OK, so its now time for part two of my look at the top 10 hardest bosses from the action role play game, Dark Souls III, which for me (and probably alot of people!) had some of the hardest bosses in the entire series! And again in this list I will be looking at bosses from both the original game and the DLC content too.
So, let's grab those swords and armour and take a look at the bosses that made it into the top 5....
5. Sister Friede
So at No.5 is this boss from the Ashes of Ariandel DLC, which is the finale for that DLC that features a feisty, prim and above all, deadly Sister Friede. Sister Friede in the game's lore is said to be one of three sisters that set up the Sable church of Londor and she doesn't take too kindly to the Ashen One (your character) being in the Painted world of Ariandel. So, naturally you will be in for a tough fight when you take her on along with the ghoulish looking Father Ariandel who fights at her side.
Sister Friede is definitely one of the most challenging bosses in the game for sure as her fight is split into three stages you have quite a bit of adversity to overcome here and below is a breakdown of the stages.
In the first phase you take on Friede herself as she attacks you with a scythe and can inflict frostbite damage on you aswell and she has a rather annoying knack of being able to vanish and reappear at will and if she does she will perform a scythe attack where she grabs you and throws you into the air. In the second phase, Father Ariandel will join in as he resurrects the fallen Sister and he tries to hammer you with a large flaming bowl, which he can also use to pour a large pool of lava onto the ground, which can inflict alot of damage if you get hit. In the 3rd phase, you take on Blackflame Friede, who inflicts serious dark flame damage and has even more aggressive attacks than before making this the hardest of the three phases.
So, it has to be said that I did struggle quite badly with this fight when I first tried it and I've so far only managed to beat Sister Friede once and for this fight, I would actually recommend you take the summon for it, which is Slave Knight Gael as Gael will act as good distraction for Friede (if he survives that is!). The best ways to take her down depend on your character build of course but I beat her as a pyromancer, so I would suggest using the spell, Chaos Bed Vestiges, which does excellent damage. If you aren't a pyromancer, a strength build might be a good way to go aswell as Friede can easily be staggered and her health pool isn't too big in each phase and she can also be parried.
However it really has to be said that fighting Sister Friede is no picnic whatsoever and while her first two phases can be achieved with relative ease, its that brutal third phase is where the real difficulty lies with her aggressive flame attacks and her ability to insta-kill you with a scythe decapitating grab, which got more on several occassions!
So, overall Sister Friede is undoubtedly one of the toughest bosses in the game and she really makes the Dancer of the Boreal Valley look like a real joke by comparison and as a three stage battle it can be quite an ordeal. So, the Sister definitely deserver her spot here at No.5.
4. The Twin Princes: Lorian, the Elder Pirnce & Lothric, the Younger Prince
So, at No.4 are these two guys, who were the runners up in my previous list for the top 9 hardest bosses that featured in the main game, the Twin Princes, Lorian and Lothric. However given the difficulty of some of the DLC bosses, I figured the princes could be placed a bit lower than before but this does not mean they aren't that much easier!
So, what makes these two bosses SO difficult? Well, its a fight that really involves anticipation and given the nature of the battle, anticipating the princes next move can be very difficult due to the teleportation attacks they use. As for the two princes themselves they are both crippled and can't walk, so to compensate Lothric will use his miracle powers to teleport Lorian around the room (who crawls on his knees throughout) so he can whack you with his mighty greatsword, which inflicts serious fire damage. Lorian can also perform a couple of other brutal attacks such as a teleporting plunge attack and his most deadly one being a holy beam of light, which he brings down from his sword, which WILL one-shot if you get hit by it!
However, after the first phase and killing off Lorian, Lothric will then join in the fight and use his magic powers to ressurect his fallen brother and piggyback on Lorian, who will revive and continue to try and hammer you with his greatsword as the two of them teleport around the room. And to make matters worse, Lothric will join in by using his magic attacks on you, which include homing projectiles and soul spheres and if you kill off Lorian, Lothric will just keep reviving him and the fight will continue.
