Dark Souls may not have been the first entry in the Souls series – that honor belongs to the original Demon’s Souls – but it was the first to solidify what it meant to be a Souls game. Dark Souls took the gaming world by storm and never let go again, offering a degree of challenge that few modern games replicate well. To be expected, its difficulty was primarily found within its many boss fights. Time and time again, players find themselves roadblocked, either seeking help to overcome Dark Souls’ challenge or forcing themselves to get better. Franchise veterans likely have no trouble with these bosses nowadays, but they once served as Dark Souls’ many gatekeepers.

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The fact that many players still consider Dark Souls to be FromSoftware's best game to date is a testament to the title's excellence that still holds up to this day. The level design is immaculate, the combat is crunchy and satisfying, and the game's plethora of boss fights are memorable. Some of the hardest boss fights in Dark Souls test the player's skills to their limit, forcing them to employ strategies they've never tried before and persevere against all the odds to make for a truly satisfying kill when players finally land the final blow.

Updated June 20, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra: Dark Souls is a video game that needs no introduction. This game sowed the seeds for FromSoftware's eventual success, with Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC compelling more players to check out a tough yet rewarding gameplay loop where players are encouraged to explore and tackle bigger threats.

Players who want to check out FromSoftware's early days after finishing off Elden Ring's DLC can check out the first game, and most people won't be surprised to see that the series features some of the toughest bosses in the studio's repertoire that will force players to improve their skills and equipment before finally attaining the means to defeat a boss for good.

23 Crossbreed Priscilla

A Unique Boss Who Disappears And Must Be Tracked Using Her Footsteps

Most people who are familiar with Dark Souls know what the gimmick of Priscilla's boss fight is. However, new players who may be intimidated by this dragon-human hybrid will be thrown for a loop when the boss just disappears before they can even get a hit in. This is a deceptive technique this boss uses to take the player by surprise, and some players may not figure out how to work around her invisibility.

Players need to calm down and carefully survey the boss arena before they can see the footsteps in the snow that betray her location. Players can swing their weapons around this general area to uncover the boss. After this trick is uncovered, it's just a simple task of dodging her telegraphed moves and maintaining a steady offense before Priscilla is down for the count.

22 Great Grey Wolf Sif

Artorias' Companion Recognizes The Player If They Save Him In The DLC

Sif is a beloved boss in Dark Souls, and players who are aware of the lore surrounding this boss hate to fight this good boy. The boss is a giant wolf with a greatsword held between its jaws, and the fight requires the player to dodge its quick attacks and powerful swipes.

Sif's sad backstory and loyalty to its fallen master make this boss encounter particularly poignant. Players will face a particularly emotional gut-punch if they save this hound when they travel back in time during the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. This is because the older and bigger version of Sif will actually recognize the player in an altered boss cutscene, whimpering at the thought of facing off against the Chosen Undead who had saved him all those years ago.

21 Gravelord Nito

One Of The Four Lords To Wage War Against The Dragons

Gravelord Nito is a particularly horrid boss in Dark Souls, a giant skeleton adorned with a cloak of darkness. The fight requires the player to avoid Nito's powerful melee attacks while also dealing with the minions that Nito summons.

Nito's most dangerous attack is a deadly AoE attack that inflicts massive damage and the Poison status on the Chosen Undead, and players should make it a point to run away as fast as possible when he readies this attack. He holds one of the four Lord Souls and is a mandatory boss that players need to defeat to access the title's ending.

20 Taurus Demon

A Minotaur-esque Monster Fought On A Narrow Wall

Many players consider the Taurus Demon to be the first real challenge for players in Dark Souls. One of the reasons for this encounter's difficulty comes from the fact that the battle takes place on a narrow bridge. The Taurus Demon is a large, muscular demon with a giant axe, and the player must avoid its powerful attacks while also mapping their position so that they don't dodge roll off the bridge, and fall to their doom.

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To make things even more annoying, the boss arena is made even harder by the fact that there's an annoying enemy on a higher platform who is shooting the player with arrows, which can interrupt players as they try to defeat the Taurus Demon. The best strategy here is to quickly climb up the ladder and defeat this pest before baiting the Taurus Demon under them for a plunging attack, but waiting too long will lead to the Taurus Demon jumping up to attack the Chosen Undead instead.

19 Asylum Demon

The First Boss Players Encounter

As the very first boss all players encounter in the game, the Asylum Demon is everyone's first true test in Lodran. Initially, most will find the Asylum Demon trickier than most final bosses from other games. That is until the player discovers the first big rule about Dark Souls' combat: Positioning is key.

