Ranking the Hardest FromSoft Bosses!

[@BillySYT]

Armored Core 6 was included in this topic, as I REALLY wanted to call this video "Top 15 FromSoftware Bosses", but I don't think the KZbin algorithm would appreciate that, and this is my job, searchability comes first. If you're not a fan of the AC6 entries, I have my Honourable Mentions - Just bump Ornstein & Smough to 15th & Kalameet to 14th & you still get exactly what you came for.

[@issi529]

Malenia is so so overrated in terms of difficulty. I would have put her on the 17th spot but each his own. Isshin was also much harder imo than Malekith. Mogh lord of blood should have been here too. Easily one of the hardest fights ever!

[@micklucas1451]

@@issi529 wtf 😂

[@issi529]

@@micklucas1451 Why?

[@micklucas1451]

@@issi529 I can beat isshin 10 times in a row but need 100 attempts to kill malenia ngl. Tell me other bosses that are harder than malenia

[@issi529]

@@micklucas1451 Ow there are a lot. Imo. This is just from my experience so don't take it personal. Radagon, demon of hatred, friede, isshin, Midir, Sigrun, Pontiff, Mogh, Maliketh. Nameless king, freezing fog and Owl were all harder imo. I literally destroyed malenia on her first phase. There are even more game bosses that i found more difficult to. I got her with my bloodhound fang fully upgraded.

[@AccursedHawk]

Putting Orphan of Kos in honorable mention is a bold choice indeed. I personally think it's the second hardest fight in the series behind Melania but I can get why some people experience it differently since it's an endgame boss

[@mannytprimeministerofthemanate]

I find Orphan ‘easy’ because I got his parry timing down a couple of attempts in on my first play through and then beat him under 10 tries. But I 100% see how other people struggle especially if they don’t parry him.

[@BillySYT]

I only consider him an Honourable Mention because I currently have a 2-1 win/loss ratio against him. He's hectic, definitely a tough fight - But he's the type of hectic I vibe with because I can see patterns in the madness.

[@nioh2-ky8fr]

Most of bloodborne bosses were easy thanks to lack of hyper armor, easy to dodge attack and while it's fast by dark soul speed, I play nioh and ninja gaiden, so they feel super slow, only ludwig Is hard, and because of his damage

[@iamMildlyUpsetWithMostOfYouTub]

ninja gaiden is what people thought dark souls was like back in the 2010’s

[@vryyyx]

BB is one of the easiest games to just trade hits because of the rally system. Kos is unironically easier than bosses like Draconic Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring one you know when to backstab and just trade hits with rally system + beast pellets.

[@yolospartanch6577]

Midir and Orphan as honorable mentions… pure example that difficulty is completely subjective. Great video Billy!

[@kinggamereon653]

Only thing that makes midir difficult is high hp and damage, basically every move he has is very easy to dodge.

[@yolospartanch6577]

@@kinggamereon653I can totally get behind that. Midir is a greed check. As long as you’re patient and don’t overstay your welcome in front of its face, it is manageable. I also have a tougher time with large scale bosses personally. Difficulty is subjective.

[@kinggamereon653]

Yeah, I mainly have problems with large scale bosses that have shitty camera but playing around midir's head has pretty good camera for the most part imo

[@BillySYT]

It's the only reason I make these videos. Subjectivity is what makes the topics interesting because everyone has different takes & experiences. If Midir had managed to kill me once or twice in my last few playthroughs, I'd have considered him for Top 15. I totally get why he'd be there for most people lol

[@kinggamereon653]

Yeah, that's fair. For me hardest is mostly sekiro bosses, and then malenia and gael. Only played ds3, er and sekiro. Gael killed me 38 times, nothing else in ds3 got to even 25, most sekiro bosses got to 30-50, tree sentinel took 70 but that was the first enemy I fought in the game, malenia I just quit after 120 attempts and never getting into second phase, I simply cannot comprehend waterfowl and I am too bad to bother to try.

[@moosposter]

If I don't see Pinwheel here I'm going to scream

[@Moonlight-sigma]

I’ll just shit myself if pinwheel is gone

[@BillySYT]

Pinwheel is implied, of course

[@Funt_Bunkledorf]

You're triggering PTSD from mentioning his name

[@raiden3013]

as long as he is ranked below the mist noble.

[@ShaeTollefson]

You only died ~100 times on Malenia? Amateur. I estimated I died 1300 times.

[@Phyren-king]

Amateur she killed me bout 2000 took months

[@AryaLumpyhead]

I've only played Elden Ring where Maliketh made me quit for over 5 months. Eventually I returned and whooped his ass, but I think that makes him my hardest boss.

[@etinarcadiaego7424]

I never had much trouble against but I think I was overleveled when I got to him so I got lucky

[@AryaLumpyhead]

@@etinarcadiaego7424 I got lucky with Melania. She may have water fowl danced twice the entire match and mostly just kind of stalked around until I bled her to death.