So...as you can imagine I had a horrendous time trying to deal with these two as they use the ultimate cheap shot tactics of teleportation, hammering you with firey great sword swings and miracle magic spells to try and finish you off! And yep I must have spent almost five days trying to take these guys down (yep five whole days of attempts!) and tearing my hair out in the process!
As for how to defeat them??? Well, in the first phase you basically need to just kill Lorian using either melee attacks or pyromancy, miracles or sorcery (which can be trickier) and I found playing as a pyromancer that it was quite easy to kill off Lorian using Great Chaos Fire Orb or Chaos Bed Vestiges spells.
In the second phase however you can switch over to melee attacks or even still keep up your pyromancy but in order to end the fight you need to kill Lothric and as Lothric sits on Lorian's back you NEED to get behind Lorian to attack him. So, you can either keep attacking Lorian until he dies after which Lothric will fall off and then try and revive his brother and then strike Lothric as many times as you can, or you can keep trying to get behind Lorian and attack Lothric as much as you can. This of course is all easier said than done and is complicated by Lothric using a miracle, which causes a blast that will deal damage to you if he suceeds in reviving Lorian.
So, I would for this fight recommend using a fast straight sword weapon such as the longsword to get in fast strikes or even katana of some kind that dish out fast strikes and good damage. You can also buff you weapons with magic or lightning to inflict damage on Lorian however Lothric only appears to be vulnerable to physical strikes and nothing else and seems to have a larger health pool than his brother, which is funny when you see how skinny he is! I would also strongly suggest using pyromancy too, especially Great Chaos Fire Orb, which has no faith or intelligence requirements to use as it can prove very effective and I've used it on all my playthroughs so far to defeat them.
So in summing up, the Twin Princes is a brutal fight and unquestionably one of the toughest in the game mainly due to the difficulty involved in anticipating the Princes teleporting attacks. This is a fight that had me near tearing my hair out and hurling the controller across the room on my first playthrough but since then I have been able to get better at it even though they still can kill me quite a bit!
Anyway, the Twin Princes definitely earn their spot on the list for sure and even if they are No.4 instead of No.2, you still cannot underestimate their difficulty and remain one of the most challenging bosses in the entire Souls series.
3. Nameless King
So, at No.3 is the Nameless King. Now hang on! This guy topped my previous list! Yep, well that is before I played all of the DLC bosses, so believe it or not there are infact two bosses that are tougher than Nameless, which is a scary thought!
Now even though Nameless no longer has the top spot, his difficulty is still pretty uncompromising although it has to be said that the fight can be a bit gimmicky with its use of wild camera angles that are sent to annoy and disorientate you in the fight, which they sure do in that first phase! And in the first phase we get Nameless riding in on his dragon (King of the Storm) and Nameless himself will try and repeatedly thwack you with his large hybrid sword-spear weapon, which can also inflict brutal lightning damage. And to make matters even worse, Nameless's dragon will also inflict serious fire damage with his fire breath, which can pretty insta-kill you if you are caught right in it!
As for the second phase...yep this is where things get REALLY brutal! This is where the fight becomes even more difficult as after you kill off the Nameless King's dragon, you will take him on in combat and he is no joke whatsoever here. And the Nameless King's attacks include a mixture of spear slash combos, lightning spear slam attacks (that cause Area of Effect damage) aswell as aerial swoop attacks all of which can deal MAJOR damage. He also deploys an lightning attack from the sky in his second phase, which can roll to avoid or block with your shield but this will also cause alot of damage if you get caught in it.
So, with all that said you can imagine the difficulty I faced in trying to beat this guy and it took me 193 attempts on my first playthrough before he finally went down (yep I counted them as I just had to given his reputation!). So alot of the deaths were the result of Nameless clobbering me to death with his spear in the first phase not being used to the annoying crappy camera angles and in the second phase I found it very difficult to time my rolls to evade his attacks as he often would knock me into the ground with his spear thrust/combo attacks or his spear impale move, which also can take a generous amount off your health!
