Highlights
- Dark Souls 3 shines with challenging bosses, complex RPG elements, and areas where players will get lost and killed.
- Farron Keep is filled with health-stealing Darkwraiths and paralyzing Basilisks, making it a dangerous maze.
- Irithyll Dungeon is a creepy maze with jailers who can delete players' health pool, adding to the challenge.
Dark Souls 3 is known for being a difficult title, and FromSoftware often takes pride in the fact that their games are challenging. From creating difficult bosses, complex and rewarding RPG elements, and areas that many players will get lost and killed in, Dark Souls 3 really shines as a beacon for those seeking greater adversaries and a challenge at every corner.
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Despite the difficulty of Dark Souls 3, and the fact that most locations are going to cause death to one player or another, there definitely exists some of the hardest Dark Souls 3 areas, where players are going to need to be extra cautious, whether that's with poise armor, shields, or just an extreme talent to parry and roll.
10 Farron Keep
A Poisonous Swamp Where Invasions Occur Regularly
- Recommended Levels: 40 to 55
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Heading down the marsh and into the dangerous poisonous swamp, players will be required to navigate through the perils of Farron Keep, fighting through health-stealing Darkwraiths, paralyzing Basilisks, and violent Ghru that will twist players' heads and repeatedly stomp on them, dealing absurd amounts of damage that could cause yet another death to players.
Farron Keep is a dangerous maze, and drugging through the slowing and poisonous swamp will be tedious and a real pain to get through. Not only is the area filled with intense enemies, swarming in numbers, but the lack of placement of bonfires and the hard-to-identify areas to snuff out the brazen towers will have players running in circles, and dying.
9 Cathedral Of The Deep
A Maze-Like Cathedral Where Many Dangers Lurk Within & Above
- Recommended Levels: 30 to 40
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When players manage to get to the Cathedral of the Deep, they will be met with a rude welcome, as an enemy will instantly ignite themselves and charge towards the player in an attempt to blow them up. This is the first harsh awakening of Cathedral of the Deep, and plenty of enemies act as traps, trying to guide players through harsh areas where they end up trapped, awaiting certain death to go again.
When players finally make it into the Cathedral, they have countless giants to take care of, as well as fierce enemies in a swamp-like terrain. If players also head up the Cathedral, they are going to have to try and guide themselves through the area, with no room for error, as knights will try and push them off to their deaths.
8 Smouldering Lake
A Deep Labyrinth With Lava, Fire Monsters, & Deadly Giant Crossbows
- Recommended Levels: 40 to 55
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Embarking down to Smouldering Lake is a battle in itself, as players will need to run past hordes of skeletons, descending down a ladder, which was once a bridge. The guardian of this area is also a violent demon, and the brief respite at the bonfire is all for nothing, as a giant crossbow will track players and fire upon them, causing immense damage and stun. If that wasn't enough to make players worry about the difficulty, there's also a giant Carthus Sandworm that shoots lightning, with a large health pool, which blocks the path forward.
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Danger lurks greatly in this area, and even when players get past all of these troubles, they will still need to navigate the maze-like areas, whilst avoiding certain doom from stepping in lava and running into enemies that want blood. It's easy to get lost in here, but with so many rewards lurking within, it's essential for players to get through.
7 Catacombs of Carthus
An Invasion Of Skeletons & Undead
- Recommended Levels: 35 to 50
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Underneath Farron Keep lies the dark crypts, the Catacombs of Carthus that harbor the dead, and now, undead. Within, players are met with dubious assassins that dual-wield swords and dodge nearly every attack, causing panic in players who cannot time their unpredictable movements. Venturing further, players have a giant ball of bone to try and counter, which will repeatedly smash in a pattern back and forth, almost instantly killing players who are run over, or, pushed off the edge to their deaths.
Whilst the Catacombs of Carthus are fairly short in length, it's definitely not short on enemies, and even if players are to reach the boss encounter with High Lord Wolnir, they may not understand how to beat him, as this boss is more of a gimmick in which they will need to destroy his bracelets rather than attack at his skeletal body.
6 Irithyll Dungeon
A Lengthy Maze Where Enemies Can Delete The Ashen One's Health Pool
- Recommended Levels: 50 to 60
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Another maze-like area for Dark Souls 3, the Irithyll Dungeon harbors many oddities and dangers, bringing a creepy vibe to the game that wasn't seen in previous areas. From here, players have to watch out for cells, brimming with infested corpses that will provide them with infection and bleeding. Yet, those aren't the hardest enemies in Dark Souls 3, as that title belongs to the jailers, a type of enemy who can use a lantern to not only attack the player's health but completely delete it from the game for an unreasonably lengthy amount of time.
