Current Events > Just played the entire Dark Souls trilogy... time for some BOSS RANKINGS!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Don't know if this will interest anybody, but over the last two months, I've played through all three Dark Souls games and all six DLC packs, beating every boss in every game. I've had a fantastic time doing so, and it's still on the brain, and I'm someone who likes to rank things, so... here goes. All 92 bosses, from worst to best! I'll be posting in chunks of ten until the top twelve. Aiming for at least once a day, maybe more as the spirit moves.

Disclaimer #1: I had played the base games before years ago, but only once through, and had never played any of the DLCs except AotA.

Disclaimer #2: I will have a little blurb about each boss, but I will have more to say as we get to bosses I like more.

Disclaimer #3: To help you understand my process... this list was made off the cuff based purely on how much I like them. This is a subjective ranking, not an objective ranking, and the biggest crime a boss can commit for me is being forgettable. You'll see some boss fights with iffy/bad mechanics ranked a bit higher than you'd expect because I like their lore or the spectacle or the soundtrack, etc. Basically, it's not an exact science.

Let's do this

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Oh shit, we doing this

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Come onnn Pinwheel
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just a flat ranking, or are you gonna get fancy with different criteria?

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i love a good Dark Souls boss ranking

92 glorious placements

looking forward to it!

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92 - Centipede Demon (DS1)
What the hell is this? I know people usually expect a different boss from Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith to end up at the bottom of these lists, but the Centipede Demon is an absolute mess of a fight. You've got extremely limited room to maneuver safely despite the massive cavern in which the fight takes place, and I don't think there's ever been a worse "the real boss is the camera" moment. It's not even hard, either. All I remember is swinging wildly at a big bunch of something occupying my screen until it died. I think it may have jumped a couple times? Who can say.

91 - Royal Rat Vanguard (DS2)
Dark Souls 2 is a major offender when it comes to making a boss fight out of "what if we took a boring enemy and put a bunch of them in the same room?", which is lazy and uninspired design for my money. It doesn't get much less inspired or more boring than a room full of a bunch of rats. It's a bad horde fight even as horde fights go.

90 - Demon Firesage (DS1)
The Demon Firesage is actually not even bad as its own entity -- on its own merits, it would be quite a bit higher on the list. However, in all likelihood it's the third Asylum Demon you've faced at this point, and while the Stray Demon provides a nice uptick in difficulty on a familiar foe, seeing it for a third time in one game just kind of induces an eyeroll. I'm not even sure it's harder than the Stray Demon, really, so it feels particularly copy-pasted.

89 - Prowling Magus & Congregation (DS2)
No joke, I finished Dark Souls 2 a few weeks ago and as I was getting this list ready, I had to click their wiki page to remember who these guys were. Now that my memory's refreshed, I remember I stumbled into their room low on Estus and thought "oh god, not a boss fight! Not right now!" and the next thing I remember, it was over. Easy, dull group fight. Pass.

88 - Pinwheel (DS1)
Notoriously probably the easiest boss in the trilogy, Pinwheel keels over and dies in a stiff breeze. At least he's got a cool boss room, and if you've ever seen his concept art or looked into his backstory, it's pretty damn twisted, so he gets a few cool points despite being a waste of an encounter.

87 - Belfry Gargoyles (DS2)
You've probably already picked up on the fact that I don't like copy-paste fights, and I don't usually like horde fights. Belfry Gargoyles is one of the worst offenders in the trilogy at both. Taking the fairly iconic Bell Gargoyles of DS1 and simply putting like 80 of them on a roof is lazy and artificially difficult in the worst ways.

86 - Twin Dragonriders (DS2)
Once again -- take a boring boss you already beat (who is also a common enemy, at least in Scholar of the First Sin), double it, and call it a day. Braindead fight and very forgettable.

85 - The Gank Squad (DS2 - Crown of the Ivory King)
I get what they were going for here, simulating PvP and having you take down three "players" at once, but in practice, you just run away and chip away slowly hit by hit when an opening presents itself for ten minutes. Taking them head on does not feel like it is remotely viable, so you're left with a very prolonged game of tag with an annoying corpse run. Probably the worst of the three side-area DLC bosses in DS2, none of which are very good.

84 - Royal Rat Authority (DS2)
"What if we took Sif, made him poisonous, and threw a bunch of little rats in there alongside him?" "Wasn't Sif a wolf? Isn't this supposed to be a rat?" "Whatever, they won't notice."

