Ranking the Dark Souls 2 Bosses from Easiest to Hardest

[@KingCasual1986]

Gonna say this again for the 15th time: for all this game’s faults, it is at the very least the most colorful of the Dark Souls trilogy. Drangleic looks both vibrant and dangerous.

[@lubue5795]

I always appreciated how much new items and mechanics it tried. Granted, many didn't work out that well but this gives you the opportunity to experiment and try out the various feature, rather than just default down the usual build path.

[@jamesshaver2376]

I love the areas in this game

[@KingCasual1986]

@@lubue5795 that too. DS2 is a good game as a whole. Not a great game, but a good one.

[@utisti4976]

Agreed

[@alexberube5269]

The biggest issue I've seen people have with ds2 is they just run through the areas as if they're unkillable and then get mad when there's an entire levels worth of enemies behind them. Ds2 is a game that asks you to think a bit and slow down, it's not as much a boss rush as the other games. And nobody seems to use bows or tactical spells like Yearn

[@grfrjiglstan]

6:54 The rematch at Sinner’s Rise actually fixes this. If you try to fight only his mace side, his AI will make him use one mace attack, then turn around and use the swords again. If you want to keep fighting the easier mace side, you’ll have to constantly reposition yourself behind him.

[@Sinhesthysia]

I noticed this and it does make his fight harder.

[@leosnap7831]

Yeah it’s like doing 1-2 hits and then run away.

[@srmelancia3523]

I'm surprised he didn't mention that a torch during the Freja fight will make the spiders avoid you the whole time

[@theodorehunter4765]

He probably didn't know. There's a lot of little details in DS2 that people don't know. I'm still finding new stuff.

[@lordflashheart3741]

​@@theodorehunter4765It also only works in the scholar version. In the original it just increases the aggro range of the spiders, so that actually makes the fight significantly harder.

[@grfrjiglstan]

3:00 You actually got an arm cut on the Last Giant! Dealing enough damage to his left arm in phase 1 destroys it entirely, meaning you skip his entire second phase. Granted, you ended up skipping his entire existence, but it’s still cool to see.

[@HeroSword_P]

wtf I didn't even know you could do that.

[@gabebernhard4601]

I just want to say that this video made me absurdly happy. Dark Souls 2 is my favorite game in the series, and hearing you go through the list with such transparent joy at your experience, even up against the game’s worse bosses, really put a smile on my face. Thank you!

[@mayday2237]

I've been so glad to see the critical perception of Dark Souls 2 shift to a more appropriate place over the years, the three games in the trilogy are all unique with strengths and weaknesses, and while DS2 is janky, it's not actually more janky than DS1, just jank in different ways. Ds2 specifically like ya said has the best build variety and routing potential in the series, and I would also add that it has the most engaging level interaction with so many unique encounters and mechanics in the diffferent areas. Meanwhile DS1 has the genuinely cool interconnected world design, probably the best DLC, and strongest art direction. DS3 has the more frantic combat, sweeping orchestral scores, and Boss spectacle.

[@dariuspenner2528]

The main issues with DS2 are s being tied to agility and movement snap points. The lack of communication that s are tied to a stat makes a blind playthrough awful, and snap points make movement feel awkward, particularly in the sinner’s rise where it’s easy to accidentally walk off ledges because of it. The main DS1 jank came from the lack of omni directional rolling. The rest of the DS1 jank is more a result of DS1 and the Souls games being new rather than issues with the game itself. Id also definitely push back against DS2 having the most unique and engaging enemy encounters, especially if you look at SotFS. SotFS is also the definitive version and the only version listed on stores at this point, and areas like Iron Keep and Shrine of Amana are notorious for how many enemies get thrown at you. Even in the DLC, which is supposed to be the best part of DS2, you still have areas like that one god awful Brume Tower room where most people just make a suicide run to the lever, the run to Sir Alonne, and frankly most encounters in Eleum Loyce. When DS1 threw multiple enemies at you, the enemies were weak and able to be killed in 1-2 hits. When DS2 does it, you get sniped by Alonne knights while trying to 2v1 other Alonne knights at melee range. DS2 easily has the lowest lows of the series across the board when you look at both level and boss design. DS2 isn’t a bad game, but the only thing it does the best in the series is NG+ and the implementation of the bonfire ascetic. Everything else gets done far better in every other FromSoft game

[@christianlangdon3766]

I would argue dks1 dlc isn't the strongest especially when the areas are all kind of bad. Sure it has great bosses.

