My Community RANKED the DARK SOULS Bosses from EASIEST to HARDEST!

I'm Billy s welcome back to the channel it's time again to pass the Baton on to you the viewers as my community ranks the Dark Souls bosses from easiest to hardest I asked my viewers to rank all the bosses from the original Dark Souls based on their difficulty on a 1 to 10 metric scale I then tally the results find the average and use that to determine the ranking is this a new idea no deod can take full credit for his community ranking series back in the day but many of those videos are quite old and reflective of a different time and perspective with so many new players joining the souls born Community due to Elden ring I think it's good to continuously update these rankings every couple of years and keep in mind this is a difficulty ranking not a quality ranking just because a boss is ranked high or low that's no indication of a boss's quality only difficulty and if you want to participate in my next Community ranking it's going to be on the the bosses of demon souls and you can find a link to that form Down Below in the description right now so without further Ado my community's Dark Souls easiest to hardest bosses ranked and let me know your easiest and hardest boss from Dark Souls down below taking the bottom spot it's pin wheel with an average score of 1.46 out of 10 with 265 votes for easy EST boss in the game and over 310 people voting pin wheel a one in difficulty I don't think anybody is shocked by this placement pin wheel is a fragile boss where it's clear the developers fail to balance his fight's difficulty versus when he's likely to actually be fought in the game players who face him near the start may be able to get a proper fight with him showing off his move set of fireballs and cloning to great effect but that requires navigating the catacombs which is not an early game area so most players will find pin wheel in the mid to late game after getting the Lord vessel and at that point pin wheel's minuscule HP pool will be cut up like a hot knife through butter he only takes a few swings of any weapon to kill and his damage output is too low to bother a late game build there's so much potential for a good Magic based fight here especially with the creepy Arena and The Haunting music surrounding the fight but through no fault of pin wheel's own his potential is squandered one of my voters put it best when they said I'll be honest I feel bad for pin wheel because his law is really messed up and sad his music is cool and his attacks look awesome when he gets them off sadly the only thing he has going for him nowadays is well at least he isn't as easy as the M Noble from secular fair play to the eight viewers who voted him a 10 in difficulty though I see you tried to fight the inevitable but it wasn't meant to be at number 25 we have the Asylum Demon with an average score of 2.32 out of 10 perhaps it's a good sign that the tutorial boss of the game is next on the list proving that aside from a single blip on the radar the difficulty scaling did start off correct in Dark Souls Asylum Demon is your classic slow-moving big booted Hammer toting Big Boy and the entire Undead Asylum is designed to teach you the game's mechanics and train you for this fight if you choose to stubbornly face the demon on your first encounter you will suffer unless you're on New Game Plus in which case go nuts otherwise you'll be wrapping around to get yourself a three- plunging attack that does a third of the work for you his attacks are slow and deliberate allowing players to begin learning to dodge after they overcome the initial shock of a giant enemy swinging at you it's a perfect introdu ction you might get caught by Asylum Demon's butt slam if you're not careful and some of his swings reach further than you might expect but it's an overall simple fight for any Souls sporn veteran and a great teacher for newcomers looking to learn the ropes one of our voters really proves this in their comments saying Asylum Demon is such a good tutorial boss really good degree of difficulty for the first Souls boss I've ever faced another voter actually makes the claim that the Asylum Demon is harder than his reskinned counterparts and I don't necessarily agree but the argument is fascinating the Asylum Demon presents a bigger challenge than both stray demon and Demon fire Sage the largest weakness of this type of big and slow boss is attacking them from behind before they can turn around or moving under or around their legs to combat this the Asylum Demon has a move against this prominent play style where he sweeps his hammer behind him however this attack is for some reason missing from the Arsenal of the two later variations making their weakness even more prevalent and exploitable as I said I don't fully agree with this assessment I find the AOE attacks of the reskins to be far deadlier than a back butt Hammer sweep but I love that this is the sort of thing being brought up at number 24 we have the Moonlight Butterfly of Dark Root Garden who scored a total average of 2.44 out of 10 another fight that doesn't Shock Me with its placement the Moonlight Butterfly is an endurance test that asks the player to dodge a series of Magic projectiles while haunting music plays in the background eventually the butterfly lands on the bridge and you can wail on it and depending on your build could even solo the butterfly in one cycle otherwise it will explode with magic fly away and begin spamming all over again your mileage here depends on how well you can avoid or block the magic attacks or deciding to just summon beatric the Witch and be done with it for new players I can see them taking a few butterfly L's but for experienced players it truly is just a bump in the road one voter points out I think Moonlight Butterfly is hard to rank because as a Melee character you have to just stand there and roll to avoid attacks and I always have trouble dodging magic but as a ranged character you can finish her in like 10 seconds this is the first boss from I feel build truly matters in determining difficulty and I'm glad to see that aspect of Moonlight Butterfly being pointed out many of the voters also pointed out how despite being an easy boss the atmosphere is topnotch the long walk through Dark Root Garden and the climb up to the Moonlight Butterfly makes this encounter feel surreal the design animation and music are all so enchanting even once I learned how to dodge the simple projectiles the fight kept its magic on repeat playthroughs I've grown rather fond of the little guy it almost makes me sad when I have to kill it sad face it just goes to show that difficulty isn't everything when it comes to a boss fight sticking with you that being said this is a difficulty ranking so Moonlight Butterfly you have earned your low play Spot next up we have ceaseless discharge with a total average of 2.46 out of 10 and in my opinion is the last of the pushover fights from here on out the fights start to get a little tougher though for what it's worth ceaseless is another fight that can be judged on two merits one fighting ceaseless normally in dodging his arm slams which while not difficult does leave the door open for damage to the player especially if he uses his large flame beam attack that coats the stage two fighting ceaseless using the cheese method of running to the boss door waiting for ceaseless to attack you with his arm and then knocking him off into the void as he slips out of the Arena either way his fight doesn't put up much of a struggle which for its place in the game is certainly a shame but I'd have him right next to pin wheel the cheese method is actually baked into the game it's a valid strategy and doesn't depend on your build so it needs to be considered one voter adds to the cheese method strategy with there's no damage requirement there's no time limit once you get him into his dangling State he's basically dead I wish there was more to his fight especially since I really like his law and story and his law truly is tragic imagine watching your family turned into monsters and