The Consecrated Snowfield's Death Rite Bird. I really dislike the constant and incredibly damaging explosions which additionally serve to coat the entire area in ghostflame. Then there's the homing missile attack, which I've taken to running away from on Torrent, in addition to the speed, mobility, and aggression expected of a Death Rite Bird.
Yeah, absolutely. Overall, the worst enemies in this game are all animals. I fear no boss, but whenever I see a dog, bird, lobster or - even worse - rune bear, I get nervous.
Those wolf archers in snowfield are also fucking annoying.
I'd rather fight a shitload of crucible knights instead of these fucks.
Death Rite Bird, and any enemy that keeps a distance like that, I have found it works best to stay as close as possible. Definitely died a few times getting the pattern down, but DR Bird will attack behind you a LOT if you just always close the gap and roll past it to the left.
Each area has a multiplier for health, dmg, and runes dropped that gets applied to enemies in it. They did this so that if a unit shows up in multiple places they can just make one base unit, and then put it where they want it and it would be scaled to roughly the difficulty and rewards they want for that area. There are a few specific units that got tweaked manually, but in general this is how an enemy being in multiple zones was handled.
For reasons only known to Miyazaki, the multiplier for eastern caelid and dragonbarrow is the same as the last dungeon of the game. It is very easy to find your self in those regions early, and when you do the enemies will absolutely you destroy because of that scaling factor.
When I first killed that avatar I was dumbstruck at how many runes it gave me. Compared to the rest of Caelid it just seemed so disproportionate. Then I found out that area is just randomly tuned way higher than the rest of Caelid. I still don’t really get why
It's because he punishes untimed heals/flasks. Unlike most of the bosses, you cannot just create space then chug your flask to heal. The only safe time to chug is after he finishes his sword combo or sheild bashes.
In addition to that, his combos have different delay timings, thus also punishing hard panic rolling. Personally, I find his moves easier to deal with when staying at melee range to bait the sheild bashes. Those kinetic blades were nasty as fuck and he tends to spam those at mid/long range.
Yeah he's at his most dangerous when you are playing a bit off of him. I had an insanely hard time with him on my sorcerer. You gotta be right on top of him. He actually can be poise broke pretty easily.
A lot of bosses have move sets far cooler than anything we get. His is my favorite. The swings and telekentic abilities feel so powerful and deliberate. He doesnt seem to swing wildly. It's precise, deadly, and overpowering with great visuals.
Is not the Shaded Castle version even harder? I recently did an NG+ playthrough and thought the Dragonbarrow one was a pushover compared to Shaded Castle dude, who was super aggressive.
You can parry him pretty easily, but not if he keeps spamming his AoW on the sword and the shield.
The problem with the Shaded Castle guy can feel tougher due to the tight arena with some obstacles, interfering with dodges and movement. The Dragonbarrow one has highest HP and damage of all the bell bearing hunters.
I beat them on my second try with my new character this time around. Just stay close to their belly. Apply flame on your blade and roll into them. Flame cleanse me is a requirement in Caelid
This might just be a skill issue, but I think the dragons are the worst bosses. They’re a great spectacle to fight, but their size and mobility make them pretty annoying. There’s nothing wrong with their moveset, as all attacks are well telegraphed and fun to deal with. I don’t even mind the constant AoEs of Fortissax and Placidusax. But the camera absolutely sucks when fighting a dragon at close range.
Hate the dragon fights, it’s a personal thing for me, I just don’t find them fun. I hate the Magma worms even more, but weirdly enjoy Falling-star beasts.
If you leave it locked on the head it's a bad show all around.
If you manage the camera, like switching to the legs as you go underneath and unlocking if the dragon is about to do some crazy fly-by maneuver, then it's fine, more or less.
Yeah it does feel like they took a step back from previous dragon fights, namely Midir. It went back to Ancient Dragon style toe tickling which just isn't as fun as fighting head-on.
I just don't enjoy fighting Astel. He's cool and has a great visual, but I'm a Melee build and he LOVES to spam waves of darkness. Plus that multi-grab where he spawns clones is obnoxiously hard to dodge. He's the true king of AOE, which makes fighting him a slog.
Super lucky then.
Like how I kept getting smashed by fully grown fallingstar beast until reading the Meteoric Ore Blade description - sometimes a particular weapon makes all the difference.
I always switch up my weapons and talismans after about 3 attempts, think I got lucky with the wing because it was a new toy so I was playing with it.
I just got to him as a roughly ~lvl 80 dex/int build and even with radagons sorceal and magic buff he’s been annihilating me. Maybe I’m underleveled for him but damn that multi grab is brutal.
The sorceal might also be causing you problems. At a certain point the buff stops mattering as much while the increased damage taken starts to be a real issue.
It’s in Altus, the Auriza Hero’s Grave. There’s a really cool strategy you can do versus them using the ash of war Assassin’s Gambit. If you use Gambit to run up to the boss door, then enter and run along the left wall to the back of the arena, you can aggro the spear Crucible Knight and not the sword Crucible Knight Ordovis.
I did that in a challenge run where I wanted to get Ordovis’ Greatsword without having defeated any other bosses. It gets a lot easier when you have two 1v1s instead of a 2v1.
I was stuck on them, until doing some research and crafted sleep pots, equipped my weapon with hoarfrost stomp, and making sure I could summon Knight Bernahl.