[@henrikjboecken]

I’ve been slowly playing through the fromsoft titles over the last year (elden ring, sekiro, bloodborne so far, on ds1 rn) and been enjoying going through your videos, watching the parts I’m “allowed” to watch (a lot of this video is currently off limits to me!), and then later revisiting. Actually found you through lies of p, which was awesome, and love your content. Here’s a video suggestion I’d love; top cutscenes in soulsborne (or maybe just best boss intros if you want focus)

[@BillySYT]

I've actually done a video on my favourite cutscenes per Souls game, take a look if you're interested - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKHOfoSuhNetjJYsi=qmIT7SqiJY6oIOiA

[@Paul_McSeol]

Dude, the honorable mentions alone gave me PTSD. What a list!

[@BillySYT]

Yup - I think it says a lot about my playstyle which bosses got cut & which didn't. I'm sure when we get around to the community rankings for these more modern titles, you'll all give me PTSD instead lmao

[@mt2r-music]

The demon of hatred is a pretty interesting pick. I think he’s really hard but in comparison to bosses like Midir and Laurence I never got frustrated. From the beginning I always saw the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s never ”how am I supposed to ever beat this without learning every single pixel of his hitbox?“ but instead ”okay that’s going to be challenging but very possible“. He’s fair and thus a great fight.

[@UnwishedWolf]

Radagon is such an amazing example of “If I take a few minutes, this boss is a cake walk.”

[@BillySYT]

Agreed - Trying to rush him like a crazy person won't get you anywhere, but checking your greed at the door and being willing to take a few minutes makes the fight pretty bearable.

[@fandomuniverse]

Ava's brothers are the only bosses I didnt defeat in DS2, maybe because of the tedious boss run

[@fandomuniverse]

Sister Freede is also a non factor if you have 2 summons with you

[@bedheadtv9594]

I 100% agree with the placement of Nameless he is one of the bosses I struggled with the most in my playing ds3 but what an arena.

[@ShrimpEmporium]

How did you reply 11 hours ago if the video was uploaded 8 minutes ago??? I keep seeing stuff like this and I can’t tell if it’s a bug, a feature or I’m just stupid

[@bedheadtv9594]

@@ShrimpEmporium I’m a bonfire member so I get the video early only £4.99 per month

[@miimiibeschde4818]

Hard question but I'll try (Honorable mentions: genichiro, guardian ape and midir because they took around 6 months for me to beat and I never beat midir until ng+5) 15. Manus (I can dodge his attacks now but he still hits pretty hard) 14. Demon princes (always forget which demon turns into the laser demon so I mostly fail at the second phase) 13. Blue smelter demon (bullshit Boss, bullshit gimmick) 12.Inner genichiro (can catch me off guard sometimes but it's just genichiro) 11. Vendrick (hits like a nuclear bomb while you tickle him without any giant souls) 10. Friede (on ng+ she's really strong even though I know what to do to counter her) 9. Sir allone (harder than fume knight and blue smelter demon for me) 8. Isshin ashina (harder than sword saint for me and still catches me off guard a few times) 7. Nameless king (gives me more Trouble than on my first attempt against him somehow) 6. Burnt ivory king (took me by far the longest for a ds2 Boss, mostly because of rng with the knights) 5.Slave knight gael (somehow gives me more Trouble than midir, Friede and nk even though I once said that He's the easiest of them) 4. Orphan of kos (still gives me trouble even though I know what to do against it) 3. Owl father/inner owl (took me the third longest and still gives me trouble) 2. Malenia (wasn't able to beat her without summons, I'm sorry) 1. Laurence (f*ck laurence)

[@Jonesy87Bradford]

I’m so glad to see defiled Amigdala here, WEEKS were spent (with tantrums in between) in that room before it clicked for me.

[@fandomuniverse]

Nameless King is difficult, unless you have sun bro with you, then this fight is a non factor

[@Tactical_Cookie]

If you really haven’t done the Inner-Versions of Ishiin, Genichiro and Owl take your time and unlock them. All 3 of the exceed the originals by a lot especially Owl and Genichiro. I‘m not so sure if I really prefer Inner Ishiin because he can pull the move where you jump on his head in phase 1 instantly without the usual sword draw animation (which is 🤬🤬🤬 btw.) but if I replay him I still choose his Inner-version. Seriously go play them! They make these already great bosses even better.

[@fandomuniverse]

I died to Manus maybe once. The Dragon is definitely way harder.

[@aayushdasgupta9754]

I absolutely love Malenia's fight. I remember it taking close to 300 attempts on my 1st playthrough, even with summons. That struggle made me fall in love with ER. I dedicated myslf to getting good, till I started and RL1 run in March 2024, and beat Malenia RL1 no hit in May 2024. The satisfaction I got from that win was unmatched. Absolutely one of the hardest bosses I have ever fought.

[@fandomuniverse]

For me Midir is the only boss I cannot defeat. And the last boss from Archthrones

[@arara7713]

The demon of hatred's charge attack has a hitbox so low that if you jump you will most likely avoid it even if it doesnt seem like it

[@BillySYT]

I know you have to jump to dodge it, I just don't have the reaction speed for it.

[@arara7713]

@@BillySYT ow ok ksjdksks sorry

[@KuylersUsername]

Holy shit finally someone else who thinks Owl (Father) is the hardest fight in Sekiro. That guy dunked on me for WEEKS. I couldn't even comprehend his moveset until like my 40-50th attempt and it took 20 more until I finally got him. I had both DoH and Isshin figured out after 3-4 tries and got the kill after 5-6. His firecracker combo was the attack I died to more than any other in the entire series I'm pretty sure.