[@twurtle12hd39]

I’d say ds3 has better routing but that could just be my opinion cause I’ve played it more than any others

[@christianlangdon3766]

@twurtle12hd39 I feel that dks3 can have better routing if your good enough. Which is the problem. Dks2 just has more option available from minute 1 without a skill gap. (Like beating one of the easiest bosses is required for access to one of the areas.

[@WhySoSeriousSenpai]

No you’re just high

[@midnight-fox7456]

Gotta say, props to you for dedicating the first minute of the video to throughoutly explain the criteria and ways the bosses are judged for this ranking series. And as you said, your previous rankings already show how the difficulty stacks against a player with more limited experience and knowledge, and as objective of a ranking as possible with community vote. These are to show how these games' legendary difficulty stacks against a player who holds nothing back, and goes in intending to abuse all of the systems, quirks and design choices put in to make the bosses your b*tches. And in these games, to a certain degree even just knowledge can heavily cripple the difficulty. Example can be my blind playthrough of Shadow of the Erdtree, where aside of the final one I had very little issue with bosses, mainly because of me entering the DLC with a build designed specifically to straight up bully the game. Sure I died a few times and none of the fights were graceful, but the sheer brokennes of my build helped me power through without that much issue.

[@desidiousN64]

As I'm playing SofFS currently after losing over 170 hours of a previous playthrough (crashed ps4 and no cloud save), it's nice to see another DS2 video from you. Just the initiative I needed as I'm just done with the windmill.

[@haydeng3541]

@21:57 you called Darklurker 'the unchanged hardest base game boss," but the Ancient Dragon is ranked 2 spots higher

[@DeandaGe]

Ancient dragon did get nerfed in scholar. Tells you how fucked that boss is..

[@SH19922x]

Ancient dragon is a slog to fight which makes it harder, it's simply that you run to the tail when he jumps up then rub back to attack the foot and you'll usually be fine but you gotta do it a trillion times lol takes even longer with spells

[@christianlangdon3766]

Yea why do people act like the ancent dragon is intended to be fought at all. All he does is make an easy fight easier. Like idk maybe you shouldn't fight him. As he is optional in the a way most optional bosses arent. He gives you everything you need to go on and you never need to kill him.

[@RyanMiller2-l3k]

There's an error in the video that I'd like to correct. One thing that EVERYONE misses on the Belfry Gargoyles - the fight is not on a timer, and it's not random as to when the gargoyles awaken. The gargoyles awaken in order *when the previous gargoyle is struck*. The fight starts with gargoyle #1. You hit it, and that awakens #2. If you hit #2, that awakens #3. If you hit #3, that awakens #4, and so on. If you just hit whichever gargoyle you can, you will get rapidly overwhelmed as you steadily awaken them. If, however, you focus down the first gargoyle and only start striking the next once the first has fallen, you only have to deal with two.

[@uafc1]

You are right about not being on a timer but that's not how it works. The first 2 awake at the same time, hitting the first doesn't awake the second. Hitting the second, doesn't awake the third either. It's based on the total lifebar. At 90%, the third one awakens, 70% for the fourth one and 50% for the last one. Every garg has 20% of the total HP. But your strat is is the same that should be used, focus on one to get her out there fast. This way you will spend half the time fighting 2 and the other half fighting 3. If you hit hard enough, you may be able to kill the first one before the third one gets into the fight and so on.

[@Domo3000]

It's not about hitting. It's about overall damage dealt. One spawns when they are at 90%, another at 80% or 70% don't remember, etc It's still all about focusing your damage on one at a time

[@henlo1910]

All good points but is nobody gonna talk about how he said "bel-FRY" gargoyles?

[@LoganxD95]

Great to see you enjoying your Soulsbourne content again Demod. Loved all the other videos in between but you did seem a little worn out with the “Dark Bourne” content a few years ago but it sounds like your enjoying it again and as a fan it’s great to see the OG lists back 😁

[@otakuofmine]

dark blood?

[@jamesgoude1799]

I believe it's a different way of saying soulsborne ​@@otakuofmine

[@otakuofmine]

@@jamesgoude1799 huh, i see. never heard of that one

[@LoganxD95]

@@otakuofmine I’m afraid it’s neither it was supposed to be “Dark Bourne” from one of his old videos, I just didn’t realise my phone had auto corrected it to blood. I will now change it but Thankyou for pointing it out.😅😂😂

[@AndrewAung1992]

Why don't you guys just call it Soulsborne. It doesn't sound stupid like Dark Bourne, Dark Bourne sounds like a bad Jason Bourne movie.

