Those who beat Elden Ring, what was your favorite boss (SPOILERS)

[Biske]

I think Rykard is the best so far (havent beat it, in haligtree) but he has a great design, the boss room is awesome. The fight is hard but his attacks and patterns are clear so it feels fair and your fault if you die. There is a clear method to beating him which is fun but still challenging.

Opposed to stuff like Radahn, oooo one hit got ya reload. Or Niall, ooooooooo three guys swarming you what you gonna do? Oooo nothing reload.

There are a handful at most of good bosses and the rest are just cheap spammy bullshit.

 

[Kromeo]

Hard to tell if people genuinely think Malenia is a well designed boss fight or are just suckers for punishment lol

I haven't reached her yet so I have no opinion either way


Surprised to see Rykard being mentioned so often, he died in about 15 seconds and didn't hit me once, I did upgrade the sword to like +7, maybe most people didn't bother with that

 

[MegaSackman]

Visually, Rykard

As a concept, Radahn

As spectacle, Placidusax

As a fight, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux

Malenia is the worst

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This.

I also liked Godrick and Margott, but nothing really blowed my mind of hyped me.

 

[Arkhanor]

The whole Radahn fight is incredible! Loved it.

 

[ArchAngel]

Radahn pre nerf was freaking amazing!!
And my most favorite is Radagon! So motivating and then the Demon's Souls theme as the background track was A+

 

[Karlinel]

After killing every boss, I'd say that the best overall for me are Placidusaxx, Morgott and Godfrey/HL. I thought I'd rank Malekith higher but tbf the endbosses are more a painful parody of gitguddery than fun or fair.
I feel so relieved to delete this game!

 

[Flipmenex]

Rennala, and the fights against the Ancestor Spirits (Deer) for the vibe.

Radahn for the cool concept, it was fun to charge at him with everyone.

Placidusax was cool too.

Definitely hated Malenia, even after realizing that bullshit combo is actually not that hard to avoid, but can still fuck you up if you're in a bad position. Self-heal and then rot on top of it made it not fun at all to me.

In general, though, I didn't think most bosses were anything particularly memorable to me, but that's probably a consequence of having a lot of side stuff to do in the game and that entails a lot of repetition. If this had been a more linear Souls game with fewer bosses I probably would have paid more attention to the main and unique ones.

 

[GwyndolinCinder]

His lightning sweep attack just felt cheap to me, large radius, can one shot you and has little warning. Once he got down to about 25% I just rode around and let Kristoff finish him, was annoying me too much by that point

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The move before the sweep is the tell - so it's a massive warning Once you know the fight

 

[Kunjiru]

In terms of visuals or spectacle, probably Rykard or Placidusax (especially with that Godzilla laser barrage).

In terms of pure badassery and being the most engaging fight? It will be tie between Hoarah Loux, Radagon and Radahn. Godfrey/Hoarax Loux is the absolute badass beast. Radagon - my god that soundtrack and fight together are just so goddamn cool. Kinda wish it was longer and seperate from Elden Beast. And there's also Radahn, what a sick way to fight, eh? What a legend.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

I liked all the omens - Margott, Mohg, and their illusions. I also really enjoyed Maliketh and he was just right for my playstyle, didn't have trouble.

Beyond that I think Radagon is fine on his own, and I liked all the open field dragon battles. Renalla is actually pretty great for a spectacle boss. Her first phase is quick and easy once you get it, and her second phase is like what most of the bosses would be if they weren't overtuned for health.

Really, that's my problem with the core boss design. Everyone has too much health and does too much damage for their move sets. You can compensate in most cases by merely leveling and stacking vigor but the curve does not feel like any of their previous games.

 

[C.Mongler]

I really liked Rykard; it felt like they took the Storm King concept and made a fight that was actually somewhat interesting (though if you upgrade the Serpent-Hunter the fight becomes a lot easier lol).

I also thought Beast Clergyman was pretty fun, and I thought Hoarah Loux was cool just because how fucking ridiculous his attacks are lol.

I liked Radahn conceptually in hindsight but I didn't really enjoy the fight.

 

[Deleted member 22002]

I felt the boss ensemble of ER was the best in Soulsborne games i tried, by far.

