Awesome Bosses / Elden Ring

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Befitting a game from FromSoftware, Elden Ring provides the players with exciting boss fights even if some of them are frustratingly difficult to fight.

Main Game

• The Tree Sentinel in Limgrave is the first boss that most players will encounter, since he patrols the area immediately beyond the starting area—and he starts the game off with one hell of a bang. Most players will elect to sneak past him upon starting the game, since he vastly outclasses the Tarnished before they've had a chance to level up and get some decent equipment. But if you return to challenge him after acquiring Torrent, the result can be an absolutely exhilarating horse-to-horse battle that puts anything in Game of Thrones to shame. There's nothing quite like the satisfying "whoosh!" of a mounted knight's halberd gliding over your head as you ride past him at breakneck speed and land a perfectly timed blow with your greatsword. Or seeing sparks fly as you drag your blade across the ground (the game's unique animation for charging up a heavy attack with a two-handed weapon on horseback) while riding straight at your hapless foe.
• The first dragon battle you're likely to encounter is Flying Dragon Agheel in Limgrave, who pops out of nowhere and abruptly ambushes you in the middle of a lake. While he is restrained compared to the main story bosses and the duplication of his move set makes most later dragon fights underwhelming, Agheel himself is a great early-game punch to introduce giant field bosses and mounted combat. Selectively calling in Torrent to close the distance and avoid his attacks makes a good challenge, and riding towards a fire-spewing dragon on your trusty steed before jumping off at just the right moment to land a heavy strike on the beast's head is the stuff fantasy action scenes are made of.
• Godrick the Grafted is where the game takes the kid gloves off, and does he make an impression. Surprisingly acrobatic for someone of his size and deformity, his aggressive moveset delivers the game's first major challenge. And then he cuts off his own arm to graft a dragon's head onto the stump, and all bets are off – not only does he remain agile, but he can target the player from range now, and while his newfound wide-reaching fire moves are damaging, they nevertheless provide ample opportunity for retaliation. All in all, a very solid boss battle that is very likely to be the player's first Shardbearer boss.
• Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, may not be particularly difficult, but the fight against her makes up for it in mood and atmosphere. The first stage is quiet, with Rennala ethereally floating around in a golden bubble while her pageboys reinforce its magic shield. But things really get going when Ranni protects Rennala and creates a magic projection of Rennala at the height of her power. This leads to the second phase, where the conjured Rennala slings shining space magic at the player as they fight upon an endless lake with a giant full Moon in the background. The whole thing is absolutely majestic.
• Starscourge Radahn has been immensely praised for its design and sheer insanity, being almost like the Tarnished took a wrong turn and ended up in Dragon Ball Z. To begin with, you have an immense buildup with the Radahn festival (which features its own music) in which a gathering of the greatest warriors around the land converge to fight the fallen Demigod. And then the sky darkens, and the player is given an exposition-filled cutscene explaining Radahn's state and the reason for the festival. And then the fight happens; in which the player is transported to a dune that contains the remains of a massive battlefield to face down Radahn himself. He uses a terrifying mixture of arrows, blades, and magic, and he also combines nightmarish speed as he expertly prowls the desert with his warhorse, looking for every opportunity to kill the player. The first thing a player sees as they step out from the waygate is Radahn's figure in the misty distance, winding up a greatarrow the size of a telegraph pole, pointed directly at them. The gimmick of the fight involves the player being able to summon an entire army of phantoms (the first time in the series), which turns the duel into a frantic all-out war against the Shattering's strongest Demigod. His second phase, which begins with Radahn throwing himself into the sky and re-entering the atmosphere like a comet, enhances his spellcasting, and it's all topped off by an amazing cutscene depicting the fallen stars arriving in the Lands Between. All in all, an amazing spectacle that's equally fun and rewarding to play as it is to watch.
• Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy is the game's resident Storm King-type boss, and he's by far the best iteration of the formula so far. Starting as a pretty straightforward gimmick boss as the God-Devouring Serpent, he introduces himself properly in one of the game's most memorable cutscenes. And then a frenetic duel against him ensues, involving magma, a sword covered in human remains and exploding skeletons, and while he may be something of a Breather Boss, his moveset is still challenging and fun enough to counter. Rykard is, in essence, a gimmick boss done right, and he gets extra points for being metal as hell.