[@BananaLoaf77]

I didn’t need to SEE your spider analogy, the words were enough.

[@letslearntricking]

In the age of Orphans, Isshins, Malenias, and Radahns with their extended move pools and advanced ai’s that pick certain attacks more often based on what you do at certain ranges, it’s easy to forget that Raime kicked ALL of our asses back in the day and was arguably the undisputed hardest boss Fromsoft designed for quite a while

[@nolanc9432]

I literally forget how hard he was on my first playthrough bc I lost track of time and fought him for a handful of hours straight before beating him

[@uafc1]

It wasn't "quite a while" though, Orphan came out a year later. DS3 didn't really reach Orphan's difficulty with Nameless, Midir and Friede so it was until 2019 that he finally met his match with Isshin. That's 4 years being considered the undisputed hardest boss against only 1 for Fume. That's why Orphan is still in people's memory and being mentioned with the new ones despite that game being only 1 year younger than this game.

[@MyNameIsDecember]

You must be fun at parties ​@@uafc1

[@gabebernhard4601]

@@uafc1 Orphan being harder than Fume is disputable, and Midir, Gael, and Friede all far eclipse Orphan

[@uafc1]

@@gabebernhard4601 No, that's just your opinion on your very unique playthrough of those 3 games. For a long time the souls community saw Orphan as the hardest overall and that only changed when Isshin showed up in Sekiro. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. That how all the polls voted it back then. I beat Orphan in my second attempt, I struggled more with the defiled chalice bosses but my unique playthrough of that game is not the norm at how the community feels about the difficulty of those bosses. Neither is yours. That's just how it is. Orphan was the hardest until Isshin.

[@i.m.g.infamousmusicgroup9575]

This was the first video that popped up on my home/feed and I haven't watched the demod man in a while. When I saw the title of this I literally let out a " oh fuuhuuck yeah" out loud. Dark souls 2 lore is unmatched.

[@milesgreenough6842]

Ive been a fan since 2016, DS3 release. Work and life has been hectic atm but just wanted to say how happy it made me to see your channel again. Hope youre doing well dude

[@kaluszwig5854]

Great to hear the passion in your voice for these games again. Always love the Soulsborne content! Keep it up

[@izeybotpictures9220]

Literally just watched the most underrated bosses video and got rewarded w another boss ranking. Life is good

[@user-rh6wj2db6e]

Same 💯

[@NuclearWintr]

Dark Souls 2 is underrated and overhated.

[@Oroku_Sensei]

Couldn't agree more. While I can admit that it's not the best of the 3, it's definitely my favorite.

[@Clarity_Control]

No it isn't. There's more rabid followers like you these days than critics that bliny ignore the faults of the game.

[@Katpasniss]

@@Clarity_Controlevery souls game are heavily flawed with rabbid fanbase ignoring everything. If anything, DS2 fans are some that acknowledge the game issues the most

[@lightingthief4482]

Lol no

[@WhySoSeriousSenpai]

Underrated? No its crap and hated for good reason

[@Truecaveman1999]

DS2 will always be my favorite of the core series and I stand by that. Still the best pvp the series has managed so far

[@JABRIEL251]

1:35 ngl I thought this was going to be the intro to a Hello Fresh sponsorship.

[@jarredf95]

Same lol

[@AlukardTheDeathknight]

I remember someone did NG+10 on the dark lurker with just a Mundane +10 Cudgel Spoon you can get from one of the women in the woods from the start

[@petarsumski6348]

My personal NG+7 tier list (Note that this run was performed with levels around 350 and i could use an optimal build for each boss) *Also ignore the first ranking of the lost sinner* 1.Sir alonne 2.Lud and Zallen the kings pets 3.Darklurker 4.Elana the squalid queen 5.Burnt ivory king 6.Throne watcher and throne defender NG+ lost sinner 7.Fume knight 8. Blue smelter demon 9.Vendrick 10.Sinh the slumbering dragon 11.Avaa the kings pet 12.Ancient dragon 13.Gank squad 14.Looking glass knight 15.Ruin sentinels 16.Scorpioness Najka 17.Executioners chariot 18.Belfry gargoyles Ng+ flexile sentry 19.Smelter demon 20.Velstadt, the royal aegis 21.The dukes dear freja 22.Lost sinner 23.The pursuer 24.Royal rat authority 25.The rotten 26.Old iron king 27.Nashandra 28.Mytha the baneful queen 29.Demon of song 30.Twin dragonriders 31.Flexile sentry 32.Old dragonslayer 33.Skeleton lords 34.Guardian dragon 35.Giant lord 36.Aldia, scholar of first sin 37.Prowling magus and congregation 38.Dragonrider 39.Royal rat vanguard 40.Last giant 41.Covetous demon No phantoms used