DS1 has too many half-baked ideas and let downs (but also the greatest highs), DS3 was forgettable, and Bloodborne pivoted too hard on every boss being a giant spazzing beast to fuck up your camera. I skipped DS2 and Sekiro so i wouldn't know about those.

Malenia had sublime design, Malekith had some incredible animations, Rennala had great atmosphere and it's probably the best iteration of enemy-mob boss. Radagon/Elden beast was a great closure. My favorite one though was the Ancestor (deer) fight: the music, sound and atmosphere was incredible.

More importantly, i can't think of a boss in ER that was below "good enough", there were no true low point.

 

[Batatina]

I think Rykard was my favourite. Just the scope of it, and the fact that it is more gimmicky (which I prefer).

 

[Lobster Roll]

Loved godskin noble and godskin apostle individually. While I enjoyed the duo fight, I also dominated them so I didn't really feel that triumph feeling. But they're just fun enemies so it's up there.

Mohg, Lord of Blood might be my favorite though. Also loved Margit's fight.

 

[ajoshi]

That first evergaol Crucible Knight fight is probably the most memorable one. Not the best, but I feel it's the only boss I had to learn the entire animation set Nameless King/Sekiro-style. You don't get spirit ashes or multiplayer, just you and this input-reading shithead. I spent more time on this than even Malenia.

The best? I feel Godrick is pretty good for where he's at, and Stormveil likewise is the most memorable legacy dungeon, so it was just a good stretch of the game. Feels overwhelming at first but the telegraphs are just right once you start paying attention and he doesn't have any Ultra Combos like some other bosses. Margit and Mohg are also in a good place.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Placidusax is fantastic and should've been the last boss. Godfrey/Hoarah Loux was easily my favourite. I also enjoyed Maliketh.

 

[Kazuhira]

Rykard, Radahn, Radagon+Elden Beast(mostly because of the music), Rannala and the final fight with Morgott.

I wish they could do something a little more original with the bosses and not just cross the fog gate and beat the shit out f them.

Those key items that stun the omen bosses was kinda of what i wanted in terms of rewards for exploring.
I dunno, that certain boss gets weaker during night time or gimmicks like that, make them feel more original.
Remember when Velstadt from Dark Souls 2 got angry for wearing his adversary's armor? That was neat, and it was a hint granted by the lore itself.
Stuff like that could've made the bosses more interesting imo.

Why am saying this now? Because of the large amount of bosses, minibosses and you can approach all of them in the same way, it was too repetitive in my experience.

Add a little bit of originality to the boss formula and not just another skill check to pass.

 

[werezompire]

I'm "only" about 70 hours in so I still have a ways to go, but my favorite so far are:

Rennala - I loved how cinematic this one was, with the two very different phases & all the crazy summons she could do in the second phase.
Radahn - I really enjoyed how very different than a normal Souls boss this was, with being on the horse & focusing on summoning tons of helpers, more than the usual one vs one fight.

Just beat Astel last night & it was a good fight. Creepy, huge design and it felt fair, with the attacks hitting hard but usually having a nice window to counter-attack.

Hardest boss fight for me so far was probably the duo that's right before Radahn. Getting to the point where I could take out the first one soon after the second one appeared felt like a real victory.

Also, I'm surprised at all the negative comments about bosses in general for the game, since I feel like the actual bosses (not the minor stuff you find in side areas or on the world map) have generally rocked. Maybe it's because I was playing the Demon's Souls remake before this, where most of the bosses felt like unfun gimmick fights.

 

[Noisepurge]

Rykard and Radahn(prenerf) as I'm a fan of gimmick bosses :D and Rykard being a Demonsouls sequel to the Storm King fight was awesome!

Also the starter bosses were great as i was still finding my groove and didn't have too many tools to work with but they still felt beatable. Margit and Godrick that is.

 

[gabyb]

Malenia by far, pretty much all of the other bosses took me 2 or 3 tries at most. Malenia took me about 3 days of dying at the first phase of the fight basically. And the second phase was pure luck when I finally managed to do it. But winning felt incredible, the rest of the bosses except Radahn were pretty meh for me, including the final ones.

