One of the most exciting and adrenaline-pumping moments in any game are the boss fights. Whether it be taking on a US Senator in Metal Gear Rising or a colossal titan in God of War. Boss fights usually serve as a climax to a challenging level or even a conclusion to a crucial narrative hook. Video games are filled to the brim with iconic bosses that deliver great spectacles, a test of skill or emotionally hard-hitting punches to the gut.
Similarly, one of the hallmarks of From Software’s games, at least Demon’s Souls and onwards are their superb boss fights. From Software’s games have been setting a new benchmark for boss fights and their importance in video games. This influence has bled into countless AAA games today with games like Ghost of Tsushima and Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
With Elden Ring‘s focus on a wide expansive open world, some were worried that the classic From Software combat would take a hit resulting in less impactful bosses. Safe to say, the bosses in Elden Ring deliver quality in spades. Many of these bosses will relentlessly kick your face into the ground for better or worse. While majority of the bosses in Elden Ring are very good, there are also many that are of varying degrees of quality.
As someone who has fought every single boss in Elden Ring, I am now going to go on an overly descriptive tirade on every boss in Elden Ring and rank them based on their quality. Previously, I also covered the top 7 hardest bosses in the game, and the best builds tier list in a similar format.
Criteria:
Elden Ring has a lot of bosses, keeping a full count, there are a total of 160 bosses in the entire game, which makes it a near impossible task to include every single one of them in this list. So I have decided to include:
A) All bosses that you will encounter along your main path through the game
B) All unique boss fights that won’t be found anywhere else in the game.
There are going to be some exceptions to Rule B as certain repeated bosses are placed in the main story path of the game as well.
I have also divided this list into 4 tiers, S-C. The only reason there isn’t a 5th D tier is because none of the bosses in Elden Ring are bad enough to be in a D-tier. As for the criteria for what constitutes a good or bad boss, I’ll mostly be considering overall enjoyment in learning their movesets, if they are fair to fight and their overall difficulty, whether they are insanely easy or a cruel challenge. One last thing to mention is that these are strictly based on my opinion alone. So without further ado, lets get into the list.
Here is a summarized table of this entire tier list of Elden Ring bosses:
| Tier | Elden Ring Boss |
|---|---|
| C-Tier | Godskin Duo, Red Wolf of Radagon, Sir Gideon Ofnir |
| B-Tier | Draconic Tree Sentinel, Godskin Noble, Radagon/Elden Beast, Regal Ancestor Spirit, Royal Knight Loretta, Valiant Gargoyles, Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast |
| A-Tier | Margit – the Fell Omen, Astel – Naturalborn of The Void, Loretta – Knight of the Haligtree, Malenia – Blade of Miquella, Lichdragon Forttisax, Rykard – Lord of Blasphemy, Beast Clergyman/Maliketh – the Black Blade, Rennala – Queen of the Full Moon, Fire Giant |
| S-Tier | Godrick – the Grafted, Starscourge Radahn, Godfrey – First Elden Lord, Dragonlord Placidusax, Mohg – Lord of Blood, Morgott – Omen King |
C-Tier:
Godskin Duo
Starting off C-tier, we have one of my least favorite bosses in the game. The Godskin Duo, while I didn’t have much trouble fighting them myself because I used a summon, I have seen people rage on this boss for hours on end solo. While the Godskins can be found in different areas of the game. This fight is unique because its a fight linked to the main story path of the game.
What makes this fight so annoying is a single Godskin Noble/Godskin Apostle is fast and strong enough to be a very difficult fight on its own. So combining two enemies for a frustrating gank fight where both bosses have exactly the same strengths and weaknesses makes for an unenjoyable fight that forces the player to run away and kite them until you see an opening to land a few hits and then run away. It basically feels like a worse, unbalanced version of Ornstein and Smough.
What made this fight a lot better for me was the use of summons makes it a lot more manageable when you only have to take care of one boss instead of two. So…yeah try that.
How to Beat The Godskin Duo in Elden Ring
Red Wolf of Radagon
I actually like this fight, I think its actually quite fun. The Red Wolf has some incredibly graceful moves that feel reminiscent of Sif from Dark Souls. After reaching a certain level of health, it starts casting magic at you along with a barrage of strong melee attacks keeping you at your toes at all times.