• Morgott, the Omen King. His introduction is one of the game's best cutscenes, where he delivers a fantastic verbal beat-down to his family and announces his intention to fight you with a chilling Badass Boast. He then delivers with a boss fight characterised by a moveset whose variety and unpredictability are only matched by how fun it is to fight against, with every souped-up combo and jump calling back to when he fought you as the Fell Omen. You can even summon Melina, meaning that for the first time, one of the level-up ladies can fight by your side. When he gets halfway down and loses control of his curse, his self-loathing comes through as he intersperses Bloodflame and Omen blood into his blows and uses even longer-lasting flurries of attacks. While he may have low health by endgame boss standards, he nevertheless makes up for it with speed and skill, and he serves as a fantastic Climax Boss before the game's scope and intensity kick up for the last act. And his death serves as one of the somberest moments of the game, as you're left looking at his broken body, listening to his final Despair Speech before he passes on...but most players will more happily remember the last words he spoke before he fought you:
  Morgott: Have it writ upon thy meagre grave: "Felled by King Morgott! Last of all kings!"
• Mohg, Lord of Blood, delivers one of the best fights in From Software's history with high stats and a challenging, visually spectacular move set that is also completely fair. This is paired with stellar presentation including the unsettling battleground of a crumbling blood-soaked cathedral, an appropriately sinister soundtrack that just oozes calm malevolence, Mohg himself looking and acting like what Satan would want to be when he grows up, and the boss counting down his second phase in Latin before hitting you with his super-move. He's generally considered the least divisive of the late-game bosses. The unusually large amount of build-up to this fight also really enhances it, as does the surrounding lore.
• The Superboss battle with Dragonlord Placidusax is a more than worthy successor to Darkeater Midir's. You're fighting a 40-meter kaiju who can not only fly but teleport into ashes, launch explosive mouth beams from both heads, generate huge claws made of red lightning, and spawn giant explosions by spiking lightning spears into the ground, all amid a breathtaking vista literally frozen in time.
• Maliketh, the Black Blade is generally considered one of the hardest bosses in the game but is also one of the most exhilarating and cinematic. After a brutal first phase in which he fights in his disguise as the Beast Clergyman and attacks using what is essentially a giant shiv and rock spells, the bestial warrior gets pushed to his limit and reveals his true identity. Thereafter the fight becomes an absolutely merciless duel against a gigantic acrobatic werewolf who is essentially the setting's equivalent of The Grim Reaper. It's a fast, adrenaline-pumping affair where you must race to bust down his health pool before he obliterates you with the Destined Death sealed in his sword, which both inflicts damage over time comparable to Scarlet Rot and temporarily reduces your max HP upon hit. However, to balance his agility and massive damage output, he has relatively low health and poise, leading to an almost dance-like fight as you and him trade blows, with every hit you land being hard-earned but rewarding. With his brutal but rewarding moveset, epic presentation, and excellent OST, he's one of the more fondly remembered fights from the late game.
• The second and proper fight with Godfrey, First Elden Lord pits the tarnished against the game's equivalent of Heracles, with the latter's moveset befitting his Super-Strength. At the first phase, he attacks with quick and powerful yet fairly telegraphed axe combos, and some of his attacks involve stomps which can cover the entire arena, requiring you to optimize use of your invincibility frames. Inflicting enough damage will cause Godfrey to transform to Hoarah Loux by killing Serosh who was there to hold him back. After that, his moves involve either wrestling grabs, shockwaves that can cover the entire arena, or long string of combos, all of which are done with bare hands and feet. His second phase's moveset is also completely different with his first, giving you two bosses for the price of one. This combination results in a fight where the Tarnished must fight for their right as the Elden Lord using all their might.
  "A crown is warranted with strength!"
• The game's Final Boss provides an excellent, climactic duel to cap off your journey.
  • Radagon of the Golden Order is the first half of the fight, and one of the most aggressive, hard-hitting foes you can face. He is introduced with a legitimately awe-inspiring cutscene which shows the broken, crucified Queen Marika drop from the Elden Ring itself and transform into him, a Wham Shot that shakes up your understanding of the lore. As he raises his hammer up in the air and wordlessly faces you, the Elden Ring lights up in the void of his torso, a Triumphant Reprise of the game's main theme kicks in, and the battle commences without another word. Radagon is a Lightning Bruiser who fights with a mixture of hard-hitting hammer blows, massive AOE slams, and lightning bolts from a distance, mixing them up unpredictably to punish you for playing sloppily. While his moveset is tough to learn, it's also very fair, and mastering his fight is an extremely rewarding experience. Between the OST, visual design, and moveset, he's one of the most beloved of the game's major bosses.