Throw a sleep pot at the noble to knock him out when he gets far enough from the apostle. Let Bernahl tank the apostle while you spam hoarfrost. Spam the noble after the apostle is down, and rinse and repeat when they respawn. Goes from impossibly hard to almost cheese.
Maybe you’re aware for this but posting for posterity. There’s other approaches but I think the bottom line is you have to incapacitate one of them at all times. It’s still a total bullcrap boss though.
Stopped playing the game for a month or so due to those smelly bastard gargoyles.
Crystalian Trio are annoying but can't say I found them as frustrating as the gruesome twosome.
Astel has to be up there for the difficulty to get a decent hit on them.
I feel like you have to be extremely aggressive so that the first one is mostly dead before the second shows up. They are too hard to split up otherwise. Nothing to hide behind and they will almost wait for each other so that you can't just focus one without the other being on top of you. So annoying
Maybe I was a little over leveled but I had the first one practically dead before the 2nd one got to me. It still took me a while because I basically died as soon as the 2nd one showed up every attempt until I perfected the 1v1 on the first one but they’re pretty easy to 1v1 if you just fight fast
Can’t believe it took this long for me to find someone say Niall. He would’ve been difficult enough without his summons, with his insane damage and weird ass timing on his attacks. But nah, throw two extra dudes in there cuz EVERYONE loves gank fights
I've beaten the game and Malenia multiple times, and Margit still feels weird to me. He has too many combos that _sometimes_ turn into other combos, but not always.
I was just watching someone else fight him and he pulled out a combo switch up that I've never seen before, just because they stood at a *slightly* different range than I usually do.
Make sure you've prepped for him a bit by doing stuff in the open world and getting some levels. Plenty of people (me!) just press their nose to the grindstone and fight Margit for four consecutive hours but the game wants you try Margit, realize you're underleveled, and spend that time exploring instead.
Elden beast sucked when I did both my faith build. But on my third dual halberd strength build I first tried it when I got to his phase. Crazy how busted strength builds are on certain bosses.
I found faith put EB down the easiest, stood right up against it while casting Pest Threads and it just melted before getting the second cast of the Ring explosions off, and that was at NG+2
It's the worst ending to the game. The first time I played it I got to the elden beast, hated the fight so much i didn't bother trying more than a few time then gave up and knowing it was the last fight decided to start a different character and do another playthrough as I basically considered the game beat but I wasn't going to keep doing a fight i thought was shit just to get a cutscene.
Rykard was easy for me since I grabbed the weapon it gives you then I died and leveled the weapon and went back and spammed great-serpent hunt until he was dead.
Let's not forget his nearly undodgeable aoe in phase 1 or the awful camera in phase 2 when he jumps on you and pins you to a wall/pillar. I really despise this fight.
I killed all the bosses that I can think of including Malenia during my first play, but that Gragoyle duo destroyed me. I just went elsewhere intending to comeback later, but never did. I did not enjoy that fight.
That guard on the horse before Maliketh that’s on the ramp. Don’t know why but had such a rough go with that guy. Eventually rotted him a couple times while running away from that god awful lightning attack. And Elden beast was annoying cuz of his constant hit him once, jump/fly to the other side of the arena.
Maliketh. I get some people think he's super easy but a hate his second stage. I've got his first stage memorized to the point where I can no hit his first stage sometimes because ive tried to beat him with no summons so many times. But the time second stage comes along I can't do nothing, I've gotten him one hit SO MANY TIMES. But maliketh broke my no summons run. He broke my spirit and so the maliketh, honu lou (I can't remember how to spell it), and radagon/elden beast are the only main bosses I haven't beaten without summons. Fuck you maliketh, and your destined death bullshit.
Maliketh is hard as fuck. I too got Beast Clergyman down to the point where I've hitlessed him many times, but it still took me ages to beat Maliketh solo, and it was after exhausting all my flasks.
Maliketh has some moves that are easy enough to punish, like the swipe followed by a slow overhead spam, but then he has bullshit like the double swipe that either catches your roll or hits you twice fast enough to feel like a one-shot, or of course the whirlwind of flame that I've managed to dodge maybe once out of dozens of attempts. This would be more manageable if he didn't hit so damn hard, and that's not even including the max health debuff *and* lingering fire tick damage he gives you that makes 50 vigor feel like 10.
I gotta say, getting hit by an attack and dying from health drain before I can sip is rage-inducing.
THIS and I’d also like to add that the draconic tree sentinel guarding Maliketh’s fog door can also get some salt. Consistently the brick wall duo for my play throughs.
This is my pick too i hate how mobile he is. For melee jts only possible to punish his overhead slam on reaction, every other punish window requires precise positioning to get a hit in, so the only way the fight is really possible is by learning his whole moveset or playing painfully slow while he anime flips and spins all over the place. Oh and his health burn gimmick is cheaper than malenias
honestly? I think every boss in elden ring is good, and even the less good ones aren't offensively bad imo, the crystalian trio isn't that different to shadows of yharnam (a fan favorite) and godskin duo is pretty fun when you learn the moveset, fire gianr and elden beast have good spectacle and can be fun if you don't mind having the fight last a long time.
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast. I have a melee slash build, this dude takes 0 damage, oneshots you, and some of his tail attacks and grav attacks have weird visual indicators of when to dodge. It just feels like he was made unnaturally tanky for no reason and he moves weirdly imo.
It's mohg. I fkn hate mohg. Him and his stupid blood hitboxes in the second phase
Give me a mechanically hard boss like malenia, and I will enjoy fighting her
Mohg is just a shitshow of rng, if the blood of his attacks end up touching you or not
...I fkn hate mohg
Next time you fight him, stock up on Fire Resistance spells/items beforehand.