[@BillySYT]

His Firecracker combo is one of his most deceptive combos, took me far too long to get my muscle memory around to learning him.

[@ELDniel-DW5pg]

i respect this list and i respect owl father being your hardest sekiro boss. but i would say demon of hatred is actually my hardest cause at least i can beat malenia and maliketh without summons, i can't beat demon of hatred without the whistle

[@BillySYT]

No shame in that though - Demon of Hatred is a pain in the ass to learn, and if the whistle gives you the edge, the whistle gives you the edge.

[@darianclark3980]

For everyone salty about Billy S putting Orphan of Kos and Darkeater Midir as his honorable mentions in *his own* Hardest Bosses list. . . . . .let me remind yall one simple thing. . . . . Billy S is one of the very few people that enjoys/likes The Black Rabbit Brotherhood fights in Lies of P while every one else hates them with a passion. He's truly one unique kind of person lol.

[@BillySYT]

It's all opinions, after all. I can't really rank Orphan as the hardest boss in Bloodborne when he's killed me a grand total of 1 time xD

[@williammcginty4886]

I enjoy the Black Rabbit Brotherhood fights too. They are very well executed gank fights.

[@sreeharipradeep]

bro black rabbit brotherhood is amazing

[@Scowleasy]

Lmao most everyone on the LoP discord loves the BRB fights, you don’t speak for us

[@thediabolicalraisin8953]

Are we talking the first fight or the second fight? Cause even the second fight is pretty good

[@tobusygaming467]

38:30 if you didn't know, ibis was nerfed in one of the first patches along with some other bosses, Balteus with worse rocket tracking maybe some more I don't remember, sea spider with less damage resistance and ibis with overall worse tracking (probably some other bosses), I got to beat ibis pre nerf, and it's not much different from now just a bit harder to dodge.

[@BillySYT]

Ibis was HARDER than that??? I'm kinda glad I avoided her pre-nerf, oh my god

[@alexanderforrest1983]

@@BillySYTpre nerf Ibis was a nightmare. The dodges had to be perfect and were pixel size, if you missed stun lock to death.

[@Malevolent_Maya]

A detail on Malenia: Every single attack she has on phase 1 minus the grab is telegraphed by her prosthetic clicking and her arm position at the time. She's fun, but I think most people just don't notice that and overrate her difficulty due to it. I beat her in 7 tries cause I noticed that detail

[@shroomian2739]

God, thank you for recognizing the difficulty of AC6. I found the first balteus to be my 3rd worst experience (behind Radahn and Gargs) in the series and if we don’t count SoTE, my second hardest boss in FromSoftware’s entire catalogue; beyond Midir, beyond Friede, agh I HATED it. For reference I have autism, and while I’m fairly functional on my medication, I typically play in the evenings (because of school most of the year and jobs in the summer) where my medication is wearing off. This means I tilt like CRAZY when I tilt. With fun difficult bosses like Putrescent Knight, Midir, and NK this isn’t a problem, but with balteus… wheewwww with balteus. Days of attempts down the drain, being one of my few bosses to clear 100 attempts (Consort Radahn and Bayle being the only other two, with gargs close at 90-ish attempts). Oh and then my brother beat him on his third try. Moral of the story: difficulty is subjective as fuck.

[@tomrader013]

Great video! I would add Ebrietas to the honorable mention, but maybe that's just because I re-played BB recently and had a really hard time with her somehow 😅

[@BillySYT]

Ebrietas gets her flowers in my Bloodborne Community Ranking videos from last month. I don't quite see her as difficult as the community does, but I respect she can be a pain lol

[@keshua_xiii_13]

Putting Malenia on Top to me is weird for me, she just got a single move that is a problem. You can interrupt all her attacks, counter all you want, use ice (that is OP), and everything. It’s hard the first time you fight her, but when you undestand her moveset she becomes easy (when you discover some Ashes of War, it’s even easier). Yeah, Maliketh’s harder for me

[@BillySYT]

Reminder I'm ranking based on my subjective experience. I don't play these games at a particularly high level, and I'm not expecting people who know every Elden Ring mechanic inside & out to agree with my experiences.

[@keshua_xiii_13]

@@BillySYT the good thing about these games is basically that everyone had different paths, so someone finds some bosses easier than they look. If you wanna laugh at me, I found hard Astel hard the very first time. And Mohg, ooooooh when I didn’t know about his bleed weakness…

[@talende]

I’ve fought fume knight so many times that he’s no match for me any longer, and even the first time I fought him I had a good time and needed few tries. But I also approached him with caution and respect because of his infamy. I do still love him, though, and I’ve used more bonfire ascetics at his bonfire than I can count.

[@whitghost9781]

For the inner fights of sekiro, owl still stands on top as he mixes up the fire bird attack and even uses mist raven for multiple teleporting combos. Crazy and intense fight

[@A_Dad]

I just beat Ibis in AC6 today and she was very hard until I brought in 4 mini guns and made a quick dodging AC. All I did was hold down all 4 triggers the whole time while staying close and this melted her health bar in both phases lol.