What makes this fight hurt for me is its length. The Wolf barely has any health, In the two playthroughs where I fought it the Wolf can die in the span of a single full combo. While it does dash away to escape your combo, you can easily just tank all the hit and kill it and not even see 90% of its moves which is how it went for me on my first playthrough.
Sir Gideon Ofnir
I actually forgot this boss was in the game until I had to double check and realize that yes, I actually did fight Gideon in my playthrough. Gideon happens to be one of the few mandatory bosses in Elden Ring that you have to beat.
I’ve never really enjoyed NPC bosses in this series. The NPC AI in these games has always been very easy to exploit and while Sir Gideon puts on a good challenge, he’s still an NPC fight. What’s call about Gideon is that he can get more challenging depending on what bosses you have beaten before as Gideon can learn from the bosses that you beat and use their moves during his fight.
His spells deal an insane amount of damage and he can almost one shot you with some of his spells if you’re not careful but the fact that he is, once again, an NPC fight, makes it fall disappointingly short.
B-Tier:
Draconic Tree Sentinel
Blocking the path to Leyndell, The Royal Capital. This variant of the Tree Sentinel shakes things up strongly enough that he makes his way into this list. He’s a formidable fight that can kill you extremely quickly if you’re not careful and his second phase adds an AoE blast to his attacks to force you to time your dodges even more accurately. On top of that if you gain distance from him, his horse can shoot a quick fireball at you that does some deceptively high damage.
He also has a couple of shield attacks that force you to memorize the timings for his lightning strikes in Phase 2 and also an attack that causes bolts of lightning to strike the ground and cover a large portion of the arena.
I enjoy this fight a fair bit and if this was any other game, the Draconic Tree Sentinel would have probably been higher in the list but because there are so many superb bosses here, B-tier will have to do.
Godskin Noble
As much as I dislike the duo Godskin fight, I really enjoy fighting the Godskins individually. The Godskins are enjoyable solo fights that feel fair and enjoyable. They have fast attacks but usually JUST fast enough where you can still react to them.
Then you reach Phase 2 of the Godskin Noble.
And then the fight isn’t fun anymore.
Radagon/Elden Beast
This might be a controversial pick but this is mostly based on my experiences and that’s the only experience that I can consider here. I really wanted this fight to be in the A or even S tier. There is a lot to love about this fight, it might have the coolest the boss intro in the entire series, the music is fantastic and the fan-service is done in a way that rivals and maybe even surpasses the second phase theme change of the Soul of Cinder in Dark Souls 3.
Radagon is a mostly fantastic fight minus the frustrating teleporting attacks. Almost all of his moves are relatively easy to avoid and his AoE blast where he smites you with the symbol of the Erdtree is goosebumps inducing.
Then you reach the Elden Beast,
This fight is…not good. The Elden Beast feels like a boss that was designed around Torrent but you don’t have him for this fight. Elden Beast constantly runs away and you have to chase him in a large arena. If you get close to hit him you won’t be able to see what his attacks at all so you just have to play a guessing game and roll when you THINK its going to attack instead of actually reacting to its attacks properly.
And then there’s the Golden Orb, this attack is the worst and possibly the most unfair attack in the entire franchise. Its a large homing Golden Orb that constantly spews out projectiles like a gatling gun that you run away from. And during this attack the Elden Beast is free to do whatever it wants and can attack while you’re busy running away from the Golden Orb.
The only thing saving this fight is the wonderful music and arena, but its easily carried by Radagon or else this would have been in the C or D tier.
How to Beat Radagon, Elden Beast in Elden Ring
Regal Ancestor Spirit
There are two variants of this boss in Elden Ring, I think both are good but the Regal one is better so that’s the one I’m putting in the list. I really enjoy this fight, its almost at the borderline of being in the A-tier but it still ends up in the B-tier because there’s one boss that I think has a much more memorable reveal than the Ancestor.
This fight on its own is pure beautiful and serene, its easy and simple but that’s what’s good about it. In terms of enjoyment its a decent fight but its mostly the music and the visuals that carry the Ancestor Spirit, plus its power is somewhat hurt by the fact that there are two versions of him.
Royal Knight Loretta
This is a pretty decent fight that serves as a stronger version of Tree Sentinel. Guarding the entrance to Ranni The Witch in Caria Manor, this illusion puts on a great fight and she has some pretty fun to dodge attacks while she puts extra pressure on you with various strong magic attacks, the only reason she’s in B-tier is that there’s a much better version of her fight late into the game.