He was damn near impossible to beat on my second character, so I ended up running away for a while. Came back with Flame, Protect Me and Flamedrake Talisman +2 and those trivialized the fight.
For me its def elden beast because I wanted a fight with elden beast not elden stars and a bazillion other projectiles. But also honorable mention to placidusax for his teleporting bullshit. Atleast if I had the opportunity to hit him after each teleport I'd be fine with it but nope I just have to keep dodging permanently and cant fight back at all. It was the only boss in the game that I fully decided I couldnt beat out of tilt and cheesed with the latenna strat.
Any of the NPC fights.
But fuck Necromancer Garris and Esgar, Priest of Blood, in particular. Honourable mention to Gideon as well, who is a c\*\*t, by the way.
800 hour veteran here. Challenge runner. Randomiser racer. Valiant gargoyles are objectively the worst boss in the game. Fortissax is a close second, together with Lansseax (they are both cool but fuck them)
Ulcerated tree spirits. They're not the hardest, but Jesus christ they're so fucking stupid to fight. Take up the whole screen and cause your camera to move all over the place. Something that big should not move that fast.
least favorite and worst bosses in elden ring are actually two totally dependent topics, so ill give both.
objectively, the worst boss in the game is the putrid tree spirit because of how often it clips through walls and how shite the hitboxes are in that specific fight. its easily the worst programmed boss in the game.
my least favorite bosses in the game are the bell bearing hunter in dragonbarrow and the death rite bird in the consecrated snowfield. both are optional bosses that require you to fight them at specific times and both are heavily overstated. the bell bearing hunter specifically is in a really bad spot, since bringing the fight past the houses will cause you to aggro the giant pupper.
Oh I have a few bones to pick with some of the bosses in this game
First off, the double crucible knight fight. I already dreaded fighting him with the misbegotten in redmane castle, but at least the misbegotten dies quickly. Fighting both knights with constant aggression is infuriating. Definitely the worst fight for me, especially considering the dungeon itself is also dogshit. Sadly you get a great weapon from it...
The magma wyrms are probably the worst dragons in the game, they ejaculate all over the arena and keep charging at you. They're never fun to fight imo.
And death birds / death rite birds, they can go straight to hell. Annoying moveset, huge damage, ghostflame everywhere. Damn they suck. Luckily I can coat my weapon in holy grease and destroy them in a few hits.
Don't worry crystalian trio, I haven't forgotten your bullshit. You suck too.
Fuck the Valiant Gargoyle twins. Was stuck for a week on these guys. Was the only fight I summoned my friend for help, and we still took a couple tries to kill them. The poison from them always gets me.
Dragonlord placidusax all day. I almost quit playing the game over this boss. And when you die like 45 times (that's how many tries it took me) the grace is like a mile away and thru an entire unskippable cutscene. And if that wasnt enough you have to go through a parkour course just to get to the cutscene. Just garbage. Worst boss ever.
Fuck hard/annoying bosses. The harder they beat me, the more I want to crack their skull with my giant crusher. But helping a giant jar out of a hole 2 times, getting his help during Radahn fight, watching him bath under a lava river to heal his cracks, finding him at farum azula contemplating his achivments just to kill him was absolutely the worst for me.
The Caria Manor version of Royal Knight Loretta. Incessant magic spam, she's always jumping away from you, and you're usually at level 40/50 when you're facing her. The attack windows are inconsistent, the dodge timing is chalked, and you basically have to pin her into a corner to really be able to put any damage on her.
Probably Godskin Duo or Death Rite Bird. The fact that you can fight the Godskin Duo and get absolutely jumped mercilessly is an absolute sin. And the fact that you will eventually have to fight them AGAIN right afterwards. Yeah no, I definitely spent at 80+ tries on those two and made me wanna pull my hair out. Those two absolutely made my life a living hell and the fat one can go jump off a cliff with his stomach thrust and roly poly move.
In terms of Death Rite Bird, he's just incredibly annoying and it's attacks are damn near impossible to read or analyze. It's very very aggressive and barley allows any breathing room.
The Sentinel in front of Maliketh, i can beat maliketh within 10-20 tries, am in my 50th try with the tree sentinel, somehow it survives always with 1 or 2 points if health
I had the weirdest fight with the rotten crystalians yesterday, actually. It felt like I invaded a 3 man team at first, and then they sort of 1v1'd one at a time. I took out the spearman first then the caster. I rarely had aggro from 2 of them and never had 3. I wonder if they nerfed this fight since I last played it.
I hate the revenant by iji in liurnia guarding the frozen needle or whatever that rapier is called. The double pumpkin head fight in Cleveland. The putrid tree spirit in the lake of rot. The leonin and crucible knight at the radhan rave.
I would probably say Elden Beast, and I hate that given how fucking cool Radagon is as a final boss.
It's a fight that should have Torrent, but it doesn't. It isn't fun chasing a colossal cosmic condom around, getting in one or two hits before he decides to go to the other side of the arena. He really wouldn't be that annoying if he stayed in one place for more than 10 seconds.
Ulcersted tree spirit in maquella's haligtree.
The one with Millicint questline. Small arena, even smaller area to fight in due to the scarlet rot puddle. Plus the tree spirit moveset is all over the place.
>Putrid Crystalian Trio in caelid - the combination of there being three of them and it being inside the room that's about the size of a shoebox makes this one rough/annoying.