I liked Malenia so much that I have beat her for a couple of friends, only sad thing about her is that her armour isn't good :(. Used Radahn's until the very end.

Edit: I sure hope that the DLC has wayyyy harder bosses. Getting to a boss and killing them super quickly because you are way overleveled is not fun.

 

[Tennis]

I was super disappointed with Malenia after all the hype, not because she was difficult but because I beat her in my first try.

I think I have two more bosses to go but my favourites so far have been Radahn, Rennala, Dragonlord Placidusax, Margit the Fell Omen, Ancestor Spirit, Beast Clergyman and Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

 

[DoubleTake]

Hourah Loux is hands down he best fight in the game. Constantly engaging without feeling like BS and feels incredibly in tune with player mechanics.

The Omens are good, especially Mogh for his blood phase/mechanic. Followed by Maliketh and Radagon who I wish was a bit more fleshed out and separate from that crappy Elden Beast phase.

Radahn is a great spectacle while also being fairly challenging for the early game.

Fortissax and Placidusax are among the best dragon fights they've ever made.

Malenia would be higher up the list if she didn't have that one stupid move. A player character with more fleshed out ways to deal with that than just dodging or running away or being forced to use Ashes would make it way more fun and feel like less of a cop out designed to make the fight more challenging. At least for me anyway.

Overall I think the bosses in ER are a weak point compared to how great everything else feels. Both in terms of combat design and repetition. You can really start to feel how From's ramping up on boss movesets is stretching their gameplay design especially when they don't make player character movements/capability uniform like in Sekiro and Bloodborne.

In those games the hard fights feel like a legitimate dance/back and forth because of how the player movement and ability synergizes with the bosses. In DS3 and now epscially ER its feeling like your character is even more bumbling than intended because everything else is so much more ridiculous relative to the player character.

Also Radagon and Godskin Apostle themes are the best in the game. Everything else was forgettable for me and blended into one another which was a first for me in their games. I hope they get a live orchestra and more composers with the added budget in the next game because the score plays very important part in helping elevate boss fights.

 

[Pixelpusher]

Loved Elden Ring, but overall I think the bosses were my least favorite from all the games. I've played and beaten all of the souls games. Personally think Sekiro has the best human based bosses. Elden ring bosses have reached peak bullshit. We have tons of roll catching, absurd delayed attacks, extreme combos with tracking, and a few "almost" unavoidable attacks/aoe. All of that made fights feel too RNG, reducing the satisfaction of beating them.

Boss fights I had satisfaction, or enjoyed were: Margit, Godrick, Placidusax, Godfrey, and Radagon. Personally I enjoy Radagon's fight the most. I
ve fought him the most out of anyone due to helping people on the last boss.

Too many bosses in this game are.. let's put two of something is a small room and see what happens. I think I would have felt better on the bosses if they tone down the bullshit, but its dialed to an 11 in this game. I want to feel less RNG, and more skill. I never expected the bosses to have the beautiful dance of Sekiro's combat, but I hope they can improve their next game a bit in regards to bosses.

 

[Retrosmith]

Any ideas for potential DLC bosses form the known lore/story? Are there any great warriors or antihero/hero characters in the scale of Artorias, Ludwig and Tomoe ;__;?

 

[Not Spaceghost]

Dragon lord Placidusax is my favorite visual feast of a fight

My favorite fight is probably just the Radagon part of the final boss. It's very well designed as a good challenge without feeling mean, it's a very readable fight and the attacks are satisfying to avoid.

Shame phase 2 is trash.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Morgott, by a lot. Beautiful duel in a beautiful setting, cool moveset, fair and balanced, no bullshit, and it landed for me emotionally.

 

[Karlinel]

Any ideas for potential DLC bosses form the known lore/story? Are there any great warriors or antihero/hero characters in the scale of Artorias, Ludwig and Tomoe ;__;?

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Godwyn and Gransaxx?

