10 Hardest FROM Bosses of All Time

[hanselthecaretaker]

My google feed had a picture of # 3 on this list that piqued my curiosity.

While I haven’t played a whole lot of Sekiro yet, about half of the list felt pretty appropriate...until their #1 pick. While he was a challenge, it wasn’t nearly as bad as a few of the others, including a certain highly prominent dragon I alluded to. I’d actually put Laurence above him imo.

That’s one of the more enduring things about FROM’s games is that everyone could have a different opinion here based on skill, build types, strategies, etc. I must also mention it’s refreshing to finally see one of these without O&S on it, although I could throw Manus off as well considering I one-timed him to my surprise (thanks Astorias Great Shield).

So anyone who’s played most/all of their games feel free to post up your own list. I’ve personally got two or three more to go I think as far as SoulsBorne at least, so will reserve my judgment until after them.

 

[Silvanus]

I haven't played Demons' Souls or Sekiro, but I've played all three Dark Souls (& DLC) and Bloodborne.

Orphan of Kos was the hardest boss for me personally. Drove me absolutely up the wall; gritted teeth, swearing at the screen, everything. Darkeater Midir & Laurence didn't cause me nearly as much grief.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Any list that still has FlameLurker on it is wrong.

Flamelurker was hard when Demon's Souls was new, but literally every other From Software title has harder bosses than Demon's Souls did. If you've played Dark Souls 3 and go back to Demon's Souls you will stomp every single boss (unless it's a puzzle boss and you don't know the puzzle solution).

Anyone who has finished Dark Souls 3 will be able to beat Flamelurker in 3 tries MAX. I've beaten every souls boss, but I still have trouble with Gael, Sister Frieda, Orphan of Kos, Fume Knight, Ishin, etc.

Orphan of Kos was the hardest for me personally, but that's probably because I was super under-leveled when I fought him. I was super under-leveled for that entire DLC actually. Hell, I beat Ludwig with a +6 Reiterpallasch because I didn't have any +10 weapons on the new save I was using.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Any list that still has FlameLurker on it is wrong.

Flamelurker was hard when Demon's Souls was new, but literally every other From Software title has harder bosses than Demon's Souls did. If you've played Dark Souls 3 and go back to Demon's Souls you will stomp every single boss (unless it's a puzzle boss and you don't know the puzzle solution).

I haven't played any of the Dark Souls games, just Demon's Souls and Bloodborne (but no Old Hunters DLC). I think Flamelurker is pretty tough if you don't know about getting him stuck on the boulder in the middle of the arena. Most Demon's Souls bosses were fairly tough but for some design flaw that would allow you to cheese the fights. Like sniping bosses from outside fog doors or getting them caught in the terrain.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I haven't played any of the Dark Souls games, just Demon's Souls and Bloodborne (but no Old Hunters DLC). I think Flamelurker is pretty tough if you don't know about getting him stuck on the boulder in the middle of the arena. Most Demon's Souls bosses were fairly tough but for some design flaw that would allow you to cheese the fights. Like sniping bosses from outside fog doors or getting them caught in the terrain.

Flamelurker was a tough boss in demons souls because he was the most aggressive boss in the game.

From Software's boss design has changed a lot since Demon's Souls, and all of their bosses are a lot more aggressive. Compared to the more recent games Flamelurker is pretty par for the course rather than being one of the extremes like he was 12 years ago.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Gavel from DS3 was the hardest Souls boss for me.

Followed by Ancient Dragon in DS2

And finally Gwen from Ds1.

Sekiro is such a different game mechanically i don't think it is fair to compare the bosses to other Souls games because the parry mechanic alone could make every boss in Sekiro harder than all the souls bosses combined for some people. So i don't think it fits into the comparison.

 

[Trunkage]

I’ve never beaten Fume Knight. The fact that he is passively doing damage to you means that you HAVE to break up your rhythm

The Dancer I’ve never soloed. Just can’t get the right rhythm. Soul of Cinder is pretty tough. Also, I’ve never done the DLC for DS3 and three stage bosses sound

Ornstien and Smough were bad for me. But that’s a special case and the main reason I would never suggest taking the Master Key. Atorios was probably the most challenging in DS1 and I felt I was mashing buttons rather than having a strategy.