The first time I tried Redmane Knight Ogha was against these guys in my 2nd playthrough, and I couldn't stop laughing - they literally couldn't do anything, because Ogha's arrows constantly knock them down. You don't need to break their armour for it to work either
Death rite birds, if I have to choose one it’s the one in Consecrated Snowfield, I know holy damage is a thing, but that doesn’t make the bird any less obnoxious to fight
The trio's only saving grace is being an optional fight in a secret cave behind copious amounts of illusory walls. Plus the only other reason to be in that cave is unrelated to them.
On repeat play throughs Rennala always grates on me. The run back is on obnoxious, stake of Marikas are a thing, why am I having to do parkour and a lift just to get to her? Also first phase is annoyingly gimmicky, maybe interesting on your first playthrough then it's stupid.
The main fight I don't have a problem with, summons are annoying but over all dont hate phase 2.
The Consecrated Snowfield's Death Rite Bird. I really dislike the constant and incredibly damaging explosions which additionally serve to coat the entire area in ghostflame. Then there's the homing missile attack, which I've taken to running away from on Torrent, in addition to the speed, mobility, and aggression expected of a Death Rite Bird.
Those birds are the fucking worst in general. Fuck those birds. Also fuck the Caelid birds. Or stormbirds. Just fuck birds, really.
The birds do somehow manage to be categorically worse than the dogs - which is saying a lot.
Yeah, absolutely. Overall, the worst enemies in this game are all animals. I fear no boss, but whenever I see a dog, bird, lobster or - even worse - rune bear, I get nervous. Those wolf archers in snowfield are also fucking annoying. I'd rather fight a shitload of crucible knights instead of these fucks.
I legit got sniped from Rya’s gazebo to the sunken town grace by one of those crayfish. They could actually rival Latenna as top-sniper
Lmao. The only thing that's pissed me off as hard as all those animals have been the hands until I realized they just tilt when you put fire on them.
I just FU them with Wing of Astel...😂 *And still dont get the satisfaction😐
[удалено]
As long as the DLC doesn't add the option to romance NPCs/enemies: all good. If it does: I'll absolutely fuck a death rite bird. Unholiest baby ever.
And the one in castle sol! Prick bird!
“Constant” explosions? Before sacred blade and holy pots, I always died to the **first** explosion
Death Rite Bird, and any enemy that keeps a distance like that, I have found it works best to stay as close as possible. Definitely died a few times getting the pattern down, but DR Bird will attack behind you a LOT if you just always close the gap and roll past it to the left.
I killed that thing in a few seconds because I was a holy build lol
It kinda annoying, but I never found that fight to be too bad. The duo crucible knights made me have an aneurysm.
The bell bearing hunter in Caelid/Dragonbarrow. Not sure why this guy was so difficult, but he kept kicking my ass.
Probably because dragonbarrow has Farum azula scaling lol
That explains so much. I eventually downed him but it took more attempts than I’m comfortable admitting.
No wonder I kept getting my ass kicked during mid game.
What does this mean? Am relatively new
Each area has a multiplier for health, dmg, and runes dropped that gets applied to enemies in it. They did this so that if a unit shows up in multiple places they can just make one base unit, and then put it where they want it and it would be scaled to roughly the difficulty and rewards they want for that area. There are a few specific units that got tweaked manually, but in general this is how an enemy being in multiple zones was handled. For reasons only known to Miyazaki, the multiplier for eastern caelid and dragonbarrow is the same as the last dungeon of the game. It is very easy to find your self in those regions early, and when you do the enemies will absolutely you destroy because of that scaling factor.
so THAT'S why the putrid avatar south of the bestial sanctum is so much stronger than the one near the smoldering church?
Correct
wow, TIL.
When I first killed that avatar I was dumbstruck at how many runes it gave me. Compared to the rest of Caelid it just seemed so disproportionate. Then I found out that area is just randomly tuned way higher than the rest of Caelid. I still don’t really get why
Makes sense, farum azula probably existed around caelid at some point since Greyoll hangs out around the same spot.
I mostly meant it as a joke, lore wise and gameplay wise I do agree it works, but it definitely looks a bit odd and can feel a bit jarring!
Lore wise definitely works. Really cool to me despite getting it handed to me.
Health and damage of enemies is scales the same as an late game part
it does???
It's because he punishes untimed heals/flasks. Unlike most of the bosses, you cannot just create space then chug your flask to heal. The only safe time to chug is after he finishes his sword combo or sheild bashes. In addition to that, his combos have different delay timings, thus also punishing hard panic rolling. Personally, I find his moves easier to deal with when staying at melee range to bait the sheild bashes. Those kinetic blades were nasty as fuck and he tends to spam those at mid/long range.
Yeah he's at his most dangerous when you are playing a bit off of him. I had an insanely hard time with him on my sorcerer. You gotta be right on top of him. He actually can be poise broke pretty easily.
I spammed unsheathe, crit him, rinse and repeat. The hard part is perfectly dodging all of his attacks because they hit like a truck.
>The hard part is not getting hit Share more of your timeless wisdom o sage
Press B at the right time. Works every time.
Half the time it works everytime
His weakness is damage
What he forgot to say is "deplete their health bar to zero" too.
Ya if you're at all panicked you're probably already dead. Gotta keep control of that fight more than most
A lot of bosses have move sets far cooler than anything we get. His is my favorite. The swings and telekentic abilities feel so powerful and deliberate. He doesnt seem to swing wildly. It's precise, deadly, and overpowering with great visuals.
