Bosses - Dark Souls 3

Bosses in Dark Souls 3 are powerful foes which constitute some of the most challenging experiences in the game. Most are defeated as part of the mandatory story progression, with the rest optional. Defeating a boss earns the player souls, restoration of Ember and unique Boss Souls which can be transformed into powerful Weapons, Spells, or Items via Soul Transposition from Ludleth of Courland in Firelink Shrine. 

Certain bosses feature special NPCs available as summons for the fight, with some of these summoning instances dependent on meeting certain progression conditions. See the individual boss pages for NPCs available and their conditions. 

As long as the respective boss of an area remains alive, a player may be invaded by hostile phantoms. Once the boss is slain, invasions are no longer possible, however players may continue to summon phantoms via the Red Sign Soapstone.

In total there are 19 bosses in the whole game, with 6 of them being optional.

All DKS3 Bosses

BOSS	LOCATION	NPC SUMMONING	WEAKNESS	RESISTANCE	IMMUNITY	PARRYABLE	OPTIONAL
Iudex Gundyr	Cemetery of Ash	None	Fire/Frost/Riposte	Dark/Bleed	Poison/Toxic	YES	NO
Vordt of the Boreal Valley	High Wall of Lothric	Sword Master Lion Knight Albert	Fire/Dark	Slash/Thrust	Poison/Toxic Bleed/Frost	NO	NO
Curse-Rotted Greatwood	Undead Settlement	None	Slash/Thrust/Fire Sacs	None	Poison/Toxic Bleed/Frost	NO	YES1
Crystal Sage	Road of Sacrifices	Eygon of Carim	Slash/Thrust/Strike Poison/Toxic	Magic	None	YES4	NO
Abyss Watchers	Farron Keep	Sirris of the Sunless Realms  or Londor Pale Shade   or Black Hand Gotthard	Lightning/Backstab	Dark/Bleed	Poison/Toxic	YES	NO
Deacons of the Deep	Cathedral of the Deep	Anri of Astora Sirris of the Sunless Realms or Horace the Hushed	Slash/Thrust/Strike Hollowslayer GS	Magic/Dark Bleed	None	YES	NO
High Lord Wolnir	Catacombs of Carthus	none	Bracelets / Blessed Weapons Farron/Wolf Knight's GS	Dark	Poison/Toxic Bleed/Frost	NO	NO
Old Demon King	Smouldering Lake	Knight Slayer Tsorig Great Swamp Cuculus	Dark Black Knight Weapons	Fire	Bleed/Frost	NO	YES
Pontiff Sulyvahn	Irithyll of the Boreal Valley	Anri of Astora Black Hand Gotthard Londor Pale Shade	Thrust/Riposte	Poison/Toxic Bleed/Frost	None	YES	NO
Yhorm the Giant	Profaned Capital	* Siegward of Catarina joins the player during the boss cutscene if his questline is fulfilled	Storm Ruler Lightning	Physical/Magic/Dark	Fire/Poison/Toxic Bleed/Frost	NO	NO
Aldrich, Devourer of Gods	Anor Londo	None * Anri of Astora summons the player in his world to defeat Aldrich if his/her quesline is fulfilled	Fire/Lightning Farron/Wolf Knight's GS	Magic/Dark	Poison/Toxic	NO	NO
Dancer of the Boreal Valley	High Wall of Lothric After 3 Lords of Cinder are defeated (or Emma is killed)	Sword Master	Dark/Lightning/Strike	Bleed	Poison/Toxic/Frost	NO	NO
Dragonslayer Armour	Lothric Castle	Sirris of the Sunless Realms Eygon of Carim	Frost Farron/Wolf Knight's GS	Dark/Lightning	Poison/Toxic/Bleed	NO	NO
Oceiros, the Consumed King	Consumed King's Garden	Hawkwood	Lightning	Magic/Bleed	Poison/Toxic	NO	YES2
Champion Gundyr	Untended Graves	Sword Master	Lightning	Poison/Toxic/Bleed	None	YES	YES
Lothric, Younger Prince	The top of Lothric Castle	Sirris of the Sunless Realms Orbeck of Vinheim	(Lorian) Lightning/Frost (Lothric) Slash/Thrust/Strike	Dark	Poison/Toxic	YES3	NO
Ancient Wyvern	Archdragon Peak	None	Lightning/Frost Plunging Attack	Poison/Toxic/Bleed	None	NO	YES
Nameless King	Archdragon Peak	None * Hawkwood can be summoned but he will desert when reaching the altar or when the player ring the bell	(King of the Storm) Lightning (Nameless King) Fire	(King of the Storm) Fire/Bleed Poison/Toxic (Nameless King) Lightning	(King of the Storm) None (Nameless King) Poison/Toxic	NO	YES
Soul of Cinder	Kiln of the First Flame	Yuria of Londor Shade of Londor	Lightning	Fire	None	Stagger (Only in 2nd Phase)	NO

¹Curse-Rotted Greatwood technically this boss is optional, although you won't be able to use your Boss Souls to perform Soul Transposition without defeating it because you will not receive the transposing kiln for Ludleth.

²Oceiros, the Consumed King this bossfight is not optional for the "End of Fire" ending, but optional for all others..

³These "staggers" or parrys cannot be followed up with a riposte. However, most bosses are still vunerable to ripostes, triggered through consistent damage and/or head damage.

⁴He can be parried, but he usually uses spells; the most likely parry is at the very beginning of the fight, where he is more prone to draw his rapier.

Ashes of Ariandel Bosses

The Ringed City Bosses

Mini Bosses / Special Encounters

• Boreal Outrider Knight, located under the double elevator of Undead Settlement, where we meet Siegward. He drops the Irithyll Straight Sword.
• Boreal Outrider Knight, located on the left side of the main bridge of Lothric Castle, down a staircase. He drops the Sword Irithyll Rapier.
• Boreal Outrider Knight, located behind an illusory stone wall of Grand Archives, top of a small ladder above the wooden bridge. He drops the Outrider Armor Set.
• Stray Demon (drops Soul of a Stray Demon), located on the other side of the bridge where you find Yoel. Can be accessed from the poison swamp area via ladder.
• Fire Demon, located on the way down to smouldering lake
• Deep Accursed, located within the Cathedral of the Deep in a large room with a body in the distance
• Deep Accursed, located within the Anor Londo castle hallway, on ceiling
• Carthus Sandworm, roaming the smouldering lake area just before the old demon king boss fight (drops: Miracle Lightning stake and undead bone shard)
• Sulyvahn's Beast, crocodile/wolf hybrid, located on the bridge to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley.
• Sulyvahn's Beast x2 in the Water Reserve area of Irithyll of the Boreal Valley, location of the Aldrich Faithful covenant altar.