Elden Ring celebrated its first birthday last month, and while the party was a fairly chill affair in Stockholm, the excitement truly started picking up in the weeks since then. First, it was FromSoftware announcing Elden Ring’s first DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, and today almost a month later, Bandai Namco has revealed how many times Tarnished have tried to kill Malenia in an extremely informative infographic.
It's no surprise that Malenia is the boss with the most attempts on her life. She's largely seen as the toughest boss in Elden Ring and a prestige fight for most Tarnished playthroughs. Second and third place, however, go to Margit and the Limgrave Tree Sentinel, two of the earliest bosses you'll ever face. In fourth place is Radagon of the Golden Order, one of the game's final bosses, and fifth is another tough optional boss in Starscourge Radahn.
Related: FromSoftware Is Not For Everyone
Despite what you might see online, most Tarnished aren't killed by invading players. In fact, only two percent of Tarnished die due to player invasions. The vast majority die to enemies or NPCs. Just 15 percent die to status effects such as poison, Death Blight, or Scarlet Rot, and 14 percent of all deaths are due to falls. Honestly, I would have expected that last number to be bigger.
In the spellcasting department, the most popular spell is not Glintstone Pebble, the starting spell of the Astrologer class, but is actually Rock Sling. An important spell for any pure mage, Rock Sling deals physical damage instead of magic damage, making it useful against bosses that are resistant to magic like Rennala. Crystal Torrent surprisingly comes in as the second most-cased spell, and Glingstone Pebble comes in third.
As for Incantations, most people acquire Blessing of the Erdtree, which is found in Leyndell Royal Capital. It's pretty hard to miss, so it makes sense that this would be the most found Incantation in Elden Ring. Bestial Sling comes from Gurranq as part of his questline, and Golden Vow is just so popular that many Tarnished will venture to the top of Mt. Gelmir just to find it.
In total, over nine billion Tarnished have died in their quest to be Elden Lord, but considering many of them just rise up to try again, there's probably a lot of double-counting going on. For the full stat spread, head over to Bandai Namco's site.