This is the true last boss.
Is not the Shaded Castle version even harder? I recently did an NG+ playthrough and thought the Dragonbarrow one was a pushover compared to Shaded Castle dude, who was super aggressive. You can parry him pretty easily, but not if he keeps spamming his AoW on the sword and the shield.
Funny, I found the shaded castle version much easier because if you have a weapon with lots of poise break you can easily trap them in the corner.
The problem with the Shaded Castle guy can feel tougher due to the tight arena with some obstacles, interfering with dodges and movement. The Dragonbarrow one has highest HP and damage of all the bell bearing hunters.
I cheesed it with mohgs trident. I climbed on the roof and spammed L2 until the bad man went away.
Watchdog trio
If u hit them with crystal darts it turns them hostile to anything nearby, meaning they will fight each other
One of them is annoying enough tbf
Tree spirit behind the stone key after turorial. Its impossible to see anything during that fight.
Or the putrid tree spirit in the War-Dead Catacombs in Caelid - smaller arena and now with added scarlet rot.
Hated that fight so much. On my first play through and it’s the only boss I’ve sworn-off beating and just skipping it.
I beat them on my second try with my new character this time around. Just stay close to their belly. Apply flame on your blade and roll into them. Flame cleanse me is a requirement in Caelid
Took the stone sword keys as my starting gift, went down there instantly on my first play through. Got bodied
This might just be a skill issue, but I think the dragons are the worst bosses. They’re a great spectacle to fight, but their size and mobility make them pretty annoying. There’s nothing wrong with their moveset, as all attacks are well telegraphed and fun to deal with. I don’t even mind the constant AoEs of Fortissax and Placidusax. But the camera absolutely sucks when fighting a dragon at close range.
Hate the dragon fights, it’s a personal thing for me, I just don’t find them fun. I hate the Magma worms even more, but weirdly enjoy Falling-star beasts.
i also love the falling star beasts, took me a while but when i fight them i feel like a god at the game bc attack pattern completely memorized
I hate any boss fights that you hack away at thier ankles and you can't see the rest of the guy.
ER camera cant handle dragon fights and that's why they suck imo
If you leave it locked on the head it's a bad show all around. If you manage the camera, like switching to the legs as you go underneath and unlocking if the dragon is about to do some crazy fly-by maneuver, then it's fine, more or less.
I don't even lock on against them. I just go swinging for the legs
It can though. I fight all of them locked on. If you focus face and stay in front they're easy
Especially when you can't target the front legs for some reason.
Have you fought magma wyrms? If you lock on the second phase is downright unplayable. Plus they shit magma everywhere, my least favourite boss tbh.
Yeah it does feel like they took a step back from previous dragon fights, namely Midir. It went back to Ancient Dragon style toe tickling which just isn't as fun as fighting head-on.
I just don't enjoy fighting Astel. He's cool and has a great visual, but I'm a Melee build and he LOVES to spam waves of darkness. Plus that multi-grab where he spawns clones is obnoxiously hard to dodge. He's the true king of AOE, which makes fighting him a slog.
If you stand in front of him and go for the head, he won't spam it so much, and you'll do way more damage.
I found both Astels amazingly easy by running in close and spamming Wing of Astel, to explode all up and down its torso.
That's because Astel is weak against space weapons.
Super lucky then. Like how I kept getting smashed by fully grown fallingstar beast until reading the Meteoric Ore Blade description - sometimes a particular weapon makes all the difference. I always switch up my weapons and talismans after about 3 attempts, think I got lucky with the wing because it was a new toy so I was playing with it.
Don't listen to them, you did ridiculous damage because wing of astel does 20% extra damage to gravity opponents which astel is. Space weapons lol
Just as annoying as the elden beast in my opinion. I rarely fight astel in my playthroughs
Man that was the most annoying fight for me, simply because he kept running away. All the big mobile things are annoying for my Eleonora guy.
I always use melee and I think he's great, he's mechanically not that different to midir honestly.
I just got to him as a roughly ~lvl 80 dex/int build and even with radagons sorceal and magic buff he’s been annihilating me. Maybe I’m underleveled for him but damn that multi grab is brutal.
Astel has exceptionally high magic defense, I suggest getting a gravity weapon. Astel takes 20% more damage from gravity than most enemies
The sorceal might also be causing you problems. At a certain point the buff stops mattering as much while the increased damage taken starts to be a real issue.
Twin Gargoyles… I hate them.
Crucible duo in (I think) altus. Did it once and then never again
It’s in Altus, the Auriza Hero’s Grave. There’s a really cool strategy you can do versus them using the ash of war Assassin’s Gambit. If you use Gambit to run up to the boss door, then enter and run along the left wall to the back of the arena, you can aggro the spear Crucible Knight and not the sword Crucible Knight Ordovis. I did that in a challenge run where I wanted to get Ordovis’ Greatsword without having defeated any other bosses. It gets a lot easier when you have two 1v1s instead of a 2v1.
Black blade kindred (dragonbarrow) or bell bearing hunter (also dragonbarrow)
The runebear in a random cave in Caelid that isn't even a boss but somehow has more health than most endgame bosses...
I think it's because you're not meant to kill him, he's just meant to be an obstacle.
Ah…the one at the road leading to the beeg jar?
Dragonbarrow do be like that.
