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 WeaponsSpells, 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 Poison/Toxic

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

BOSS LOCATION NPC SUMMONING WEAKNESS RESISTANCE IMMUNITY PARRYABLE OPTIONAL
Sister Friede Painted World of Ariandel Slave Knight Gael Bleed, Dark, Lightning Poison, Frost None YES NO
Champion's Gravetender & Gravetender Greatwolf Painted World of Ariandel None Bleed, Fire Poison, Frost None YES YES

 

The Ringed City Bosses

BOSS LOCATION NPC SUMMONING WEAKNESS RESISTANCE IMMUNITY PARRYABLE OPTIONAL
Demon in Pain & Demon From Below / Demon Prince The Dreg Heap Lapp & Slave Knight Gael Dark Fire Frost NO NO
Halflight, Spear of the Church The Ringed City Unbreakable Patches Fire Bleed None YES NO
Darkeater Midir The Ringed City Shira Mercury, Lightning Dark, Fire, Magic  Poison & Toxic, Bleed Frost NO YES
Slave Knight Gael (Boss) The Ringed City None Frost, Poison & Toxic Magic, Dark  None ?? NO

 

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.

 




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    • Anonymous

      Played this game after Elden Ring. They sure got much better with boss designs over the years. Only Lorian/Lothric and Nameless King were memorable.

      • Anonymous

        Came here to make sure I actually beat all the bosses in the game. Honestly with Lothric Knight sword it only took me 3 tries to beat Nameless and 6 tries to beat Midir. Granted I’ve been playing DS2 and DS3 and Elden Ring for a while now but nameless felt kinda easy

        • Anonymous

          Man its so good to come back to this game after Elden Ring and fight actually fun and well designed bosses.

          • Anonymous

            DS III is weird sometimes.
            Most people say the dancer of the boreal valley is a bltch to fight, but first time I fought them in only took two tries, (to be fair I did have Gut’s UGS and full Havel’s)
            Same with soul of cinder, I beat him on like, my third or fourth try, woulda done first try had I embered up and switched my rings back.
            Nameless king was absolute hell with Gut’s UGS, then I went into NG+ thinking “I’ll never beat that boss.” Then I got the Fume UGS, tested it on a silver knight at 45 strength, then went to fight nameless, and it was easy as hell.
            This goes for what seems to be all the bosses, and it’s either “this shizz’s ez” or “I’d rather do something easier, like taxes” which does add an element of surprise, but, like… eh.

            • My second souls game,with sellswords, here's how many times I died at each boss and my rating to them,sorted by the order I killed them:
              Iudex gundyr 8B.
              Vordt 8D.
              Greatwood 0E.
              Sage 4E.
              Deacons 0E.
              Dancer +100E.
              Watchers 0 SSS.
              Wolnir 0D.
              Old demon king 0B.
              Friede +100C.
              Demon prince 3B.
              Pontiff 0D.
              Oceiros 0D.
              Champion gundyr 1SS.
              aldrich 2(anri world) 0E.
              Dragonslayer amour 10E.
              Yhorm 1S.
              Nameless king 25SSS.
              Twin princes 1B.
              Midir 12A.
              Soul of cinder 6SS.
              Gael 999SS.
              gravetender 4F.
              At this moment I'm trying to beat friede before watchers with my new character.

              • Anonymous

                it took me 7 tries to beat the dancer because of its rapid attacks
                it took me 9 tries to beat pontiff Sullivan because of his small arena
                it took me 40 tries to beat nameless king because nameless king

                • Anonymous

                  So someone told me about this thing called video games, and told me to check out dark souls 3, so I beat the game only using a sword I found next to a grave after the first boss which seemed pretty op. Anyway here is my list of how many tries it took me to beat every boss, which all of you certainly care about.
                  Every boss: 0 deaths.
                  I just dodged their atttacks, and hit them when they didn't attack. Too easy I'm going to try out an actual hard game, like Bugsnax now, bye bye.

