Dark Souls 3‘s bosses are, unsurprisingly, remarkably similar to the series’ previous offerings; they will categorically stomp, hack, smash, bash and wallop you repeatedly. Then, once you’ve been defeated five times or more, they will continue the onslaught until your controller roughly resembles a crushed car under Godzilla’s massive foot. Several controllers and a hundred very loud angry rants later, you might wonder why your neighbors seem noticeably distant. Yes, that was definitely you shouting at the game death-after-death and repeatedly bashing the nearest wall with your controller in a blind rage. While that didn’t technically happen to me, well, everyone’s different.
So, speaking of different, here are the most rage-inducing bosses in Dark Souls 3… in my opinion…
5) Champion Gundyr
(Look deep into Champion Gundyr’s eyes. Yep, he’s mad)
Champion Gundyr is extremely aggravated about his earlier defeat at the beginning of your journey into un-death. His creepy, red glowing eyes aren’t necessarily the truly scary aspect of this boss — really, you should likely be concerned with his massive glaive, stupendous reach and heightened aggressiveness. He’s impressively quick movement-wise and occasionally remarkably brisk when unleashing those nasty attack combinations. Sure, certain attacks are relatively predictable and, yes, you’ve seen them before. But, unfortunately, Champion Gundyr now really savors unleashing extremely quick shoulder barges, elbows and kicks in-between his regular glaive swings. He’s just mean and he knows it.
4) Soul of Cinder
(Here he comes to wreck your day…)
The Soul of Cinder is apparently the combination of previous Lords of Cinder; that essentially means he’s really powerful and competent in the art of hurting you. What makes Soul of Cinder particularly worrying is his decision to change fighting styles regularly; he’ll become a sorcerer, a spearman wielding miracles, a ninja-like warrior wielding pyromancies and a regular swordsman whenever he feels like it.
Then, if you’re as perceptive as me regarding how boss fights have generally proceeded in this iteration of Dark Souls, you’re probably thinking, “wait a minute….” towards the end. Yes, Soul of Cinder has another form. Once you’re finished with his initial health gauge, there’s another, and this time he’s quicker, meaner and occasionally unleashes a combo which is completely unavoidable if you’re standing too close. Other notable attacks include, lightning, a devastating grab and an extremely quick kick.
3) The Nameless King
(Yes, this is going to hurt)
The Nameless King has a penchant for lightning, apparently, as demonstrated by his frequent attempts to jam his lightning-infused spear blade in your face. He also seemingly enjoys blasting lightning in a myriad of different ways. Typical lightning-related misfortunes include: blasting it into the ground, causing it to be periodically electrified; an area-of-effect stomp causing more electrical pain; a lightning pillar he thrusts into the ground connecting if you’re close enough. His standard attacks are often menacing combinations of spear swings and lunges; some of these will unfortunately stagger, causing you to be sliced and diced repeatedly, with little hope of avoiding subsequent attacks.
All of the above is perfectly very bad, but, like Soul of Cinder, this isn’t even his first form. Before you get the opportunity to be electrocuted repeatedly, you’ve got something else to worry about. Yes, he’s decided to bring his pet to show and tell; a massive dragon-like monster, capable of flying around the boss arena and, naturally, blasting fire incinerating your face repeatedly, basically allowing you to literally become an ashen one.
Unfortunately, the Nameless King enjoys riding around on its back like an excited child. Even more unfortunately, he has a predilection for unleashing remarkably accurate lightning bolts as the beast flies menacingly through the sky. Furthermore, this royal chap appreciates bashing and smashing you with his massive spear if you’re close to his beast.
2) The Dancer
(There’s something both elegant and unnerving about this…)
At the beginning of this encounter, the boss casually walks around in a circle, seemingly uninterested in your presence. So, naturally, you relax believing everything is perfectly fine; this boss encounter should be relatively simplistic. You land a few attacks and still she’s not really trying particularly hard — things are going wonderfully. Then, you land several more… Suddenly she begins dancing around with a grace which includes frequent sword slashes.
The unfortunate aspect of this encounter is the fact her movements are unpredictable and attacks are frequently combinations; she elegantly dances around (hence the name), slicing and dicing anything in the vicinity, you included. Notable attacks to be very, very afraid of, are: her grab which will defeat you in one hit if you have low-to-average HP, a multiple spin which allows her to navigate almost the entirety of the arena, hitting anything close enough multiple times, and several different multiple-hit combinations which are super powerful.
1) The Twin Princes
(He’s on his knees. That surely makes him slow! Oh, wait…)
At the beginning of this encounter, your adversary, Lorian, slowly stumbles over, clearly crippled. Naturally, you assume he’s incredibly sluggish and won’t be particularly difficult. For his actual movements towards you, that’s actually the case, but he’s got something up his sleeve which makes him arguably the most difficult boss in Dark Souls 3. After a standard attack, or flaming sword combination attack which can be dangerous on its own, he will periodically teleport instantly. So, if you’re busy attacking the opponent or avoiding any of his attacks, he can teleport immediately behind, allowing him to quickly slash and bash you while caught completely off guard.
Other than the enemy’s frequent teleports, this boss doesn’t seem too bad. But, once you’ve defeated the crippled monstrosity, his brother, Lothric, joins the party. Unfortunately, he is an avid sorcerer and quite enjoys blasting you repeatedly at range. This would be perfectly fine, but unfortunately he’s also revived his twin sibling, basically making it a two-on-one. Now, Lothric is constantly unleashing a blast attack and a multiple projectile attack while his sibling, constantly teleports everywhere, swinging his sword from unpredictable directions.
What makes this encounter a particular pain in the derriere, is, after reducing Lorian’s health gauge to zero AGAIN, Lothric will revive him to full health. Yes, completely full health. So, if you’ve used all your estus before that eventuality transpires, things are bad, very bad.
So, there you have it. Those were my top 5 bosses which are the biggest pains in the a** in Dark Souls 3.
Am I right? Am I wrong? What are your toughest bosses in Dark Souls 3? Leave your answers in the comments.