Attacking this demon from behind makes this fight remarkably easy, though coming across this strategy organically can be difficult when the stress of the battle is bearing down upon the Chosen Undead.

18 Gaping Dragon

A Disgusting-Looking Beast Encountered In The Depths

The Gaping Dragon is one of the most disgusting-looking bosses in the game and is encountered in an area most players hate. Players who don't have access to the Master Key must beat this boss to make progress.

The boss may not seem all that tough until players are stomped by an attack that comes out of nowhere and deals ridiculous damage. The Chosen Undead should play it safe and steer clear of this charging attack if they don't want to be one-shot over and over again.

17 Stray Demon

A Tougher Variant Of The First Boss That Players Fight If They Revisit The Northern Undead Asylum

Boss reskins are never looked upon fondly, especially in a video game like Dark Souls where these climactic encounters are meant to be a highlight of the overall experience. So, most people may not be all that enthused to fight a reskin of the Asylum Demon when they head back to the Undead Asylum where their journey started. This mentality can prove to be a dangerous one since the Stray Demon has some tricky attacks that can punish players for taking him too lightly.

The biggest threat this boss brings to the table is an AoE blast that hits like a truck and can one-shot players who haven't invested too many points in the Chosen Undead's Vitality. It's recommended that players notch some levels under their belt and get better equipment before deciding to take on one of the harder Dark Souls bosses.

16 Chaos Witch Quelaag

Fiery Attacks And Swift Combos

Blighttown is one of the most imposing areas to explore in Dark Souls. Players will grow to hate the toxic and poison status effects in this area, and it doesn't help that a single misstep can send players hurtling toward their doom.

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To ring the second Bell of Awakening and open the doors to Sen's Fortress, players must traverse this area until they reach the domain of Chaos Witch Quelaag. This boss's fire attacks can be pretty damaging, and the Chosen Undead must employ everything they've learned to stand a chance against this powerful foe.

15 Demon Firesage

A Fiery Demon Fought At The End Of The Demon Ruins

The fact that the first boss of Dark Souls was reskinned not once but twice is something that fans detested, especially with this particular variant of the boss appearing in an area that is notorious for exposing the lack of budget this title had to work with during the latter half of the game. The Demon Firesage is a pretty uninteresting boss fight, and a large part of the difficulty feels artificial.

Just like the Stray Demon, the AoE attacks are what players should worry about. These may seem easy to read at times, but players can always be caught by surprise if they don't anticipate an attack in time. His slams and smashes do a lot of damage, and the Chosen Undead may struggle to beat this boss if they aren't sturdy enough to absorb some of the damage from the attacks that do hit.

14 Bell Gargoyles

Defeat This Tricky Dual Boss To Ring One Of The Bells Of Awakening

This multiple-foe fight hits the player right when they might start to begin feeling confident about their battle prowess. Dealing with all the threats leading to the Bell Gargoyles means someone would have had to deal with numerous Balder knights, a horde of buffed and maddened hollows, as well as possibly a couple of black knights.

However, nothing can prepare one for the primary gargoyle's flurry of long-range attacks accompanied by aerial assaults. Furthermore, the firebreathing stone beast that spawns midway through the battle can cause the scene to become frantic.

13 Iron Golem

Encountered At The Top Of Sen's Fortress

Sen's Fortress is one of the more punishing and frustrating areas. The entire structure is a network of traps, tough enemies, and loot tantalizingly placed in the worst spots. At the end of this march of misery, the Chosen Undead will be accosted by a boss too large for their fighting area.

The battle with the Iron Golem is easily the one with the most mismatched boss size-to-boss room ratio. The golem itself takes up a huge portion of the precarious high platform. The metal fiend also has plenty of attacks that can send the Chosen Undead flying off the area to their deaths in some of the cheapest tactics seen in the whole game.

12 Ceaseless Discharge

Tough To Beat If Players Don't Cheese The Boss

Due to the narrow path on which the player must fight this lava-leaking demon, there is little chance of dodging some of the heaviest-hitting attacks in the game. The Ceaseless Discharge is one of the hardest optional bosses in the game...if someone chooses to fight them head-on. This is one of those situations where the Chosen Undead is not meant to stand their ground but perform a tactical retreat.

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If the player heads back the way they came after triggering the start of the fight, the burning colossus will chase them until the ground disappears beneath their titanic feet. They will grab onto a ledge, though at this point, they are helpless. All the player needs to do to end the battle is loosen the monster's grip with a few simple strikes.

11 Centipede Demon

Fought In An Arena Full Of Damaging Lava Pools

According to the lore, this hideous monstrosity was one of the very first demons to be created after the Witch of Izalith formed the Bed of Chaos, and it remains one of the mightiest of their kin to this day.

