By GARRETT BABB
Staff Writer
Dark Souls 3 is notable by many for its incredible difficulty, with most players quitting soon after they start because the bosses are too difficult for them to cope with. But in a game with many enemies and boss battles that are renowned for their difficulty, which is the most difficult? In this list, I’ll be counting down my top 5 most difficult bosses that players encounter in Dark Souls 3 without including those that are found in the game’s DLC.
5. Pontiff Sulyvahn
The reason Pontiff ends up at number five is that he just felt cheap. He was able to hit you with very fast combos with intense range along with dealing with several different damage types making it difficult to wear armor or use items that negate the damage types he uses. His second phase however is where the cheapness of the boss fight comes in where his gimmick is literally that you just have to fight not one of him….. But two. He creates a spectral version of himself that will use all the same moves and combos that the original uses and fights along with them. All of this combined makes Pontiff easily in my opinion at the number five spot, however, all the bosses ahead of him are in my opinion far more difficult.
4. Lothric and Lorian
Lothric poses a significant challenge to any player that has the displeasure of fighting him. He deals standard damage, thrust damage, magic damage, and fire damage making him very multifaceted in terms of the types of damage he can deal. He also has two feats, the first being significantly easier than the second (typically the case) where in the first phase you only have to fight one of the brothers and in the second phase you have to fight him again but with the magic-wielding brother on his back. In order to beat the fight, you have to kill Lothric who is the younger of the two and cling to Lorian’s back during the second phase as if you focus your damage on Lorian then he will just be continuously revived. Their combination of devastating sword combos with fire damage along with the barrages of spells and the ability to teleport (which automatically makes you un-lock on the target) makes the boss very overwhelming and oftentimes genuinely disorienting to fight. All of this combined puts Lothric and Lorian comfortably at the number 4 spot.
3. Soul of Cinder
Many may be surprised to see the Soul Of Cinder so low on the list given the fact that it is technically the final boss of the game, however despite the fact that the Soul of Cinder is still a very big final challenge for players I can’t bring me to put it any higher on this list. Despite that, The Soul Of Cinder is still a menace, boasting two phases with a massive heat pool along with having the most amount of variable combos and moves by far. His whole gimmick is that he can use everything, and can change forms randomly throughout the fight and use pyromancies, extremely strong magical attacks, frustrating spears/thrusting attacks, and extremely high DPS curved sword combos that can easily become very overwhelming for the player as they scramble to try and adapt to his vast move pool and damage types. His second phase also introduces a higher DPS and adds fire damage to his sword (which gains about 5 feet in length) along with a combination attack which if left undodged will leave you stuck in a 6-piece combo attack that will shred your health bar to the very last atom. All of this is happening while the player struggles to dwindle down his vast health pool makes this fight easily within the top 3 but unfortunately undeserving of anything higher.
2. Dancer Of the Boreal Valley
This boss was likely never meant to have been as difficult as it is, as it was supposed to basically act as the gatekeeper to Lothric castle and can even be the second boss you ever fight at all if you take the proper steps. Despite its circumstances, however, this boss has risen above even the challenge that the final boss of the game supplies. On the surface, the boss doesn’t seem terrible, with a significant weakness to dark-based damage and a manageable health pool. However, the boss also deals with slash damage, fire damage, thrust damage, and dark damage. The real kicker is in the bosses design, with moves that vary vastly in attack speed and have impossible to read patterns with extreme damage output making this boss very unforgiving to players who haven’t fully mastered the attack patterns of the boss and dodging effectively as one bad dodge can easily cost you the entire fight. The Dancer Of The Boreal Valley also has extremely vicious grab attacks which will one-shot most characters who don’t have strong armor or health pools along with one move in particular where they blitz the player with repeated spinning slashes that take up a quarter of the boss room and chase your character down, meaning that if you don’t dodge all of them efficiently enough then you can easily get caught and ripped to shreds. Many people argue that the dancer is harder than our #1 spot because of its extremely high damage output and difficult to anticipate combos that leave players having to perform at an extreme level of skill or get very lucky with the rng of the fight, but it’s impossible for me to put this boss at number one because of its glaring weaknesses and moderate health pool, with proper preparation I feel this boss isn’t as bad as people make it out to be but is still easily deserving of the number two spot.
3. Nameless King
The Nameless King is easily the most difficult boss that Dark Souls 3 has to offer and is one of the hardest bosses I have ever had to face in any game I have ever played. With two equally unbearable phases (albeit for different reasons) this boss boasts the highest health pool along with dealing fire damage, lightning damage, standard damage, and thrusting damage in his first phase and all the same except for fire damage in the second. The first phase is in my opinion harder than the second phase, as you are fighting him while he rides his dragon which will spit fire on you and give him additional mobility. This combined with the fact that the camera in the game has an incredibly difficult time tracking the dragon meaning you almost never have a clear view of him while fighting in the first phase AND hitting the dragon at all as difficult as its head is the only decent weak spot and without large weapons or magic, it is almost impossible to hit consistently unless timed perfectly. However, the second phase of the fight is just as dangerous (most people believe it to be more difficult) with the boss more than doubling its healthpool after absorbing the dragon and taking on its vitality and most of its strength. During this phase, the Nameless King will use heavy spear attacks along with wind-based physical attacks and hardcore lightning magic while also manipulating the wind to fly around and increase his mobility and maneuverability. He is also basically completely immune to lightning damage and has no notable weaknesses except for a slight damage increase with dark magic and even that is minimal and still won’t put a major dent in his massive health bar. His attacks also do disgusting amounts of damage, easily taking out a player in two or three shots even to the heaviest of characters meaning that being a tank does almost nothing for the player in this fight. All of these reasons make the Nameless King in my opinion the hardest boss in Dark Souls 3 as well as the hardest boss I have ever had to face in any video game I have ever played.