  • The second half to the finale, the Elden Beast, was less fondly looked upon because of its sheer mobility, but an update in 1.12 allowed you to use Torrent in this phase. Not only does it make the fight far less frustrating, it's also more climactic as your trusty steed, who has served you across your long journey, returns as the saving grace in the final battle. Seeing the words "God Slain" has never been more satisfying. Even despite the pre-Torrent frustration, the Elden Beast is still an utter spectacle that is memorable in a different way to most bosses in the game. Especially contrasting the previous fight, the soundtrack is a mournful One-Woman Wail that highlights the esoteric and alien nature of both the Elden Beast and the battlefield it conjures: a field of water surrounded by Erdtrees under a starry sky.
• The fight with Malenia, the game's mascot and second Super Boss, lives up to the hype.
  • Her first phase is highly formidable yet is also the most straightforward major boss fight in the game. No back-up or summons, no environmental hazards in her arena, no area of effect or ranged attacks, or anything of the sort - it's simply a fair showdown between you and a very fast, very strong, very skilled warrior in an open field. This is still more than enough to grind even a seasoned and over-leveled player into dust several dozen times over. Her challenge comes entirely from her strength and speed combined with a complex, dynamic, purely physical move set that you have to thoroughly learn to properly counter, and which requires you have mastered all the game's dodge mechanics to survive as opposed to simply hitting the roll button and banking on invincibility frames. In particular, her Waterfowl Dance combos seem nigh-impossible to avoid at first, but gradually become manageable as you learn their timings and how certain features interact with them (from strong Ashes of War like the Bloodhound's Step to the humble jump key you've had since the beginning). After you master them, dodging Waterfowl Dances with little to no damage never ceases to be satisfying when you pull it off.
  • Her second phase, where she ascends into the Goddess of Rot, proceeds to throw the same combos she threw in her first phase with much greater frequency and aggressiveness, and complements them with a plethora of devastating Rot attacks. By the time you've triumphed over both phases and earned Malenia's respect, you can be assured that nothing in the Lands Between, nay the Souls series as a whole, can surmount you. The amazing visuals, tragic lore, and impactful soundtrack enhance the spectacle. The context added by Millicent's quest and Mohg's boss battle - where you restore Malenia's "sense of self" by inserting the dew-soaked needle into the flower that she is to be reborn from and slay Miquella's captor after locating him, respectively - further enhance the fight. Malenia responds by gifting you Miquella's Needle, allowing you to defeat two Outer Gods in one stroke by using that needle to purge the Frenzied Flame from yourself, solidifying your character's status.

Shadow of the Erdtree

• The first main boss, the Divine Beast, Dancing Lion, is an absolute treat. With a visual design that is truly unlike anything FromSoft has provided before, backed by an incredible score, it attacks with disorienting and chaotic moves that are incredibly rewarding to learn. Then in phase two, it rises into the air and explodes with elemental energy. And then it does so again, switching between multiple elements at will in a thrilling subversion of the usual Sequential Boss format players are used to. And, unlike the majority of the DLC bosses, it is not a Damage-Sponge Boss, with a decent amount of health but middling resistances and plenty of opportunities to deal damage, even with only two or three levels of the Scadutree Blessings.
• Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight. The sister to Rennala herself provides a thrilling duel against the most skilled Magic Knight in the franchise. She mixes impossibly fast and graceful dual-wielding sword attacks with powerful glintblade spells. In phase two, she ignites her blades with magic and flame, calling to mind Pontiff Sulyvahn or the Dancer of the Boreal Valley. In this phase, she mixes more powerful glintblade spells with Messmer's scouring fire, and her signature Twin Moons spell. All while a phenomenal soundtrack that mixes the iconic trailer theme with Rennala's beatific soft Leitmotif.
• The Climax Boss, Messmer the Impaler, starts out fairly normal: He moves quickly and fights with a spear. But once half of it comes out, he, like Hoarah Loux, removes his Power Limiter and fights with a giant serpent that lives behind his eye.