83 - Blue Smelter Demon (DS2: Crown of the Old Iron King)
You guessed it -- a copy-paste of an earlier boss, this time with a boatload of health and the thrilling mechanic of hurting you simply by standing near him. Add in one of the most grating corpse runs in all of Dark Souls and you've got a bottom ten boss experience, made especially bewildering by how good the other two bosses in this DLC are.

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Neoconkers posted...

just a flat ranking, or are you gonna get fancy with different criteria?

Nothing fancy, though I'll definitely articulate what I like and don't like about each. I'll have more to say as I get to bosses I like more, as I mentioned in the OP, but I'll be happy to discuss any rankings with anyone further.

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How is the Bed of Chaos not in last place?

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Temporal posted...

How is the Bed of Chaos not in last place?

We'll talk about Bed when we get there (spoilers: not too long from now), but Disclaimer #3 will put you on the right track

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Hot take: Royal Rat Vanguard is a fun horde boss and the biggest offense by it is that the rat boss is recognizable by having a mohawk.

I also don't understand how Twin Dragonriders can be below Dragonrider. Yeah, they're easy but having to keep two different positions in mind when working the camera is a thing. Solo Dragonrider fight does not contain a thing. It is a literal nothing. I guess you could say the repetition knocks it down a peg, but I just don't see it.
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Not surprised to see a lot of DS2 bosses so far.

DeadBankerDream posted...

I also don't understand how Twin Dragonriders can be below Dragonrider. Yeah, they're easy but having to keep two different positions in mind when working the camera is a thing. Solo Dragonrider fight does not contain a thing. It is a literal nothing. I guess you could say the repetition knocks it down a pec, but I just don't see it.

They just feel like a joke boss to me. Dragonrider when you first fight it is easy as fuck, fighting two of them that late in the game feels like a slightly harder normal encounter.

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lotta ds2 as expected >_> many of them were more a test of patience for tedium than of skill

DeadBankerDream posted...

I also don't understand how Twin Dragonriders can be below Dragonrider. Yeah, they're easy but having to keep two different positions in mind when working the camera is a thing. Solo Dragonrider fight does not contain a thing. It is a literal nothing. I guess you could say the repetition knocks it down a peg, but I just don't see it.

Totally valid counterpoint.

I guess for me, and you'll notice this as we keep going down the list (particularly with DS2 which did this often), I usually put "it's that fight from before... but there's TWO of them!!!!!!!!!!" battles below the original fight, simply for lack of imagination. Just my personal stance.

MC_BatCommander posted...

They just feel like a joke boss to me. Dragonrider when you first fight it is easy as fuck, fighting two of them that late in the game feels like a slightly harder normal encounter.

also this

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I thought the rat vanguard was a really cool idea of having to find the one thats different from the others. Real easy if you go in knowing how it works, though. I remember twin dragonriders being a fun challenge too with a cool arena.

Capra Demon might be the bottom on my list. It has the small dogs which make the first 5 seconds of the fight five times harder than the rest, similar to the Rat Authority. It also has a very cramped room which can present camera problems. Capra Demon is one of the hardest bosses in the whole game for new players.

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In fairness to Royal Rat Vanguard, two people have pointed out that the rat you're looking for is visually distinct from the others, which I did not realize. I just kept hitting a bunch of them until I found the one you want, which felt pretty weak. Knowing that the rat is indeed identifiable helps and would probably bump it up SLIGHTLY, but not likely out of that bottom ten.

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Is this only the Dark Souls games, and not Demons or Bloodborne or Sekiro?

I get the repetition being a downer for some. For me, that's not so bad when they do something with it, and I actually think the setup for the Twin Dragonriders is really good with one dude shooting from above and you having a normal fight below trying to avoid turning your back to the arrow dude and still blocking and dodging without getting hit. Because it's Dark Souls II it comes nowhere near close to its potential by having the dragonrider be slow and boring with no interesting attacks and having no health. I think a lot of bosses in dark souls II I kind of appreciate their concept and often allow a poor execution to slip by. I also like Skeleton Lords for this reason and I don't really think it's a very well-liked boss.

Also kind of surprised Ancient Wyvern isn't on the list yet. Another one I don't dislike, but I know a lot of people do.

I also like Blue Smelter, lol.
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tag, this is fun to read.


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DavidZ2844 posted...

Is this only the Dark Souls games, and not Demons or Bloodborne or Sekiro?

Correct. I've not yet played Demon's (I have the PS5 version, so that's on my backlog). Bloodborne and Sekiro I have platted.

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I'll definitely do at least one more batch of ten today, wanna keep the suspense going a little bit, but while I'm mostly doing the ones I don't really like and not waxing poetic, it's not like it takes me very long.