[@mickeynelson6263]

I stopped playing fromsoft games a while ago, but after discovering your channel a few months ago, I am now back on that train! I platinumed Bloodborne, and dark souls 3. I’m working on 2sotfs right now, then Ds1 & Demon souls.

[@BillySYT]

Ah, I see you're working backwards. Best of luck to you, glad I could inspire someone to pick the series back up again ^^

[@ВячеславШолохов-ф9п]

For everyone struggling against malenia i recommend to try full arcane build with Bloody Helice +9 - its ash of war feels so good against her, you can completely dodge last 2 stages of waterfowl dance and actually punish her after. Second phase you can throw ice pots and volcano pots at her while she recovers after scarlet bloom attack - it's 3-4k damage for 2 rotations of pots. Dynast Finesse makes her fight not only manageble but youll be looking sleek while you fighting her. 10/10.

[@harrychurch1830]

It’s really interesting seeing how different people find the difficulty of these games, Allmind is the AC6 boss I struggled with most but they’re not even here. Great video!

[@BillySYT]

I beat Allmind on my first attempt, since I had a pretty overpowered build for NG++. Even then though, I think the Ibis Unit had a way harder overall moveset to tackle.

[@harrychurch1830]

@@BillySYT Yeah, I can see that. Considering I had 3 playthroughs to prepare, my build wasn’t particularly impressive, and Ibis is definitely a close second for me.

[@shiroamakusa8075]

The Crucible Knight Duo or the Rotten Crystalian Triad were nightmarish before the 1.4 patch which toned down all the gank fights and had typically only one member of the team go after you at a time. Pro-tip, do not use summons for those fights, if you do, they'll be as aggressive as they were pre-1.4.

[@shiroamakusa8075]

There's actually a way to cheese the Demon of Hatred, follow a certain set of jumps and climbs and you can cause the demon to hurl himself out of the arena, ending the fight immediately.

[@CaptainBonClay]

I don’t consider myself very good at video games and so for years I avoided souls games like a plague but then my friends bullied me into playing elden ring! It was hard at first but before long I was beating some bosses first try but slowly my friends were mentioning I was getting closer to malenia, I had heard of her and I was so scared of her and then finally once I met her I managed to beat her after 18 try’s then on ng+ in 5 try’s She scares my to my core still but man do I love fighting her

[@BillySYT]

Good on you, having that sort of experience with a boss is honestly pretty iconic, and a great story to break out with other Souls fans ^^

[@weirdalexander8193]

The ranking of your sekiro fights was basically identical to my first time experience. The main boss I died the second most times to was demon of hatred but once I found the strategy of “constantly strafe to his non flaming arm, and be primed to backpedal from the molten pocket sand”, I got him on duel #5. Father Owl had combos on his combos, and a bad habit of never staying in one place for a Planck time, so he whooped me about 15 times. Saint Isshin? First try. I was as surprised as you are. Then later I did the severance gauntlet and thought, “either these two new attacks I can reliably counter are gaslighting me, or I have some weird luck”. Phase one is a nightmare for me in hindsight, so shura route isshin is a contender for meanest main boss, as he’s basically phase 1 sword saint twice. That’s just first impressions for main bosses though, most BS sub-bosses would be headless for burning through mandatory consumables, and the Juzou rematch with the toxic lone shadow lackey. Bad news? It’s easy for the drunk to smack you while you’re focused on the ninja. Good news? You can puppeteer a ninja of your own on the run back. Bad news? There are multiple ninjas on the run back, and if there anything more asinine than fighting lone shadows with backup, it’s two lone shadows with backup. Also, there’s three of them. To quote the mod, thanks Obama.

[@BillySYT]

The Juzou rematch is genuinely one of my least favourite encounters in the series. That lone shadow just makes it far too brutal for me to make any headway most attempts.

[@DogwiththeButter]

Lol I giggled when hearing there’s no way to “cheese” demon of hatred 😆

[@danieljunghans7481]

Everyone talking about the honorable mentions being surprising but the wildest thing about this whole list has to be the dual crucible knight fight making any list other than middest fights of all time

[@pascova5088]

Thank you for 16:10 lol, this is my pick for hardest in the series. That said I 1 Haven't fought Malenia so (yet, I will in like a week wish me luck!) and 2 haven't played all the games in the series, but I've faced all the bosses higher on the list apart from Malenia and Maliketh.

[@BillySYT]

Defiled Amygdala is definitely fresh in my mind after my many Bloodborne videos last month. Deserves to be featured, for sure

[@thecenturion1634]

I feel like Elden ring has quite a few good duo fights that people sleep on because they don’t do all the side content.

[@carlschrappen9712]

Yeah, I enjoy the Crucible Knight Duo quite a bit.

[@Dasqal]

⁠​⁠@@carlschrappen9712All the duo bosses except godskin duo had their AI adjusted some time after release. At launch the crucible knights were both hyper aggressive and one of the most hated bosses in the game. 😅

[@BillySYT]

For sure - Even though I was exhausted when I played it all last year - Some of the side content fights were honestly more entertaining than certain main story fights. Would love to hear some of your favourites ^^

[@carlschrappen9712]

@@BillySYT Draconic Tree Sentinel is really good, and Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast is one of the best beast bosses in the series. I also enjoy the Black Blade Kindred fights alot.