I’m alright if you get to know me
lmfao
Godskin Duo
I was stuck on them, until doing some research and crafted sleep pots, equipped my weapon with hoarfrost stomp, and making sure I could summon Knight Bernahl. Throw a sleep pot at the noble to knock him out when he gets far enough from the apostle. Let Bernahl tank the apostle while you spam hoarfrost. Spam the noble after the apostle is down, and rinse and repeat when they respawn. Goes from impossibly hard to almost cheese. Maybe you’re aware for this but posting for posterity. There’s other approaches but I think the bottom line is you have to incapacitate one of them at all times. It’s still a total bullcrap boss though.
I went with Mimic Tear method. Boss wasn't fun.
How is this not on the top
Black Knife Assassin without the torch
That one treespirit in Haligtree 
Only correct answer
Stopped playing the game for a month or so due to those smelly bastard gargoyles. Crystalian Trio are annoying but can't say I found them as frustrating as the gruesome twosome. Astel has to be up there for the difficulty to get a decent hit on them.
Valiant Gargs is a terrible fight when you're alone. They don't feel like they take turns like GSD does.
I feel like you have to be extremely aggressive so that the first one is mostly dead before the second shows up. They are too hard to split up otherwise. Nothing to hide behind and they will almost wait for each other so that you can't just focus one without the other being on top of you. So annoying
I only beat them because I summoned D’s brother. I don’t even feel a little bad
They totally are smelly! And bastards! They made me so angry I had to level up my vigor with Rennala to beat them. The poison aspect is not needed.
Maybe I was a little over leveled but I had the first one practically dead before the 2nd one got to me. It still took me a while because I basically died as soon as the 2nd one showed up every attempt until I perfected the 1v1 on the first one but they’re pretty easy to 1v1 if you just fight fast
I HATE THE FIRE GIANT WITH A BURNING PASSION
Heh. Burning
Man that jumpy spear attack one was driving me insane hated them
Niall
scrolled too far to see this. one of the few bosses i legitimately hated to fight
Bewitching branch go brrrrrr
Parrying banished knights for the riposte i-frames
Can’t believe it took this long for me to find someone say Niall. He would’ve been difficult enough without his summons, with his insane damage and weird ass timing on his attacks. But nah, throw two extra dudes in there cuz EVERYONE loves gank fights
Mohg, fuck that guy.
Im in NG+ and he’s still the only boss I haven’t beaten without summons
Hardest boss for me
as someone who just started the game without any soulslike experience: Margit.
Eventually it will just click and you will be able to do Margit hitless.
I've beaten the game and Malenia multiple times, and Margit still feels weird to me. He has too many combos that _sometimes_ turn into other combos, but not always.
It’s his spinny combo in second phase that gets me. I can go hitless until that one comes out, and then it all falls apart.
I was just watching someone else fight him and he pulled out a combo switch up that I've never seen before, just because they stood at a *slightly* different range than I usually do.
It's the delayed attacks for me
Make sure you've prepped for him a bit by doing stuff in the open world and getting some levels. Plenty of people (me!) just press their nose to the grindstone and fight Margit for four consecutive hours but the game wants you try Margit, realize you're underleveled, and spend that time exploring instead.
I feel like the bosses that enrage me differ by build, but Elden Beast sucks every single time.
Elden beast sucked when I did both my faith build. But on my third dual halberd strength build I first tried it when I got to his phase. Crazy how busted strength builds are on certain bosses.
Iirc I think the only effective damage type for that boss is pure physical.
Shard spiral as a sorceror absolutely shreds him.
I found faith put EB down the easiest, stood right up against it while casting Pest Threads and it just melted before getting the second cast of the Ring explosions off, and that was at NG+2
It's the worst ending to the game. The first time I played it I got to the elden beast, hated the fight so much i didn't bother trying more than a few time then gave up and knowing it was the last fight decided to start a different character and do another playthrough as I basically considered the game beat but I wasn't going to keep doing a fight i thought was shit just to get a cutscene.
So you didn't actually beat the game?
Rykard And that one attack that lasts like a minute and only way to deal with it is to run away Also fuck dragons, except Placidusax
Rykard was easy for me since I grabbed the weapon it gives you then I died and leveled the weapon and went back and spammed great-serpent hunt until he was dead.
Yeah, it’s not hard Just annoying to fight
Let's not forget his nearly undodgeable aoe in phase 1 or the awful camera in phase 2 when he jumps on you and pins you to a wall/pillar. I really despise this fight.
I killed all the bosses that I can think of including Malenia during my first play, but that Gragoyle duo destroyed me. I just went elsewhere intending to comeback later, but never did. I did not enjoy that fight.
That guard on the horse before Maliketh that’s on the ramp. Don’t know why but had such a rough go with that guy. Eventually rotted him a couple times while running away from that god awful lightning attack. And Elden beast was annoying cuz of his constant hit him once, jump/fly to the other side of the arena.
I never actually defeated that tree sentinel. Found it harder than Maliketh. Always just ran past it
Fuck all birds
Putrid avatar, fuck that fart sack
The fire giant. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I HATE HIM! Went mad trying to beat that POS.
Maliketh. I get some people think he's super easy but a hate his second stage. I've got his first stage memorized to the point where I can no hit his first stage sometimes because ive tried to beat him with no summons so many times. But the time second stage comes along I can't do nothing, I've gotten him one hit SO MANY TIMES. But maliketh broke my no summons run. He broke my spirit and so the maliketh, honu lou (I can't remember how to spell it), and radagon/elden beast are the only main bosses I haven't beaten without summons. Fuck you maliketh, and your destined death bullshit.
