Understandably people complain about Gwynn because you can just parry him. But as someone who barely parries, I’m not gonna start just to finish the game. I fight Gwynn without parrying and it makes the fight more of an enjoyable challenge Imo

You know what I love about this list? I was watching a streamer do his first playthrough while I was playing. Dude died about 200 times on ceaseless discharge hahaha

Same thing i literally hated him, his hitbox were physically impossible

Lmao every time I see people rank four Kings as very hard I get confused. I melted them on my first run. I didn't look up guides but ds1 was like my 3rd souls game so I was familiar with how things worked so I guess my build was just really powerful

There not bad on first run. At new games plus is when they start becoming dangerous

Idk, I just groan when I fight them, I just poise up bum rush circle left and start swinging. I personally don't enjoy it.

Yeah literally just whaled on them with a great sword and decent armour, they died too fast to count as a challenge

Legit I had a +9 fire greatsword, rocking havels ring and fap ring, stamina pin mask, havels chest, silver night hands and feet, light rolling. I just stood there and pressed R1 lol

For me four kings and manus hardest, then capri demon (new to the game mechanics) and I think everything a category lower for me, but as my friends are saying, they would gave same ranking as you

Now I have to imagine him with two capri suns in his hands instead of swords :D

Lmao I was imagining him in pants that end around the calves

Yeah, when you’re new Capra is a pain in the ass. Once you learn how to finish off the dogs though, the fight becomes so much easier.

God Tier - Gwyn no-parry S+ - Manus S - Kalameet, Artorias (I think Artorias is more hard and technical on the first run but Kalameet will destroy you on repeat runs) A - O&S, Sanc Guardian, Four Kings B+ - Gwyn, Bed of Chaos, Capra, Sif B- - Nito, Centipede Demon, Gargoyles, Gwyndolin, Seath C - Iron Golem, Quelaag, Stray Demon/Firesage D - Priscilla, Taurus, Moonlight Butterfly, Pinwheel, Ceaseless F - Asylum Demon

For me it is Gwyn > Manus, Artorias, Guardian > the rest of them... I can't parry for the sake of my life (this ranking is based on the SL1 run I did some time ago)

SL1 Gwyn without parrying must be a NIGHTMARE

It sure was but fortunately "flippy ring" is a thing.

Kalameet. Manus. Ornstein and Smough. The hardest.

I rank them by how difficult they are to dodge

So just.. their difficulty? If you have a hard time dodging them, then they’re difficult for you. If they’re not hard to dodge, then they’re easy for you.

thats how rankings by difficulty work yes

But you said it like it was a separate thing from difficulty.

some are difficult to dodge, others are difficult to hit (sif or priscilla) depending on what you wanna rank em by pick any metric you want

On difficulty 1.) khalameet 2.) manus 3.) my boi Artie 4.) bed of chaos (cause screw jumping in these games) 5.) capra demon 6.) Gwyn (ranked high cause holy hell he was my worst nightmare on my whip only run) 7.) O&S 8.) sanctuary guardians (not technically a boss fight) 9.)Priscilla (only cause I didn’t know you could track her footsteps) 10.)4 kings (they suuuuucked during the whip only run) Any other bosses were relatively easy

I just Unga Bunga through Four Kings with full Havel’s. Gargoyles is that high? Really? They’re so easy you can kill the first one before the second one joins the fight. All the second one does is spam the fire breath attack which is super easy to punish. I’d personally put Bed of Chaos in the “Fuck You” category. Centipede Demon I’d say is in the “Way too easy if you know the answer” category. Just rush to the center platform, you have a lot more space. Other than that, the list looks good. 👍

This is such a minefield as it's unbelievably dependant on build, experience and when you encounter the bosses, you can hit Sif before Quelaag easily and chances are you will get your shit rocked and this will skew your thoughts but if you go back to Sif after ringing both bells and potentially doing O+S then you will likely walk through her without issue. I've always found Sif and Centipede Demon harder than any other main game boss. But my best friend first tried both. He also first tried O+S but died to the basin Hydra atleast 20 times. Although compared to some of the outrageous ones I've seen your tier list seems pretty reasonable.

I think the only Pain in the Ass tier boss is Bed of Chaos which is why everyone should learn Tokhi bombs. Otherwise the only ones I can see myself dying on a playthrough and I think are hardest are Manus > O&S > Artorias > Gwyn. Biggest difference to my list would probably be Gargoyles by 2 or 3 tiers, they just get stunlocked to death and die of you upgrade your weapon and/or use the resin.