demons being forced to endure horrific Burns because some little ctipe [ __ ] stole your ring and then you see some nobody loot your sister's corpse I'd be pissed too killing ceaseless in my mind is a kindness at number 22 another early game Boss on our list is the tourist demon with a total average of 3.09 out of 10 unlike the last few fights on our list it's safe to say that the tourist demon does require a little more strategy to defeat set to a narrow Battlement wall Arena there's not a lot of space to maneuver so rolling through the Taurus demons attacks or blocking as best as you can becomes Paramount and it's very easy to accidentally find yourself rolling through a hole in the battlements and into the chasm below spatial awareness has long been the bane of many a new Dark Souls player and the Taurus demon is here to retach that lesson of course if you kill the two archers on the entrance Tower you can use that platform as a boss platform or as a plunging attack platform to do more damage on the tourist demon and compared to later bosses his move set isn't that fleshed out so once you've seen the first few sweeping strikes and jump attacks you've seen all the sweeping strikes and jump attacks funnily enough I usually die at least once against the T demon On Any Given playthrough because I get a little too cocky in my abilities only to either mess up a roll or get gravit but what about you guys I debated giving Taurus demon a two or three the fight himself is a two to me but the arena feels very janky to fight him in even if it looks cool janky wouldn't be my word for it I think the arena functions well enough but I understand the sentiment Taurus demon is surprisingly quick with its attacks and hits pretty hard the purpose of the fight is to teach the player about environmental awareness and Elemental weaknesses gold Pine resin and a plunging attack completely melts the boss and the goldpine resin is a great shout here as you can collect some from a chest in the undead Berg provided you buy the key from the merchant that opens the various doors use it on Taurus and you've got a quick win whatever happens just missing out on the top 20 we have dark sun gwindel with an average of 3.66 out of 10 and this does surprise me I'll be honest I understand why people ranked gwindel in as low as they did his HP is brittle at the late game when you choose to fight him and his boss fight is extremely formulaic requiring you to know how to dodge specific attacks but once that's done you're golden if you have remotely any magic resistant armor or Shields this fight will become a joke and yet I find some of his attacks tough to Dodge the slow moving magic orbs often clip me every once in a while and if you get hit by one of his knives the rest will follow and your health will be melted down that's the thing gwindel is a glass Cannon and can easily dish out what he can take it's just a case of how experienced are you as a player to where you can avoid all of his magic attacks beyond that it's a test of endurance as you might get some good hits in before he teleports away or you might only get a single smack instead the the RNG Gods need to be on your side for a quick finish but there are certainly a few bosses higher up on this list who haven't killed me as much as gwindel so I'm going to give him some personal props as for all of you gwindel is the most attractive little cutie pouti and I want cuddling and smooching and I'm proud of it I know he's a man oh okay I was looking for information on his boss fight but you do you commenter next forbidden Souls born law W's room in his boss fight is finite which means that you can indeed pin gindin against a wall I'm sensing a theme here but it is true gwindel in's illusion does eventually end let's try one more comment gwindel is so hard that he made me no I'm not even finishing that I'm not even finishing that moving on and number 20 we have crossbreed Priscilla with an average score of 3.79 out of 10 and if I were judging I'd have her below gwindel but I do agree with her low placement priscella is interesting as she's an optional fight you can choose to ignore her and head back to lordran without confrontation but if you want a boss weapon and her tail weapon you're going to have to shatter that piece her main mechanic aside from wielding a very cool looking Scythe is that she can summon a snowstorm that turns her invisible so you have to look at the floor of the Arena to spot her Footsteps in the snow which will indicate where you need to attack beyond that her move set is incredibly simple to avoid strafe around and block so her fight is over quicker than anybody expects there's really not much to discuss when the most memorable aspect of her battle is over in the first few moments when you break her out of her invisibility a concept done far better in Dark Souls 3's painted world with sister freed so I'm going to jump straight into your comments to see if you have have any insight on Priscilla another boss who was unexpectedly difficult for me was Priscilla mostly because I've only fought her once on new game plus 4 when trying to get the Platinum her invisibility took some time to get used to and her damage and bleed is substantial well it's probably because it was a later new game cycle and I wasn't trying to straight up kill her to get her tail weapon ouch I didn't even realize Priscilla did Serious bleed damage but fighting her on New Game Plus 4 I think any boss would be hard to me in that world State I do agree though her tail weapon is a bit of a pain to obtain because she doesn't have a ton of HP to start off with if you're a strength build and you're already doing a ton of damage it's easy to accidentally kill her before actually getting the weapon which is very annoying Priscilla is the hardest boss by far because like can you live with the guilt can you really you [ __ ] preach it commenter I honestly like how easy crossbreed Priscilla is she's not a character you're supposed to even fight she's benevolent towards you on your initial encounter and doesn't want to harm you mostly because she cannot harm you she isn't a fighter she does what little she can to try and stop you and the invisibility mechanic makes it more memorable this is my personal head Cannon as well it makes complete sense with Priscilla's character that she doesn't wish to fight anyone only taking up arms when her PE people are threatened at number 19 we have my least favorite boss in the game demon fire Sage with a total average of 3.94 out of 10 the demon fire sage has the exact same move set as the stray demon with his AOE slams and the usual Asylum Demon move set but his arena is filled with tree branches many of which are easy to get caught on as you're rolling or running away from attacks the amount of times I've had my momentum in this fight Hal because of a stray tree is enough to leave me fuming at least with the stray demon you have a full Arena to play around in and no annoying obstacles to make life a living hell but once you figured out the demon fire sages aoe's the fight becomes a simpler Affair perhaps people rank the fire Sage lower because of the time you face it in game where your build is likely finalized and you're doing maximum damage from fully upgraded weaponry and if that's the case I understand it obviously if you're a magic build you don't really have to worry about being near the fire Sage unless you're like me on my Platinum run where I like to shotgun dark bead spells into every boss's ass but I think for the purposes of this community ranking magic is the outlier not the rule as it does break Dark Souls 1 tremendously demon fire Sage is utter hell for a melee guy like me and I always dread my next encounter with it at least with stray demon it's easy to overlevel and come back later but DF is unavoidable unless you're in the correct Covenant and it's a very unpopular location for summons I know I'm probably alone in this opinion but I'd rather take my chances with a Bed of Chaos to be honest strong words but I totally agree with you on this one commenter fire Sage