Toughest Fromsoftware Bosses
Pre Elden Ring
With Elden Ring’s release, we have decided to do a countdown for some of the nastiest bosses in gaming history. We will be taking the most challenging opponents from Fromsoftware’s library of Soul RPGs that they have made over the years, including those from the Dark Souls series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Demon Souls and Bloodborne.
We should also mention that there is a difference between challenging and cheap, and bosses who are otherwise pushovers without any external influence aiding them will not be included in this list.
10.) The Guardian Ape – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The Guardian Ape may not be the toughest boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but it is definitely the most terrifying of the lot. This Albino King Kong wannabe initially fights like your typical raging Gorilla, either mindlessly bashing your face in or trying to grab and crush the living daylights out of the one-armed wolf. Finally, when monkey-boy has just about enough with you, he will fling his dung at you like the damn dirty ape he is.
Once decapitated, this hulking behemoth will eerily stand right back up for a second round, this time brandishing an unrealistically large blade in one arm and its own severed head in the other. Swerving around on the battlefield as if possessed, the undead Guardian Ape is controlled by parasites guiding its body, giving it an unpredictable move-set with almost serpentine manoeuvrability. Yet, this ape’s most frightening ability in its arsenal is its soul-shattering roar which inflicts terror and can instantly kill Sekiro.
9.) Knight Artorias – Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss DLC
This DLC has many bosses that could wipe the floor with the chosen undead. With Kalameet The Black Dragon and Manus The Father of Man being easy pickings for this list. However, this spot would have to go to the titular character himself, Knight Artorias.
This azure clad knight is the fastest boss in the entire game, with his quick and unpredictable strikes making him a deadly matchup for even the most experienced of players. He also can boost his power in short bursts, making every attack he dishes out feel like he is swinging a hot knife through butter, and you are the butter.
Artorias is not higher on this list because if the player learns how to dodge his attacks, they can wait out his power surges, making this fight a test of patience & finesse.
8.) Slave Knight Gael – Dark Souls 3: The Ring City DLC
What would you expect to find when crossing a desert at the end of the world? Would a soul starved madman who sees you as dinner be out of place? Slave knight Gael is the final challenge of the Ringed City DLC and he has the swagger and power to go with it.
This man will fight like a crazed lunatic ready to paint a new world red with your blood. He will initially use fast and savage strikes to keep the player on the defensive. Gael is a long and gruelling bout, with every attack you try to deal on him feeling like nothing more than a pinprick. He can impale the player and fling them like dirty laundry if they are not too careful.
With his second stage, Slave Knight Gael ditches his temper tantrum and fights with much more composure, using a combination of powerful spells like his deadly energy buzzsaws, along with a game-breaking machinegun crossbow to destroy the Ashen One. He will also teleport to the player’s position, catching them off guard while unleashing a barrage of flaming heavy strikes with his greatsword.
When you finally manage to reach the final quarter of his life bar away, this hood wearing geezer will then call lightning down on you like the warrior god he is.
7.) Ornstein and Smough– Dark Souls
You somehow managed to escape the BDSM hellhole that is Sen’s fortress, topple the Iron Golem atop his perch and then mow down every silver armoured bastard in your path while traversing the magnificent city of Anno Londo. However, there is still one last obstacle standing between you and the best chest in the game… Or should I say two?
Dragon Slayer Ornstein, the gold-clad captain of Gywn’s knights and his hulking sidekick, Executioner Smough, are a terrifying pair whose movements complement each other perfectly. Ornstein’s swift lunges can keep the player on their toes, but it is Smough flanking you with his giant hammer, who you really need to look out for.
This battle requires a high level of environmental and enemy awareness as the two are a relentless duo who could splatter the player without a moment’s notice. One can use the columns as potential buffers to heal up and plan, but don’t rely on them too much.
To make matters worse defeating one of them grants the other an unbelievable boost in power. Smough gains the ability to infuse lightning with his attacks, while Ornstein swaps out his intense speed for power.
This destructive duo has always been used as the measuring stick to separate the chads from the plebs. While Fromsoftware has tried to remake the same dynamic in their follow-up entries, they always seem to come up as short.
6.) Darkeater Midir – Dark Souls 3: The Ring City DLC
The world of Dark Souls has a strange relationship with dragons. While being extinct for the most part, some do manage to turn up from time to time. Case in point is our next choice, Darkeater Midir. This big bad beastie is an optional boss in Dark Souls 3’s DLC, The Ringed City. Darkeater Midir is an ancient beast tasked to guard the abyss and annihilate anything that comes out of it. But just like knight Artorias before him, the abyss eventually corrupted the proud dragon.
Midir’s breath attack has a lot of firepower under it, capable of turning the Ashen One to cinders in a matter of seconds. He can also fire a laser of pure unadulterated darkness, which sounds kind of hardcore now that you think about it.
This creature’s large health bar is also a cause for concern. Unlike the Ancient “not a” Dragon in Dark Souls 2, attacking the monster’s feet is a fruitless endeavour. You have to get up close and personal with this one and bonk the lizard on the head to beat it.
5.) Nameless King – Dark Souls 3
There are many characters in Dark Souls’ lore with the title of King, yet none of them wears the mantle better than the nameless warrior who soars high above Arch Dragon Peak in Dark Souls 3.
