Maliketh's Black Blade
Maliketh's Black Blade is a colossal sword exchanged from the Remembrance of the Black Blade. It combines physical and holy damage with Destined Death, a multi-hit area skill that reduces maximum HP and applies lingering damage.
Key Takeaways
Maliketh's Black Blade is a remembrance weapon built around a fixed weapon skill rather than flexible Ash of War customization. Its defining attack applies the distinctive Destined Death effect, but its weight, attribute demands, and upgrade path make it a specialized colossal sword rather than a general-purpose choice.
A fixed-skill colossal sword
The weapon belongs to the colossal sword class and comes with the unique skill Destined Death. Its skill cannot be replaced with an Ash of War, so choosing it also means accepting its predetermined moveset and special attack.
Destined Death is its defining mechanic
Destined Death launches a sweeping attack that deals damage over time while temporarily reducing the target’s maximum HP. The effect gives the weapon value beyond its ordinary melee hits, particularly against targets that can be pressured by the skill’s area coverage.
A late-game remembrance reward
Maliketh’s Black Blade is obtained by exchanging the Remembrance of the Black Blade with Enia at Roundtable Hold after defeating Maliketh, the Black Blade. It is therefore unavailable until a late story boss has been overcome.
Strength and Faith are central demands
The weapon requires a substantial Strength investment and also asks for Faith, making it a poor fit for builds that cannot support both physical requirements and its skill-focused playstyle.
Powerful identity, limited flexibility
Its fixed skill, heavy colossal-sword handling, and specialized attribute profile limit customization and can make it cumbersome in faster encounters. In return, it combines heavy melee attacks with a distinctive maximum-HP reduction effect.
Somber reinforcement
Maliketh’s Black Blade follows the Somber Smithing Stone upgrade path rather than the standard reinforcement path. Its progression is therefore separate from ordinary colossal swords that can be modified with Ashes of War and affinities.
Different role from the Greatsword
Compared with the infusible Greatsword, Maliketh’s Black Blade offers a unique boss-weapon skill and Faith-related specialization instead of broad affinity and Ash of War flexibility. The better comparison depends on whether the build values Destined Death or customization.
Overview
Maliketh's Black Blade is a unique colossal sword in Elden Ring, built around heavy melee attacks and the weapon skill Destined Death. It is a late-game Remembrance weapon rather than a standard sword that can be freely infused or assigned a different Ash of War.
The weapon represents the black blade wielded by Maliketh and is one of the game’s most distinctive colossal swords. Its attacks deal both physical and holy damage, while its defining skill sends the blade into a sweeping execution-style attack that can cut into an enemy’s maximum health as well as inflict immediate damage. That effect gives the weapon a role beyond simply trading large hits at close range.
Maliketh's Black Blade is obtained through the Remembrance of the Black Blade, placing it among Elden Ring’s late-game reward weapons. Its position in progression matters: the sword arrives after the player has already encountered some of the game’s most demanding content, so it is primarily a weapon for completing or revisiting the later portions of the base game rather than an early build foundation. The weapon itself is part of the base game and has no separate Shadow of the Erdtree variant.
Compared with more conventional Colossal Swords, it offers less flexibility in exchange for a highly recognizable signature attack. Its fixed identity means the player cannot treat it like an ordinary infusable weapon and reshape it around any preferred affinity or Ash of War. Instead, its appeal comes from combining colossal-sword commitment with holy damage and Destined Death’s health-reduction effect, making skill timing and openings especially important.
The sword is therefore most relevant to characters prepared to meet the requirements of a heavy, late-game unique weapon and to players who want a named weapon with a strong lore connection and a specialised active skill. It is not a universal replacement for every colossal-sword option: its value depends on whether the player wants that fixed skill and damage profile rather than the customisation, affinity choices, or different moveset emphasis offered by ordinary alternatives.
Statistics
Elden Ring publishes no 0–100 stat bars, so this page lists the verified requirements, scaling and handling figures instead. Taken from the project's verified weapons database, not from generated text.