Once we get to the top 12, I might do an individual post for each or something like that. We'll see.

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Thank Gwyn for the Chaos Servant shortcut. I've only ever fought Demon Firesage and Centipede Demon once, and that was plenty.
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I probably agree that Centipede is my least favourite, I think its proximity to the Firesage (a boss that was dull was copypasted to even include its fire weakness even though it's a pyromancer???) just made it drag even more. Belfry Gargoyles is a close second tho

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Looking forward to the rest of the list.

Even though I disagree with a few DS1 bosses being ranked worse than any of the pathetic DS2 ones, I'm thoroughly enjoying these.

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82 - Dragonrider (DS2)
As mentioned in the Twin Dragonriders writeup, let's not pretend the Dragonrider himself is a terribly formidable foe. He's one of those bosses where even as you're fighting him for the first time, you're thinking "yeah, I bet this guy is a non-boss enemy later." The one cool thing he has going for him is the ring-raising gimmick around Heide's, which is kinda neat.

81 - Ruin Sentinels (DS2)
Again, you've probably caught on at this point to my lack of enthusiasm for fights made difficult by quantity. Throwing three of these guys in a room is only made at all interesting by figuring out "okay, I can take care of the first one before the second one jumps up, then I'm only dealing with two," which is enough strategizing to save it from the absolute bottom of the barrel, if only by a hair.

80 - Covetous Demon (DS2)
I have a little bit of a soft spot for this insanely useless boss, maybe the easiest boss this side of Pinwheel. I saw a message on the ground after I killed him that just said "boss?" and that about it sums it up. He's a big goopy dork who it is rather difficult to be killed by, but at least he's memorable enough specifically because he is such a useless fatty.

79 - Mytha, the Baneful Queen (DS2)
Her arena being filled with poison unless you burn down a, um... metal windmill propeller is SO Dark Souls 2. Even at its best, the game has a preternatural gift for handicapping its most interesting ideas with unintuitive weird ones. Once you do figure out the windmill thing, though, there's not much to her fight. Couldn't really tell you any of her attacks.

78 - Scorpioness Najka (DS2)
Najka knocks on the door of "copy-paste" criticism because of how clearly she apes the superior Quelaag fight, but I am fond of how she's just a torso sticking out of the sand until you give her a couple of whacks, and then BOOM, giant scorpion. Mechanically, again, it's not a super interesting fight, but that intro is fun.

77 - Giant Lord (DS2)
The Giant Lord himself barely registered as a boss fight to me, as he goes down pretty similarly to pretty much any giant in Souls by dancing around his feet, but I thought traveling back to the time of the invasion to take him down was a neat setting for one last battle with a particularly large giant in a historical context.

76 - Iron Golem (DS1)
Perhaps there was something build-specific to this that I'm unaware of, but the Iron Golem was a pretty darn anticlimactic boss fight to end an area as trying as Sen's Fortress. The "elevator" right by his room would've made a corpse run to a tougher boss still tolerable, but I ran up to him, whacked his foot a couple times, and he fell over and didn't get back up before he was dead. Bit disappointing, but it's cool to fight him on the roof of Sen's and be able to see the Parish and Darkroot Garden below.

75 - The Bed of Chaos (DS1)
Ah, yes, the boss many of you probably expected to be roughly 17 spots lower than this. Listen, the Bed of Chaos is mechanically the most criminally janky boss in the trilogy. It simply does not really work, and the corpse run is an unforgivable oversight that ruins any chance of salvaging it. However, as I alluded to in the OP, I do also factor in spectacle and lore, and what can I say? The Bed looks damn cool, and conceptually, the Witch and her daughters being reduced to these pathetic bug-looking creatures and you leaping into the pit to put her out of her misery is very compelling to me. It's just a shame it plays so inexcusably badly in execution. I will always applaud a swing and a miss at a good idea over something uninspired or copy-pasted from elsewhere, though, and that elevates it this far, but no farther.

74 - Lud & Zallen, the Kings Pets (DS2 - Crown of the Ivory King)
I actually love the movesets for Lud & Zallen -- without spoiling the list too much, suffice it to say you won't be seeing Aava on the list for a while. The problem is just that, though... they're both just Aava, essentially verbatim, but there's two of them. We've covered how I feel about this. Still, Aava is cool enough that I would be kinder to the fight if the devs had the good sense to put a bonfire near the arena. You've got one 10 seconds away from Fume Knight, but I have to climb back in the coffin, ride to the Outskirts, and navigate 5+ minutes of Horsef*** Valley AGAIN every single time I want a crack at Aava x 2? Ludicrous decision, and it's a shame because the tiger movesets are fun!