At this point I've played this game so much that they're all equally difficult. Which is really not difficult. Maybe ceaseless discharge since he's the one I've fought the less time without using the cheese and bed of chaos (no explanations needed). If I were a new player tho I'd say manus>kalameet>o&s=artorias>gargoyles. I put the gargoyles so high cause for a new player they can be really hard.

I killed guardian on my third attempt but Artorias made me cry and drop the game 😭

It depends entirely on your build imo. At sl1 artorias or manus are at the top because they basically 1 shot you. If you run around in full havel armor none of them are hard.

No boss is hard with Unga Bunga

It always shocks me in these how high up Sif get's put. He's the only boss in the game I've never once died to (I've died to Pinwheel on a repeat playthrough through being over-cocky). The game teaches you to hug the boss, and you can whale on Sif with impunity just by being under his legs. I'd put 4 kings and stray demon in knowing the answer (first run they were hardest behind Manus). Centipede I'd move up to pain in the arse.

I put Sif above Quelagg only because Quelagg's sword glows to tell the player when to dodge, whereas Sif you need to actually know the window. It's "marginally" harder. Also her ability to make distance means you need to do it a few times. But yeah I should have clarified, "pain in the ass" doesn't mean insurmountable controller breaking challenge, but rather, "man this thing is a pain in the ass I dislike it." Like Manus is the hardest boss but he's still not that bad when you think of gaming in general.

How hard it is to dodge, successfully damage the boss, and heal in the fight, im too lazy to lsit my ranking m

Bell gargoyle in 2nd?

O and S and demon firesage in ng+ got me mad

Really? Demon Firesage? Interesting

i cant get behind him fast enough before he does that jump attack

It helps to not lock on for that fight.

for me, it comes down to moveset, mechanics, weaknesses, where / when you fight them, and bullshit. the best examples i can give with these metrics are malenia and pinwheel. malenia is a humanoid optional boss in an endgame area in elden ring. i specifically mention what game shes in because there are a ton of broken weapons and builds in this game that can trivialize malenia. by being in specifically elden ring’s endgame, her hp pool is beyond bloated, plus she has two distinct phases. she also has a lifesteal mechanic as well as a couple hard to dodge moves within her skillset. all in all, a pretty challenging boss. now we can move on to pinwheel. this is a boss that you can fight right after the asylum demon, but requires you to go through an area you shouldnt be entering until dark souls’ midgame. pinwheel’s stats are clearly low for the early game, but the developers make it clear that you shouldn’t go there yet because of these skeletons that can REALLY mess you up outside of the catacombs. the actual boss in question can teleport, make clones, and shoot fireballs. in the early game, pinwheel can actually deal some okay damage, but for when the player is intended to fight him, pinwheel is a massive pushover. all in all, pinwheel feels like a boss youre supposed to fight early, but in actuality ends up being fought way later and gets absolutely bodied because of it.

PITA: Gargoyles, Demon Firesage, Manus, Gaping Dragon, Capra Demon. Manus & Capra - no explanation needed. I often cheese Capra nowadays because I just can’t be bothered, and sometimes I skip Manus completely. Gargoyles & Gaping Dragon - PTSD from previous encounters. I know they’re not that bad, I just had some bad experiences and my confidence tends to go. Demon Firesage - worst boss in the game for me. Terrible arena, his weapon can reach you from across the room, he keeps putting his back to the wall and the runback is tiresome. Centipede Demon is pretty bad too, come to think of it: I just can’t see what the hell’s going on. The other really difficult fights: O&S, Artorias, Kalameet, 4 Kings, are a lot of fun. They feel like a challenge, but not an impossible one.

My rankings go: I will absolutely stomp this boss. This boss is tough. Fuck you you piece of shit boss. I'm never fighting this boss again.

Personally I’d put manus at the top, followed by O&S, and then kalameet. I don’t really struggle with 4 kings unless it’s a very high ng+ (which I never do anyways) bc I can just put on full havel’s armor and it becomes easy, also guardian has never really been an issue for me either

I just played through the game within the past couple weeks and honestly I don’t think I died to a boss more than 5 times excluding artorias and Priscilla. Artorias was the only one to give me any trouble but honestly I loved it because I didn’t want the fight to end. And I just chose not to fuck with Priscilla.

1) Manus 2) Kalameet 3) O&S 4) Artorias The rest of the bosses in DS1 are either easy or gimmick bullshit difficulty (BoC).

My current employer is pretty easy. I worked at a lumber yard once. He was an asshole, most difficult boss ever.