- CategoryColossal Swords
- Damage TypeStandard
- Primary ScalingArc C
- Weight13
- SkillDestined Death
- Str Req23
- Dex Req15
- Arc Req23
- How to ObtainDropped by Maliketh, the Black Blade
Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
Compared to similar colossal swords
| Weapon | Str Req | Dex Req | Weight | Primary Scaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maliketh's Black Blade | 23 | 15 | 13 | Arc C |
| Grossmesser | 23 | 14 | 13.5 | Str D / Dex D |
| Ruptured Crystal Sword | 25 | 15 | 14 | Int C |
| Zamor Curved Sword | 28 | 10 | 16 | Str D |
| Envoy's Greathorn | 20 | 13 | 18 | Arc C |
Requirements, scaling grades and weight are the game’s own published figures. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
How to Obtain
- Reach Crumbling Farum Azula and defeat Maliketh, the Black Blade.
- Have access to Roundtable Hold and Enia, the Finger Reader, to exchange the Remembrance of the Black Blade.
- For an additional copy, have access to a suitable Walking Mausoleum with an unused remembrance-duplication use.
- 01Defeat Maliketh, the Black Blade in Crumbling Farum Azula. His arena is reached from the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace, and defeating him awards the Remembrance of the Black Blade as a guaranteed boss reward rather than as a random enemy drop.
- 02Return to Roundtable Hold and speak with Enia, the Finger Reader in the room beyond the Two Fingers. Choose the remembrance exchange for Maliketh's Black Blade; the weapon is obtained directly from the Remembrance of the Black Blade and is not purchased with runes.
- 03The weapon is not a DLC item and has no separate quest, vendor, or NG+ requirement. Maliketh's defeat is part of the main progression, so the remembrance exchange remains available after the boss is defeated; the weapon is normally limited to one exchange per remembrance in a playthrough.
- 04For an additional copy, duplicate the Remembrance of the Black Blade at a Walking Mausoleum that accepts it. Remembrance duplication is an alternate recovery or repeat-acquisition route, but each mausoleum can be used only once and the total number of duplications is limited per playthrough.
Availability
Requires Defeat Maliketh, the Black Blade, then trade the Remembrance of the Black Blade to Enia at the Roundtable Hold.
This is a remembrance weapon and is not a normal vendor-stock item. It requires 34 Strength, 12 Dexterity, and 20 Faith to wield.
Requires The weapon remains obtainable through the base-game remembrance exchange; the DLC is not required.
Its availability is not tied to Shadow of the Erdtree progression.
Requires Defeat Maliketh in the current cycle and exchange the resulting Remembrance of the Black Blade at the Roundtable Hold.
A previous-cycle copy does not replace the current cycle's remembrance requirement.
Mechanics and Handling
Maliketh's Black Blade handles as a committed colossal sword rather than as a fast substitute for a greatsword. Its ordinary attacks have broad, deliberate swings and useful forward coverage, but their recovery leaves less room for correction than a lighter weapon. The weapon is therefore most comfortable when the player has already established spacing or has an opening large enough to support a complete attack sequence. Its innate holy damage is part of its normal attack profile; it does not apply a separate status buildup through ordinary swings.
Colossal-sword attacks and spacing
The standard moveset supplies wide horizontal attacks for light inputs and heavier, more vertical committed attacks for strong inputs. The sword's size gives these attacks a broad sweep and substantial apparent reach, while jumping attacks provide a direct way to close distance or punish an exposed target. Two-handing changes the handling and improves the weapon's strength use, but it does not turn the weapon into a quick dueling sword. One-handed use preserves access to an off-hand shield, seal, or other tool at the cost of a less concentrated two-handed stance.
The main handling limitation is commitment. A missed swing cannot be redirected late, and repeated light attacks are safer against a staggered or slow target than against an enemy that can immediately retaliate. The blade can guard when held defensively like other melee weapons, but its large swings and stamina commitment make active spacing, timed attacks, and a suitable off-hand defensive option more dependable than trying to absorb every exchange with the weapon itself.
