Top 10 Hardest Bosses in Dark Souls II

The Top Ten
1 Fume Knight

The first phase is a nightmare with DS2's stiffer controls and the adp stat. This guy is almost too aggressive for that game's speed. The second phase is slightly easier but not by much. It's easier to dodge his attacks since he only uses one sword, but dear god the damage this guy does in this phase. He'll pretty much two-shot you if you aren't careful. If he already isn't hard enough, there are statues around his arena that will heal him if he gets close so you have to have enough wedges to stop them or this fight becomes a frustrating disaster. Oh and if you summon phantoms to help...good luck, that only makes the fight harder since he'll annihilate them in a couple of hits and leave you soloing a boss with double, triple, or quadruple his already tanky base health.

2 Lud and Zallen, the King's Pets

The boss fight, itself, is pretty difficult owing to the hit radius and power of their attacks. Plus there's two of them.

However, the true cruelty is the abandonment of Dark Souls' "hard but fair" mantra. You have to traverse a difficult and expansive stretch of frozen wastes every time you attempt this boss fight. Hard hitting enemies with lightning attacks will continually spawn and force you to burn precious healing. There's no bonfire adjacent to the boss's room which means every failed attempt results in a lengthy and difficult journey just to get another crack at them.

The whole affair feels unfair and unnecessarily frustrating. It is the first point in the game where I said to myself, "This is no longer fun."

3 Sir Alonne

Another awesome fight! Isn't that hard because you can block all of his attack with the Royal Kite Shield, the most basic shield of the game; if wasn't for that, this would be one hell of a hard fight. Again, another hard path culminating with a boss fight without a Bonfire along the way

This guy should be right under F. Knight. He is astronomically difficult! I had no luck blocking at all, had to dodge and 2-hand my weapon. Does HUGE damage with that dai-katana, and has considerable health. I think Fume Knight is hard for strenght, and this one for dexterity.

4 Darklurker

The Hardest boss in the Vanilla game so far. It is almost impossible to beat him if you're a melee character, somehow you're forced to use lightning spells or fireballs to kill him when he uses mitosis before he kills you, has a huge variety of spells, and some of them are very hard to avoid (like the dark bomb), specially when he ganks you doing the same attack divided.

Every other boss, I can pretty reliably take down in no more than 3 tries, or they have decent npc summon options. Not this guy. I've only beaten him twice, and both times it was by cheesing him down with pyromancy. I must have burned through close to 20 effigies before landing the perfect firestorm.

5 Ancient Dragon

One-hit kills... I remember that my Dragon Shrine stage was already with no enemies given the times I completed it after several deaths at the boss fight. The boss isn't that hard but the one-hit kills and the very large HP transformed it in a test of patience where one mistake was fatal. And escaping from that diving fire breath was very hard and tricky

Just tedious an boring. Run in, take a few hits and RUN away, then RUN back and repeat. If you do it wrong he one-shots you. Fun.

6 Ruin Sentinels

How are they this high on the list? Sure, they're brutal for a new player, but they're a joke for veterans.

The difficulty of this boss is due to facing him in the very beggining of the game. Being gank spanked by those two (or three if you messed up the fight) agile Sentinels was excruciating. The windows for attacking were so rare

I blew these poor bastards out of the water with nothing but a tower shield. They are a nightmare for noobs and a nothing boss for veterans

7 Blue Smelter Demon

All of the other bosses solo took under 10 tries with a few under 20. While I was tired and wanted to beat this boss and go to sleep, I found it extremely difficult and it took me probably 70 or 80 tries. I may have been under leveled I'm not sure however he consistently killed me in 2 hits or 3 if I was lucky. I found some certain attacks very difficult to dodge and couldn't find good windows to heal outside of the AoE attack. The run up to this boss is also only second to Lud and Zallen which isn't hard to beat but it's pretty horrible. Overall it was a difficult boss but a well balanced one.

8 Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg & Cerah the Old Explorer

Real name of the boss: Afflicted Graverobber, Ancient Soldier Varg, Cerah the Old Explorer. Guess the site found it too big and edited
Kind of and understimated fight. As a melee build it is very hard indeed. You have to be so aware of the enviromnent and there is no place to rest; such a tense fight. And the journey to the arena in painful also.

Tied with royal rat authority for worst boss in the series.

9 Burnt Ivory King

This fight is absolutely epic. The knights getting ready, the entrance, the fight before the king shows up, the boss fight, everything. I loved this fight.

One of the best boss battles of all time. Very tricky but fair to be honest. Very doable as long as you pay close attention

Definitely one of the best fights in this game. He's fast, difficult to dodge, has high DPS, and has above average health.