There are a few prerequisites before taking on this optional boss. The player must be able to get to Arch Dragon Peak, and the only way to do that is by using the Path of Dragon gesture next to the two meditating Dragon statues in the Irithyll Dungeon. Afterwards, the Ashen One must battle their way through the many snake people (Sneaple?) littering the hallways of the temple along with an Ancient Wyvern.
The Nameless King rides on top of the King of the Storm, a flying wyvern that can bring down hellfire on those below it. King will also try to shoot down lightning bolts from above. During this stage of the fight, you are also battling the game’s lock-on system as you struggle to locate his feathery mount. Your best opportunity to level the playing field is to evade its breath attacks for a good strike at the head.
Once the Ashen One grounds the flying the menace, the real fight begins. The Nameless King uses a combination of lightning bolts and waves of force whenever the player is battling from afar and can completely overwhelm them with his terrifying close-up strikes. This fight requires an extraordinary amount of offence and defence from the player, dodging and blocking his heavy swings to go in for the kill.
From his intimidating entrance to his combat superiority, the Nameless King is a monster of a boss who deserves his position on this list.
4.) Ishinn the Sword Saint – Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice
Choosing between the many stress-inducing boss-battles from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for a list based on difficulty is a similar experience to selecting the sharpest beartrap to sit on. The Guardian Ape was close to claiming a position, but Ishinn’s pure domination on the battlefield earns him this spot.
Throughout your adventure to save Kuro, you are given hints to Ishinn’s insane combat prowess, but nothing can prepare you for the real thing. To fight the sword Saint at his prime, you must side with Kuro. This decision will lead to a final duel with Genichiro in the same field where he sliced off your arm. Moments before succumbing to his injuries, the fallen Samurai summons with grandfather to lay the smackdown on the one-armed wolf.
This decisive bout is a three-stage slugfest surrounding quick bullet-time swordplay with only a tiny margin of error. Fighting the leader of the Ashina feels like it got ripped straight out of an anime, complete with different stages and transformations.
The battle starts with Isshin only using his katana. This portion of the bout is probably the most balanced, as the player has to act aggressively to chip away at his posture before dealing a decisive blow.
The second and third stages completely flip the tone of the battle as the sword saint suddenly pulls a spear and gun straight out his arse. From then onwards, you need to act defensively and plan accordingly for the next strike. You no longer have distance on your side, with only small openings to heal against his brutal lunges and sweeps. The fight gets stupidly difficult when he starts summoning lightning storms to take Sekiro down for good.
Counting the fight with Genichiro, this four-stage battle grabs everything you know about the game and puts it to the test.
3.) Fume Knight – Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Iron King DLC
While many of Dark Souls 2’s main game bosses can be compared to cutting through tissue paper with a lightsabre, the bosses found in the game’s DLC are on a different level altogether. From the poison breathing dragon that lives at the centre of a subterranean city to the Ivory King’s invisible pets, Dark Souls 2 DLC’s are not afraid to pit the player against insurmountable odds but then comes to the Fume Knight, placing all these foes to shame.
This dual-wielding menace can be found at the bottom of the Brume Tower, armed with a short sword for the close quarters combos and a devastatingly powerful great sword to crack the heads open on any poor fools reckless enough to attack it on the head.
Admittedly, he does start slow and gives the player ample time to recover, that is if the player manages to survive smack to the face with his greatsword. To make matters worse, he can imbue his swords with fire and magic respectively to make the impact so much worse.
To add insult to injury, this charcoal cavalier can regenerate, healing all of his injuries, unless you spend the extra time hunting down his Ashen Idols scattered around the tower. Not that he really needs them, as even teams of three have fallen victim to the Fume knight. Just to put things into perspective, according to a survey made by IGN, 93% of all fights against this opponent will end with defeat.
2.) Orphan of Kos – Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC
Ever wanted to know what being smacked in the face by a giant shrimp-like placenta wielded by a simultaneously undead and unborn human-sized elder god feels like? Well, now you can, thanks to Bloodborne’s Old Hunters DLC, where you face just that.
The Orphan of Kos is in a constant state of frenzy, bludgeoning anything that moves with a bombardment of earth-shattering attacks. His unpredictability and relentlessness make him a terrifying opponent, and the yo-yo like placenta he uses as a weapon is certainly hard to forget.
The consistency in his attacks makes him a difficult opponent to constantly defend against, meaning that it would be best to play aggressively.
If you think you got his quick movement down, he will activate his Bankai spamming area effect attacks while somehow doubling down on the ferocity. There is very little room for error in this battle, as one false step can lead to death by shrimp cocktail.
1.) Demon of Hate – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as a game discards many of FromSoftware’s common tropes for a more dexterity-based experience. The game takes its time to challenge the player and help them evolve through trials and tribulations, fitting of becoming a master shinobi. Then it grabs everything that you have learned throughout your adventures and flushes it down the toilet for a single boss, The Demon of Hate.
This stress-inducing boss is the king of trolling; playing and looking like a Dark Souls boss in a game with an entirely different set of rules. His three health bars and ability to one-shot you if you are not too careful transforms this battle into a test of endurance, with you on the losing side.
He can also be stunned by firecrackers and the malcontent whistle for a limited amount of time, enough to get some cheap shots in while he is distracted. He does have some obvious tells before striking and needs to do a kabuki pose after some of his attacks which gives Sekiro a slight edge in the speed department over other bosses. While not as vicious as many of the other opponents on this list, the demon manages to make up for it with his wide range of fire attacks heating things up like a supercharged blast furnace.