True Elden Ring Lord Let Me Solo Her Kills Malenia 1,000 Times

Each kill started the same. Tsuboi sprayed his summon sign on the floor of the legendary dungeon Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree—Malenia’s final resting place—and waited for a struggling Tarnished to beckon him to their aid. After showing up in the summoning player’s world, Tsuboi then bowed (he’s such a gentlemen!) before the two players passed through the fog door so Tsuboi can, like his Tarnished’s name suggests, solo Malenia. As the nearly three-hour stream went on, the battles became less intense—probably because Tsuboi is just that good at facing Malenia now, and he’s got those two bleed-focused blades that deal significant damage. And with each kill, the “Malenia slain” counter in the top-right corner ticked up until it reached 1000. Once Tsuboi hit the impressive number, a thank you message appeared on the screen.

“Thank you everyone for all the support,” Tsuboi wrote as his livestream came to a celebratory close. “I couldn’t have been here with you guys.”

He then reentered the Lands Between, starting a second New Game Plus.

The chat was filled with cheers as copious viewers typed “GG” every time Tsuboi laid Malenia to rest. Some were grateful to him, saying he “helped me beat Malenia the other day!” Others made jokes, imagining Tsuboi “must be tired for being summoned 1000 times.” One sentiment was shared among the chatters, though: That Tsuboi is “the one true Elden Lord” in the Lands Between.

While many worshipped Klein, a small segment of the Elden Ring community has grown frustrated with what his behavior has inadvertently done to the game’s multiplayer at large. Really, since the Souls series has landed into the mainstream, there’s been an ongoing sense that a certain etiquette apparently no longer exists among FromSoft players who are new to the series. This includes things like bowing, not skipping cutscenes halfway through the fight, sticking with the fight even when things aren’t going well, and, most crucially, actually helping instead of standing off to the side. While not super common, some players now summon folks under the expectation that the summoned player will solo the enemy. This is slowly splitting the subreddit with those summoned players feeling like shit and, in some instances, refusing to help.

Another unexpected consequence of Tsuboi’s rise to fame is, inevitably, haters. To give an example, in a bingo card meant to clock the most common “types” of players you see during the Malenia fight, many comments asked if Solo Her should be included. Most of the responses, surprisingly, were a resounding no.

“There was nothing particularly impressive about that fight and it was actually poorly done in quite a few parts,” one commenter said. “There exists a plethora of people that have already done feats that are actually impressive for the same boss and received a fraction of the applause they deserve.” The rationale seemed to be that multiplayer introduces latency, and that achieving a solo in this context isn’t as impressive as, say, doing it on a high-level New Game Plus.

Still, for most people who recognize it’s a cool and selfless thing to go out there and help hundreds of people just because, Tsuboi is an icon. So much so that he’s been recognized by Bandai Namco, saying at the end of his livestream that the publisher sent him some “special gift,” but he doesn’t know what it is yet. Either way, he plans to body Malenia again during his New Game Plus run.

Kotaku has reached out to Klein Tsuboi for comment.