potential.

Having a strong summon, such as a fully upgraded Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche will definitely be your most valuable asset in this fight (and all other fights, to be quite frank - summons are OP!). This will be especially important in the second phase when you fight Maliketh as you’ll want the extra help to not only deal some good damage but also distract him. Both Maliketh and Clergyman can spin around a lot, meaning getting attacks in from behind is not as easy as you might like, but if you have a good summon it’ll definitely help.

Both Maliketh and the Beast Clergyman have close combat and ranged attacks, meaning you’ll want to make sure to be as agile as he is to ensure you aren’t caught out by his area of effect attacks and ranged boulder throws. If using a summon, you’ll also want to keep decent distance between the two of you so you aren’t caught in the crossfire when the boss is directing his attacks at your summon.

Maliketh Rewards¶

Upon defeating Maliketh, you’ll be rewarded Remembrance of the Black Blade. You can exchange this Remembrance at Roundtable Hold for Maliketh’s Black Blade or the Black Blade incantation spell. You’ll also get 220,000 Runes.