[@oodanna500]

my thought before i watch the video, "when is that goober dragon rider gonna throw himself into the water" Edit: Dang, he got pretty high up considering he does the work for you

[@Zedujo]

Finally, everyone is giving DS2 the love it deserves.

[@Aybee.AB-.-72]

Demod, i (and I'm sure many others) love your free form commentary. It's a strong asset of yours and i think your viewers would like a couple of unscripted videos here and there related to soulsborneekiroring6

[@zombies5100]

My favorite part of the ruin sentinels fight was when I entered their arena, not realizing one was on my left, and when I casually look over to them, I get smacked to the floor.

[@musacajelly2941]

Glad to see you going back through the older games again. Always great to see you putting out souls content again! You're the goat!

[@megaman7799]

I've heard so many people (notably you Demod) complain about Blue Smelter's runback, but out of all my playthroughs of the game, I genuinely don't think I've ever died to it or maybe once or twice at most. Literally just run nonstop and you're set.

[@ZachariaWatson]

At most, you only need to kill 2 enemies while your stamina recharges. 1 knight when you drop down the first hole (the one after 3 knights, a mage, and the electric orb slinging assassin), and then the mage after you drop down the 2nd hole (he is aggroed the moment you drop). It's best to dispatch them because you are out of aggro range from the other enemies somehow (one of the few areas that have low aggro range lol) and both easily get stun locked when hit. Enough runs from dying to Blue Smelter Demon and they despawn eventually (it didn't change my fight with Smelter Demon because I almost always made it to the fight with full hp and estus, regardless if the 2 enemies respawned or not)

[@megaman7799]

@@ZachariaWatson I honestly don't think I've even killed an enemy. I've just always made a mad dash through the Iron Passage and made it pretty safely 95% of the time.

[@jothrax4673]

Frigid Outskirts and OG Smelter are the only 2 run backs that give me trouble. I think most people who struggle with the run backs just lack patience to learn the tricks to it.

[@Domo3000]

Blue Smelter runback difficulty depends on your equip load. If you are below 47% or something you are immune to the slow spell and can just run and roll through this area easily, but if you are above it the spell will put you into overburdened roll which makes it hard.

[@ZachariaWatson]

@@Domo3000 I was at 69%-70% equip load. If you are sprinting to the next section of the run back at full stamina, you only need to worry about the slow speed sorcery once. Even then, when it lands, you are so close to the next section that you just need to time a roll through one enemy attack that is extremely easy to fat roll through, at the very least. The only other thing that may happen is that an arrow will hit you, but it doesnt do more than 1/6 of your health

[@moonisblocked]

as someone who's gathered the platinum trophy during the summer, i genuinely love this game. prior to gathering this trophy in the summer, i was playing this game in 2019 when i was 8 years old. this game is absolutely beautiful. The osts, the boss fights, the levels, theyre all perfect - and thats my moment of the summer. getting the platinum trophy for this game. I will say, beating Sir Alonne is absolutely much more difficult then all. As someone whos (humbly) great at games like these, i usually dont fail boss attempts. this boss took me 6 tries. Fume Knight took me 1 try, Darklurker took me 1 try, but sir alonne is different. He is absolutely the hardest souls boss out of all games imo. But overall, this is my favourite out of all the souls games.

[@JoeAndrewsWorth]

Couldn’t have uploaded this at a better time! You inspired me to do my own ranking. Soon I’ll be producing my own video. In all my years of playing Fromsoft games, I thought it was time to see what the hardest all time Soulsbornekiro Ring boss is. I’m keeping track of the deaths too. Made it to Elden Ring. After that, it’ll only be Sekiro to rank

[@Cwin-ny6bp]

Dark Souls 2 is very underrated after spending some time with it. The variety and amount of stuff to do might be the best in the Dark Souls series. Not saying it’s the best DS game, but it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s probably also a hot take, but I enjoy Blue Kool-Aid.

[@WhySoSeriousSenpai]

No just no

[@Cwin-ny6bp]

@ very insightful and well-reasoned response.