Valiant Gargoyles
Elden Ring has a lot of gank bosses throughout its runtime. This is one of the few decent ones. The Valiant Gargoyle fight feels like a callback to past bosses like Demon in Pain/Demon From Below in Dark Souls 3 and the Bell Gargoyles in Dark Souls 1.
Its not as good as either of them but I enjoy fighting the Gargoyles because its fun to learn their attacks. Its also very good that the game gives you time to learn the first Gargoyle’s moveset and get him down to around half health before the second one drops.
You have to focus on one Gargoyle while the other one deals ranged poison damage which makes for an engaging dynamic in the fight. But again, there are way better bosses later on that far trump this fight.
Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast
Seeing this boss for the first time was a surprise, hidden atop Mt. Gelmir, this beast makes for a pretty good challenge with cool looking attacks that can all be avoided if you’re good enough. Just like a lot of late-game bosses in Elden Ring however, Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast does a lot of damage and can kill you extremely fast if you’re not careful.
There’s really not much to mention about this fight except that its just fun and it has a cool design. Though its fight is somewhat hurt by all the other variants of the fallingstar beasts that you fight throughout the game.
A-Tier:
Margit, the Fell Omen
Margit probably would have been lower in this list if I hadn’t started my second playthrough already. When I first fought Margit I mostly tanked through his attacks and dealt punishment of my own. I found him to be a largely simple and unremarkable boss.
However fighting him again on a new save file much earlier in the game was a formidable challenge that forced me to get better at the fight after countless tries and Margit happened to be one of those bosses who I enjoyed enough that I actually deliberately let him beat me a few times just to fight him a few more times.
Learning his moves and openings was a fun time and while I still think that the input reading for some of the bosses in this game is a little too blatant I still enjoyed this fight a lot more than I expected to. The only reason Margit is not in S-tier is because of a certain other boss later in the game.
How to Beat Margit The Fell Omen in Elden Ring
Astel, Naturalborn of The Void
Remember when I said there’s one boss that has a better reveal? This is that boss. Another somewhat of a controversial entry in this list, Astel is not a particularly remarkable fight on its own but its everything that surrounds him that makes him one of the most memorable encounters in Elden Ring. After fighting through some of the most oppressive and downright scary areas in the entire game with Ainsel River and the Lake of Rot, you then enter a small coffin in the corner of a room that takes you to an entirely new area. You move forward and see a Fog gate, and then you see…this thing readying a giant laser beam from a distance….
Astel has mostly simple moves that go for style over substance, his teleport move makes a cool sound and a lot of his attacks have a very unique feel to it. He has a frustrating grab attack that can be hard to avoid along with a meteor move that you mostly have to just try to roll spam through and pray you’re lucky. Still, I love this boss for the experience I had with it plus it reminds me of Bloodborne which is always good.
Getting to him tired and exhausted after a long night of powering through the areas that precede him and seeing him just standing at a distance was one of the most memorable experiences I had while playing Elden Ring. Astel is a genuinely downright creepy and disturbing boss with great music that alleviates the uneasiness of fighting him.
Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree
Guarding the entrance to Elphael at the end of the Haligtree dungeon is Loretta. Loretta is a significantly stronger version of the Royal Knight that players initially fight at the end of Caria Manor.
Loretta is a fun, difficult boss with plenty of magic and melee attacks that throw you off. Loretta will often distract you with her magic attacks while she charges at you with melee attacks. She also has a magic greatbow attack that fires 4 homing Magic arrows that will nearly one shot you if they hit you.
All in all, Loretta is a great, decently difficult boss that caps off a pretty difficult dungeon. A pattern that is going to repeat soon after Loretta.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella
If this list was ranked in terms of difficulty I think this boss would have easily made it to the Number 1 spot with zero issues. Malenia is an insanely hard boss that caps off a similarly brutal level. Unfortunately a huge chunk of Malenia’s difficulty stems from unfair bullshit that you have no control over. I loved and hated every moment I spent fighting this boss over the course of 4 days. Malenia has randomized combos meaning she can just keep chaining strings together until the AI decides it has had enough fun for the next 5 nanoseconds.
She has an insanely strong grab attack, a stinger poke attack that can get you from halfway across the arena and deal 70% of your health with 40 Vigor. On top of that, she can heal from all damage that she inflicts on you making even the slightest mistakes to be punishing.