Until Sony decides to put Demon Souls and Bloodborne on PC, I’m never going to try them. Still haven’t played Seikro

 

[Chupathingy]

Probably Darkeater Midir, but I've only fought him once and bosses always tend to get much easier of subsequent playthroughs. If I was to base my hardest boss off first time experience then funnily enough it'd be Maneaters considering how unprepared I was going into DeS. After going back to DeS with some experience in the series I've found all the bosses to be incredibly easy by comparison now.

I’ve never beaten Fume Knight. The fact that he is passively doing damage to you means that you HAVE to break up your rhythm

I don't recall Fume Knight being able to do that.

 

[Dalisclock]

I don't recall Fume Knight being able to do that.

I remember him being able to passively heal if you couldn't spike all the idols outside his arena(which is very possible if you weren't being very careful with them) but not passive damage dealing.

 

[Ringo]

I've only played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. The bosses that killed me the most were Armor Spider, the Bell Gargoyles, and Lawrence.

Weirdly enough I beat Ornstein and Smough and The Orphan of Kos on my first try. Clearly everyone is wrong and bad at video games and I am supreme. Dying over and over to fucking Armor Spider.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Any list that still has FlameLurker on it is wrong.

Flamelurker was hard when Demon's Souls was new, but literally every other From Software title has harder bosses than Demon's Souls did. If you've played Dark Souls 3 and go back to Demon's Souls you will stomp every single boss (unless it's a puzzle boss and you don't know the puzzle solution).

Anyone who has finished Dark Souls 3 will be able to beat Flamelurker in 3 tries MAX. I've beaten every souls boss, but I still have trouble with Gael, Sister Frieda, Orphan of Kos, Fume Knight, Ishin, etc.

Orphan of Kos was the hardest for me personally, but that's probably because I was super under-leveled when I fought him. I was super under-leveled for that entire DLC actually. Hell, I beat Ludwig with a +6 Reiterpallasch because I didn't have any +10 weapons on the new save I was using.

There’s an easy way to beat Ludwig if you get him on the top landing part of the stairs off to the right side. He can’t horse around as much with his stronger charging attacks in that small of an area, so you can almost get free hits in with minimal evading.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

There’s an easy way to beat Ludwig if you get him on the top landing part of the stairs off to the right side. He can’t horse around as much with his stronger charging attacks in that small of an area, so you can almost get free hits in with minimal evading.

Oh I know.

Believe me, I know.

When you only have a +6 weapon and just enough health to still die in one hit from 80% of Ludwig's attacks you find every trick that exists to win.

I'm not exactly a "no hit speedrun pro" at any of the souls games either. With the amount of time it took me to beat Ludwig it actually would have probably been easier and faster to run through some of the higher level areas in the base game to get my weapon to +9 and pump my health another 15 levels to the soft cap. At that point though it was a matter of pride and I refused to do it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I've only played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. The bosses that killed me the most were Armor Spider, the Bell Gargoyles, and Lawrence.

Weirdly enough I beat Ornstein and Smough and The Orphan of Kos on my first try. Clearly everyone is wrong and bad at video games and I am supreme. Dying over and over to fucking Armor Spider.

Armor Spider was a pain in the ass but like many other Demon's Souls bosses, you can cheese it with the box if you hang back before entering the arena proper.

 

[Drathnoxis]

From Demon's Souls, The Old Monk is probably up there if you get someone who's commited to doing you in and set up appropriately to do so.

From Dark Souls, Capra Demon sticks out in my mind as being annoyingly difficult.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Probably Darkeater Midir,

I fucking forgot about this asshole. Yes this is the hardest Souls boss 100%. So hard i totally forgot my attempts at fighting him because i just wanted to forget.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I fucking forgot about this asshole. Yes this is the hardest Souls boss 100%. So hard i totally forgot my attempts at fighting him because i just wanted to forget.