As for how to beat him???? Good question! Well, I found in the first phase the best strategy was to get as close to the side of the dragon's neck as possible, so you can evade the majority of NK's spear attacks but you can still take damage from his lightning spear attacks though as they have an AoE impact. I would also suggest that you roll either side of the King when he swipes his spear at you left and right to avoid take big damage either that or stay down if you get hit once. You also need to kill the dragon in the first phase of course, so for that I'd recommend using a weapon buffed with lightning as the dragon is highly vulnerable to this and I opted for the Lothric Knight Crossbow and lightning bolts to finish it off. If you are a cleric however you can massacre the dragon even using the lightning spear miracle, which does MASSIVE damage up close and I was even getting about 700 points per hit on another playthrough!
Also if the dragon does hit you with his flame attack and you have enough health, just stay down and DO NOT try to get up because if you do you will take even more damage and most likely die. Again to mitigate the fire damage here I would highly recommend boosting your fire defense by using red bug pellets, flash sweat (a pyromancy fire defense spell) or some other fire resistance item.
In the second phase, its simply a case of getting good at timing your rolls to avoid Nameless's attacks and get your hits in just after NK has finished them. I also found that ranged attacks work quite well against Nameless and in the end I used the pyromancy spell, Chaos Bed Vestiges to kill him off, which is a powerful projectile fireball that hits its mark pretty effectively but melee is a different matter altogether! However on my most recent playthrough I was able to defat Nameless using the Fume Ultra Greatsword (or FUGS for short!) so I was quite proud of myself when I finally beat him using it! :-)
So, for me the Namless King is without a doubt one of the hardest most challenging bosses in the game and for me he is still the toughest boss in the main game and as a fight can prove to be quite brutal and deeply frustrating to learn. However there is no denying it is a really intense battle with awesome cutscenes and an awesome music track (which is way lighter in tone to the rest of the Souls 3 soundtrack!). And its the mixture of annoying camera angles, cheap shot spear attacks and the King's brutal second phase that add up to make this an extremely difficult fight and one that deserves to take the 3rd spot.
2. Slave Knight Gael
And just when you thought Nameless King was bad enough then along comes this guy...yep Slave Knight Gael...oh my God!
Slave Knight Gael appears in the Ringed City DLC and is the final boss who you encounter there and indeed is the final boss for the entire series. Gael actually appears several times throughout the game as he is first found at the Cathedral of the Deep where he is praying and if you talk to him, he will transport you to the Painted World of Ariandel. Later on you can even summon Gael to help you with two fights, Sister Friede and also the Demon Prince. However at the very end of the Ringed City DLC, you will find Gael thousands of years in the future where he is last surviving being and has become corrupted by the Dark Soul and when you face him down you are in for one brutal fight.
Now there are tough bosses and there are tough bosses in Dark Souls but Slave Knight Gael takes the biscuit on just about all of them (with the exception of the top boss on this list!) as he is an exceptionally difficult boss to take on and it must have taken me well over 200 goes to finally beat him on my first playthrough of the DLC! However I have since managed to beat him a second time and it took me just three goes! ;-)
So, why is Gael so difficult??? Well, it actually largely comes down to the obscenely large health pool he has as this guy has almost 15000 points in health alone! In fact his health pool is so big that the fight is split into three stages and in stage one Gael will fight you in a barren open area (called Filianore's Rest) and will take on a very hunched stance as he moves around and attacks you with a large greatsword which involves combo attacks aswell as a charged attack that can pierce right through shields.
In the second phase however, Gael will adapt a more upright stance and has a number of new attacks that include a series of two hit combos with his greatsword, which can also involve dark damage from his cloak. Gael in the second phase will also use a repeating crossbow, which is arguably the most dangerous attack in this phase as it can really eat through your stamina and health very quickly if you aren't careful and he also can throw magic discs that can deal damage aswell.
However...in the third phase, things get serious and the shit starts to REALLY hit the fan as Gael's attacks become even more aggressive as he can inflict heavy damage with spinning combo attacks and additional thrust attack aswell as fire an arrow volley in the air. Not only that but in this phase, Gael's cloak will release a large amount of exploding souls that when land will create some fairly severe lightning damage, leaving you very vulnerable for Gael to attack you if you are struck. And its in this phase that I struggled the most for sure!