[@thecenturion1634]

@@BillySYT duo crucible knight is a really fun fight given how many options there are to separate the duo. I also love the falling star beasts and both Astels. I would say that the bell bearing hunters/elemer of the briar are also phenomenal. Misbegotten crusaders are insanely fun paced and are based on gaels move set so I find them super enjoyable.

[@kabooqi5709]

finally somebody respecting laurence i thought i was the only one that had trouble with him but when i looked it up other people did too but nobody had him in their top 10

[@BillySYT]

I may not find him as hard as other people I've talked to, but the man still has the power to three-shot me on a bad run, and I have to respect that.

[@venax9471]

so glad u put demon of hatred so high because for me he is the hardest from all games maybe its because im a bit of a psychopath and i play all games without power ups like resins or summons and in sekiro i wasnt using any tools at all just because im not really interested in them i enjoy the default skill way of playing and thats it and im not kidding when i say i fought him for 6 hours straight i never experienced something like this and it was the hardest challenge i ever faced in a game

[@lpb6310]

I really enjoyed your video and bold list even tho I dont agree on every entry and seeing AC6 here just made me happy. My Top 3 would be Malenia, Orphan, Isshin. Also I highly recommend for you to do some challenge runs in the Souls Games. It is a hell of a challenge obviously, but it gives a new perspective to the difficulty and experience to a lot of bosses (even the easier ones). Not that I am saying you have to do it but difficulty rankings get more objective if all bosses face the same conditions (like Level 1, No healing, No Weapon Upgrades, and so on). Of course difficulty rankings will always be at some degree subjective but in my opinion you can minimize this with more variety in Playthroughs, because you know more data.

[@BillySYT]

If I'm going for a fully factual ranking, I'd take that into account, but I like that my channel is a bit more casual in that sense. I am planning on doing some challenge runs when I have some free time though, it's piqued my interest, I just suck at starting things lmao

[@lpb6310]

Totally relateable. I suck at starting things too lmao but I really like your channel being casual in that sense. Im hyped for the easiest bosses already :D

[@iUseDemFrapz]

One thing I realized about which boss ppl find the hardest is it’s generally extremely subjective. Like for me personally over half the top 10 would just be elden ring bosses, while bosses like sword Saint Isshin or O&S wouldn’t even be on the list even though others find them difficult.

[@BillySYT]

That's why I make these videos, actually. Because it's all subjective, we all end up with different opinions/experiences, and IMO that's what makes it interesting to watch.

[@morningstoke]

I find it interesting that so many people have had a hard time with Armoured Core 6. This is the only game I found incredibly easy, at least after I got my build figured out pretty early on. All of the bosses were dead on the first try or first few for me. I'm not a Souls vet and am decent at best with the other games. It's the only FromSoft game I don't find challenging

[@SJ-di5zu]

You really need to fight inner owl. He’s basically owl father but even faster and with longer attack chains, mist raven (teleportation) and variations on each attack. Probably my favorite boss ever

[@Semiblurryloom]

To be honest, Malenia wasn't terribly difficult for me on my first playthrough, I'm not sure what it was or if I just got good rng on Waterfowl Dance. I genuinely died more to Maliketh, Valiant Gargoyles, and Morgott than I did her. It definitely did take a few days and it felt so good to finally get that remembrance, but it was a fun challenge, and never felt impossible, I remember getting her down to halfway through phase 2 on my first attempt and I started questioning if I'd been lied to about her difficulty, haha-

[@dylandooley8494]

Using no summons or no op builds obviously, I never found Malenia to be as hard as people say she was, I got her in 29 attempts the boss was still brutal but people constantly put her at 1 which I never have understood based off my experience. I found sword saint to be the hardest boss in all of soulsborne and he took me 84 attempts that’s by far the most followed by Malenias 29. A lot of people underate sword saint imo because of the ability to replay the fight, the fight is so fun that people replay it and master it and then call it easy after beating it 30 times, that never made sense to me because that goes for any boss in souls and most people underate him just because you can replay it, I can beat him in 1-2 tries nowdays but I will never ever forget the first playthrough

[@songbird6414]

I still hold the experience of Artorias being my hardest from DS1. Still didn’t take me THAT long, but compared to the two tries it took me for Manus Arty felt WAY harder. Then again my personal nemesis boss is Dancer so maybe I’m just weird

[@liamsherratt3618]

I’m not sure how I’d rank my hardest bosses with all my abilities and knowledge now but in terms of a first play through I can agree with your list for most of it. Probably move a few around

[@daibelhic476]

Lud and Zallen ... after i beat them in my first playtrough i decided that this boss doesn't exist anymore just so i wont have to do another runback.

[@Carra_Mello]

Seeing this list made me even more exicited for erdtree and whatever monstrosities will emerge from it

[@BillySYT]

Very excited to update this list when Shadow comes out. I have no doubts in my mind we're in for some absolutely insane fights - FromSoft DLCs ALWAYS deliver!