[@markopusic8258]

​@@Cwin-ny6bpIt's either that or overly detailed brick walls on why the game deserves every bit of flack it got. It's not underrated no, it's exactly where it should be, a hot mess with qualities and issues so striking the community will never agree on how good it is. Enjoy it all you want, hell I did aswell, but it's not underrated one bit.

[@For1AmSage]

Fun fact, Fume Knight becomes tons of easier if you prevent him going to his second phase. You can do so by baiting him to use his overhead slam attack with his greatsword. This makes his sword glow and as long as the sword glows he cannot start second phase. So keep baiting that attack and you can keep him in first phase for whole fight!

[@jothrax4673]

Thanks for explaining the ranking criteria. I didn't have a problem with it in prior videos, I just didn't like not understanding what it was.

[@JABRIEL251]

Look, I dunk on DS2 all the time, I just don't like this game, but Bonfire Ascetic was a fantastic idea and I do not know why it never returned.

[@alexberube5269]

Because everyone screams how horrid the game is (even though it's just as good as ds1 if not better) so fromsoft got rid of every idea from the game, they only brought powerstancing back because people were asking for it

[@ninetailedara3802]

​@@alexberube5269Wrong, many things from ds2 are in elden ring. Mainly due to the co director iirc.

[@alexberube5269]

@ninetailedara3802 by many things you mean one thing. The only mechanic that is distinctly from ds2 is powerstancing

[@ninetailedara3802]

@@alexberube5269 So we forgetting the pick axe in ds2 also being in elden ring? Divine Blessings and Blessing of Marika doing the same exact thing?

[@ninetailedara3802]

@@alexberube5269 Twin blades as well. Must i go on?

[@mighty_spirit8532]

Waiting for Demod to upload is definitely the dark souls of infrequent uploaders.

[@Cwin-ny6bp]

I did one run where I beat every boss in the base game and DLCs in the same play through. While there were some where I dealt with terrible run up by just fighting the enemies until they stopped spawning, that really seemed to be borderline impossible with the reindeer. I think I actually used NPCs to help on Zallen and Lud because I didn’t want to risk trying to get back lol. Ancient Dragon has a solid cheese where you position between his back toes and dodge as necessary. It can still go wrong, but it’s relatively reliable, and frankly feels fair with how absurd his health and damage are.

[@Detriax]

The Ancient Dragon has as much health as Mohg.

[@duckyduckington9736]

fun fact you are SUPPOSED to summon for that place, its actually encouraged because the npc's are overpowered as fuck.

[@Cwin-ny6bp]

@@duckyduckington9736 I think that was the other reason

[@morganneher8643]

I’m flashing back to when I first watched you do these a decade ago it seems, incredible!

[@gamerofgamers1417]

You forgot to mention the torch scaring away spiders, making the Duke's Dear Freija much easier not having to worry about the other spiders.

[@salamander7075]

Hardest boss isn't even the bosses. It's the run backs

[@NeoLotex]

I most likely wouldn't call Dark Souls 2 my favorite Souls game, but it definitely is my numbe one in terms visuals. Both the areas as well as the bosses are my favorite of the series.

[@SatsukiYumizuka]

When i played DS2 for the first time, i beat Ancient Dragon on my first try. Out of estus, my weapons of choice almost broken but in the end, i understood its move set, its windows of opportunity and finished it. It was incredible, an amazing fight.

[@hussien04]

I beat him first try too, but the fight was anything but amazing

[@intigim5861]

A small but important point needs to be made. You absolutely can run past the Alonne runback with minimal damage if you try. No 3-5 min run necessary at all. At the same time, the knights have, albeit unreliable, programming to stop them coming down the stairs just before the fog gate.

[@Hinaatje]

Love your revisits man. Keep the amazing work up. Youll always be my favorite dark souls youtube guy ❤

[@Mainlymundane]

He’s back!

[@squeethemog213]

It's really amazing to see the differences in the old list compared to the new. I am glad number one is still the as awesome as it was back then :D

[@gramlar3506]

This is fun! Keep it up, man!

[@kennethgrey7829]

My personal favorite Souls game, I do find it the most difficult to get into and to find what works with you but once you do it's so much fun. I think the worst part is the soul memory for summoning

[@backyarddad4198]

I’ve been playing Bearer of the Curse mod and they actually do some really cool stuff to make the bosses more interesting. The fights are all tighter and more engaging, and some of them have some super cool changes to them, too. Covetous is even a hard boss now and Old Iron King & Lost Sinner feel like they actually deserve to be called Great Soul bosses. (It’s really subtle changes too like OIK attacks like a normal boss and the chaos bug in lost sinner’s eye will cast fire tempest during some attacks, just like she did in ds1) even Nashandra has a few tweaks to make her not a joke of a fight.