                  • Anonymous

                    I love how this entire page is just people capping about how many tries they beat the boss in like you didn’t beat soul of cinder in one try and then Go on to say he’s easy and if you can’t beat him your bad, like bro we all know this is cap your not LilAggy bro

                    • Anonymous

                      Bro these comments are just no life’s probably cappin about how many tries they beat the boss in this is the wiki not a contest nameless king 0 tries easy boss fight fromsoftware should try making a hard boss fight lol hahahah easy game you’re just mad kid skill issue was literally this page in a nutshell

                      • Anonymous

                        why are the comments just talking about their skills, like no one cares, whatever came here to say these are the best osts in any souls game

                        • guys i did dark souls playthru, i tell you how much i died

                          iudex gundyr: 100000000000000000000000000000 times

                          i gave up because i couldnt get PKCS yet so i had to delete my save, to make up for it, i killed 10 people with a PKCS just to prove it is the best, thanks

                          • Anonymous

                            Came here after beating Sekiro, Elden Ring and DS1 to see what all the hype around the bosses was. Strength build with 2H Zweihander action throughout once I found it, and while the bosses were amazing dramatically, thematically, musically and visually, I found the overwhelming amount of them to be too easy, being able to roll spam through combos while taking minimal damage and without care for direction, and hitting them with R1s after sets of rolls or whenever I found openings. Ended up at level 105 when I finished the ringed city, so I'm not sure if I was over leveled or not. Overall still a banger, though not my personal favorite line up.

                            Death count:
                            Iudex Gundyr - 0
                            Vordt - 0
                            Curse Rotted Greatwood - 3 (Didn't understand the gimmick in the earlier attempts)
                            Crystal Sage - 1 (Got overwhelmed by the magic spam at the start of phase 2)
                            Deacons - 0 (Pretty fun fight just tossing around the church bois)
                            Abyss Watchers - 0 (OST slapped and the 2nd phase was super cool)
                            Wolnir - 1 (Got engulfed by the dark cloud/ breath)
                            Old Demon King - 0 (I really liked the OST and him losing his fire towards the end first confused me and then saddened me)
                            Pontiff - 3 (Really cool boss and the double swords with different timings was super fun to deal with + the clone in the second phase was a nice addition due to the way it would telegraph the moves of the Pontiff)
                            Aldrich - 1 (Got greedy and then instantly died to a teleport at the start of phase 2 from around 70% health. Fight was mostly running around and reminded me quite a bit of Elden Beast)
                            Yhorm - 0 (Completed Siegward's quest and he carried the fight, I distracted for the duration, not knowing about the stormruler gimmick)
                            Dancer - 2 (Once after the teleport and got blendered once in phase 2)
                            Oceiros - 1 (That charge feels likes BS, but had enough DPS to finish him on my second attempt while staying topped up for the charge)
                            Champion - 0 (Movesets were super cool and super well telegraphed, only got hit once by the swing that comes after the charge at the start of phase 2. OST was a banger)
                            Dragonslayer Armor - 1 (OST was pretty good, got distracted by the stuff those things were shooting in phase 2 and got hit by the high damage horizontal sweep)
                            Twin Princes - 3 (Super fun fight and the OST slaps. I really liked the duo healer/ reviver mechanic in phase 2 which forced me to think more about my dodge directions and positioning to get in clever hits on both)
                            Ancient Wyvern - 0 (Cool gimmick, enemies were kinda annoying)
                            Nameless King - 3 (The arena and the way the camera orients itself kinda threw me off my depth perception and I felt I was missing more often than I should have been against the King of the Storm. Nameless was relatively easy but made you hold your breath to see if his attacks would continue or he'd be giving you an opening)
                            Soul of Cinder - 0 (I feel like he staggers way too easily. I didn't even know he had a sorcerer or lancer/paladin form in the first phase. Plin Plin Plon was a nice throwback)
                            Champion Gravetender - 1 (Didn't like this fight. First phase is an annoying and uninteresting gank. Second Phase is a relatively unremarkable duo. The wolf bites seemed timed such that if I was a split second too late in my response, I would roll after the first bite to get bitten by the second. How does this D tier fight get such a good OST is beyond me)
                            Sister Friede - 1 (The teleport and hide and seek mechanic was cool but I never figured it out on my first playthrough. She staggers too easily and her third phase, while very flashy and high damaging, has easy to avoid moves. Really liked the presentation and OST though, one of my favorites)
                            Demon Princes - 1 (Super fun gimmick for the first phase, and cool moveset in the second even if I felt that the fight dragged a bit too long due to phase 2 resistances. My personal favorite fight in DS3).
                            Halflight - 1 (Didn't understand what was going on and got skewered by the spears on the ground move on my first attempt. Fortunately had a decentish amount of ER pvp under my belt so fight was fairly simple once I got the hang of it. Would probably be a nightmare at SL1 though)
                            Midir - 4 (Decent fight, but a bit of a health sponge. I liked how positioning and managing the lock on was a component of the fight to end up right next to the head as Midir finished an attack or was doing that one fire breath attack)
                            Gael - 0 (Banger OST, and super well animated and presented fight with super cool lore, but a fairly simple fight all in all)