as a melee build requires so much spatial awareness on top of the orid rectangular Boss Arena that sometimes it's easy to think let's just go save cair and skip fire sage and centipede the demon fire sage and stray demon are hard only because of their over inflated health bars the move set isn't that Troublesome love your videos man thanks and for the most part I agree with your comment though on my first playthrough I do remember struggling with those AOE for a new player they can feel random and their hitboxes are surprisingly large but their fight does drag on due to those overinflated health bars that is a take I can get get behind at number 18 we have the Iron Golem with an average of 4.07 out of 10 the boss of s Fortress I think it's a good thing that the Iron Golem is considered as easy as it is because nobody wants an extremely difficult boss fight at the end of an area like Sen's funh House of murder do they no the Iron Golem like the tower knight from Demon Souls is a powerfully large suit of armor with a surprisingly Brit set of ankles you have to hack at the legs long enough to stagger the Golem so it falls down allowing you to then strike it its head for major damage of course it's possible to have the Golem fall down from stagger and straight off the arena which Nets you an instant win but flip that coin over and the Golem can easily pick you up and ye you off the arena into Oblivion for an instant win the Iron Golem grab was always one I felt had a wonky hit box as I've had many past instances where I feel I've dodged the attack only to get rubber banded back into his clutches anyway from range the Iron Golem can fire sword waves but they almost never amount to anything as they're angled at a sharp downwards trajectory at melee range he'll never use that attack and at Magic range you're way out of range of that attack just remember to kill the giant up the stairs nearby so you don't get bombed from behind Iron Golem feels like a perfect difficulty for where it is in the game but that comes at the cost of memorability for me after ringing the bells I always think about onstein and SM Iron Golem tends to get lost in the shuffle Iron Golem is one of the most forgettable bosses which is a shame at the end of such an iconic level as s's Fortress he's just storebrand Tower Knight now with gravity but lacks the intimidation factor of his predecessor sums up all my points beautifully but on the other hand Iron Golem will always be my favorite base game Boss never once cheesed him and his design is amazing sweet boss weapon and a great OST makes for a great fight once again I love that this series shows how every boss has haters but also lovers good on you iron golem at number 17 we have my guilty pleasure boss the gaping dragon with an average score of 4.13 out of 10 gaping is the boss that received the most fourpoint difficulty ratings on the poll with 115 and that's exactly where I feel gaping belongs this isn't the easiest boss in the game due to the sheer size and the initial unpredictability of the move set if you're a new player you should have no idea what to expect when the gaping dragon climbs into the arena but for experienced players the various charges tail sweeps claw swipes and vomit puddles are just PA of the course nowadays I still find certain aspects of the gaping dragon tough such as as how the hit boxes can clip you on its charge or those tail sweeps being brutal if you're not looking out for them do what I do and cut that tail of pronto both for the ease of fight and that sweet sweet weapon and kill the Channeler overlooking the arena lest you want a harder fight or maybe that is what you want I always prefer to fight from the sides or the back of the dragon as staying near the gigantic mouth makes you liable to be grabbed and eaten and I'm not about that life personally a slight bump in difficulty for new players going through the depths but one you won't struggle with as much on a replay there's one comment specifically that sums up exactly why I love the gaping dragon so I want to highlight it the gaping dragon while certainly on the easier spectrum of bosses was my first oh crap I'm playing Dark Souls moment and after struggling in the depths for what seemed like ages walking into a vast damp expanse I had no idea what to expect that's when the boopable snout emerged then the mo of teeth and the blood curdling roar I almost beat him on my first attempt were it not for me running right off the edge to escape the dragon's acid vomit I know there are better bosses in this game but it will always have a special place in my heart gaping dragon's difficulty was always in that initial intimidation factor and that's why I can't agree with people who think it's one of the easiest bosses as first time so players are going to have a tough experience with the fight and Veterans will get clipped once or twice by those charges at number 16 we have the stray demon with an average score of 4.21 out of 10 and in my opinion it's the last of the fights we can say are easy to moderate on this list difficulty wise you find the stray demon Upon returning to the Undead Asylum and depending on when you head back you'll either be in for a tough battle or a simple Beatdown I normally head back to the Asylum after ringing the bells of Awakening so I can grab Priscilla's doll before heading to an Orondo but for my recorded playthrough I chose to head back pretty much immediately so I could collect the rusted iron ring for Blight Town because of this I had a long intense fight with the stray demon that ended up being a personal favorite moment for me not because I enjoy the fight or the move set but because I proved I had mastered these big bootied boyos with an extremely clean fight the AOE themselves are easy enough to avoid once you understand how they work but their reach is surprisingly large and they do a ton of damage so tanking them isn't an option I think it's fitting that this half of our list is finalized with a reskin as from here on out we're getting into tougher fights while I'm not in love with the littering of Asylum Demon clones across Dark Souls 1 and three I do really enjoy the stray demon encounter I love the revisit to the northern Undead Asylum and it's a fitting end with a rematch where both combatants have gotten much stronger my one complaint is the fall to begin the fight I agree I love you can hear the Stray demons stomping around at the start of the game if you look to your right after exiting your starting cell the only reason I gave stray demon a higher difficulty rating than demon fire Sage was the guaranteed fall damage and the fact that Hollows can follow you in they're basically the exact same fight otherwise is and this comment highlights why I believe stray demon made it higher on this difficulty list forced fall damage was only ever a thing in Dark Souls 1 and it's just unfair combine that with the hollows you have to kill every time you want to start the fight and yeah it's easy to get accidentally ambushed if you're not careful taking the number 15 spot we have the centipede demon with a total average of 4.8 out of 10 now for me personally I I think centipede is a harder boss than people are giving it credit for because not only does it have one of the most annoying Arenas where the only viable spot to fight the boss involves jumping over lava that will damage you but then there's the RNG of actually getting the boss to approach you on dry land sure if you're a ranged build you'll likely not have much issue against centipede but this is one of the worst fights in the game for a melee build stretchy slam attacks that don't leave the boss open long enough for you to get good hits in and God forbid the boss decides to sit in the lava and spam its long reaching attack instead of actually closing distance if you're lucky you can cut off the part of the boss that contains the orange CH ring which allows you to walk on lava without much pain and alleviates the worst of the fight but that's such an arbitrary aspect of the battle and not something most players will have happen the