10 Royal Rat Authority

The boss isn't that hard. What IS hard is the rats at the beginning. If you get toxic, it's all over from there. The best thing to do is lure them and use Lingering Flame.

This and the Smelter Demon are the only ones I'm yet to beat on the vanilla game first section (getting the 4 great souls).

My brother brought his friend over for the weekend once, and they played against this boss, it was very entertaining.

The Contenders
11 Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon
12 Belfry Gargoyles

OH MY GOD this boss does not belong on this list. the very first time I fought this boss I was intimidated by its sheer numbers but once I started spamming spells this boss was down in a matter of minutes. all you have to do to win is run around the map train them into one spot them start spamming spells. dark orb and heavy great soul arrow are good choices. once they start going on the defensive just dash to the other side of the map. they don't have any way to defend themselves so they go down pretty quickly. and if your a melee fighter sure its harder but all you have to do is bait their attacks then swoop in and punish.

13 Elana, the Squalid Queen

Hardest fight for me. Took hours. Tried with every combination of gear I had. Tried with summons, and without. Finally got her down as hollow, lots of health missing, no summons, and no shield. I'm the boss now

This THING summons Velstadt. While shooting overpowered magic at you and teleporting wherever it wants. Even so I still enjoy the fight, but it is really difficult.

Been breezing through scholar till now. I've completed vanilla but not any dlc. This is the toughest boss I've fought so far. That health though!

14 Looking Glass Knight

Not the hardest, but one of the best fights, with the ambiance of the arena and the looming, brooding, silver knight who claps lightning while you're wet. I had a really huge Greatsword (Ultra Greatsword) and when it hits the shield's hit box, it bounces right off. Fun fight. Definitely worth the duel.

One of the best bosses in the game.

15 The Pursuer

Without using the ballast, this boss takes 20+ tries on the first go. What a headache for newer players.. once you're a veteran, it's a bit easy as long as you roll and poke him with your sword

His moves are incredibly predictable and easy to dodge.

You must exclude the (cheap) ballista, and rate the boss itself.

16 Smelter Demon
17 Aava, the King's Pet

This is a hard hitting boss with a good bit of health. It was one of my more difficult fights in the game but it never felt too unfair other than some big hit boxes.

Very fast enemy that's tricky to beat. Nowhere near as hard as the battle where you face two of them, but still rough

18 Velstadt, the Royal Aegis

What I intended to do was use my bastard sword +8 on the path to him, and then switch to my Raw Bastard Sword +10 for the actual fight. I forgot to switch. That would have made it easier. My armor was Vengarl's armor and gloves, and the hood and leggings from Straid. I also had Idol's chime and 44 lightning spear.

This guy. If you're going solo, you're screwed, not to mention Agdayne being barely any help. It's best to bring Scarlett if you can, as she's tough and will actually heal herself. Velstadt is a giant tank that hits like a truck, but his attacks are predictable (although the AoE makes it hard to dodge).

19 Vendrick

It depends, really. If you don't have giant souls or don't have 5 of them, good luck. His defense multiplies by 72 without giant souls, whereas it's pretty weak if you do have 5. An Old Whip and Soul Appease will put him down quickly, but be careful, as his attacks are devastating (although predictable).

20 Throne Defender & Throne Watcher

This is one huge adrenaline rush. Having to manage two well-rounded characters that are scaled for endgame means you're in for quite a fight. Be sure to kill them quickly, or one will revive the other.

The challenge here is to beat them solo! I wasted 4 effigies, 25 gold pine resin ( approximately 40000 souls ) to do that. Their ability to revive each other after one of them is killed is a real pain in the ass.

21 Executioner's Chariot

This fight is easy if you know what to do. bring alluring skulls to group the skeletons, kill the necromancers and hide in the doorways when the boss rides by. after skeletons are dead use lingering flame with the hexers hood for the bonus. after his health is down enough he wont be able to make the jump, hit the horse once and victory is achieved

This boss is cool because of the corellation between him and the area where we meet him!

22 Giant Lord

He's easy for ranged characters, and somewhat difficult for melee. In fact, get him outta here.

23 The Duke's Dear Freja

Having to hit the heads only was the trickiest part... And the spiders that attack you...

Nothing too terrible, but can be incredibly agonizing to get to.

24 The Lost Sinner

This fight is a pain in the a**! Every time I think I have her, then she jumps out of the way.

How is Covetous demon above this? That doesn't make any sense.

25 Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin

To sum this bugger up: high resistance to everything, high health, fire damages nearby players, giving the middle finger to melee users, highly-damaging spells, and worst of all, absolutely nothing meaningful as a reward for beating him.

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