                            • Second Souls game after DS1, I love it. I enjoyed DS1 bosses more because it was so much more fun the first time I ever played these games, but yeah, DS3 is also a banger. I will play DS2 after going NG++ maybe :/

                              Maybe I cheesed by using Sellsword Twinblades (I went Mercenary), but in my defense, I did not know it was that OP, and I just wanted to go Dex this game because I went pure strength on DS1.
                              Death Count:
                              Iudex Gundyr - 1
                              Vordt - 2
                              Curse-Rotted Greatwood - 1
                              Crystal Sage - 3, the clones got me confused for a while.
                              Abyss Watchers - 6. It took me an hour or so just fighting these guys.
                              Deacons of the Deep - 0, easy boss, also satisfying killing a lot of those mobs.
                              High Lord Wolnir - 1, died to poison once, then stopped breeding.
                              Old Demon King - 1, the nostalgia fighting these guys again.
                              Pontif Sullyvan - 0, maybe I killed him too fast, him and his clone, I went to Dancer first and farmed before continuing the Valley XDD.
                              Yhorm - 2, I didn't know about the Storm Ruler at first.
                              Aldrich - 1, I Might've smurfed through him because the arena we're fighting in brought back my old trauma fighting the duo.
                              Dancer of the Boreal Valley - 15+, I was way under-leveled when I fought her, pretty stupid but I'm glad I beat her at a low level.
                              Dragonslayer Armor - 1, I was too over-leveled when I fought this guy.
                              Oceiros - 3, I fought him early on and was pretty challenging.
                              Champion Gundyr - 2, very long reach, and aggressive, I almost couldn't Estus, but yeah we pull through with enough rolls.
                              Lothric/Lorian - 3, this fight is very fun, just right on the difficulty.
                              Ancient Wyvern - 7, I knew about the plunge attack mechanic, but I really wanna try beating it pure melee.
                              Nameless King - 13, 10/10 fight, exhausting after a while but I just keep playing Stains of Time (MGRR) while fighting him :D
                              Soul of Cinder - 2, I loved the second phase, but I remember how to dodge his moves because I didn't parry Gwyn back in DS1.

                              DLC Bosses
                              Sister Friede - 20+ I don't even remember, I feel miserable fighting this boss, 3 phases like wtf, and I'm using Firelink GS so it's just torture, a part of me wishes I never fought her.
                              Gravetender - 4, Fromsoft really just wants me to kill some doggos, very annoying in this fight, and I thought the big wolf is unfair.
                              Demon Prince - 3, fair boss ngl
                              Halflight - 0, I don't know how, I just put them to staggertown.
                              Darkeater Midir - 3, though I watched a guide on my 3rd attempt because it's the last boss on my list.
                              Gael - 10+ I don't remember, but he was fun, almost did hitless after he exploded on the second phase, made me hyped up.

                              All offline and no summoning, and Gael and Midir managed to exhaust my Estus and left me at 10% hp just before I kill them. FUN GAME!