Cent to be demon confuses me its move set isn't completely awful I like the idea of cutting off its arm to get the ring needed to walk on lava but why do you start on such a small platform yeah I agree the entrance to the Boss Arena should have taken us out into that portion of the area that isn't coated from head to toe in lava it's just tedious having to do parkour every time you want to fight centipede without worrying about the orange goop centipede demon has always given me the most trouble out of any boss in this game the cramped Arena the difficult to distinguish attacks this boss is just a visual disaster for me an orange blob of hit boxes that I still can't get a grip on it's not the boss itself that's the problem here it's everything surrounding the boss awful Arena design attacks that at least for me feel difficult to read and if you played the original Dark Souls you had to deal with the fluorescent lava textures I'm sorry to anyone else who went through that you should make a distinction between a hard challenge like artorius and bosses which base their difficulty around stupid mechanics like the centipede demon that's what this series is for actually all of you guys provide the rankings I just have to make sense of all the information and figure out why people find a specific boss difficult and it's clear with the centipede This falls into the latter category of badly designed difficulty coming in at number 14 the first of the four Lord Soul holders on this list see the scaleless with an average score of 4.83 out of 10 what I find fascinating about this boss fight in particular is how depending on the player you can go either way with se's difficulty as a melee build he's one of the easiest fights in the game his health pole isn't very large so if you're doing decent damage you won't struggle to melt his health bar as a ranged build more specifically as a spellcaster you will suffer a lot more sea naturally has magic resistance and I recall struggling to do decent damage on one of my old spell runs through the game I prefer to hit him with a big stick until he dies most of the time but unlike easier bosses on this list SE has a few deadly surprises that elevates him above the most obvious is his ability to curse the player instant death mechanics are not fun no matter the context and See's ability to spawn janky looking crystals that can even curse the player after they die is just poor game design it feels like they knew he wasn't intimidating so they threw curse in to keep up some challenge that and his tail slams which do surprisingly high damage you'll likely be dealing with them if you want the Moonlight Greatsword tail cut something almost all of my voters pointed out when discussing SE the difficulty here is in his tail cut ignore that and it is a much easier fight the true difficulty in Dark Souls 1 comes from the runbacks I think is one of the best examples of this critique Neo too but at least Nito didn't have invisible platforms a cave of moonlight butterflies Crystal golems and evil clams the longer a bosses run back the more likely you are to lose your nerve during the battle as you think I don't want to do that run again and I've had that with SE in the past for some people nerves are hard to overcome as it's not something you get better at you just have to force yourself to acclimate as much as I hate se's fight it's definitely not because of the difficulty he's really easy even though curse is annoying to manage mid fight you can just bait him to keep on using the mid-range beam which makes the fight even more pathetic I've never beaten him first try on any playthrough though and it's because of that one stupid clam you know the one since you have to break his immortality Crystal at the start of every fight and on your first appearance there's no boss fog the killer clams from the room prior can follow you into the boss room and if this happens except your death it will be coming swiftly narrowly making it into the upper half of our list we have great Greywolf Sith with an average score of 4.98 out of 10 so CF is an interesting case for me personally because depending on the playthrough I can find them incredibly easy or surprisingly difficult and the main reason for this is Si's damage output they do a surprising amount of damage with every slice of their sword to the point where if I'm playing recklessly or underestimating C's fight because it's just considered one of the easier ones I will get humbled immediately and that's not taking into account the tears streaming down my face because he's using artorius his move set of course once the momentum is on your side and you've done a decent amount of damage Sith becomes a cakewalk roll under the legs keep close and once SI starts limping you've basically won the fight since you can face this boss as early or as late as you want that naturally affects how some people view the difficulty fight CF after clearing out dark grout Basin and using the secret ladder and you'll likely have a tough time fight C after an Orondo or after defeating any of the lord soul holders and sadly he will be a joke his difficulty comes from the fact that you can fight him early or really late if you fight him early he's a 7 out of 10 when you fight him after the DLC just for his cut scene he's three out of 10 you obliterate him so I give him a five out of 10 and I sense this is how most people ranked cth as most of his votes were scattered around the fours fives and sixes we all know that CF and Priscilla are the true hardest bosses for the emotional damage they inflict with C limping and Priscilla just vibing and wanting to be left alone it's very clear from my commenters that cth while not a difficult fight is one of the best in terms of quality and most of the comments reflect that including my own personal opinions go watch my Dark Souls boss ranking I think it would be worth your time at number 12 we have one of the first early game walls the Bell Gargoyles with an average score of 5.37 out of 10 now let me quickly address something yes the Dark Souls 1 gargoyles are called The Bell Gargoyles not the belfrey Gargoyles like I accidentally called them in my Dark Souls 1 boss ranking video I'm sorry my first Souls game was Dark Souls 2 I first met the Gargoyles there does it matter I'm pretty happy to see the Bell Gargoyles make it high on this list because I'll say this right now I still struggle with these guys on a bad day on a new game maybe not I usually overlevel before reaching them in the parish but New Game Plus and Beyond I think the Gargoyles are brutal with much higher HP and the ability to tank more hits by proxy but for a new player getting double teamed is going to stick out it's a Well Done gank fight that doesn't Chuck you in at the deep end as you can learn one gargoyle's move set before the second joins the party and the second has a HP handicap to give you a fighting chance but fighting a top a rooftop with no guard rails the threat of gravity and the Long Reach of the boss's Spears acts as the true difficulty for the fight then they break out the flamethrower breath attacks and if you get caught in one of those it's over I think we all struggled with our first Souls born gank fight and for people who started with dark souls this was their first taste of a multi-enemy boss battle although a veteran Souls player the Bell Gargoyles might be one of the simplest gank fights of the series to a new player the Bell Gargoyles can undoubtedly make newbies shove the game indefinitely new players likely have yet to learn how how to fight enemies properly without lock on feature so having two bosses appear will split the lock on and mess with the camera it truly is a trial by fire I don't use the lock on as much in Dark Souls 1 anymore but on my first playthrough it was my crutch my guiding Moonlight if you will and the Bell Gargoyles definitely made sure to let me know the downsides of the lock on system if I replayed the game then the Bell Gargoyles would probably drop but the experience of this being my first Souls game and both of them clowning