[@Killer_Draco]

This is gonna sound wild, but after revisiting DS2, I think I appreciated the Gank Squad more. Yes, it's a lackluster boss. No, fighting three NPCs as a boss in a paid DLC isn't particularly enjoyable. But at the very least, the arena lets you split them up and isolate them. And after fucking around and finding out with Leda's Gank Squad (especially if you didn't know you could reduce the numbers) in a big empty circular room in SotE, I have more respect for a boss arena that helps mitigate the Zerg Rush of NPCs.

[@hungrymanning]

Really enjoyed this video! Having recently replayed DS2 also, I found that I had alot more fun with Blue Smelter Demon, especially after playing through Elden Ring. I also think Elden Ring assisted my new found appreciation for Blue since it is littered with reskins of bosses and has dulled my hatred for reusing bosses in their previous games.

[@dtheanomaly3686]

When the smelter demon goes into SMELT mode 😤 the boss run in SOFS gives me PTSD

[@deltaphazon4688]

I did my usual comparison to the community ranking 8 years back but KZbin decided 41 bosses was too long and refused to post it. The main thing is the Old Iron King had the biggest loss, going down 12 places, while the rotten had the biggest gain, going up 13. The funny thing about that is they were right next to each other, the King being harder.

[@jbwkz1313]

Very underrated game.

[@SteveAudi]

I finally completed a first play through of this game with the zweihander build with the exception of the gank kitties and I concur with your rankings

[@sugoitta8323]

More deMod video yesss ! Just finished Nine Sols! I dunno if you played but would like to see you cover that fantastic game :)

[@uafc1]

It's 2024 and people are still making videos of this game. That's a testament to the greatness of this game. Haters gonna hate. Also the top 3 is on point, those 3 are always the hardest for me. But I don't have trouble with Ancient Dragon, top 10 hardest for me would be the entire DLC and Darklurker.

[@jellytatsu875]

14:21 "okay, lock in. nice."

[@Gwynbleidd1724]

Oh the nostalgia! DS2 one had one play through from me so it’s nice to see this.

[@pankkakez-cupkakkez]

New Dmod video lets goooooo!

[@chrisgrogan4850]

I can’t wait for your video of DS3

[@NeutralDrow]

"On top of that, he remixes the Orange's moveset with off-kilter timings, delaying many attacks to manipulate muscle memory." Confirmed, Elden Ring is Dark Souls 2 II.

[@Valrok1870]

All I can say: Dragon Tooth shreds "fast" fights. R1 R2 stagger that allows stamina regen to work

[@almightylilith]

I've been watching for the last 8 years and I can hear the deadness in your voice.

[@albertgongora6944]

I'm not going to lie the rotten I always thought it was a pretty difficult boss because of the fact that one part of the arena is on fire but after you make yourself pretty strong and you realize how the mechanics in the game work it's pretty easy to just kick his butt every time when you want to just get a good amount of souls and level up to high levels literally to the point where you're literally almost maxed out which even shows you can do a multi playstyle build on however you want to play

[@BassBrothers4]

So I guess covetous demon has been removed lol

[@awguitarroom8033]

I love DS2 so much. It is my favorite of the 3. Now the DLC not so much but it's an amazing game.

[@oyasumichansu]

best game in the series finally

[@chromasus9983]

For the twin cats, Alonne, and Blue Smelter Demon, you are supposed to summon cooperators for the areas. They specifically have multiple NPC phantoms available, and the special summoning area. And remember, if you like fighting bosses alone, you can use a separation crystal before the boss itself. But trying to tackle those areas solo, especially Alonne and BSD, is asking for trouble!

[@angrymedic3803]

DS2 bosses were trying to follow the philosophy that Demons Souls bosses had, gimmicks or mechanics over just guy that you spar with. They of course mixed those elements so thats why a lot of the bosses feel easy, because youre using the intended method of beating them. Not griping with you of course, just wanted to share that tid bit because DS2 has really cool and unique fights. When you DO face the 1v1 sparring fights, they are a ton of fun as well. Alonne, Velstadt, Raime, Ivory King, all are amazing

[@makaiwhite6374]

DMOD GIVE ME A STELLAR BLADE BOSS RANKING AND MY LIFE IS YOURS🙏

[@TheCloudCreation]

Dark Souls 2 may be people's least favorite souls game, but I started with DS2 and SotFS and have more hours on both those versions than all other souls games conbined. And i have multiple playthroughs of all souls games, even demon souls. DS2 holds a special place in my heart and I absolutely love the game.