 

[empo]

alecto or the first crucible knight evergaol
I enjoy the spectacle of some other bosses but these ones felt like proper duels
malenia would be up there if she didn't almost entirely invalidate my guard counter playstyle (I saw someone kill her like that but it took like 10 minutes, no thanks)

 

[SunBroDave]

Hard to tell if people genuinely think Malenia is a well designed boss fight or are just suckers for punishment lol

I haven't reached her yet so I have no opinion either way

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Malenia is an incredibly well-designed fight. It's just that she's specifically designed so that your first impression of her is "Are you kidding me? This is bullshit"

 

[AndrewDean84]

I think I enjoyed the fight with Rykard the most. It was the most fun to play, and it had the best phase 2 cutscene too.

Nothing really stands out as my least favorite. I beat all the bosses too. Maybe the final boss (both phases). Not because it was hard, but it just felt anticlimactic. Like, not just 60 minutes earlier I had defeated that optional dragon boss that you had to go to sleep to fight.

 

[Tawantabe]

Malekith was my favoritte fight. Beautiful telegraphs, made me feel like the divine dragon sekiro fight. Just finished 5th playthrough last night. Final boss used to seem insurmountable but is pretty easy once the moveset isnt surprising you at every end. First phase can sometimes have the ai of a player using hoarfrost stomp pre patch though.

 

[EntelechyFuff]

Honestly, I think it might be Rennala. I fought her so early but I think the combination of "classic" gimmick boss + extremely atmospheric and cinematic 2nd phase clinches it for me.

In a different Souls game, a fight with this kind of presentation might've been the last boss or an optional superboss. In Elden Ring, it's tuesday.

 

[MegaSackman]

Hard to tell if people genuinely think Malenia is a well designed boss fight or are just suckers for punishment lol

I haven't reached her yet so I have no opinion either way


Surprised to see Rykard being mentioned so often, he died in about 15 seconds and didn't hit me once, I did upgrade the sword to like +7, maybe most people didn't bother with that

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I died like 10 times or more, it was 4am so I said "before going to sleep I'm going to upgrade the weapon and see what happens", killed him first try but I could enjoy the battle prior to that lol.

 

[The Shape]

I liked Radahn, epic fight with lots of soldiers against a super strong foe (story wise, you can be over leveled if you want).

Also liked Hoarah Loux and Maliketh. Astel was a good fight cause the first time I totally thought I'd never beat it but if you learn its movements it's not hard.

Rennala was a beautiful fight, good cinematics and awesome setting. The same goes for Ryckard, imposing and scary.

Malenia was my least favourite. I really disliked it and dread the thought of fighting her again (I'm on a second character playing with friends and a different build).

I also didn't like the Fire Giant.

 

[Speevy]

Radahn first patch

 

[Ferrs]

Any ideas for potential DLC bosses form the known lore/story? Are there any great warriors or antihero/hero characters in the scale of Artorias, Ludwig and Tomoe ;__;?

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Miquella if he even wakes up from his nap.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Mogh. It took me a couple of tries to understand is transitioning tactic but once I did, I beat him.

Radahn is the coolest of them all. Might be one of the best fights From has given us.

 

[Fhtagn]

As someone who played all Dark Souls 2 last month, I don't think of one boss in that game that was bullshit as Malenia. To me she's bad in the same tier with Sword Saint Isshin, Demon of Hatred and Nameless King

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Those are four of the best bosses they've ever made, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Spinx]

Any ideas for potential DLC bosses form the known lore/story? Are there any great warriors or antihero/hero characters in the scale of Artorias, Ludwig and Tomoe ;__;?

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Godwyn.

 

[brink22]

Radahn was the most fun. Godskin Duo probably felt the best to beat because they were such a pain. I never tried Malenia. :)

 

[Baloota]

Malenia, aside from the flurry attack which needs a nerf. She is really well designed and interesting to fight without the homing magic/aoe spells bullshit that most of the other bosses have but overall Elden Ring boss output is the weakest so far in any From game

 

[Tonypark]

Every main bosses were amazing. A lot of side bosses were also. The recycled x2 or x3 bosses sucked but the amount was incredible. No complains.

 

[DidactBRHU3]

Rykard, Radagon and Fortissax.

 

[Capra]

Probably Godfrey in terms of pure mechanics? It felt like the fairest variation of the "dodge and punish" fights From has become obsessed with since the tells were all pretty clear and he had a lot of openings.