on me for a long period of time while I was a rookie at the combat was memorable enough they're one of the best fights to get better at because they did act as such a wall for so many players I have many comments of people saying how they almost quit the game because of the Gargoyles and if that's not an admission of early game difficulty I don't know what is just missing out on today's top 10 we have chaos witch Quay lag with a a total average of 5.42 out of 10 I personally have quag in the same category as the B gargoyles where for my first ever playthrough I struggled against her the lava her spider form can spew coated the arena and left me nowhere to really run and I found myself caught in her AOE blast more often than I care to admit but she always left good openings you could hug her front or her side and avoid pretty much all of her sword swipes and it gave me good time to get tons of damage in nowadays I can get through her boss fight without any issue I don't think I've died to her in years but she's got more going on with her move set that I think raises her difficulty with players the different variations of her lava attack for example which can box you in if you're not careful the trick is just knowing that while she's scrabbling across the arena towards you she can't hurt you her attacks are slow and fairly telegraphed including her AOE which gives players like myself a sense of comfort because now I know when I'm safe and when I need to dodge out of the way quag is one of the most Fair fights in Dark Souls as at first it seems like a challenge both in terms of difficulty and not getting distracted by her Honkers but once you get the movements and technique down it's a pretty simple and fun fight okay I know you're joking about quags assets but let's be real that's why I'm good at her fight I'm gay she does nothing for me it's a shame there aren't any more major quag comments just a few simple sentences from voters that didn't fully elaborate on her fight but next time I challenge players to start a new game master key down to Blight Town and try killing quag first before doing the Gargoyles it adds to the difficulty and can make her fight feel fresh and new again viewer you found me I'm yours and now that I've got your attention with a niche reference I'm trying to reach 20,000 subscribers by summer of 2024 and you yes you can help look at how many of you aren't subscribed to the channel so be sure to Parry that subscribe button to stay up to date on all my latest rankings back to the video starting off our top 10 we have grave Lord Neo with an average score of 5.79 out of 10 Neo is definitely up there as one of the tougher fights in Dark Souls but ironically none of it is due to Neo himself I personally think his move set is fairly basic and aside from learning the timing of his grave Lord sword burst to avoid potential damage and toxic buildup there's not much you need to worry about yes he has a giant AOE Death AA attack that will likely hit you as you try to escape but it also acts as a deterrent against the many skeletons you'll be dealing with during Neo's fight because that's where the difficulty comes from his ions who won't stop respawning when you enter the Boss Arena from a very long Boss run back might I add you take some forced fall damage which sucks and then you're attacked by basic skeletons while Neo makes his way towards you balancing fighting them while likely avoiding a grave Lord sword Pierce is tough and you can't make full use of the Arena either because if you head towards where nito's coffin is placed you will spawn larger more dangerous skeleton minions who will make your life life a living hell so you're confined to the entrance half of the Arena once neito is around you can wail on him for good damage and if you've got enough HP you can tank his AOE as it kills his minions chug some healing and just get back into The Fray it's my go-to if I can't run away in time and works like a charm Nito struggles to even hit you with his swings and he can be trivialized with a blessed Weapon by getting rid of all the ads it's a shame since he is a God and has one of the coolest designs in all of fromsoft but he just does not hit anyone except his own crew bless weapons are only really useful on Neo's path in lordran but boy does it mitigate the difficulty if you can stop those skeletons respawning most new players won't actually know about this trick though which is why I wouldn't consider it a definitive reason to rank Neo lower down I'd be remiss though if I didn't allow my voters to defend Neo so I love this fight and how is difficulty is balanced I love how the skeletons are only there to punish you from running away because you have to fight Neo face to face a face to face against death itself Nito will always clear the skeletons himself with his AOE if you fight him head on the fact that he can poison you if you get hit by his yell attack despite being well telegraphed can still be problematic the anxiety inducing atmosphere can also be a factor for some players I just think Neo is a perfectly balanced boss fight difficulty wise and a really good fight I always love to beat plus spooky scary skeleton send shivers down your spine what some people find difficult and unfair some people find difficult and enjoyable but what side of the fence do you fall on viewers at number nine we have the infamous cap Redeemer of the Lower Undead Berg with a total average of 5.8 out of 10 and need I really explain why this boss makes it so high in our rankings your fight with the CAA demon will be determined in the first few seconds after you enter the fight push through the fog gate and if you can reach those stairs and get up to the platform on the far side of the Arena you are golden the fight is pretty easy from that point as you can lure the dogs up the stairs kill them and then plunging attack Capra while leading him around in circles but what's more likely to happen is you attempt to roll to the stairs CA smushes you with his two blades or one one of his dogs Clips you halting your momentum and suddenly you've got no HP left one of the worst boss Arenas in the series putting you in such a cramped space with a fairly aggressive boss and two very aggressive regular enemies it's just demoralizing especially when the Boss run back is painful whether you come from the upper Berg or Firelink Shrine either run through the enemy Gauntlet of Thieves and dogs or take the long ass trk from Firelink some boss feel like they're there to waste your time and CAA demon is the epitome of this it's not hard once you have a foot in the door but by God is it difficult to jam that foot in there I hate the cater demon and his two [ __ ] boys with all my heart and soul I think his design as a boss is very good it's those [ __ ] dogs and Arena that's smaller than my closet [ __ ] the stupid ass cater demon I don't know if we're already Anonymous but if we aren't I'd like to remain anonymous if I get in the video please also you should do a bloodborne Community ranking next I'd like to see that bloodborne's in January and thank you for your spirited comment Anonymous caer demon is actually Fair it is extremely difficult but sets a stage for new beginners summoning NPCs are not possible and the arena is compact especially with the dogs however it incentivizes rolling and exploring areas for powerful items the wolf ring Stone armor Magic Shield ET ET I I'm I'm sorry to this voter I had to bring this comment up as it was the only cater demon supporter but I disagree heavily players will already be rolling at this point in the game thanks to the Bell Gargoyles and the tourist demon and exploring areas for powerful items is such a generic Pro you could attach to any boss in the game that gives you trouble but I get it you're playing Devil's Advocate and all that and number eight we have the boss I was most curious about Gwyn Lord of Cinder who scored an average of 6.07 out of 10 why was I curious about him well I wanted to see who would win the Parry Gods who can defeat Gwyn with their eyes closed or the unpar bles who