The one thing that utterly ruins this fight however is the Waterfowl dance. This attack is a broken piece of shit move that is impossible to actually dodge through. The only way to avoid it is to make sure you’re already away from Malenia when she starts it or else you’re basically dead unless you block that first flurry with a shield. She can do it anytime she pleases and the wind up is so quick that its impossible to avoid if you’re near her when she starts it.
I still love almost everything else about this fight, which is why it narrowly makes it into A-tier.
How to Beat Malenia, Blade of Miquella in Elden Ring
Lichdragon Forttisax
This is a secret dragon boss that is hidden in a secret area of the game which is hidden behind another secret area of the game. While I mostly breezed through this boss because of my endgame damage, I had a lot of fun dodging his hyper-aggressive moves and listening to his theme.
His arena also looks superb which happens to be a common thing between bosses in Elden Ring.
Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy
In terms of sheer spectacle, this fight would be at the top in Elden Ring. This fight has you using a special spear that’s made to hunt a Great Serpent, the first phase involves fighting the serpent which has mostly easy-to-read moves with a deceptively quick grab attack. With enough damage though the Serpent will easily go down.
Phase 2 has you fighting Rykard while he’s been fused to the Great Serpent. This phase leads to one of the coolest sequences in Elden Ring, bringing down Rykard with a Spear designed to slay a God-Devouring Serpent right as the arena starts to take a visage of hell itself. It’s a spectacular moment and is among the most badass gimmick fights in the series.
Beast Clergyman/Maliketh, the Black Blade
This might come as a surprise to some people, I found myself enjoying the Maliketh fight a lot less than most people. Not because the fight was bad by any means, of course not its on A-tier for a reason but there are a handful of things that really irk me about this boss which I’ll get out of the way first.
For one, I really dislike the run to this boss. Its annoying and its tedious for a boss who’s as difficult as this. Secondly I’m not a fan of Phase 1, I think it should’ve been a lot shorter or not been there at all because of how vastly different Phase 1 and Phase 2 are to the extent where they’re just two separate bosses with one health bar and neither of them get the chance to fully shine. I also dislike his health sapping power that lowers your maximum and his damage over time effect if you get hit, it would’ve been fine if he had either one of those instead of both.
Now for the good, I love the music and the arena here. The first phase is quiet and subdued but the second phase lets the orchestra kick in once again. Maliketh’s moves also look phenomenal, his animations are breathtaking to look at and his attacks are mostly fair and easy to dodge with a lot of openings to attack if you know what you’re doing. One of the main reasons I’m sour on this fight is because I really wanted to learn and get good at the boss, but everything preceding Phase 2 hurts my enjoyment of this fight more than I’d like.
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
In terms of visuals and atmosphere, this boss would be an easy S-tier. Rennala also happens to be the best (and the only good one) mage fight in the Souls series. Rennala feels like a proper boss fight instead of a tedious puzzle like a lot of magic focused bosses have been in the series. The first phase starts off as suitably creepy where you have to hit the singing enemies shielding Rennala while dodging magic books and falling Chandeliers.
The actual fight starts in the Second Phase where you face Rennala in her prime. The second phase has you and Rennala facing each other against the backdrop of the full moon and its one of the most beautiful set-pieces the series has done since Fountainhead Palace in Sekiro. The only thing that holds the fight back from S-tier is how little health Rennala is and the frustrating run up to her arena whenever you die.
How to Beat Rennala Queen of the Full Moon in Elden Ring
Fire Giant
While I found many people weren’t a fan of this boss, this was another one of those fights for me that really blew me away with their sheer scale. Once again the music and the arena was just mind blowing but the sheer scale of the boss fight coupled with that second phase transition was just *chef’s kiss*.
S-tier:
Godrick, the Grafted
While I initially considered putting Godrick on A-tier, I think Godrick has a lot of things going for him that ratchet him up to an S-tier boss. While not as challenging as Margit, I find Godrick to be slightly more enjoyable because he feels like a more fair boss. Almost all of his attacks can be dodged with the right timing with the exception of his one AoE Storm attack that can be extremely hard to avoid at melee range.
His theme is also fantastic but what really makes Godrick shine for me is his second phase transition. That cutscene for me is legendary and I don’t think any phase transition in this series goes as hard as “man hacking off his own arm with a giant axe and then replacing it with the entire head of a fire breathing dragon”. Which is funny because all the dragon head does is make him even easier to hit whenever he uses it.