The jailers will chase players, trying to burn them with their hot pokers, all the while, their lanterns will remove their health pool, no matter how high they have invested in HP. If players manage to get past the first dungeon section, they must then navigate through the cisterns, in which they can venture even further below to find more enemies and yet another poisonous swamp area.
5 Lothric Castle
Powerful Knights Lurk Around Every Corner To Protect The Princes
- Recommended Levels: 75 to 90
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Lothric Castle is one of the last areas to embark on, and easily makes the list as the hardest area in Dark Souls 3 due to the difficulty scaling. Enemies have more health, and they hit much harder, so players who have not leveled up their health or fail to time their rolls and parries are in for a bad time. Tons of knights are enraged by players, and there are indeed many of them. These same knights will go out of their way to attack players, and they are aided by several enemies to help overwhelm players.
Even navigating the castle itself, players will awaken many Pus of Man enemies that lurk within the dead dragons, with the only way to kill them effectively, being through fire. Players can't stop here, as the Dragonslayer Armour boss awaits, and even after, the Lothric Castle continues upwards, filling with countless enemies.
4 Painted World Of Ariandel
Large & Violent With Crow-Like Assassins & Giants
- Recommended Levels: 60 to 70
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The Painted World of Ariandel is one of the shorter DLCs in the Dark Souls series, and the area as a whole isn't the largest, in fact, only two bosses lurk within, as well as a handful of bonfires. Players can easily get lost here, as the path isn't set out, nor is it clear. Players will have to battle through Millwood Knights, which are essentially giants that hunt players down like they're nothing but sport. As it's a DLC area, these enemies hit hard, and they take more than a fair share of swings or spells to take out.
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It's easy to get lost in the snow, and obscure vision may take even the bravest of souls, especially when players need to watch where they step to avoid falling to a deeper area of the map, where their death could be solidified. Many areas within will test the skills of players through different adversaries, especially the Corvians, who lurk on rooftops and deal significant damage with little room for stunning.
3 Irithyll Of The Boreal Valley
Central Location For Invaders To Attack
- Recommended Levels: 45 to 65
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A gauntlet of death awaits players who head to Boreal Valley, a location brimming with high-level enemies that will easily overrun the player, due to their high numbers, demanding health bars, and the other enemy types that lurk within, using range to their advantage to send explosive bursts of fire at the player, and from below their feet. The area is large, expanding through swamp waters and remains of a once great castle.
Despite brimming with countless enemies, the true adversaries are online players, who will be forced into a PvP battle against the Aldrich Faithful, a Dark Souls 3 covenant who will defend Anor Londo and Aldritch from players who seek to evoke their demise. A mixture of countless enemies and PvP invaders, the Boreal Valley is ripe for the sting of death, and the location where players will see "You Died" far more than they'd like.
2 Archdragon Peak
Powerful Dragon Enemies That Can Dish Out Deadly Damage
- Recommended Levels: 95 to 120
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Archdragon Peak is a secret area in Dark Souls 3 that players can access through a Path of the Dragon Gesture. Reaching this location is a task in itself, but navigating through Archdragon Peak is where champions are made. It's an endgame location, and players should hopefully be over Level 100, with plenty of Souls invested into HP because of the absurd amount of damage that these dragon and serpent enemies dish out.
Dragons and Wyverns will block the path of players as they try and proceed, and the constant attacks from Serpant-Men will deter players from going any further unless they are brave and strong enough to do so. If players have managed to conquer Archdragon Peak by acquiring the many items and killing the enemies within, it's time to head to the Nameless King, who acts as one of the hardest bosses in Dark Souls 3, and many players have, and still, fall to him.
1 The Ringed City
The Most Powerful Respawning Enemies That Don't Mess Around
- Recommended Levels: 80 to 100
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Embark through the end of Dark Souls 3, with the climax taking place in The Ringed City DLC. Whilst this area isn't too large, The Ringed City location itself has plenty of threats and a range of locations to cause players' heads to spin. The worst threat of all can easily be the knight enemies, noted for the Dark Sigil within their chests. They look cool, and they hit hard, proving why they have what they do, and why players need to be careful around them and their unpredictable, powerful movement.
Players will not only face worthy adversaries in the last Dark Souls 3 area, but they will also face challenging bosses, as the finale, Slave Knight Gael, does not let up easily, and Darkeater Midir is going to cause utter chaos to many players' lives if they are not careful, due to this powerful dragon engulfing the lands in flame and death.