73 - Skeleton Lords (DS2)
As DS2's obsession with throwing a boatload of enemies at you goes, the Skeleton Lords is among the better ones. I actually quite like how when one dies, it then spawns a wave of enemies to take care of. It leads to careful use of the arena and strategizing the order in which you're prioritizing enemies. This changes depending on what kind of skeletons they spawn too -- I believe one threw a bunch of Bonewheels in the arena, which added to the gymnastics.

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Few bonus thoughts.

a) Wow, DS2 took a beating in that segment, eh?

b) I would say Bed of Chaos marked the last fight with which I have more bad things to say than good. That's not to say there aren't still some pretty questionable encounters left on the list, but they all have some redeeming qualities for me that elevate them beyond "forgettable," at least.

c) I accidentally attributed the Gank Squad to "Crown of the Ivory King" in the first post. Obviously, that is "Crown of the Sunken King."

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Dragonrider can kill himself by attacking off the edge of his platform. It's completely hilarious.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Dragonrider can kill himself by attacking off the edge of his platform. It's completely hilarious.

Ive never seen it but so Ive heard!

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If you start the fight without raising the outside edge, wait for him to take 6 or 7 steps forward, and then run around to his left, he'll stab at you and the momentum will carry him off the edge.

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Tag

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I'm going to try to guess your top 10 in no particular order

O&S
Sif
Artorias
Nameless King
Sulyvahn
Gael
Fume Knight
Friede and Father Ariendel
Lothric and Lorian
Soul of Cinder

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DezDroppedFreak posted...

Tag

Northlane posted...

I'm going to try to guess your top 10 in no particular order

O&S
Sif
Artorias
Nameless King
Sulyvahn
Gael
Fume Knight
Friede and Father Ariendel
Lothric and Lorian
Soul of Cinder

I can CONFIRM that at LEAST one of these is in the top ten!!!

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Oreo & Smores/Pikachu & Snorlax better be number one wtf

tag

and while I feel O&S might be the best fight in DaS, they've been left behind by multiple DaS3 bosses.

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Morning bump. Ill do ten more within the next hour or two.

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Good stuff! Glad to see Centipede Demon in dead last. To be honest, I'm thinking of someone else, but I guess no one hates Ceaseless Discharge as much as I do :)

I also appreciate the Bed of Chaos ranking, I would have gone lower but your justification makes total sense

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I keep getting this nagging feeling like perhaps I was unfair to Mytha, but at the same time, I can't really remember virtually anything about her fight except the poison arena gimmick.

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0987654321

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72 - Old Dragonslayer (DS2)
While it was a pleasant surprise to see "Ornstein" here, especially given the lore questions it raises (is this a copycat? Is this the real Ornstein having already left Anor Londo to begin his search for the Nameless King? Why do the ruins of Heide's have such similar architecture to Anor Londo? etc), as a fight it is simply that - Ornstein, but without Smough, and not as dynamic besides. Setting aside the lore questions and just looking at it mechanically, it's one of the more blatant copy-pastes in the trilogy.

71 - Deacons of the Deep (DS3)
Credit to Dark Souls 3, as it survived the bottom 21 spots before appearing on the list. Deacons isn't a bad fight as horde fights go -- I think it's rather neat how the one you're supposed to be targeting changes multiple times throughout the fight and you've gotta duck and weave through the crowd to get to them. Unfortunately, it's just not any sort of challenge whatsoever, not helped by the fact that you've already been fighting Deacons in smaller groups for much of your stay in the Cathedral of the Deep.

70 - Halflight, Spear of the Church (DS3 - The Ringed City)
Back to back DS3 bosses, and the first from its DLC. As a full disclaimer on the Halflight fight, I was playing online so I did not actually fight Halflight himself. It took me a few tries, so I fought a few different players subbing in as Spears of the Church. It's a fun little gimmick to throw PvP into a PvE context, but still, it's little more than a glorified invader. I expected a bit more when I saw the imposing Judicator Argo standing before me.

69 - The Last Giant (DS2)
While most giants are handled in similar ways in Souls, the Last Giant from DS2 makes an impression by both being the first one you encounter on your journey and by his tortured, impaled form. Plus, not many enemies are so eager to kill you that they rip their own arm off and use it as a weapon. That's pretty metal.

68 - Moonlight Butterfly (DS1)
There's not much to the Moonlight Butterfly once you're an experienced player, but the first time you encounter it, it's probably the first time you're dealing with an enemy that keeps you at range and forces you to dodge projectiles the way that it does. It's a haunting, ambient fight with mysterious music that makes you feel like you're fighting something otherworldly, made better by the fact that you can see it resting on the tower walls before you get there if you look above you throughout the Garden.