I’m down to him and Slave Knight Gael for my SoulsBorne experience now.

Probably have about a couple dozen attempts on DickDarkeater, haven’t even taken close to half his bar yet lol. It’s like twice the size of most other bosses as far as how spongy it is. Meanwhile I got Slave Knight Gael down to half first try, but his second phase is proving a challenge. Spear of the Church was oddly little more challenging than a normal phantom type fight other than the extra summons which were more nuisance bringers than anything.

Time will tell how these final two bosses fare in the big picture, next to champs like Blue Smelter Demon (made worse by the Iron Passage gauntlet every time), Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, Saint Aldrich, Nameless King, Laurence, FRC Chalice Dungeon Ebriettas, Lady Maria, Sister Friede, Soul of Cinder (or Demon Prince...or Lorian/Lothric...idk yet they seemed equally rough)...pretty sure that would be my list but might have to replace a couple of them. Probably Smelter and Sir Alonne, considering what you had to go through just to get to them was at least half the reason they were a pain.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've only played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. The bosses that killed me the most were Armor Spider, the Bell Gargoyles, and Lawrence.

Weirdly enough I beat Ornstein and Smough and The Orphan of Kos on my first try. Clearly everyone is wrong and bad at video games and I am supreme. Dying over and over to fucking Armor Spider.

I beat the Smelter Demon in a couple tries and VIcar Amelia in one. I had a lot of problem with Prowling Magus and Old Iron King, so apparently I'm a chump or something. Granted, I tend to have issues with bosses where I have to track two or more targets, all of whom are capable of ending me quickly, because I'll be focused on trying to take one out and the other one will be smacking me with 1 hit kills. Old Iron King, OTOH, was mostly a problem with fucker knocking me into the Lava over and over again.

When Yathzee called the OIK "Video Gamey", yeah, I'm inclined to agree. Honestly, most of the Iron Keep came across out just fucking lazy and artificial. Those huge moving platforms didn't feel like a real place, rather something out of mario bros. Brume tower was a much better version of the whole idea.

From Demon's Souls, The Old Monk is probably up there if you get someone who's commited to doing you in and set up appropriately to do so.

From Dark Souls, Capra Demon sticks out in my mind as being annoyingly difficult.

Capra demon can suck a big fat one. His challenge comes from the fact he has two very fast dogs and you fight him in a closet, so if you can't make it to the top of the stairs fast, you're very likely fucked. Fucker can one hit kill you the moment you cross the fog gate and the dogs can easily trip you up while you're trying to evade, because there's almost no ability to kite or seperate them.

Ironically, you meet a bunch of them are regular mooks in the demon ruins and they're far, far easier to deal with due to having space, no dogs, and you being at a much higher level.

Also, I know I harp on this, but fucking Micolash from Bloodborne. Heavy hitting attacks, the stupid puppets there to distract you, his actual fight is broken into two phases and you have to chase him around before both fight phases, every single time you attempt him. I cheesed him with poison dangers to kill him off. It might be cheating but he doesn't deserver a fair fight if he's gonna run around like a little shit.

Sword Saint Isshin is pehaps one of the hardest fights that isn't reliant on a gimmick or an arena thats blantely tilted in the bosses favor. He's still a dirty cheater, since he can pull a semi-automic handgun out of nowhere(god, I hope it's nowhere), and then follow it up with a spear. You have to fight his opener boss every single time as well. Genoshiro isn't even particularly hard by that point, but having to beat his ass every single time you fight SSI(while charthartic) gets old quick. The real kicker for SSI(and his opener) is that you're getting Moveset 1->Moveset 2 ->Moveset 3 and Moveset 4(which is Moveset 3 with some lightning thrown in), where each of the first 3 moveset are quite different. The fact SSI is quite a damage sponge despite being a senior citizen in a robe doesn't help.