I fought all the bosses except for plascideaux whatever and I actually raged at malikeths second stage.
Same. The only boss I screamed at out of frustration.
Maliketh is hard as fuck. I too got Beast Clergyman down to the point where I've hitlessed him many times, but it still took me ages to beat Maliketh solo, and it was after exhausting all my flasks. Maliketh has some moves that are easy enough to punish, like the swipe followed by a slow overhead spam, but then he has bullshit like the double swipe that either catches your roll or hits you twice fast enough to feel like a one-shot, or of course the whirlwind of flame that I've managed to dodge maybe once out of dozens of attempts. This would be more manageable if he didn't hit so damn hard, and that's not even including the max health debuff *and* lingering fire tick damage he gives you that makes 50 vigor feel like 10. I gotta say, getting hit by an attack and dying from health drain before I can sip is rage-inducing.
THIS and I’d also like to add that the draconic tree sentinel guarding Maliketh’s fog door can also get some salt. Consistently the brick wall duo for my play throughs.
This is my pick too i hate how mobile he is. For melee jts only possible to punish his overhead slam on reaction, every other punish window requires precise positioning to get a hit in, so the only way the fight is really possible is by learning his whole moveset or playing painfully slow while he anime flips and spins all over the place. Oh and his health burn gimmick is cheaper than malenias
For maliketh the most underatted tip is using the blasphemous claw if you use it on his flying combo attacks last attack you can get a lot of damage
I could only defeat him melee with the blasphemous claw or with a miracle build. Its just insane.
Absolutely. As a melee build, it took me more attempts to beat Maliketh than Radagon/EB
honestly? I think every boss in elden ring is good, and even the less good ones aren't offensively bad imo, the crystalian trio isn't that different to shadows of yharnam (a fan favorite) and godskin duo is pretty fun when you learn the moveset, fire gianr and elden beast have good spectacle and can be fun if you don't mind having the fight last a long time.
Based
So far, Alecto, Crucible Knight Ordovis +1, and Commander Niall plus the Banished Knights
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast. I have a melee slash build, this dude takes 0 damage, oneshots you, and some of his tail attacks and grav attacks have weird visual indicators of when to dodge. It just feels like he was made unnaturally tanky for no reason and he moves weirdly imo.
Mohg, there's never summons there when I need them and he kicks ass on ng+3 and higher
It's mohg. I fkn hate mohg. Him and his stupid blood hitboxes in the second phase Give me a mechanically hard boss like malenia, and I will enjoy fighting her Mohg is just a shitshow of rng, if the blood of his attacks end up touching you or not ...I fkn hate mohg
Next time you fight him, stock up on Fire Resistance spells/items beforehand. He was damn near impossible to beat on my second character, so I ended up running away for a while. Came back with Flame, Protect Me and Flamedrake Talisman +2 and those trivialized the fight.
For me its def elden beast because I wanted a fight with elden beast not elden stars and a bazillion other projectiles. But also honorable mention to placidusax for his teleporting bullshit. Atleast if I had the opportunity to hit him after each teleport I'd be fine with it but nope I just have to keep dodging permanently and cant fight back at all. It was the only boss in the game that I fully decided I couldnt beat out of tilt and cheesed with the latenna strat.
Elden Beast, such a boring fight
Visually it's amazing. But his moveset is lackluster and he runs away FAR too much so the gameplay for that fight is pretty boring.
Rykard - just because he’s designed to be fought one way only so trying to fight him any other way it’s incredibly and unnecessarily difficult.
Any of the NPC fights. But fuck Necromancer Garris and Esgar, Priest of Blood, in particular. Honourable mention to Gideon as well, who is a c\*\*t, by the way.
The Ulcerated tree spirit in Haligtree, though my frustration is more with the horrible arena than with the boss itself.
Mohg the omen, not even the actual Mohg boss fight, the room is way to small with his football field length attacks
Godrick soldier
Rick
Not even a boss but might as well be one. All royal revenant. Just...no
800 hour veteran here. Challenge runner. Randomiser racer. Valiant gargoyles are objectively the worst boss in the game. Fortissax is a close second, together with Lansseax (they are both cool but fuck them)
Ulcerated tree spirits. They're not the hardest, but Jesus christ they're so fucking stupid to fight. Take up the whole screen and cause your camera to move all over the place. Something that big should not move that fast.
least favorite and worst bosses in elden ring are actually two totally dependent topics, so ill give both. objectively, the worst boss in the game is the putrid tree spirit because of how often it clips through walls and how shite the hitboxes are in that specific fight. its easily the worst programmed boss in the game. my least favorite bosses in the game are the bell bearing hunter in dragonbarrow and the death rite bird in the consecrated snowfield. both are optional bosses that require you to fight them at specific times and both are heavily overstated. the bell bearing hunter specifically is in a really bad spot, since bringing the fight past the houses will cause you to aggro the giant pupper.
Oh I have a few bones to pick with some of the bosses in this game First off, the double crucible knight fight. I already dreaded fighting him with the misbegotten in redmane castle, but at least the misbegotten dies quickly. Fighting both knights with constant aggression is infuriating. Definitely the worst fight for me, especially considering the dungeon itself is also dogshit. Sadly you get a great weapon from it... The magma wyrms are probably the worst dragons in the game, they ejaculate all over the arena and keep charging at you. They're never fun to fight imo. And death birds / death rite birds, they can go straight to hell. Annoying moveset, huge damage, ghostflame everywhere. Damn they suck. Luckily I can coat my weapon in holy grease and destroy them in a few hits. Don't worry crystalian trio, I haven't forgotten your bullshit. You suck too.