Able to unleash ridiculously high damage with its longest arm, the Centipede Demon can also jump incredibly high into the air and detach parts of its body that can attack independently. To top it all off, the boss room is mostly lava and greatly limits the area where the player can stand and fight.

10 Capra Demon

A Claustrophobic Arena, With Two Dogs Accompanying The Boss

The Capra Demon’s level of difficulty comes not from a well-thought-out boss design but a cramped arena where players are expected to not only fight off the Capra Demon but also his two rabid dogs right out the gate. It’s not unusual for an unprepared player to enter the fog gate and immediately get mauled by two dogs.

It’s not so unfair when players can’t break out of their grasp right away, but it makes for an overwhelming fight that promises instant death on a level no other boss fight does, not even Ornstein and Smough. If nothing else, the staircase in the boss room makes the Capra Demon an easy enough boss to cheese.

9 Seath The Scaleless

Unbeatable In The First Attempt; Annoying In The Second

Seath the Scaleless isn’t so much hard as he is annoying. Not only do players fight him twice throughout the game, but his first boss fight is also completely unwinnable. Players are designed to die as soon as they first challenge Seath, and the dragon can even Curse players, cutting their health in half at a point where not having full HP will pose a problem.

The second fight is simple enough, but the fact that Seath requires an extra step to kill (breaking his wand) elongates the fight a bit too much. This is the only defining feature of the battle, but it isn’t particularly engaging. When it comes down to it, it’s the Cursing that makes Seath a challenge.

8 Gwyn, Lord Of Cinder

The Tragic Final Boss Of Dark Souls

Gwyn is either too easy for his own good or downright brutal. Anyone who has mastered the art of parrying will find him a chump, but getting to that point does take a considerable amount of effort and practice. Without parrying, Gwyn will relentlessly attack, changing up his moves on the fly.

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Of the hard bosses, he’s one of the best-designed, clearly telegraphing his attacks before each blow. He serves as an excellent stopping point for the game, forgoing traditional final boss flare for something more somber and poignant. Just don’t summon Solaire for the fight, as he utterly trivializes the battle.

7 Sanctuary Guardian

The First Boss Encounter In Artorias Of The Abyss

The first of the DLC bosses, the Sanctuary Guardian does not let up for a single second. This boss fight requires players to understand the importance of dodging and its relation to telegraphed attacks. The Sanctuary Guardian also poisons with his attacks, making it costly to get.

Despite his sheer speed, he can zoom in and out at a moment’s notice, making the battle incredibly tense. Considering the DLC is entirely locked behind him, he’s a wall that players will want to desperately climb over. Not even summoning makes the fight that much easier, as his added health only makes his mania harder to deal with.

6 Four Kings

If A Player's DPS Is Low, This Boss Fight Is A Nightmare

The Four Kings are actually quite easy, on a new game. Since each New Game Plus cycle increases enemy stats and makes the game harder, the Four Kings will only get more challenging. Early in the game, they can be brute-forced thanks to Havel’s Gear. Later on, however, it’s a different story.

By New Game Plus cycle 2 or 3, the Four Kings will end up being a genuine 4v1 battle, as they spawn based on time, not health. The longer the fight goes, the more Kings there are to fight. This makes the battle grueling, especially since they hit incredibly hard. A player will need to juggle multiple Kings at once, dodging and attacking whenever they can.

5 The Bed Of Chaos

More Platforming Than Players Expect

The single worst boss in the game, if not the entire series, the Bed of Chaos does absolutely nothing interesting and lasts way too long for its own good. Not only does it spawn bottomless pits in its arena, making instant death all too easy, but it also doesn’t attack cohesively, randomly swinging its arms.

The best way to handle the boss is by chipping away at it and then reloading the game to start from safer ground. Most of the Lord Souls bosses are on the bland side, but the Bed of Chaos takes things to its unnatural extreme.

4 Dragon Slayer Ornstein & Executioner Smough

Considered The Hardest Boss In The Base Game

The most notorious boss duo in gaming history, Ornstein and Smough ended many a player’s runs once they got to the end of Anor Londo. After such a difficult area, it’s only fitting players find themselves going up against two difficult bosses at once. Ornstein and Smough are, at their core, overwhelming.

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Not only do they relentlessly attack at once, but defeating one of the bosses only serves to power up the other. Furthermore, it is impossible to kill both at the same time. This is by far the hardest fight in the base game, but it’s also one of the most fun, pushing players to master the mechanics before they proceed any further.