[@pancakke08]

For nameless kings lightning strike, if you unlock and turn away so that he is nowhere in your view, it cant hit you! Great video:)

[@BillySYT]

Will definitely have to try this one out next time I do a DS3 run ^^

[@randomusername3873]

I unironically think that the main issue with the nameless king is the fact that you have to redo the damn bird part every time, which I can't stand because I can't manage to hit the damn head of the thing

[@BillySYT]

Can't say I ever had a problem with that myself, but I get it. Camera in that first phase is messy - And I've had a few moments where my depth perception failed me when swinging for it's head ^^

[@randomusername3873]

​@@BillySYTpersonally I can't grasp the prospective😂

[@OnyxSkiesXIX]

If you use a weapon like a katana that has a vertical swing, it is way easier to hit it than the horizontal swing of like a straight sword for example

[@randomusername3873]

​@@OnyxSkiesXIXmakes sense

[@thijs6439]

i have done all souls games on level 1 or bloodbornes level 4 or zero prayer beeds in sekiro and let me tell you that the demon of hatred is the hardest fight in the serries by far if you do it that way. zero prayer beeds mean you'll die with each hit and you cant block because of the fire chip damage it took me 300 tries to beat him in that way and man was i happy when i did.

[@BillySYT]

I really want to try doing SL1 runs, since it's a part of Souls that I haven't really experienced... But maybe not for Sekiro. That sounds like a miserable experience, and I just know I'd want to rip that demon a new one.

[@thijs6439]

@@BillySYT playing on soul level one really gives you new respect for some bosses because you have to play almost no hit runs on them.

[@AltAccount-dz8rp]

run right

[@marcogeorgoussis5531]

Orphan is the hardest boss in soulsborne imo. Melenia is a close second but a lot of her combo's and attacks remain very similar in phase two, making the true test of the fight being able to consistently make it through phase one. Orphan on the other hand has two extremely hard and extremely different phases. In my last fight with Orphan after a while I was consistently able to make it through phase one borderline hitless, then the phase two transition comes through and the fight completely changes and I die almost immediately because of the drastic switch up in movement. To beat orphan I had to completely master both phases of the fight, to beat Melenia I could basically use the same strategy for both phases of the fight which is what pushes orphan over the edge for me.

[@Jg_me23]

How is midir a honourable mention he was such a pain for me but hey I guess everyone has a different experience

[@jamarcusshakespeare6440]

Great video. I feel like people don't talk about the original, pre-nerf Ancient Dragon from Dark Souls 2 enough. Maybe most didn't fight him? But that's the only boss in the series I legit spent an entire day+ on. One mistake and it was an instant wipe, every time. I guess since this video is a retrospective though, it makes sense, as he was difficult that first playthrough, but I'd be fine now using the toes trick.

[@squiffyt9300]

Nice reference to Happy Chaos! I didn't know you liked GG

[@BillySYT]

The bf loves it, I know a lot through him ^^

[@Lloyd00]

The best souls player I follow did his lv 1 wretch vs various bosses and he said crucible knight duo was the hardest by far. It's a brutal fight.

[@draculactica]

It took me taking a 3 year break from bloodborne before beating orphan of kos... after probably 500 deaths... congrats Billy, congrats

[@BillySYT]

But what's important is that you beat him. So congrats to you!

[@spicy6072]

For me, Sir Alonne was easily the hardest boss in dark souls 2. I died to him like 8-10 times and his Moveset is so tricky because he can alter his timings on the fly

[@Realshnazzy]

Mohg & Midir as honorable mentions are insane to me. Those are the only two bosses who had me grinding my head into a wall to defeat. (I was so sick of elden ring by the time I got to Malenia I summoned, which I don’t count as a clean victory) everything is subjective lmao

[@BillySYT]

Subjectivity is the spice of Soulsborne Tier Lists.

[@h3omm431]

Hey man, what is the easy ELO ranking and how does it work? Did you just take the top 15 and rank them against each of the other 14 orwhat? Thanks

[@BillySYT]

Basically I took my Top 25 and ranked them against each other. The elo ranker makes you rank everything against each other, so I just decided which boss in each pair was harder for me, which determined the list

[@h3omm431]

@@BillySYT Cool, I'll try it out, thanks for the reply!

[@tylermathews6788]

Sanctuary Guardian duo in Dark Souls Remastered. Retreat back through Oolacile Sanctuary into the arena after killing the boss and you'll find that two have spawned. Utter pain. Hardest duo boss in any Souls for me.

[@BillySYT]

Technically not a boss fight, as they don't come with official Boss Healthbars, but as far as difficult enemy encounters go, I agree with you ^^

[@janjanovsky5880]

Great video man. I just got a question. Have you fought Allmind yet? That one was crazy. It just felt weird to me that it wasn't even in honorable mentions. Anyways good job man.

[@BillySYT]

I did fight Allmind. I did a whole ranking series on the AC6 bosses if you're interested. I beat them first try lmao

[@nikolaynikolov9450]

I can't forgot Nemeless king when i run for Platinum... In NG++he is.... F..... g haaard!

