Most of us are lucky to say that we survived Elden Ring’s toughest optional bosses, especially the non-stop torrent of them that awaits us at the end of the game. MissMikkaa is built different, though. The Twitch streamer recently blew up on social media because she is the only person who can say she defeated Elden Ring at level one with a single hand. She might as well say that she did it with one hand tied behind her back.
From footage, you can see that she trained her hand to encompass the entire controller. Her palm rests on the main joystick, while her thumb is positioned near the face buttons, leaving her longer fingers to reach for the side buttons. There’s almost no room for panicked button-mashing here, because every little thing has to be deliberate when you have to move your hand across the controller just to perform a simple action.
Altogether, the run took a whopping 75 hours of playtime that was segmented across what she estimates to be 14 individual livestreams. Her character went with a bleed build that made use of ashes of war like Seppuku, which self-inflicts a wound in exchange for a damage boost and a higher likelihood of afflicting a status effect. And before any of you say a damn thing, please remember she went through the game with one hand without leveling, so going with a bleed build here is not the same as the katana chuds who just like to spam R2 with nary a brain cell.
Malenia was unsurprisingly the hardest part of the run overall. MissMikkaa guesses that around 12 hours were dedicated just to defeating the Blade of Miquella, for a total of 290 fights against the Rot Goddess. While MissMikkaa spent a lot of the game equipped for a medium roll, in this case she stripped her character down to be nearly naked in order to achieve a light roll against the winged goddess. It’s a smart tactic that made moving around Malenia’s swift attacks more manageable, especially since the latest big PVP-centric patch made that roll quicker. Even so, it’s also hilarious to see in action. We are degrees removed from Elden Ring’s famous naked hero, Let Me Solo Her, who is known for helping other players defeat Malenia. But can LMSH say he kills Malenia with one hand? I think not.
Malenia, you could have guessed, wasn’t the only obstacle standing in MissMikkaa’s way. For a good while, Maliketh kept one-shotting her, but that just made the moment when she finally destroyed him without getting hit a single time all the more sweet. My favorite thing about this portion of the stream is that moments before she buckles down to embarrass Maliketh, MissMikkaa is talking about her career path prior to Twitch. “I never really knew what I wanted to do, you know?” she said, before going on to pull off one of the year’s best feats in gaming.
The biggest surprise, she says, had to be Rennala. For many, Rennala is cited as one of the easier bosses. But it’s a little different when you go in with special rules.
“On most bosses I would use the target lock-on to make it so I didn’t have to control the camera that much,” MissMikkaa said. “But I noticed that each time Rennala summons in the second phase, there would often be problems when trying to re-target Rennala. It might not sound so hard, but if you only have one hand available it can become a challenge to execute the most basic inputs sometimes. And don’t get me started on targeting her sweetings…”
Read More: Elden Ring Fan’s Incredible DLC Concept Project Almost Looks Real, Playable
As for the final moments of the run, they were intimate. Yes, Radagon and Elden Beast were difficult because they are two back-to-back bosses, one of which has two phases. If you kill one, you still have to kill the other. But when she finally did it, MissMikkaa was standing confidently beneath the towering gaze of the Elden Beast, one sword in each hand. As the final blow came down, she let out a laugh.
“Oh my god, we did it,” she gasped. “Elden Beast! Deleted!” she exclaimed. That’s when she pulled both her hands up to her head in disbelief. One arm was covered up in a Twitch sock. She didn’t need it.
If you’d like to cosplay as MissMikkaa, it’s worth knowing what she ran with. The build made use of base stat-boosting items like Radagon’s Soreseal, the Ritual Shield (which reduces damage by 30% when you’re at full health), the Ritual Sword (boosts damage by 10% when HP is topped off), and a rotating set of other talismans. These included Lord of Blood’s Exultation, Millicent’s Prosthesis, and the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman, depending on what the situation called for. For bosses that didn’t bleed, she says, she went for elements like fire or lightning instead. And since she was doing this run mid-big patch, she of course carried the ever-handy Opaline Hardtear, which is now one of the best items in the game.
“I am proud of my achievements and have hopes that those who heard about this or witnessed this are inspired to take on challenges like this themselves!” she said in a message. “When I overcome challenges like these I see people doubt their own abilities, I don’t want that to be the case, instead I hope to encourage them!”