[@JoyBoy0606]

Ancient Dragon becomes much easier if you have fire defense in the 400s. All you have to worry about then is his stomps which are easy to run away from given their slow wind up. With enough health and fire defense, the dragon's flames will only take 10 to 25 percent of your health.

[@MFD00MTR33]

Get some Cyan or Alonne knight gear, upgrade it to +9. Get the "sweating" mask from the dlc and use flame protection spell to reach over 900 fire defense. Makes Ancient Dragon (and Smelter) a joke. His breath does maybe 10% damage to you now. And for Darklurker use pyromancy. A few suns and flame swathes and his HP is melted.

[@pero02review47]

this game was beautiful and the environment felt extra compared with the other 2..yes, it lack of short cut and the wow factors, but overall the world building was interesting.

[@yoMoonman]

I finished this game for the first time + DLC, no bonfire ascetic, no rapier, no magic, just the good ol bonking stick. This game is not horrible, it just gives you a different type of challenge.

[@jaffplumbs26]

So happy that u don’t hate this game

[@jamesgoude1799]

Hey Demod! What are your thoughts on doing hardest boss rating based on specific stat builds. Strength, dex, faith, etc...I think that could be interesting to see

[@dtheanomaly3686]

The pursuer random encounters are more challenging than his actual boss fight hugging his shield makes him a joke he seems more aggressive later and in the throne room there's 2.

[@jordanmancini]

It's honestly a bit disappointing to see how many of the bosses are uneven gank fights either with adds in the fight or by having multiple bosses to fight at once or having the boss summon adds (Looking at you Squalid Queen)

[@twurtle12hd39]

1:37 the only threat covetous demon poses is if u sit in front of his mouth for like 30 seconds without moving he’ll eat u and break all ur shit

[@jonathonparson7967]

I missed you man

[@zacbranch2083]

Perfect timing, I *finally* beat this game for the first time last night (every previous attempt ended around iron keep or earlier). Despite seeing roughly half the cast of bosses for the first time I don't think a single boss took me more than 2 attempts, so I honestly didn't know what to expect watching this video. Judging from this list maybe the DLC will do a better job at making me pull my hair out. -Upon finishing this video I stand corrected. The executioners chariot took me 5 tries.

[@duckyduckington9736]

the game is easy if its not your first, its really hard if it is because you wont be used to the combat of the other much faster games.

[@zacbranch2083]

@@duckyduckington9736 True, thats kinda the experience with the genre as a whole. The first game you play is the hardest, and the newer games tend to be harder than the older ones. Still, I was surprised it was that easy. For example: I had heard terrible things about the Ancient Dragon fight for years. Even in this video he ranked it close to the top 5. Imagine my surprise when I got it down to 2-3 hits on my first attempt, then easily beat it my second attempt while only getting hit once. Meanwhile I just started a DS3 playthrough last night and died multiple times to the early crystal lizard and a few times to lothric knights. Not saying there's anything wrong with people struggling with the Ancient Dragon fight, I just thought it was funny that the hardest boss fights in DS2 killed me less than basic Lothric knights do in DS3, despite me beating DS3 8 or 9 times already.

[@duckyduckington9736]

@@zacbranch2083 which is strange cause i kill those knights and lizard as trash mobs, cause im used to the fast paced movesets and using staggers.

[@zacbranch2083]

@@duckyduckington9736 the big lizards, not the small ones. But yeah, I'll be back to the pace of DS3 in no time. It's my most played souls' game after all, but I only last beat it probably 2-3 years ago.

[@duckyduckington9736]

@@zacbranch2083 yeah i know the big ones, they're easy too.

[@weirdalexander8193]

Some people complain that dark souls 2’s layout makes no sense, with an elevator at the top of a tower going UP to the base of a mountain being the prime example. Honestly, I don’t see why that’s a bad thing. Lore wise, the cycle of fire and dark has been going on for so long that space time is developing an odor of cheese, which is an idea bolstered at the end of DS3 with the piles of castles. Frankly, I find non-Euclidean geometry shenanigans as really frikking cool.