Starscourge Radahn
This was probably an obvious entry for a lot of people. Radahn is not really a perfect boss, I think there’s really only one boss in Elden Ring that I found nearly perfect, but this fight does so much right that none of its issues actually matter that much. The build-up to him with the choir playing in Redmane Castle, the guard hyping everybody up for the festival, the cutscene right before the fight, the arena, the music, that SECOND PHASE METEOR ATTACK. Radahn is a spectacle fight through and through.
Fighting Radahn early in the game with the company of all your summons charging straight at him is an unforgettable sight that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. He also happens to be a boss that’s even more epic if you study his lore and realize what his death cutscene means. This was a hero so legendary that even with almost all of his power gone he was holding back an entire star from destroying a continent while also completely destroying you and your summons and a fierce man that was so honored that his men gave him an entire festival just to grant him the warrior’s death that he deserved.
How to Beat Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring
Godfrey, First Elden Lord
The character that was prominently featured in the game’s promotional material finally makes his appearance right near the end and almost manages to steal the show from every other boss in Elden Ring. Godfrey, First Elden Lord is the first time in the series that players have gotten the chance to take on a legendary figure at their prime and the fight 100% lives up to expectation.
While I don’t enjoy the second phase as much as the first one, Godfrey is an incredible opponent that tests everything you’ve learned up to this point with long reaching AoE stomps, fast and delayed combos as well as ruthless aggression in Phase 2. All this easily makes him an S-tier boss fight.
How to Beat Godfrey, the First Elden Lord in Elden Ring
Dragonlord Placidusax
The second best dragon fight in this series, Dragonlord Placidusax is one of the most visually stunning boss fights I have….probably ever seen. Nearly everything about this fight is cool as hell, his Godzilla lazer, his teleporting strikes, his intro and most importantly, that AoE blast. That AoE has the Dragonlord drive a bolt of lightning into the ground and then stomping on it to cause a powerful explosion and its one of the coolest moves any boss has had in this series. It also happens to be the first time From Software used dynamic music as the music goes completely silent as he’s charging his AoE attack.
On top of all his powerful attacks he’s an incredibly difficulty and tanky boss that will take you a good long while to bring down. The only thing that holds this fight back is that it has by far the worst run back out of any boss in Elden Ring.
Mohg, Lord of Blood
My personal favorite boss fight in the game. Mohg is the living personification of those crappy edgy OCs 13 year old you probably used to draw as a child. One of the few truly evil characters in Elden Ring, Mohg, just as his name implies, can harness the power of the blood arts.
Mohg also feels like a very deceptively slow boss, getting to him right after Malenia, the initial challenge with Mohg was to get used to his slow and delayed combos. But once you get used to his attacks which won’t take a long while, Mohg is a relatively simple boss….
At least until Phase 2.
Throughout Phase 1, Mohg will slowly be counting down from 3 to 1 in Latin the lower his health gets. Once he counts down to 1 Mohg will then enter Phase 2 where he will land 3 extremely powerful attacks that are also undogeable and also heal his health back up to around 70%. The only way to avoid this attack is to use a certain flask tear found in the second church of Marika, this will avoid the player from taking any damage at the start of Phase 2 but Mohg will still heal somehow.
Phase 2 Mohg now has wings that he can use to fly around the arena and all of his attacks now spill blood all over the arena that inflict bleed on you if you step on it. Its a fairly challenging fight but also an insanely cool boss that I can’t help but love. The only problem is that his arena might be a bit too small considering how much of his attacks can coat the arena in blood.
How to Beat Mohg, Lord of Blood in Elden Ring
Morgott, Omen King
Remember when I said there was one boss in Elden Ring that was pretty much close to perfect? That’s Morgott. This rematch against Margit, the Fell is a formidable challenge that is as exhilarating as it is difficult. Every single attack Morgott has can be fairly dodged, he has both painfully slow and absurdly fast attacks that all feel avoidable.
Morgott’s second phase also gives him a fair few new moves that look great and feel satisfying to dodge, one is a powerful blade slash and the other is a strong grab that’s fairly easy to avoid. An excellent boss to cap off an excellent level.
And these are all the important bosses that we could find. Did we miss anything? Do not leave a comment in the comments section down below and for more on Elden Ring, follow our Guides section!