• The Scadutree Avatar is one of the simpler bosses in the DLC, but provides a self-contained narrative within the fight itself. It seems suspiciously easy to take down, only to rise again with a new health bar after taking it down. Then, after battling through a more difficult phase, it does it again!. Each phase adds in new attacks, but the way the music crescendos in phase two only to falter and fall into solemnity in phase 3 tells the story of the Avatar's desperation and fading power as the fight drags on.
• The penultimate boss fight consists of multiple opponents who spawn in, led by the Needle Knight. It's harder or easier depending on choices you made during the game. It takes place in the vast arena-like Cleansing Chamber as countless desiccated Hornsent corpses look on from the stands, and as more enemies (and possibly friends depending on your choices) reveal themselves, there's constant Boss Banter not just directed at the player, but between the NPC combatants themselves.
• Midra comes at the end of the utter terror of the Abyssal Woods, and he provides the perfect, nightmarish capstone to the locale.
  • First, the setup. Every inch of the desolate forest feels wrong. The ground is suffused with streaks of Frenzy-orange, and unkillable ancient beings wander around, forcing the Tarnished to sneak past them. At the end of the area is Midra's Manse, a burnt-out shell of a mansion that the player navigates through, heedless of the warnings called out by an unseen voice. When they reach the summit, a small, withered old man who has been brutally crucified with a barbed sword turns and hisses at the player, lamenting "The depths of your foolishness!" before leaping at the Tarnished with animalistic fervor and frenzied flame. After being cut down in short order, he declares that he has suffered enough, and pulls the barbed sword out of his body, ripping his own head off along with it. He rises, holding the blade, and a ball of orange flame appears in place of a head. The Tarnished stands face-to-face with an honest-to-Marika Lord of Frenzied Flame.
  • What follows is one of the most exhilarating duels in the franchise's history. Midra is a powerhouse, moving with unnatural fluidity and grace while laying a brutal smackdown with huge bursts of Frenzied Flame and his wickedly barbed greatsword. In phase 2, he ups the ante, floating into the air before landing in a massive explosion, and unleashing even more powerful attacks as the room around him turns into a raging inferno. The music throughout is also incredible, channeling Bloodborne with utter menace and terror, and even incorporating a snippet of the Merchant's Song you can hear in the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. He's a properly challenging Superboss, but also very well balanced; his immense health pool is offset by weakness to bleed and frostbite, and about as much poise as can be expected of a withered old man in rags. The stakes are some of the highest in the entire game: you may have provoked him, but now you have to put him down before he leaves this room and ends the world.
• The battle against Bayle the Dread is built up repeatedly as the player climbs the Jagged Peak, and he does not disappoint when you finally reach him. He's badly crippled from his fight with Placidusax, missing one of his legs, having half the flesh stripped off of one of his wings and leaving the bone sticking out, and having Placidusax's severed heads still biting into his neck... and despite all this damage he's still easily the most challenging dragon boss in the game. He has several very cinematic attacks which combine huge torrents of flame with chaotic strikes of orange lightning all over the place, with the wind howling from the storm Bayle is conjuring with his power. And, of course, the player can summon assistance from Igon, who provides a lengthy and VERY hammy Badass Boast as he fights.
  Igon: CUUUUUURSE YOU, BAYLE!
• Last but not least, the expansion's Final Boss, Promised Consort Radahn is a worthwhile and extremely challenging encounter (especially after it was reworked in a patch; adding extra polish and removing quite a bit of its original Fake Difficulty). Its ethereal and amazing orchestral score (that combines an army march with a One-Woman Wail), fantastic presentation, and the fact you finally get to challenge the legendary Starscourge in his prime make it one of the most memorable parts of the DLC. In the first phase, Radahn is primarily fought as a Strong and Skilled Magic Knight, who uses his swordplay and impressive gravity magic to put the player on his toes with wide sweeps, aerial barrages of boulders, and all kinds of insane sword strikes, but it isn't till Miquella joins the fray in the second phase that it reaches its infamous climax: turning it into a fight against a Battle Couple, who then add all kinds of holy magic, giant beams of white energy that explode like nuclear power, a Non-Standard Game Over that has Miquella permaently charm the player into subservience, and Radahn getting a terrifying Flash Step, making it an apex That One Boss that's equally as rewarding as it is challenging to fight.