can't manage the Parry timings or choose to fight Gwyn without the cheese and I think we're somewhere in between right now as we all know most of gwyn's attacks can be parried which makes his fight trivial you'll be see my awful gwin footage playing over and over again in this video where I can Parry certain attacks but not everything if you choose to try and do this strategy you will likely finish gwin off quickly and efficiently but I bet many players in the olden days of 2011 never parried Gwyn on their first go and without that method I think he's one of the most aggressive base game bosses if not just the most aggressive towards the player you don't get any time to heal between his Wombo Combo or his grab and his damage output is shockingly high Gwyn is so weird for me I beat him with very little issue in Fanfare on my first playthrough but then on new game plus he beat my ass so hard I had to learn how to Parry also a debate for worst or at least most boring run back in the game the moment you face gwin on anything other than new game his damage output becomes deadlier and deadlier and parrying really is the true name of the game also going to defend his boss run back killing the various Black Knights net you a ton of late game upgrade materials that I think make it worth the effort with Gwyn if you parry it is really easy if not it is really hard due to input read when healing plus he being fast agreed GN feels like the only boss in the game Who actively sees you healing and thinks ooh I'm going to [ __ ] your [ __ ] up it's normal to expect that in games like Elden ring but not the original Dark Souls people often talk about Gwyn as if he's trivialized by parrying but they don't talk about how fast all of his moves are besides that one slow attack and you won't know which one it is till it's out not to mention you have to use inconsistent environmental obstacles to block his anti-healing homing attack and get off a single Estus during the fight the pressure is insane and there is no rest bite and often offense is your only defense so yes squin can be parried but for the average player his speed and the pressure he outputs is enough to mitigate that ease and place him high on our list taking the number seven spot we have the sanctuary Guardian with an average score of 6.12 out of 10 does it shock me that all the DLC bosses are in our top 10 absolutely not I think when they developed these guys they saw the speed of the base game and thought let's make bosses that push the players to their limits Sanctuary Guardian is extremely fast moving not giving the player much time to heal before an electric blast hits you in the face or strikes the water nearby which conducts into you to deal damage or how about that toxic tail that can ravage your health if you get hit by it too much the guardian is constantly in the air or moving about which makes it difficult to fight both as a melee build and Magic build which I find pretty impressive I always struggle for my first few fights against the guardian each time I play but then I'll have an attempt where it all clicks and if you're facing the DLC at the end of the game like intended you'll likely be doing far more damage than the sanctuary Guardian is capable of taking its HP pull is smaller than you might expect and a solid strength build can cut through the sky in around 8 to 10 hits in my first playthrough of the DLC I struggled far more with the sanctuary Guardian than with artorius mostly because the guardian's attacks are too erratic kind of like the first phase of the Guardian 8 and he doesn't let you much time to heal surprisingly enough I like the erratic nature of this boss it feels so different from everything else in the game to the point where I feel like it did come from Dark Souls 3 and got yeeted back in time by maners to be in Dark Souls 1 I've always appreciated Sanctuary Guardian as a boss that although is not insanely hard especially in replay has a good solid Challenge in a unique way that serves as the perfect opener to the DLC Sanctuary Guardian starts the DLC with that fun fair combat like quag or gargoyles that only improves as the DLC continues super underrated might be biased as a soul level one player though all this is telling me is I need to do some soul level one playthroughs to see if I gain more appreciation for certain bosses but the comment that I relate to most is this Sanctuary Guardian is such an odd boss I always forget about him when thinking about the DLC as such I never formed a solid strategy for him he's a boss that you just forget is there which I think helps with his difficulty because I never remember the strategy to fight him on my first attempt sometimes being forgettable is actually a perk and speaking of forgettable did you know last week my Souls spawn video was about forgettable bosses Link in the top right corner or in the description missing out on the top five we have the Bed of Chaos with a total average of 6.41 out of 10 another boss I'm not shocked to see as high as it is Bed of Chaos joins the cap Redeemer in the this boss is difficult due to bad design Club as we Face our first true platforming boss of soulsborne Bed of Chaos has two weak spots you need to attack and once destroyed the floor at the center of the room crumbles revealing a wooden path to the main chaos bug controlling the creature of course of course the arena crumbles around you as you go forcing you to platform around certain gaps but you have to take it slow so you don't accidentally run into a pit you can't see coming but you can't be too slow or Bed of Chaos will smack you with one of its limbs which will also knock you into a pit you didn't see coming luckily your progress is safe between attempts so you'll always have a sense of progression and the arena stays crumbled so you eventually will see the path you need to take but for a first time player or for someone who hasn't played in a long time this is awful for me I fought the Bed of Chaos enough to where I know the general tells for how to get where I need to go including that last jump to the central platform but nothing prepares you for getting fire stormed M moments away from the chaos bug that ends the fight I know people hate on Bed of Chaos but my first time playing the game the sense of scale was very cool and I didn't find the platforming to be challenging at all sure it's a mechanically simple boss but the presentation goes pretty far to make it a very memorable one for me the problem with platforming and navigation is that it's an aspect of gaming that some people are just better at than others if you struggle with Platformers or Precision movement B of chaos is your nightmare otherwise it could be a simple couple of attempts boss and you'll be one and done bet of chaos was a pretty hard boss to rank it doesn't feel right to call it a difficult fight because of the save progress but it also doesn't feel right to call it easy because each time I play the game again I tend to die a good amount of times I think a good way to judge boss difficulty is simply are you dying if yes it's probably difficult the saved progress is what keeps Bed of Chaos in the difficult but semif fair category of boss fights if you take away that saved progress it would be the most unfair boss in the series The Bed of Chaos is unintentionally difficult with the most [ __ ] platforming nonsense being forced down your throat I wouldn't say that's unintentional though the developers clearly intended to make the Bed of Chaos a platforming challenge what's unintentional is how the boss wasn't very refined due to the development time for the game being cut dramatically while they were developing lost isth at number five we have the Four Kings with a total average of 6.61 out of 10 and I'm actually glad that of chaos missed out on our top five because all the remaining fights are intentionally difficult the Four Kings are interesting as depending on your build and damage output you're either going to have a great time or an awful time the trick to this fight that many don't realize is that you need to close