[@anonymousperson8903]

Nice video! My top 15: 1. Malenia 2. Orphan of Kos 3. Inner Father 4. Sister Friede 5. Radabeast 6. Laurence 7. Maliketh 8. Nameless King 9. Ludwig 10. Pontiff 11. Margit 12. Godskin Duo 13. Mohg 14. Inner Isshin 15. Darklurker Honorable mention to pre-nerf Radahn, who would have been 4th.

[@BillySYT]

Inner Father & Inner Isshin still haunt me as bosses I haven't beaten, to this day x_x

[@anonymousperson8903]

@@BillySYT Bro inner father especially is one tough cookie. Probably my favourite fight in the game though!

[@opethmike]

One of the best assessments of Malenia I've heard. Well done sir!

[@Yoshyguy21]

Honestly, with Malenia, I don't mind Waterfowl Dance itself... if she does it from far away, where you can dodge safely. When she suddenly whips it out while in melee ranged, you WILL take heavy damage. I don't even mind the healing or the Scarlet Rot that much, but I do wish she'd hop away from the player when she was about to use Waterfowl

[@pastedknight9869]

The only way I’ve found to counter waterfowl is just being at the lowest wight class. It made a massive difference compared to mid weight cuz of the increased distance covered by light rolls.

[@BillySYT]

I'd be curious to see how that change would work. I think it'd be interesting, because she could hop away, and it's up to the player to chase her down in case she doesn't Waterfowl, or back away and play it safe.

[@TripleCheekedUp]

Always cool to see differing opinions and unique lists among this community based off player experience. My experience with the Orphan is the complete opposite of yours with the Nameless King. Orphan consistently can kill me probably about 10 times a run and a whopping 60+ in my first playthrough where as in my 3 playthroughs of DS3 I've never died to Nameless King and in all 3 attempts I've used a total of 2 estus flasks both on the first attempt. I think it'd be cool to do a list of the toughest non boss encounters like Old King Doran from Demon Souls or the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst from Bloodborne.

[@BillySYT]

Toughest non-boss encounters could be fun. The ones you mentioned, the Fishing Hamlet Well in Bloodborne, the Jailor Room at the bottom of Irithyll Dungeon. Yeah, I'll write that idea down, gracias!

[@TripleCheekedUp]

Omg I completely forgot about the jailor room in Irithyll dungeon. I think it could be a pretty fun video

[@dhowlandc]

I absolutely love the happy chaos reference @28:44

[@BillySYT]

My bf's a massive Guilty Gear fan so I have a few references I can break out every now and then ^^

[@tristynbevard6739]

First tried demon without malcontent the other day. I was so proud of myself!!

[@BillySYT]

Good on you! That's bragging rights, right there!

[@tristynbevard6739]

@@BillySYT all the armored core content in the video is making me want to try it. Awesome video man

[@AK-tr6lo]

IMO inner owl is a good bit harder than father owl. It’s like he took another line of coke and now teleports at you with some wild combos. Also the fire owl is sometimes vertical (you can deflect that one).

[@BillySYT]

Genuinely Inner Owl & Inner Isshin strike fear into my heart.

[@AK-tr6lo]

@@BillySYT I find inner Isshin hasn’t had his difficulty increased as much as the other two inner bosses, but I still think inner Isshin and inner owl are the two hardest bosses in the game.

[@Scowleasy]

Doing the harder chalices on any build that isn’t arcane or bloodtinge will be a lesson in pain

[@BillySYT]

Laughs in Kirkhammer

[@eharr2976]

Do you think Laxasia or Nameless Puppet crack the top 15 if you included Lies of P?

[@darianclark3980]

Laxasia would easily crack Top 10. As for Nameless Puppet, unfortunately no. All that is required to easily beat it is simple patience, Throwables, and your Legion arm, specifically the Fire and Electric arms.

[@BillySYT]

Laxasia would probably land in the Top 10. Possibly above Nameless King. Nameless Puppet, no, I think he'd be Top 30 though ^^

[@Seafood_Boil]

I feel like the final boss for the true ending of Armored Core 6 is much harder than the Cel 240 but that’s just my opinion. 3 phases with an aggressive boss was kinda wild

[@BillySYT]

I'm probably the only person that didn't struggle with the true ending boss. Beat them first try & didn't feel much of a struggle, but I also had a fully upgraded AC since it was NG++.

[@budoolove5887]

Once I got owl father down I couldn't miss lol. But the demon, omg. Ya I still struggle

[@dylankennedy9383]

I found Owl Father pretty easy. I got it on my second try, but isshin was something different. It took me probably 15 attempts, and inner isshin was even worse. Isshin and malenia are my hardest bosses so far

[@Jaiprasad11]

I find Owl father (Inner and regular), Isshin (Inner & Swordsaint) and Malenia, Kos quite easy... I generally find large hit box bosses quite hard ex. Laurence of first vicar, Chalice- Amigdala, Midir, Demon of hatered, Maleketh etc... the toughest for me would be Demon of hatered> Vicar >Midir> Maleketh>Amigdala (Chalice)

[@Macaulyn_97]

Honestly, I don't know what the deal with the Fume Knight is. People keep saying he is very hard, but though I died to him a few times, it was a pretty average amount (I'm not good), and one of the idols of Nadalia was even there to help him, but baiting him away from it was so easy that he didn't heal from it once. I died to him like, four or five times, which, compared to the more than ten times I died to the Ivory King, puts into perspective how not hard he was for me.