                              • Anonymous

                                Greatshields are great against all the most difficult bosses besides Friede. Havel's greatshield against Lorian and Gael, Dragonslayer for the Nameless king and the fire infused - black iron for Midir and the soul of cinder. You are welcome

                                • Anonymous

                                  Elden Ring was my first Fromsoftware game, after that I played DS1 and then DS3.
                                  Here is a list of all my tries for each boss:
                                  list

                                  • Anonymous

                                    These guys suck compared to fromsofts other boss rosters

                                    Sorry I thought I was on the Elden ring wiki there

                                    • Anonymous

                                      I thought this game would be extremely hard coming from Elden Ring and how bosses are touted to be so much better and complex, but breezed through the game pretty easily. The areas seemed harder than the bosses themselves. Used Longsword for the whole game

                                      Iudex Gundyr 0 (Pretty easy tutorial boss, staggered him in the 2nd phase and it was all over.)
                                      Vordt 0 (Doesn't hit you when you are stuck near him so it was pretty easy)
                                      Curse Rotted Greatwood 0 (Another easy boss. The enemies that are in the start are annoying but it's easier when you are in the pit)
                                      Crystal Sage 0 (Almost died here. Didn't seem threatening at the start, but spent all of my flasks in his illusions. Used a charcoal bundle to burn him down))
                                      Deacons 0 (A nice break after the sage, extremely easy boss)
                                      Abyss Watchers 0 (Another easy boss, the Black Knight Shield trivializes this fight)
                                      High King Wolnir 1 (First boss that killed me. It didn't take me long to find about the bracelet, but he kept hiding his right arm. Got impatient because he kept summoning skeletons then got insta killed by the fog ability)
                                      Old Demon King 0 (Black Knight Shield coming in clutch again)
                                      Pontiff Sulvahn 0 (Another boss that can't penetrate the Black Knight Shield. Looked very intimidating at the start but was disappointed)
                                      Aldrich 3 (First hard boss in the game. The first phase is simple, but the combination of arrows and the lingering magic was pretty hard to dodge. I got lucky in my 4th attempt but I wonder if there is a good way to avoid his arrows in the 2nd phase.)
                                      Yhorm 0 (I was looking forward to meeting him after the trailer but to find that it's just a gimmick fight and an extremely easy one at that makes it the most disappointing fight in the game)
                                      Dancer 1 (Died in the attempt after getting teleported because I got caught by surprise, but Scholar's Shield makes it easy to block her attacks and she gives you opportunities to recast it)
                                      Dragonslayer Armour 2 (Many of his moves does a lot of stamina damage, so blocking isn't really good. Had to resort to rolling. Pretty fun)
                                      Oceiros 0 (Another boss that you can just block his attacks and I didn't even need to enhance my shield with Scholar's)
                                      Champion Gundyr 4 (This was more tricky, he has multiple attacks that deal a lot of stamina damage and is very aggressive to heal up and keep up Scholar's Shield. I had to swap the Black Knight Shield to Dragonslayer's which held up better)
                                      Twin Princes 0 (Another boss with easily blockable attacks, lame)
                                      Soul of Cinder 0 (Yet another boss that just can't deal with blocking)
                                      Ancient Wyvern 1 (Pretty obnoxious ganks throughout, died in the bridge with the chain lizard and the 2 firebreathing serpents)
                                      Nameless King 0 (Dragonslayer's Shield makes this boss hilariously easy)
                                      Gravetender 2 (Well this boss is dumb. For some reason the wolf boss charge can't be blocked, but had a good try where the Gravetender died quickly and punished the big wolf breath attack)
                                      Sister Friede 8 (The hardest boss in the game in my opinion. Her first two phases were easy, but the 3rd phase was a killer. Epic fight)
                                      Demon Prince 3 (First attempt I used all of my flasks on the gank I got surprised when he had a 2nd phase. The first phase was easier than it looks, but the next attempts I just died to the meteors which seems impossible to dodge. He didn't cast it in the attempt I killed him though)
                                      Halflight 0 (Got a real player here that was trolling, wish I went offline beforehand for the true boss)
                                      Gael 0 (Amazing theme and arena, but unfortunately, he has nothing against shields.)
                                      Midir 2 (Well this was a stupid damage sponge boss. It's basically 10 minutes of fighting telegraphed attacks. Pretty lame ending to the game)

                                      • Anonymous

                                        DS3 was my second souls game, right after DS1, and has my absolute favorite bosses in the series. Kept track of my death counts to each boss (Because why not) and I feel like sharing them. I did play a little bit cheesy (Sword and board is super fun to me) but did no summons or items other than estus.