 

[Martintox]

Having played DS1, 2, and Sekiro, and being in the process of playing DS3, Fume Knight takes the cake. Funny enough, he was a serious breath of fresh air from the main game bosses, many of which were complete pushovers. It's bothersome that you have to get rid of the idols surrounding the boss arena (I'm willing to consider this a level design issue, considering the awful enemy placement of Brume Tower), but it's otherwise a straightforward and extremely tight battle, even with about 40 ADP. He, Sir Alonne, and Vendrick are simultaneously the best and hardest bosses in that game -- difficult but consistent sword-fighting with no gimmicks.

Strictly speaking, multiple bosses from Sekiro are harder than Fume Knight (Genichiro, Owl, Corrupted Monk Part 2, Sword Saint Isshin), but they are all difficult for the same two reasons: you have to keep up with the fast pace of the parry-and-attack rhythm game, and you have to contend with multiple phases, many of which have very different movesets. I haven't bothered to beat Sword Saint Isshin for this very reason: he's likely the hardest FromSoft boss, but anything can be the hardest boss when you take these two aspects to a farcical extreme with extremely fast attacks across four phases. At least the Fume Knight's attacks don't change very much in his second phase, and you have a few seconds to assess them before he two-hit kills you.

Regarding DS1, Ornstein & Smough probably earn that distinction, though the main issue is keeping up with both their attacks in the first phase. Mega Ornstein is quite easy if you intentionally get up in his grill, as most of his attacks hit much farther, and you can simply roll out when he does his body slam attack. The Four Kings were actually even harder on my first go, because I had neither the build nor the mindset to go for the high DPS approach that's essential for beating them. However, most of the bosses have become easier over time, whereas O&S have been the most consistently challenging across playthroughs and builds, which I consider a solid indication of how well designed their battle is. None of the DLC bosses were that difficult to figure out in terms of movesets, but I also had the benefit of experimenting with an extremely good DEX-based high DPS build.

I had a lot of problem with Prowling Magus and Old Iron King, so apparently I'm a chump or something. Granted, I tend to have issues with bosses where I have to track two or more targets, all of whom are capable of ending me quickly, because I'll be focused on trying to take one out and the other one will be smacking me with 1 hit kills.

I can see having a little bit of trouble with the Prowling Magus/Congregation if you use a thrust-based weapon, but a Greatsword or anything that has a good attack arc completely demolishes that boss. It's easier than the other group bosses as well as many non-boss enemy groups you find across DS2, if only because the absence of unfairly perilous terrain vastly diminishes the risk of death.

Capra demon can suck a big fat one. His challenge comes from the fact he has two very fast dogs and you fight him in a closet, so if you can't make it to the top of the stairs fast, you're very likely fucked. Fucker can one hit kill you the moment you cross the fog gate and the dogs can easily trip you up while you're trying to evade, because there's almost no ability to kite or seperate them.

Ironically, you meet a bunch of them are regular mooks in the demon ruins and they're far, far easier to deal with due to having space, no dogs, and you being at a much higher level.

Capra Demon's difficulty is also fairly dependent on your weapon; I find it a good exercise in combat inside a very tight space. I was able to beat him the hard way on my first playthrough because the Zweihander has enough span to ensure you can take out the dogs fast enough (without them, his moveset is as manageable as Taurus Demon, whose difficulty also very much relies on the limited size of the boss arena). It's the type of battle where you need to be able to assess and react to the situation as soon as you walk in.

 

[SilentPony]

I fucking forgot about this asshole. Yes this is the hardest Souls boss 100%. So hard i totally forgot my attempts at fighting him because i just wanted to forget.

Pretty sure he was meant to be a raid boss. The arena is so huge, his attacks almost always are 1-hit-kills and he's so resistant to damage I was always convinced he was a multiplayer boss.

As for me yeah there are a lot of hard bosses in the SoulsBourne games, but alot of them are...gimmicks? Like puzzle bosses, where once you figure it out are relatively simple on follow up play throughs.
Although I still haven't beat the Rebel Flagship in FTL, even once.

 

[BrawlMan]

Most of these Dark Souls bosses are cupcakes compared to the bullshit in the modern Ninja Gaiden games. Play those games, and then talk to me about pain and suffering. Sometimes the bosses are easy, and the mooks that are tougher than fucking bosses.