So, how to beat Gael??? Hmmm, that is a very good question! Well, I found the best way to take on Gael is in melee combat because unless you're intelligence or faith are pretty high, your spells may have mixed success against him. So, I used the Millwood Battle Axe (infused with a heavy game at +10) and infused it with lightning and magic resins to add that extra bit of damage which inflicted fairly decent damage against him per hit (about 250 depending on my strength). And another key item in this battle is to use a greatshield, which will really help alot in the fight as it will be able to withstand alot of Gael's heavy attacks although he will still be able to break your guard as his attacks are quite aggressive.
I'd also strongly suggest to get good at dodging his attacks by rolling into him and to his left side and wait for an opening before you hit him and fast weapons are definitely better against him than slower ones although I had some decent attempts against him using FUGS! However its better to play this one safer by using a strong shield and a lighter, fast weapon as that will with some patience, see you through the fight.
So, for me Slave Knight Gael is without question one of the most punishingly difficult bosses in the game and indeed in the whole series and his varied attacks and massive health pool alone make him a very tough boss to beat and he more than deserves to take the runner-up spot.
So, the No.1 hardest Dark Souls III boss is....
1. Darkeater Midir
Yep at No.1 is this big guy...Darkeater Midir.
Now, I heard alot about this boss and wondered if he was as bad as people made him out to be and on playing against him, I really would have to agree that Darkeater Midir is every inch as bad as they say he is!
So, why is Midir so tough??? Well again similar to Slave Knight Gael, this boss has a MASSIVE health pool (nearly 16000 points!) so it takes AGES to bring his health bar down and not only that Midir has his own mix of devastating attacks, which can totally wipe you out if you are not prepared for them.
As for more detail on Midir's attacks, well...for starters Midir will come at you with some brutal claw swipes, which can deal out alot of damage as well as a nasty tail lash. Midir can also follow up this with some fire breath attacks, which can be either breathed from in front of his body or underneath it if he manages to catch you running beneath him. Midir also in his first phase can deal out one of his most devastating attacks, which is a dark beam and if that hits you, its curtains! Midir can also dish out a critical attack, which can be particularly brutal as he grabs you and puts you in his jaws and chews you up! As for his second phase he uses primarily dark magic damage attacks such as mass infinity which fires a large number of projectiles towards you and a focused dark beam attack, which is just as brutal as his first phase one.
So, how do you beat Midir??? Good question and its one I am STILL trying to answer because at the time of typing this, I have not been successful so far at taking him on and keep getting killed again and again! So, if anyone does know how to really take him on and beat him properly, please send me answers on a postcard! ;-)
Well...what advice I can offer is basically in order to get good enough, you need to lock off Midir for the majority of the fight because locking on all the time can prove to be more dangerous and leave you very vulnerable to alot of his attacks. In fact the most common advice when it comes to melee is to keep attacking Midir's head as that is the area which takes the most damage but I've never really been successful in getting that far on a melee basis as of yet.
However another method is to use sorcery as there is a spell called Pestilent Mist, which is very effective against Midir as it will eat away at his health continually if you can cast it around Midir's body but the difficulty in this method is trying to avoid getting hit! In fact my best attempts at Midir so far have involved using this spell but I can only get about 80% of his health down before he wipes me out once I've used up all my Estus flasks! :-(
So, with Darkeater Midir, FromSoftware really did their homework with this one and gave us one of the most hellishly difficult bosses in gaming history to beat as his brutal melee and dark magic attacks can inflict some monstrous damage. And so far, Midir is the only boss in the Souls series to date I've failed to beat (well apart from Demon Souls as I've not played it yet) but I hope one day I will be able to take that big mother down!
And because of all of the above reasons, Darkeater Midir is undoubtedly the toughest boss in Dark
Souls III and just maybe also the entire Souls series!
UPDATE (on 05.12.18) - I FINALLY BEAT MIDIR!! :-)
Yep, I finally managed to beat the biggest and baddest boss using the Pestilent Mist sorcery spell but since I was unable to beat him alone, I got the NPC summon, Shira along for the fight and she managed to distract him and survived long enough for me to cast PM all over his ass and it worked! So there you go that's all 25 Dark Souls III bosses been beaten! :-)
Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
So, till the next one its bye fer now!
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