                                        Iudex Gundyr 1
                                        Vordt 0
                                        Curse Rotted Greatwood 2 (Easily my least favorite boss, just hittin' nuts)
                                        Abyss Watchers 0 (They were staggered for most of the fight, it was a shame too because they seemed super fun)
                                        Crystal Sage 13 (I've gone through and fought them more and they always give me trouble)
                                        Deacons 0
                                        Old Demon King 3 (Got rolled my first few attempts and came back later to kill it)
                                        High King Wolnir 3 (This dude was just annoying)
                                        Pontiff Sulyvahn 2
                                        Aldrich 0
                                        Yhorm 1 (It was intentional so Siegmeyer wouldn't die)
                                        Dancer 4
                                        Oceiros 0
                                        Champion Gundyr 0 (It was super close, one of my favorite fights)
                                        Dragonslayer Armour 5 (The timing never quite clicked with me)
                                        Twin Princes 0 (Also super close, also one of my favorites)
                                        Ancient Wyvern 1 (In the running for least favorite boss)
                                        Nameless King 3 (Super fun second phase but lame first phase)
                                        Soul of Cinder 1 (It was super fun but then pling pling plong happened and it was even better)
                                        Freide 16
                                        Gravetender 0 (What a fun boss, an npc, sif knock-off, and normal wolves)
                                        Demon Prince 7
                                        Halflight 1 (This was during the period where online was disabled so it was just an npc, how very fun)
                                        Midir ): (Never got anywhere close to beating Midir but died 37 times)
                                        Slave Knight Gael 1 (What an amazing send off to Dark Souls, top tier boss)

                                        • No no no,this place is fextralife. If you don't die during a boss/mini boss or say it's easy you'll be heavily downvoted.just say "yeah bro that one was hard I died 69 times"

                                          • Anonymous

                                            Isn't there an Elden Ring wiki you people can spam? Imagine coming here just to discuss a different game you clearly don't like

                                            • Anonymous

                                              reading some of these comments and man honestly you'd have to be kinda low iq to compare ds3 and ER when they're so different in design. ok sure ER has a lot of repaste bosses, but it's also a massive open world and needs to be populated, so expecting 100% unique bosses is just unreasonable and shows you don't know anything about how games are made. is it unfortunate? sure. but the question really is, for the type of game Soulsborne titles are, is a linear design or open world design better? I'm leaning towards linear with options, similar to dark souls 1. the titles work best as intricately crafted experiences and that is hard to accomplish with open world settings although they did a good job of it.

                                              I did DS1, then bloodborne (struggled a lot), then elden ring, then DS2 and then DS3. So, personally I feel like DS3's bosses are pretty easy. But only because I came from elden ring beforehand. Death Tally:

                                              Iudex Gundyr 0
                                              Vordt 0
                                              Curse Rotted Greatwood 1
                                              Abyss Watchers 1
                                              Crystal Sage 0
                                              Deacons 0
                                              Old Demon King 0
                                              High King Wolnir 0
                                              Aldrich 4
                                              Yhorm 1
                                              Dancer 0
                                              Oceiros 0
                                              Champion Gundyr 6
                                              Dragonslayer Armour 2
                                              Twin Princes 0
                                              Freide 5
                                              Gravetender 0
                                              Demon Prince 1
                                              Halflight 0
                                              Midir 8
                                              Slave Knight Gael 3

                                              and yet, in areas such as the first visit to Catacombs, I died over 12 times getting through it. I think the reason why my deaths were so high in areas but low in bosses is because everything in ER is so fast and irratic, everything in the Souls series retroactively feels much slower. Example would be Margit, the first "actual" boss in ER. What can he do? Gap closers, a variety of near-insta Light Weapon attacks with 0 telegraph (only learnt about the cycle recently.), roll catching, delayed attacks, delaying attacks mid-combo, combo cancelling to catch you out, incredibly fast and irratic attacks. In order to find a boss that has this kind of design, you'd need to look to Gael or Friede in the Souls DLCs. Yet in ER, it's the first thing you do. So yeah for that reason I think DS3 is a breeze, but much much better than DS2 with it's shitty turn based combat. Enjoyed myself simple as

