[Top 5] Dark Souls 3 Most Difficult Bosses

Bosses are the backbone of many games, Fromsoftware games included. They are special, tough enemies that lay in wait at the ends of certain areas to test your power and destroy you, should you be found lacking. Dark Souls 3 has some of the most difficult bosses in gaming history, as evidenced by the many videos of people breaking controllers you can find online. But which bosses are the strongest? This article will shed some light on five of the most difficult bosses in Dark Souls 3.

5. Pontiff Sulyvahn

Image

Pontiff Sulyvahn

Pontiff Sulyvahn is the tyrannical lord of the Boreal Valley situated in Irythill of the Boreal Valley. He wields two swords, one imbued with fire, the other with dark magic. What makes this boss hard are his unpredictable attack patterns and unrelenting offensive capabilities. Because of this, a new player might find themselves unable to figure out what to do, leading to their death. This is not the only thing that makes him difficult, however, as the second phase he has creates a spectral copy of himself that mimics his movements, effectively doubling his attacks and drastically reducing your chances of dodging him. To make the fight easier, he always starts with a forward lunge that can easily be parried, so you can time that perfectly to get some extra damage right at the start of the fight.

4. Twin Princes

Image

Twin Princes

These bozos are very annoying. One prince acts as the brains of the operation, clinging to his brother's back while the latter pummels you into submission with a gigantic sword and huge, slashing strikes. The fight starts out simply enough, with Lorian, the Elder Prince attacking you alone with a standard moveset that is relatively easy to avoid. However, as soon as you finish Lorian off, his brother Lothric will come down from his viewing place and revive him while simultaneously joining the battle to assist him with volleys of light magic that follow the player. This phase is notably more difficult than the first one, as the constant teleportation coupled with the unrelenting fire damage and magic is hard to avoid, so you can expect to die. A lot.

3. Sister Friede & Father Ariandel

Image

Sister Friede and Father Ariandel

Here we come to a fight that requires tremendous skill to survive, as it has three phases to it. In the first phase, you square off against Sister Friede, the caretaker and guardian of Father Ariandel. Her moveset features lunges and slashes coupled with ice magic, so it can be quite difficult to get a solid hit on her. Once you manage to find your flow and defeat her, throw all of that out the window because a cutscene will trigger.

In this cutscene, Friede’s blood will flow down to Father Ariandel, he will smell it and scream since you killed his girlfriend, resurrecting her in the process and ripping the chair that is stapled to his ass from the floor. At this point, they are both full health and will attack you simultaneously so you need to deal with them one by one. Since Father Ariandel has essentially no defense, you should get Friede in one corner of the room then gun it for Father Ariandel and smack him until he’s dead. Killing either one of them will end this phase.

Once you get them both down, some dialogue will trigger where the ominous quote: “When the ashes are two, a flame alighteth.” will play. Sister Friede will rise from the dead again, this time imbued with dark fire magic and even more moves than before. This is the most dangerous phase by far, as she will now be able to turn invisible, her attacks will have extra fire AOE, and she will have more attacks at her disposal. If you somehow manage to beat her at this point, go take a shower and relax, you earned it. 

2. Nameless King

Image

The Nameless King

The Nameless King is a very intriguing boss, to say the least since it is implied that he is the son of Gwyn from the original Dark Souls. Lore aside, the fight begins with you walking out onto a cloud arena where you’ll see a giant bird-dragon-thing close in. It will be called King of the Storm and you’ll see that the Nameless King is riding it. The dragon will periodically land to launch some melee attacks at you, and this is the point at which you should attack it. Once the dragon is dead, the Nameless King will finish it off to gain its power, then put his sights on you. The only sure-fire way of beating him is to learn his moves and practice, as he has some fairly weird timing so it's rather difficult to get him.

1. Slave Knight Gael

Image

Slave Knight Gael

When you acquire the Ringed City DLC, you’ll meet a skinny little red dude who’s looking for ink for his lady’s painting. He’ll help you along with his standard questline but as you near the end of the Ringed City, you’ll come across a barren desert with some dilapidated buildings and at the center of those buildings, you’ll see Gael, the knight who helped you so long ago, waiting for you. He has lost his mind and will do anything to get the proper shade of red for the painting so he’ll go for your dark soul. 

The battle starts will him jumping at you in a frenzy and the fight will continue with a fairly predictable moveset complete with many slashes, thrusts, and lunges. Avoiding these is rather difficult, but practice makes perfect. 

In the second phase, he gets some more abilities. Instead of attacking with his sword only, he will follow up his attacks with his cloak as well, effectively making every attack he executes doubled. He will also be able to cast Way of White Corona and overall will be a lot more aggressive. 

The third phase is the craziest of all. On top of everything he has been doing so far, he will also gain the ability to launch homing skull projectiles at you, as well as make lighting fall from the sky in the area he’s currently in. If you somehow manage to dodge all of his attacks, including the automatic crossbow machine gun (yes, that’s a thing), then congratulations, you have defeated the final boss of the Souls series. It’s okay to cry. 

With that, the list is complete. Of course, all bosses and opinions on their difficulty are subjective, so one boss might not be as difficult to everyone as it is to you. This list just sums up the most difficult bosses on an objective scale, depending on their abilities and the level of skill you need to possess in order to defeat them. We sincerely hope you have enjoyed this article and that you have learned something new about these bosses!