[@duckyduckington9736]

well here its obvious it was rushed because we see in the trailers for ds2 that they originally had a different way there, and had to do the elevator.

[@Abhinav123able]

Ds2 is my favorite . I started the series with it. Also it has the coolest armor sets and weapons .

[@Kwevin6659]

Hardest boss for me, aside from the electric deer snowscape, was definitely Sihn! There's some hitboxes I just couldn't get used to, Sir Alonne and the Fume Knight combined screwed me over less.

[@Veradun99]

you know whats worse than Elana summoning Velstadt? her summoning the majula pigs.

[@leosnap7831]

Congratulations to anyone who has completed DS2 and DS2SOTFS

[@fredmendulson7515]

In my first playthrough I got caught in Covetous's special unequip attack.. and still won handily

[@ZachariaWatson]

I feel like the placement for Aava should've been higher than Vendrick and Pursuer. Unlike Aava, Vendrick and Pursuer have glaringly easy ways to avoid there attacks. With Vendrick, stick to his left leg (his left, not your left) and get behind it. If you manage to do that, be as close as possible. That way, he will keep you behind him when he attacks. No matter what, he can't reach you. Sure, he can leap attack, but seeing as your always looking at him and staying on the side without the sword, dodging is easy. As for Pursuer, it's not as simple, but follows a similar strategy. I noticed that you dodge to his right (your left, his right) a lot. That's why you kept taking damage. If you were to instead dodge towards his left (your right, his left) when he goes to attack at all, you are most likely going to dodge any if not all attacks (his quick 3 hit combo can still hit, but it will most likely just be the shield attack, aka 2nd attack of the 3 hit combo) After learning these strategies for these two specifically, both have become nothing more than a damage sponge like Covetous Demon (For Vendrick) and a dance dance revolution game with only right prompts (because you are moving to the right to get to the Pursuer's left)

[@ZachariaWatson]

Also with Ancient Dragon, I feel can be a lot lower on the list as well. I recently fought him and noticed that you can bait his grounded flame breath by being in front of his head and being a bit away from him. He will probably then do a flying breath afterward, but if you stay near his head, you should be able to see his wings flap and see that you need to run away. But he shouldn't do any flame damage if you equip the flame quartz ring of any variety (+2 or +3 for best results), pharros mask (has a hidden mechanic that gives 100+ fire resistance on top of what it gives already), and any other high fire resistance armor (I used smelter demon armor, but I know there are lighter armor sets that give high fire resistance as well). Whenever I got hit by flames, instead of doing 50% to almost 75% of my health, it would do about 15% to 20% of my health. Also it is best to attack his head while underneath during the grounded flame animations, or to attack his front claws. His back legs have big hit boxes and can slightly track your location (not fully, but it does stomp toward your location). Only run to his left side or right side if your near the ledge, and it's best to do it when he has just landed. His back side is almost always going to cause consistency issues, since he will sometimes fly a bit to track you before breathing I know in base DS2, his flames hit like a nuke, but in Scholar, it was nerfed heavily so you can survive a single hit at the very least from full hp

[@Oerbyss022]

WOW lol. The differences in difficulty opinions are CRazyy

[@taistelusammakko5088]

Fume knight is my absolute favorite boss of ds2. At the start i hated it, just like everyone else, and wanted to just get over it. But after fighting him time after time, the fights getting more intense, and me learning everything about his attacks i understood what made fighting difficult bosses so fun. After that i have always felt bad after using things like mimic tear in elden ring. Its just not fun.

[@ready2die723]

BABE WAKE UP HE DROPPED ANOTHER TEIR LIST

[@Scowleasy]

The Whisper of despair hex lowers enemy phys defenses by 200 for 60s, which is a massive boost in dps if you’re looking to break the game even further

[@gonzalo6356]

Babe wake up , Demod uploaded a souls ranking

[@TheInzombiac]

The top three are from the same DLC. I don't really have anything else to say, I just find that interesting

[@zeebooboo9663]

This is my favorite in the series tbh

[@Bbmag23]

2 was my first and I accept no slander.

[@julianvonkanel7497]

“Now let’s plunge in the abyss for the HARDEST base game boss, darklurker” at number 6 Has ancient dragon at number 4 in an easiest to hardest video

[@crazytuffandco.]

I'd say it be best to approach each game with 2-3 high powered builds, so we don't get bosses weak to x damage being considered easier if they're strong against y.

[@tracemacmillan9718]

Okay but why does the thumbnail art go so hard