                                              • Anonymous


                                                I played eldenring first then darksouls 3 the only boss in eldenring i can remember is mogh lord of blood and I still love the fight. But in darksouls 3 the bosses are way more awesome especially pontriff Sulyvahn or nameless king

                                                • Anonymous

                                                  Elden Ring’s repeat bosses are definitely dumb but most of the souls bosses are ridiculously easy. Beat soul of cinded first try. O&S 2nd try. I understand the frustration with Melania (I think she’s a bullshit boss) but all the DS3 bosses are pretty easy besides Nameless King. Haven’t played any DLC yet.

                                                  • Anonymous

                                                    What about the demon you fight to start Seigward's questline, am I being blind or is that not missing from the list?

                                                    • Anonymous

                                                      Whelp. After finally beating Elden Ring. I can say that its biggest flaw for me personally in my playthrough of it is that it has WAY too many bosses. To the point I can barely remember any of them. That's sad to me. Went back for a DS3 playthrough to compare. Personally, I like the player mechanics better of ER. I think the magic system is better, and there's a lot of build variety. But in the case of bosses, I like DS3 better than ER. Because, even if some of them weren't the best bosses, they were memorable. There were no bosses in Elden Ring besides Malenia or Radahn (Although I personally didn't like his fight) and Full Grown Fallingstar beast that I really remember or cared for, or had struggled on, most of them felt a bit lackluster imo.

                                                      Comparatively, DS 3, I have very memorable moments from the base game with Dancer, Champion Gundyr, Lothric Nameless King, Pontiff, and Soul of Cinder, etc. As for DLC, I also have quite a few memories of Gael, Friede surprising me with a phase 3. And especially that scumbag Midir.

                                                      All in all. There were some cool looking bosses in Elden Ring. But, I still see it as a Quality vs Quantity isssue. I'd have rather even 1/4 the amount of bosses in ER, and make them more memorable, and interesting to fight instead of feeling like a chore or just another mob to kill (Yes, I know they are optional and you can skip many of them, or not know some exist till your second or third playthroug for an attempt at a fresh experience each playthrough, its just a choice I don't agree with for my play style I guess, I understand what FS was trying to aim for, but I think they overdid it a bit). Rather than over 100 bosses, most of which weren't very memorable for me. I hope the ER dlc will have some bosses that strike fear into me like Midir especially. While I hated the fight, I also loved it. Or nameless king with that cutscene before phase two. That was especially memorable. I want boss fights I look forward to, even if they are extremely hard. That's why I fell in love with FS games in the first place with the DS series, and Bloodborne. Nioh and Sekiro kind of? Still fun bot not as much.

                                                      • Anonymous

                                                        "entitled babies"? thats a new one man. but i think the "entitled babies" strategy for elden ring DLC may enclude Azur comet and or rivers of blood + mimic tier. I don't think they're going to be trolled at all. even if the boss doesnt hemorrhage **** still does so much damage.

                                                        • Anonymous

                                                          In terms of difficulty,
                                                          Elden ring DLC> melania > DS3 DLC > Elden ring Radagon+Elden Beast > Malakath (Elden ring) > Other Elden ring bosses > ds3 bosses > ds1 bosses

                                                          Discuss.

                                                          • Anonymous

                                                            Elden Ring dlc bosses are going to spank all you ungrateful's so hard lol FS has a great opportunity to troll all you entitled babies

                                                            • Anonymous

                                                              Dark Souls 3 lineup was great at the time, but if I look at it now I see a lot mediocrity and bad bosses. Curse-rotted, crystal age, old demon king, deacons, yhorm, aldrich, wolnir, oceiros, ancent wyvern, halflight, champion's gravetender.

                                                              It's not like I hate all these fights, but when it comes to a VERY linear game these misses hurts him a lot.

                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                While I agree ds3 has the best boss lineup in the whole series, I think people are *****ing way too much about elden ring. Yes,the game has copy pastes bosses, the game has some awful encounters, but most of them are minibosses. If you look at the rememberence bosses lineup which are the actual bosses in elden ring, 14 out of 17 are pretty decent if not great. sucks how the community only really remembers the bad bosses. Reading this comment section would make you think elden ring is terrible without any good boss and discourages the player base to experience an otherwise great game.