[@BillySYT]

He's hard to me, in the sense that the moment you fuck up, he's able to punish, and he felt like one of the first bosses that really read when you tried to heal. Plus, some of his hitboxes going further than you expect. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't think he's TOO crazy hard. But that's just because Dark Souls II peters out in difficulty at a point where the more modern games keep pushing.

[@pietrocatalano4285]

Interesting thing about Fume Knight is that he gets completely cheesed by ranged builds. He has no ranged attacks and his often very slow, deliberate swings don't help much if he ever does close the distance. However, pure meele is a completely different story.

[@jimmyrace1258]

It’s funny how so many differ on their experiences. I thought Nameless King himself was easy, it was just the RNG of the dragon phase 1 shotting me. I wouldn’t above 5th in DS3

[@todoralexiev8216]

Finished all of the Soulsborne games except Dark Souls III (even snatched a couple of Plat 100% achies) - Lawrence the first vicar will always be my worst nightmare

[@Delvokian]

I find some of the later Elden Ring bosses to be easier just because of spirit ashes. Malenia isnt that bad when you can juggle her aggro with a summon. You could choose to not use spirit ashes but that is a self imposed challenge, not a challenge posed by the boss.

[@garetsilveira7940]

I really want Billy to tackle Blasphemous for a boss ranking video. Because the bosses can get rough especially in the NG+ and with all the really good DLC bosses I’d like to see his opinion on them.

[@BillySYT]

I genuinely had Blasphemous on my schedule back in January. But then I moved cross-country & had to focus on other videos for the time being. Perhaps I can play Blasphemous over the summer.

[@garetsilveira7940]

@@BillySYT I’m sure you’ll enjoy it a lot. I just got all the achievements in the first game and just started the second one. Just a heads up you’ll have to do at minimum two runs to fight all the bosses. It’s easier to get the true ending on NG+

[@btarczy5067]

The first time I managed to kill Maliketh was on my level 15 +1/+3 playthrough which may make it seem like I must consider him easy but no. That was the „cheese everyone“ run and I never beat him in a fair one on one. (Greatshield Soldier Ashes, Rot Breath, Poison/Frost Mist Ashes of War)

[@BillySYT]

Honestly, that's fierce.

[@Fulcrum_7567]

I have fought Laurence exactly one (1) time, on NG+1... when I had most of my health and got one-shot immediately. Haven't fought him since lmao

[@BillySYT]

The way I would rather fight Malenia again than do Laurence NG+

[@Fulcrum_7567]

@@BillySYT Based Malenia is, for me, a fun fight with a couple flaws that could be easily hammered out on the off chance we get a fight with the Blue Dancer in the DLC (probably not but who knows) Haven't killed her yet but maybe my Guts Greatsword +25 can this playthrough 🤞

[@Liamo051]

Like with any souls boss considered difficult, I feel it’s become a trend for people to say malenia isn’t actually that hard. But I’ve gotta say imo it’s absolutely inarguable that she’s the hardest thing from have ever created. She’s a level of difficulty that I think might have finally pinpointed just where ‘too difficult’ is. I really hope the devs don’t try and outdo this boss (difficulty-wise) in the dlc, and instead understand now where the limit has been set. Don’t get me wrong I very much enjoyed the fight overall and it was a great feeling when I finally killed her, but If I’m honest I would rather this level of challenge be a one off and not a new norm for the dlc

[@BillySYT]

Exactly how I feel - Yes, Malenia will have people who found her pretty easy, but I don't think I've ever seen a Souls boss that had so many people in a chokehold in terms of difficulty for so long, outside of Midir (Which was because most people didn't know they had to hit him in the head). From a casual perspective, she's inarguably the hardest boss FromSoft has ever created.

[@slashthejackal8558]

Don't forget Malenia's arena. Giant flowery field = super hard boss

[@_1More_]

I totally agree about the crucible knights

[@lucasspeirs]

Hard agree on malekith, that dude gave me a lot of problems. Not quite as much as malenia of course but it was close

[@uafc1]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Ludwig, but then again it seems you didn't struggle too much with Bloodborne bosses. He is definitely top 3 hardest in that game for me.

[@jonmann4980]

It’s crazy how consistently the people that have a hard time against Lawrence say that orphan was easy

[@geraltofrivia7448]

Midir,orphan and gael in honourable mentions? 💀

[@BillySYT]

Didn't die to Midir or Gael during my recorded playthrough last year & Orphan's only ever killed me once across my playthroughs. They may be hard for other players, but it's not my experience and this list is solely based on MY experiences.

[@angbald]

I haven't played ds2 or ac6 and only played some of Bloodborne. Started with elden ring, then demons souls, ds1, ds3. Slave Knight Gael took a long time for me to beat. Love that fight though

[@Guy-iv2hw]

What does Armored Core have to do with Soulsborne?

[@BillySYT]

Check the pinned comment.

[@kirbyham6386]

I almost 1st tried cell-240 and i then proceeded to take another ~3-4 hours attempting it. Turns out that weapon ammo mattered a lot so attempts started to take 10 minutes or more. Not sure how i did it, but at least i can say that i beat it