Elden Ring streamer completes a level 1 playthrough beating the game's 165 bosses—on NG+7, a difficulty she had to finish the game 7 times over just to reach

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

No matter how good you think you are at Elden Ring, Twitch streamer MissMikkaa is better. This isn't me being hard on you, dear reader, it's just a statement of fact—this absolute monster has beaten the game's bosses with an acoustic guitar and slain Melania with one hand (and a dance pad, then on a dance pad and a controller at the same time in two different playthroughs).

Now, like Rock Lee shrugging off his training weights, MissMikkaa has done a playthrough with her controller—except there's a secret, second set of training weights underneath, because she's done it all at level one. Eight times. With each run getting subsequently harder.

In case you're unfamiliar with the concept of New Game+ mechanics in souls games, they're a vehicle to punish your masochistic urges—by which I mean they allow you to embark on subsequent playthroughs with all of your gear, souls, and levels intact, but at a higher difficulty. For Elden Ring, these NG+ playthroughs—called "journeys"—cap out their increased difficulty at around journey 7/8.

MissMikkaa, seeing this quiet suggestion to maybe grind out some runes and get her stats up, decided—nah, who needs it. 269 hours (over the 8 playthroughs to get there) later, the streamer has accomplished her goal: "In total I died 2145 times to bosses in NG+7".

I DID IT! I beat ALL 165 bosses in Elden Ring in the hardest possible difficulty NG+7 (Journey 8) as a level 1 character! The whole run (8 playthroughs) took 269 hours, nice, my longest challenge run to date. More info in replies. Now I'm FINALLY ready for Shadow of the Erdtree pic.twitter.com/VkZmbisDuiMay 23, 2024

While levels might not be in MissMikkaa's favour,, her equipment certainly was up to snuff—with clever employment of her physick flask and talismans being her only saving grace, though she made it a point of pride to avoid using "summons, great runes, throwing pots, sorceries nor incantations."

Funnily enough, Malenia—a boss so hard it inspired a living legend to kill her 2,000 times—wasn't even the one to give MissMikkaa the most trouble. That award goes to those freaking dual gargoyles in the Siofra Aqueduct: "Here is the Malenia kill, which took me 63 tries. The hardest boss was Valiant Gargoyles DUO, which took me a whopping 405 tries."

Here is the Malenia kill, which took me 63 tries. The hardest boss was Valiant Gargoyles DUO, which took me a whopping 405 tries. In total I died 2145 times to bosses in NG+7. I used no summons, great runes, throwing pots, sorceries nor incantations. pic.twitter.com/5hgIQA4ycfMay 23, 2024

You might think to yourself—gee, that's an achievement. I bet she's going to take a nice, long break from Elden Ring, she's got a while before the DLC comes out after all. Wrong. MissMikkaa has already set out to do a no-healing run—though she'll mercifully be levelling up this time, using the character she forges in that particular crucible to embark on the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.