Honestly I think just nerfing Melania's anime sword spam to be more easily avoidable and making her regen work like the player's in Bloodborne so she only heals up to what she just lost would go a long way to making her tolerable. As it is you kind of have to be fast and reckless in order to make any progress but you get massively punished for every hit you take.

 

[Kazuhira]

Any ideas for potential DLC bosses form the known lore/story? Are there any great warriors or antihero/hero characters in the scale of Artorias, Ludwig and Tomoe ;__;?

Click to shrink...

Miquella finally waking up, Godwyn or some outer god, a dlc that takes place in the moon or another planet? Maybe more about what is the Crucible too.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Margit was great, I love a real brick wall like that just begging me to beat him. I really liked Mohg, Malenia, and Radagon but not Elden Beast. I sort of muscled through Godfrey/Horah Loux so I feel I can't appreciate that fight as well as the others I listed who I spent a lot longer on.

I really like the bosses I struggle on and take time to learn and counter nearly perfectly. I also like the fights against more human opponents. the 1v1 duels vs. the giant monster fights where I can't even see what the boss is doing.

Malenia's a perfect example of a boss fight where I was getting one shot by everything until I knuckled down and figured out the counters to every move. Like the Father Owl fight in Sekiro where everything just seems too fast, oppressive, and overwhelming but if you take your time and learn the fight one step at a time you can overcome it. I'm not afraid to watch videos to see how people are dodging stuff but it didn't help with Elden Beast lol. I was trying to see how people avoided damage from certain moves on no-hit runs and it looks like they got a lucky combo of moves and it never appeared for them.

Honestly, I think it might be Rennala. I fought her so early but I think the combination of "classic" gimmick boss + extremely atmospheric and cinematic 2nd phase clinches it for me.

In a different Souls game, a fight with this kind of presentation might've been the last boss or an optional superboss. In Elden Ring, it's tuesday.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I love that fight too just for the atmosphere. The music, visuals, and everything is top notch even if the fight isn't that difficult.

Godwyn.

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Little time traveling Night of Black Knives action?

 

[Kuro]

S tier:
Hoarah Loux/Godfrey
Radagon
Fortissax/Lansseax
Astel
Caelid Tower Godskin Apostle
Morgott
Mohg

A tier:
Malenia (would be S tier if it wasn't for her bullshit flurry attack, she's also the coolest)

Margit
Rykard
Alecto
Loretta
Dragonkin Soldier
Red Wolf
Maliketh (would be maybe higher if he didn't need a counter item, he seems a little ridiculous without it).

Shit Tier:
Tree Spirits (terrible camera + ugly + too many of them)

Crucible Knights (long combo fucks with one tiny window and infuriating heal punish, easy once you figure out the pattern but I hate these dudes)

Fallingstar Beast (janky ass boss, fighting on horseback makes it worse somehow)

Radahn pre-nerf (one shot undodgeable purple orbs.)

Worst Souls boss ever tier:

Elden Beast (runs away like a fucking coward and spams busted ass homing ranged attacks. Also the worst a Souls camera has ever been during a boss)


Anything I didn't list ranges from solid to okay like the various dragons, invaders, Gaol fights, etc.

Probably the most inconsistent set of bosses since Demon's Souls in part because of all the repeats/reskins.

Sekiro is still king.

edit: not as bad as Dark Souls 2's lame ass bosses

 

[Spinx]

Little time traveling Night of Black Knives action?

Click to shrink...

Nah. He got back stabbed when he was coming out of the bathroom after taking a shower. It's beneath us.

People who didn't like bosses in this game got owned big time and the salt is speaking.

 

[Mochi]

My build trivialised the game, so Malenia was the only I actually struggled with who wasn't just BS (Radhan).

Click to shrink...

Curious, what did you run?

 

[Navid]

Surprised at how many people enjoyed the various Dragon fight.

I get that they provide a nice sense of spectacle as you are approaching them but I found the fights against most of the larger enemies in Elden Ring to be very tedious in practice as it was a mix of whacking at their feet for a couple of minutes in between chasing (especially when your horse was unavailable) after them as they flew/jumped/rolled away from you...

I personally hope From software tones down the usage of larger enemies going forward, their melee combat system and camera isn't great for them and the less said about the lock on system the better.