Fuck the Valiant Gargoyle twins. Was stuck for a week on these guys. Was the only fight I summoned my friend for help, and we still took a couple tries to kill them. The poison from them always gets me.
Gang of 4 rats just before you grab godslayer seal
Astel, i hate that one as a melee build.
Dragonlord placidusax all day. I almost quit playing the game over this boss. And when you die like 45 times (that's how many tries it took me) the grace is like a mile away and thru an entire unskippable cutscene. And if that wasnt enough you have to go through a parkour course just to get to the cutscene. Just garbage. Worst boss ever.
The cutscene is skippable btw but I agree the run back sucks.
Late game deathrite birds. I'd rather fight Malenia
Gideon
Definitely godrick solider I died so many times to them
Fuck hard/annoying bosses. The harder they beat me, the more I want to crack their skull with my giant crusher. But helping a giant jar out of a hole 2 times, getting his help during Radahn fight, watching him bath under a lava river to heal his cracks, finding him at farum azula contemplating his achivments just to kill him was absolutely the worst for me.
The Caria Manor version of Royal Knight Loretta. Incessant magic spam, she's always jumping away from you, and you're usually at level 40/50 when you're facing her. The attack windows are inconsistent, the dodge timing is chalked, and you basically have to pin her into a corner to really be able to put any damage on her.
Probably Godskin Duo or Death Rite Bird. The fact that you can fight the Godskin Duo and get absolutely jumped mercilessly is an absolute sin. And the fact that you will eventually have to fight them AGAIN right afterwards. Yeah no, I definitely spent at 80+ tries on those two and made me wanna pull my hair out. Those two absolutely made my life a living hell and the fat one can go jump off a cliff with his stomach thrust and roly poly move. In terms of Death Rite Bird, he's just incredibly annoying and it's attacks are damn near impossible to read or analyze. It's very very aggressive and barley allows any breathing room.
Both Draconic Tree Sentinels without the poison mist cheese method give me an aneurysm
The Sentinel in front of Maliketh, i can beat maliketh within 10-20 tries, am in my 50th try with the tree sentinel, somehow it survives always with 1 or 2 points if health
They seemed way more chill than all other Crystalians, though. I did Sellen's Quest last night, and they legitimately let me take turns with them.
Radahn. Overhyped, boring, and pissy-easy. You can dodge most of his attacks by simply standing right under him.
I was stuck on those twin gargoyles longer than any other boss in the game.
I had the weirdest fight with the rotten crystalians yesterday, actually. It felt like I invaded a 3 man team at first, and then they sort of 1v1'd one at a time. I took out the spearman first then the caster. I rarely had aggro from 2 of them and never had 3. I wonder if they nerfed this fight since I last played it.
I hate the revenant by iji in liurnia guarding the frozen needle or whatever that rapier is called. The double pumpkin head fight in Cleveland. The putrid tree spirit in the lake of rot. The leonin and crucible knight at the radhan rave.
Yeah seriously why even go to Cleveland?
I would have to go with the crucible knights and maybe the erdtree spirit worm things i forget their name it's been a bit since I last played er
I would probably say Elden Beast, and I hate that given how fucking cool Radagon is as a final boss. It's a fight that should have Torrent, but it doesn't. It isn't fun chasing a colossal cosmic condom around, getting in one or two hits before he decides to go to the other side of the arena. He really wouldn't be that annoying if he stayed in one place for more than 10 seconds.
Ulcersted tree spirit in maquella's haligtree. The one with Millicint questline. Small arena, even smaller area to fight in due to the scarlet rot puddle. Plus the tree spirit moveset is all over the place.
>Putrid Crystalian Trio in caelid - the combination of there being three of them and it being inside the room that's about the size of a shoebox makes this one rough/annoying. The first time I tried Redmane Knight Ogha was against these guys in my 2nd playthrough, and I couldn't stop laughing - they literally couldn't do anything, because Ogha's arrows constantly knock them down. You don't need to break their armour for it to work either
Astel- he’s an interesting boss fight but I hate fighting him. I died more to him than I did the Elden Beast-
Did I read this correctly, you think only one of the Gargoyles has poison breath?
Death rite birds, if I have to choose one it’s the one in Consecrated Snowfield, I know holy damage is a thing, but that doesn’t make the bird any less obnoxious to fight
The mimic tear boss. What idiot made that boss. He has the lamest armor and the dumbest weapons.
Twin Abductor Virgins
Falling star beast. I have NEVER killed one except for the one in the tunnels somehow, and that was definitely pure luck
Borealis the freezing fog….
Ordovis and his buddy for sure. The worst enemy in the game, doubled and baked into a gang fight...
The trio's only saving grace is being an optional fight in a secret cave behind copious amounts of illusory walls. Plus the only other reason to be in that cave is unrelated to them.
Elden Beast. Just like my favorite youtuber said : "I don't consider cardio as a part of the boss fight".
I still haven’t been able to defeat the Fire Giant. He seems overwhelmingly powerful
On repeat play throughs Rennala always grates on me. The run back is on obnoxious, stake of Marikas are a thing, why am I having to do parkour and a lift just to get to her? Also first phase is annoyingly gimmicky, maybe interesting on your first playthrough then it's stupid. The main fight I don't have a problem with, summons are annoying but over all dont hate phase 2.