distance the Four Kings have a unique property to their swords where the tip deals more damage meaning if they hit you from far away you're likely to take a beating so instead you have have to run up to them and just start smacking of course they have a variety of moves to deal with Once close you can tank their sword attacks but then you have to watch out for the AOE which force you away their grab which can be tough to spot and that one ranged attack that circles around you from their sword if you've got a high DPS the best goal would be to kill each King in turn before the next spawns but I recognize that's not always possible I can manage it with a strength build but the moment multiple Kings start pil up the challenge increases they do hold back so that only one king is taking the full brunt of aggression at any given time but I understand people's complaints with this fight I can't relate but I get the frustration I think they're a well-designed gank fight that acts as a legitimate DPS check and if you can pass it Hallelujah if you can't maybe you need to work on your build and for me I wouldn't say that's a negative I would say it's a challenge the Four Kings could have been a much more challenging fight if H's armor didn't exist okay but most players aren't going to swap to an armor set that they don't necessarily enjoy for a single fight I think if you're resorting to H's armor you're doing something wrong and I wouldn't necessarily call that the game's fault that's just you trying to break Dark Souls 1's Poise mechanics my boyfriend's going to kill me for defending this quartet he hates this boss the handicap that you can only fight with just one ring the arena being totally black which distorts your vision and indeed the lack of time you have before the next king appears makes you to be strategic and to dodge and attack in a very fluid combat you know I didn't even think about the ring handicap as of course you need one of your slots to hold the Covenant of artorius I wish more Souls sporn bosses were willing to play around with aspects such as what Rings you can wear or how many Buffs a character can have for a given fight God forbid I try this boss at soul level one though I think the Four Kings difficulty is well earned and deserving of a top five finish but I don't know if I could go through with that we're taking a major jump as at number four we have night artorius with a total average of 8.13 out of 10 that is a 1.52 score increase and a totally deserving boost for these last few fights night aorus is a fun boss to rank difficult ult y wise because I'd say of the Dark Souls bosses he was the second toughest for me on my first ever playthrough I spent hours upon hours learning his move set figuring out how to dodge his attacks and how to put it all together to ultimately defeat him yet now going back to fight him I can down him in a couple of attempts I don't think it's fair of me to then say ah he's easy because he's not I just got good and have a significantly larger amount of experience with this genre his attacks come out fast from his spinny flips wide sweeps and sword thrusts to his ability to Chuck a bis scoop at you on the Fly he can buff himself throughout the fight though you are able to knock him out of said buff with enough damage or if you want a harder challenge let him finish it self-imposed rules have always made the games harder after all the hardest part is when you take damage and you're scrambling to find a good healing moment as nine times out of 10 autorus will catch you when you're healing and make said attempt useless his movements feel more at home in Dark Souls 3 or bloodborne while you're stuck with four directional dodging aorus attacks are telegraphed and since you don't have much time to breathe between one and another attack you can really nail a good fight against him just by learning all his patterns and timings this is why I feel artorius is so good to fight you can learn every attack learn how to dodge every blow if in a way that bosses like Manis or the sanctuary Guardian just don't have when a boss is too erratic the move set doesn't flow as well which is harder but is it as satisfying artorius is quite hard but once she've mastered his move set it's more like a satisfying dance of a battle Manus and artorius are the only two truly difficult bosses in Dark Souls 1 but that's mostly because they're so fast in a game so slow artorius fight good all comments that showcase exactly what I'm talking about artorius is fantastic as a boss balancing the line between difficult initially and satisfying on repeat playthroughs but that means he can't get any higher than number four this rankings bronze medal goes to black dragon calam with an average score of 8.18 out of 10 just barely inching out over artorius I personally find calam difficult to fight because like with artorius calam feels designed for a different game's movement and the challenge comes from battling a fluid and fast moving dragon with that Dark Souls one character movement and I love it calam has a ton of wide sweeping claw attacks tail attacks flame breath swooping attacks it's all there your standard Dragon fair but on top of that he also has a grab that can cause the Calamity status that will make you take double Dam damage and for new players avoiding that grab is Paramount or you will be preparing to die beyond that calam has a lot of HP and resistance to all magic meaning those range builds are going to suffer here and that's why I think calam makes it this High because you can't cheese him it's melee all the way baby I think the black dragon calam is the hardest cuz his high DPS High mobility and very powerful AOE until him we never for a real dragon in a fight so the strategy is pretty new and staying in his back is no good like other Beast bosses to an extent I agree staying close to calam is still preferable from fighting at range but calam has a whole host of attacks designed to stop players from turtling underneath him unless you know those Dodge timings I think calam is the hardest boss of the game face tank is not viable here busted hit boxes random double hits and a grab attack that makes you take double damage on a boss that hits hard already and a bleed proc on your ears a few comments actually bring up some of Cam's wonky hitboxes and I never really noticed them but I think that's because I just got used to them I mean I've played Dark Souls 2 hitboxes mean nothing to me anymore but I think it is a valid critique that can inflate a boss's difficulty unintentionally black dragon calam is my pick for hardest boss because unlike every boss in the game I never felt like I truly learned him I just got lucky and so survived his hit boxes are insane that psychokinetic grab of his I could almost never Dodge and his health is insanely High the common thread for my voters is that while calamita is seen as a great fight it's those damn hit boxes in that high HP that have him at our number three spot today's silver medal goes to Dragon Slayer orstein and executioner SM with a total average of 8.26 out of 10 it was such a close race between fourth and second place with barely any points between them but o and S are your second hardest fight in Dark Souls and this is the most self-explanatory boss on this list it's a gank fight both members of said gank fight have intricate and well balanced move sets that complement each other while complimenting your face with your floor and they are the only boss in the original Dark Souls to have a second phase as depending on which you kill first the other grows super sized and you have to deal with a second health bar to take home the win for the first phase the challenge is in setting yourself up onstein moves incredibly fast but also with this element of Jank that is just hard to predict his Dash across the room is so messy then Smo often shows up when you're distracted to deliver the old golf ball slam with his hammer and ye you across the room of course if you used the blessed Killers you can split the pair up and focus on whichever one you wish to kill first