Destined Death weapon skill
Maliketh's Black Blade has the fixed unique skill Destined Death. It cannot be replaced with an Ash of War, so the weapon's defining attack remains available without customizing its affinity or skill slot. Activating the skill raises the sword and releases a black-red wave beyond the physical blade. The attack therefore reaches targets at a distance and can connect without requiring the sword itself to overlap the enemy, although the wave still has to travel through the available space and is not a substitute for unrestricted ranged casting.
Destined Death can be followed by a spinning slash that releases another wave. The follow-up is an additional commitment rather than an automatic part of every activation: it consumes more time and exposes the player longer, but it can extend the sequence against a target that remains in range. The first wave is useful for opening an attack from outside ordinary sword contact; the follow-up is more appropriate when the enemy is pinned, staggered, or otherwise unlikely to punish the continued animation.
Hits from Destined Death inflict the weapon skill's distinctive destined-death effect: in addition to its immediate damage, the target suffers a temporary reduction to maximum HP and continuing HP loss. This makes the skill especially meaningful against enemies with large health pools, because its value is not limited to the initial impact. The effect is conditional on the skill connecting and should not be treated as a permanent reduction or as a passive property of every ordinary sword swing.
Resource use and combat rhythm
The skill consumes FP, while the normal light, heavy, jumping, and defensive actions use the ordinary stamina rules for melee attacks. There is no ammunition, magazine, reload cycle, or durability system governing Maliketh's Black Blade in Elden Ring. Its practical resource decision is whether the available FP and opening justify committing to Destined Death, particularly when a missed wave leaves the player in recovery.
The weapon's strongest rhythm is to use ordinary attacks when a close opening is reliable, then reserve Destined Death for targets that can be held in the wave's path or for moments when its maximum-HP and damage-over-time effects will matter. The skill's fixed nature also means that the weapon's identity comes from combining colossal-sword spacing with this dedicated ranged attack, not from switching among different Ashes of War for different encounters.
Upgrades and Variants
Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses
Strengths
- Destined Death gives the weapon a distinct boss-pressure tool: its skill damages targets while temporarily reducing their maximum HP and applying continuing HP loss when the effect connects.
- The skill's broad area attack can affect multiple nearby targets, giving the weapon utility beyond a single-target colossal-sword swing when enemies cluster or a large enemy stays within the attack area.
- As a colossal sword, its attacks carry the class's substantial hit commitment and can reward deliberate spacing and punish windows rather than requiring a rapid sequence of light attacks.
- Its physical-and-Holy damage profile, together with Faith investment, gives Faith-oriented characters a reason to use it instead of treating it as a purely Strength-based colossal sword.
Weaknesses
- The weapon requires a substantial Strength investment alongside Faith and some Dexterity, narrowing its efficient use to characters that can support a hybrid physical-and-Faith attribute spread.
- Its colossal-sword moveset is slow and commitment-heavy; missed swings leave less room to react than faster swords, especially against highly mobile enemies or bosses with short punish windows.
- The fixed Destined Death skill prevents the weapon from replacing its signature attack with an Ash of War chosen for a different matchup or build plan.
- Split physical-and-Holy damage can be less efficient against enemies with strong Holy resistance, while the weapon's weight and stat demands compete with other equipment and attribute investments.
- Destined Death consumes FP and requires a deliberate activation window, so the weapon's most distinctive advantage is less practical when a fight does not allow safe skill use or when the target resists or avoids its area.
Best uses
- Use it in PvE against bosses or durable elite enemies when a successful Destined Death connection can exploit the temporary maximum-HP reduction and continuing HP loss.
- Use the skill during a safe opening against groups or large targets that can remain inside its area, rather than relying on repeated close-range casts against evasive enemies.
- Choose it for a Strength/Faith or Faith-leaning colossal-sword setup that can accept slow attacks, high equipment commitment, and a fixed signature skill in exchange for access to Destined Death.