                                                                Tldr; both are honestly good in terms of bosses but elden ring's larger boss lineup does include some bad bosses, there are still enjoyable ones as well

                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                  why does this wiki have adds to be honest the bosses are cool when you can parry them
                                                                  its good to parry them

                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                    Best bosses of all the Souls+ games. Rock solid quality very nearly all the way through with some of the best fights in the series that they still haven't topped. And looking back after Elden Ring makes me appreciate that there are no outright bad bosses in the entire game, only two or three that are mediocre. Goated boss lineup.

                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                      Damn after beating Radagon I realized how much I cherish every single boss in DS3 compared to all of those garbage bosses combined

                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                        Was not expecting to be looking back to this game after beating Elden Ring and wondering where the quality went.

                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                          the bosses I find to be easy in ng+3: Iudex gundyr, Vordt, cursed greatwood, crystal sage, deacons of the deep, abyss watchers, high lord wolnir, pontiff, old demon king, dancer, yhorm, dragonslayer armor, oceiros the consumed king, aldrich, sister friede, champion gravetender and greatwolf, demon prince (I used black knight weapons and gnawing) and spears of the church and I think thats it

                                                                          the bosses i find hard are champion gundyr (still) the prince brothers, soul of cinder, nameless king and slave knight gael.

                                                                          The one I can't be asked to fight is Midir, we don't talk about midir

                                                                          • Anonymous

                                                                            lothric can be riposted, his riposte area is just his side and not his head so you have to be slightly to his left your right

                                                                            • Anonymous

                                                                              If I can help anybody by defeating a boss, giving them souls or items, my character is lvv 390 with maxed weapons and all spells etc, if you need something message my psn: The_Due_MK44

                                                                              • Anonymous

                                                                                I came here to see which bosses were weak to magic, since, I’m doing my first sorcery build. Lo and behold it’s the only weapon form that no bosses have a weakness to. Some of the bosses are resistant to it, but not one is weak. Literally every other form of damage has a weak boss, wtf.

                                                                                • Anonymous

                                                                                  Hardest bosses per NG:
                                                                                  NG: Darkeater Midir
                                                                                  Hits harder then every other boss has high defenses, and is just a ***** sometimes
                                                                                  NG+: Soul of Cinder
                                                                                  He just seems to be on a different lvl lmao
                                                                                  NG+2: Slave Knight Gael
                                                                                  Hits so so damn hard lmao and has super super high defenses, beat him somewhat easy with Chaos infused onikiri and ubadachi, Lady Maria 3rd phase cosplay btw
                                                                                  NG+3: Twin princes
                                                                                  IDK why but they seem so much harder now lol
                                                                                  NG+4: Halflight
                                                                                  Whys he gotta be so tanky and keep running away lol
                                                                                  NG+5:Gael again
                                                                                  For the same reason but worse lol
                                                                                  NG+6:Demon prince(Not demon below and pain)
                                                                                  Hes when i say is so so godamn tanky and its annoying and not just that hits so damn hard
                                                                                  NG+7: Demon prince
                                                                                  Again for the same reason but worse lol, tied with Gael tbh

                                                                                  • Anonymous

                                                                                    So, i decided to count weaknesses, and here is what i found :
                                                                                    Lightning - 12(!)
                                                                                    Fire - 7
                                                                                    thrust - 5
                                                                                    frost/dark - 5
                                                                                    slash/strike - 4
                                                                                    poison/toxic/bleed - 2

                                                                                    Use lightning, boys

                                                                                    • Anonymous

                                                                                      Shouldn't Champion Gundyr be marked with the little 2 for "this bossfight is not optional for the "End of Fire" ending, but optional for all others.." as well?

                                                                                      • Anonymous

                                                                                        can somebody help me get the vertebra shackles please, you summon me, I kill you and you get a lot of souls, my psn is The_Duke_MK44

                                                                                        • Anonymous

                                                                                          I understand you're proud... but literally no one cares how many tries it took you to kill a certain boss

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