67 - The Pursuer (DS2)
This guy makes quite the entrance when he jumps you in the Forest of the Fallen Giants, outside of his intended arena. You can beat him there, but chances are you're going to die, and I usually am not a big fan of "scripted deaths" in Souls. Once you DO reach the actual boss fight, I've always found it a little... oddly placed. If you take him on right after the Last Giant, he's way overtuned and your only hope to take him down is to play perfectly or get off some ballista shots before he destroys them. If you decide to leave and go to Heide's, you'll probably forget he exists and have no real reason to ever go back that way until you're on the hunt for Souls of a Giant (and I'm pretty sure the one behind him is not mandatory). His moveset is reasonably interesting, but the placement of his encounter is a bit wonky.

66 - Flexile Sentry (DS2)
This boss isn't the toughest, but at the end of a fairly challenging area in No Man's Wharf, it cuts an imposing visage, whirling to face you with different weapons on each side. The below deck fight on a ghost ship as the water level hampers your movement, moonlight streaming in, is a memorable scene and one of the better setpieces in the mid-game of DS2.

65 - The Rotten (DS2)
A hulking pile of decaying corpses, the Rotten provides some pretty vintage Soulsian body horror. I also find it fascinating that you find him in the middle of attempting to fix one of the statues, something that you would not expect from something that looks... well, how he does. I've seen this lead to speculation that he could be Pharros or related to Pharros, and I find that train of thought pretty interesting. His fight is not all that special, but he's a cool looking boss and can hit you like a truck. It helps that his corpse run is very short and you don't have to deal with much of the Gutter/Gulch to get back to him.

64 - Guardian Dragon (DS2)
Battling this dragon in what feels like a massive birdcage atop Aldia's Keep is a cool setpiece and I enjoy the fight well enough. The only problem is that, at least if you're playing Scholar, you've probably already fought one of these guys in Heide's, and the fight is essentially just a common enemy you've faced before and will face again in the next area dressed up as a boss. It's fun enough, but hard to get too excited about it.

63 - Demon of Song (DS2)
Now this guy is some classic "what the FUCK, man?" monster design that I love so much from Souls. A hideous frog containing a skull and long, pale human arms that come out of its mouth, and it's singing a siren song to lure you in? Bizarre, creepy, and just plain weird. The fight itself is fine if not particularly remarkable, waiting to attack the "face" when it appears, but the spectacle gets ratcheted up when it goes back on its hind legs and your camera (if locked on) sweeps way up to track this behemoth. Memorable if only for how damn freaky this thing is.

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Yeah, Old Dragonslayer was a copycat

Also the reason that the last giant reacts to you the way it does is because it and the giant lord are the same giant. It recognizes you as the one who defeated it during the giant's invasion years prior

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Blackstar110 posted...

63 - Demon of Song (DS2)
Now this guy is some classic "what the FUCK, man?" monster design that I love so much from Souls. A hideous frog containing a skull and long, pale human arms that come out of its mouth, and it's singing a siren song to lure you in? Bizarre, creepy, and just plain weird. The fight itself is fine if not particularly remarkable, waiting to attack the "face" when it appears, but the spectacle gets ratcheted up when it goes back on its hind legs and your camera (if locked on) sweeps way up to track this behemoth. Memorable if only for how damn freaky this thing is.

this guy is really easy but i also really love his design, one of the best in DS2.

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Blackstar110 posted...

85 - The Gank Squad (DS2 - Crown of the Ivory King)

yeah fuck that boss

Northlane posted...

Yeah, Old Dragonslayer was a copycat

Also the reason that the last giant reacts to you the way it does is because it and the giant lord are the same giant. It recognizes you as the one who defeated it during the giant's invasion years prior

Oh, thats pretty cool! He was missing his skirt so its hard to tell.

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IIRC the last giant's soul confirms it.
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ds2 has way too many bosses, especially considering how bad they are

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This reminds me that I need to go through Dark Souls 2 at some point. I've beaten Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 multiple times, but I haven't beaten all the bosses in Dark Souls 1 (can't bring myself to destroy the chest), and I've never met Kaathe. I have 100% completed Dark Souls 3, though.

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ultimate reaver posted...

ds2 has way too many bosses, especially considering how bad they are

That's what occurred to me as I was making the list. I knew off the cuff that DS2's bosses were gonna come in pretty low because I was not terribly impressed at the time, but as I was listing everything, I was really struck by just how many there are. There's SO many and virtually none of them are very good.

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