- Keep a different damage option available for Holy-resistant enemies or encounters where the weapon's slow recovery and FP cost make its skill difficult to use safely.
Compared With Similar Weapons
| Weapon | Class and build profile | Damage and role | Signature skill | Main distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maliketh's Black Blade | Physical and Holy damage; innate Destined Death effect supports boss-focused Faith builds | Destined Death: sweeping attacks that inflict Holy damage and temporarily reduce the target's maximum HP | A Faith-oriented colossal sword whose skill provides strong burst and a distinctive maximum-HP effect, but requires committed heavy-weapon attacks | — |
| Godslayer's Greatsword | Physical and Fire damage; suited to mobile Faith builds | The Queen's Black Flame: a two-part greatsword skill using black flame | Generally offers a more agile-feeling alternative with black-flame damage rather than Maliketh's Holy and maximum-HP effects | — |
| Sacred Relic Sword | Physical and Holy damage; effective for Faith builds and wide-area clearing | Wave of Gold: a long-range Holy wave | Trades Maliketh's close-range boss pressure and maximum-HP effect for exceptional linear area coverage | — |
| Blasphemous Blade | Physical and Fire damage; Faith-focused sustain and general PvE use | Taker's Flames: a ranged fire attack that can restore health when it connects | A lighter adjacent alternative with healing utility and more forgiving general-purpose play, but it is not a Colossal Sword and does not provide Destined Death | — |
Used In
- Maliketh, the Black BladeMaliketh wields the Black Blade during the Elden Beast-bound endgame encounter in Crumbling Farum Azula. Defeating him awards the Remembrance of the Black Blade used to obtain this weapon.
- Remembrance of the Black BladeThis remembrance is the exchange item for Maliketh's Black Blade. It is obtained after defeating Maliketh, the Black Blade.
- Finger Reader EniaEnia at the Roundtable Hold exchanges the Remembrance of the Black Blade for Maliketh's Black Blade.
- Crumbling Farum AzulaMaliketh is encountered in this late-game legacy dungeon, making it the location associated with the weapon's remembrance-based acquisition.
- Somber Smithing StonesMaliketh's Black Blade follows the somber unique-weapon reinforcement path and uses Somber Smithing Stones for upgrades.
Lore and Design
Major spoilers for Elden Ring’s late-game story. Maliketh’s Black Blade is the sacred sword associated with Maliketh, the shadowbound beast who served Queen Marika. Its identity is inseparable from Destined Death: the blade embodies the power Marika removed from the Elden Ring and entrusted to Maliketh for safekeeping. The weapon therefore represents not merely Maliketh’s personal armament, but the physical containment of a force excluded from the Golden Order.
The sword’s history is tied to the Night of the Black Knives. A fragment of Destined Death was stolen from Maliketh and used in the murder of Godwyn the Golden, an event that began the Shattering’s wider chain of consequences. Maliketh’s later existence as the guardian of Destined Death explains why his defeat at Crumbling Farum Azula has such direct significance: recovering the power he guarded is necessary for the Tarnished’s journey into the endgame.
The weapon’s description and narrative role present Maliketh as both jailer and victim of this history. He was entrusted with an immense responsibility by Marika, yet the theft of the blade’s power left that duty compromised and helped produce the catastrophe surrounding Godwyn. The sword consequently links Maliketh, Marika, Destined Death, and the Night of the Black Knives without requiring a separate claim that these figures shared the same motives or allegiance.
Trivia
- The weapon’s name preserves its direct association with Maliketh, rather than identifying it only by class or damage type. Its item lore describes the blade as having once harbored the power of the Rune of Death, but as now being only a diminished remnant of that former state.
- Its unique skill is called Destined Death, the same term used for the power represented by the Rune of Death. This links the player weapon’s special attack to Maliketh’s role as the keeper of that forbidden power.
- The blade’s lore creates a deliberate contrast: although it is described as a shadow of its former glory, Destined Death still reproduces the defining life-shortening effect associated with the Rune of Death.