I'd recommend onstein but I can't deny that just getting your head in the game here is the hardest part of the fight once you get the phase one move sets down it's not as troubling but learning how they react to the environment each other and you is so difficult when you have to make your own Breathing Room by running away locking onto to one enemy is basically asking for death as the other one will find your blind spot and once the second phase hits you have to avoid dangerous lightning AOE and hard-hitting attacks from whichever one of them survived I think SM is the easier Phase 2 but you do you I think Manis is one of the hardest bosses but I feel like he's the hardest only in New Game Plus cycles onstein and Smo are the make or break boss of the game and each time I play against them they feel so strong in each new game I make while I beat Manis in two of one try yeah I agree with this actually onstein and Smo always get me when I arrive at their boss room and I really think it's because their AI isn't as welldeveloped as future games but in a good way if that makes any sense it makes them a little unpredictable but I think that works with their Vibe I feel like onstein and Smo were a very hard boss for me and not so much for the community Dark Souls was my third Souls born and I was coming all the way from Elden ring and Dark Souls 3 which all had very very fastpaced combat and where I always pick Dex builds to be as Swift as possible in Dark Souls 1 I tried decks but figured out while fighting the Gars that strength was a better option so I reached an orando with a halber and a hybrid deck strength build I think ESS are in my top three attempts for a boss third to Freed and Melania I wanted to include this comment specifically because I was fascinated that someone who started with Elden ring and dark Souls 3 went backwards and found themselves struggling with orstein and SM I personally would have expected the opposite where the experience with faster games helps inform your skills in the earlier titles but that wasn't the case and I think it proves this fight's difficulty yes series veterans have ran this fight into the ground and compared to some of the fights and later entries on do feel tame by comparison but many of us are coming at this having followed this series chronologically and and seeing people not go in chronological order and struggling maybe Dark Souls isn't as easy as people make it out to be also shout out to that commenter for including at the end you're great YouTuber man hope you continue making Souls born and more content in the future you're too kind thank you so much and taking the gold for the hardest Dark Souls boss in our community ranking it was a landslide victory for Manis father of the Abyss with 224 votes for hardest boss and an average of 8.94 that dwarfs the rest of the top five it's no wonder Manus is one of the most aggressive bosses in the game up there with non-par gwin and artorius as his long reaching arm ponan for Wombo comboing the house down boots and dark magic knows no bounds it's no secret that Miyazaki was already working on bloodborne when the AR torious of the Abyss DLC launched and you can see that in the way Manis looks scarily similar to a cleric beast and his aggression almost feels like an advertisement for the direction from software was heading next his attacks are brutal but he gives you more chances to heal than you might think though his high HP makes up for this as the fight turns into a true test of endurance from beginning to end I'm actually convinced his aggression increases with less Health as I've had many experiences learning manises fight where I'd get him low on health and then he'd just go ballistic with his toughest moves to ensure his survival alongside artorius this was also the fight that took the most time for me to learn in my original playthrough on keyboard and mouse with the original Dark Souls PC Port without the dsfix extension those of you who know what that means you know that I have been to Hell and Back with this guy then there's the dark magic attacks they you can all be dodged if you didn't find the pendant in olal which is what my partner experienced while I got the fun of using the pendant and hurriedly switching back to my Estus praying I don't misclick a button very fun the hardest boss has to be Manis I've run through Dark Souls 1 at least half a dozen times and bosses such as on and artorius just don't give me that big of a challenge anymore Manis on the other hand still gives me a ton of [ __ ] on repeat playthroughs people complain about freed being too fast for Dark Souls 3 however no one talks about the fact that Manis is far too fast for Dark Souls 1 the thing is though I don't think he's too fast for Dark Souls do I think it's pushing the boundary yes but it's just the right speed to where you can learn this move set and improve at the fight without it being blatantly unfair that's my view of it having put many many hours into Manus to form that opinion but are there players who find Manis easy this won't be a popular comment but I've never found Manus as hard as his hype would suggest he should be I know why Manus should be challenging he's so frenetic maddeningly leaping and bounding like a chihuahua on steroids that just found a magic staff of Untold power and is determined to pet you with it as hard as he can plus the Myriad of different attacks coming in Via such a chaotic flurry should be impossible to manage especially in Dark Souls slow movement speed but every time I seem to fight him just matching his speed as best I can constantly staying on the move and then dashing in for quick stabs seems to work consistently for every boss that someone struggles with there will be someone who found it easy or at least not as difficult even Manis father of the abyss and I love that these people exist to prove that there truly is no correct answer with these polls you could be in the minority on a topic and be just as valid though artorius was my favorite Manis felt like the epitome of a hard but fair boss like the community loves to talk about every death felt like my own fault and when I finally beat him it's because I played well I didn't get lucky I didn't brute force it I got good I think that's a very satisfying comment to end this on when you can just get good in a positive way it's the best feeling in the world and I genuinely believe Manis can give that feeling to anyone or everyone if they just let him in or you can face tank him do what you feel feel is right and that's your list thank you to everyone who participated in this community ranking it was so much fun to read your thoughts and compile all the statistics there were so many comments and I can only feature a few per segments so if I didn't get to you I'm so sorry but I did read them all next month we'll be taking it easy with a demon souls Community ranking of the boss difficulty which you can already find a link for down below easier bosses overall in that that game so it'll be less stressful for me before Christmas break so be sure to Parry that subscribe button to stay up to date on all my future videos and I hope you enjoyed I'm going to go have a rest now my socials are on screen feel free to follow where you feel comfortable I recommend my Twitter my blue sky or my Discord a massive shout out to my patrons over on patreon for supporting me this month you guys are amazing and I'll see you guys next time for another video adios [Music]

Channel: Billy S

Views: 16,484

Keywords: dark souls, demons souls, bloodborne, elden ring, video games, dark souls 1, dark souls 2, dark souls 3, ds1, ds, ds2, ds3, soulslike, souls, soulsborne, gamer, gaming, fromsoftware, fromsoft, tutorial, walkthrough, guide, boss, ranking, billy s, zelda, zelda ranking, dark souls community ranking, dark souls difficulty ranking, soulsborne difficulty ranking, soulsborne community ranking, dark souls hardest bosses, dark souls easiest bosses, easiest boss, hardest boss

Id: 5HeTWRNniB4

Length: 68min 36sec (4116 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023