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[Pejo]

Best: Soul of Cinder off the top of my head.

Worst: Dragon God. Genuinely bad all around. Boring too.

Edit: Don't know how I forgot Bed of Chaos. I'd still say Dragon God is worse.

I can get behind this. I want to finish the fight but the first stage's camera is complete basura.

I think Dragon God loses some points now that the series has been out for a bunch of games, but at the time, he was incredibly foreboding and there was a ton of spectacle there. Like oh shit...I have to kill THAT?! I vastly prefer that fight to Bed of Chaos, and still think it's got good spectacle, even if the mechanics and hit detection are a little bad for the flames.

Anyways, my #1 fight is Flamelurker from Demon's Souls. Still one of the hardest straight up bosses for me, if you don't abuse the stage and/or cheese him. Just incredibly aggressive. Also, to this day I have not beat him without the purple flame shield.

Worst fight for me is Darklurker. Just too finicky and a bit too much damage off of some of those skills. I also don't like forced ranged fights like this and Moonlight Butterfly.

 

[jacobs34]

I can't believe more people aren't going with Ornstein and Smough the tag team champions. It was this boss fight that set my expectations for the rest of the series. For me it had all the hallmarks of a good Soulsborne bossfight: it was a little cheesy, it required patience and good pattern recognition, there is strategy involved, and it felt amazing when beating them for the first time.

I've played every game in the series and there are so many memorable boss fights, but the O/S fight, and Anor Londo in general, is about as good as the series gets in my book.

 

[Akuun]

deleted

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Worst: Pinwheel - while I get that the point of the boss was that "getting to it" was the real challenge it was still such a non fight. If anyone died to this it was probably because they were being overly cautious and eventually he basically tanks the frame rate

Pinwheel is a decent boss if you go Gargoyles -> optionally Butterfly for blessed weapon ember -> Pinwheel, which I feel the developers intended you to do

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Worst fight for me is Darklurker. Just too finicky and a bit too much damage off of some of those skills. I also don't like forced ranged fights like this and Moonlight Butterfly.

Darklurker is definitely doable with pure melee. He's probably the best boss in base DS2, really.

 

[malboroking]

i think we can all agree that Bloodborne had the best bosses in the series

because more than 90% of them were beast which is the best thing for a boss to be, huge variety of bosses

and the worst bosses were in Dark souls 3 because they are repetitive and 80% of them are humanoid bosses which is HORRIBLE

I prefer the humanoid bosses by a mile.

 

[Manu]

Am I the only one surprised that there's 130+ bosses?

I've beaten all of them but I would've guessed less than half of that.

And DS2+DLC has 41 bosses. Almost 30% of the bosses are in just one game.

 

[Rush_Khan]

The best for me was probably Lady Maria, simply because it is the best swordfight in the entire series. I would have chosen Nameless King instead if it weren't for the obscene difficulty.

The worst for me is probably Micolash. It just sucks how much he runs and with all of the skeletons. I almost always use the poison knives / mirror spam cheese tactics whenever I face him.

 

[WheelHoss1]

Best: Gravity.

That dude is so OP. More deaths than all the others combined.

 

[John Kowalski]

My dude Artorias, The Abysswalker

 

[bigol]

I don't know one single best, there are many great ones. Kos, Artorias,Ornstein and Smough, Gael, Abyss Guardians, Father Gascoigne

I know the worst: Covetous Demon in Dark Souls 2. What was that? It's even worse than Bed of Chaos that at least had some lore explanation.

 

[Neptonic]

Pinwheel is a decent boss if you go Gargoyles -> optionally Butterfly for blessed weapon ember -> Pinwheel, which I feel the developers intended you to do

As someone who is currently playing DS1 for the first time, that doesn't sound like the intended path at all.

 

[SargerusBR]

As someone who is currently playing DS1 for the first time, that doesn't sound like the intended path at all.

It kinda makes sense tho, after arriving in Firelink one of the options is to go to the graveyard and the Catacombs but since the enemies are too high level at the time and immortal it makes sense to do that area later, after defeating the Gargoyles you find Andre and the passage to Darkroot, defeat the Butterfly and obtain the divine ember, which can be used to make divine weapons that are perfect against the enemies at the Catacombs.

 

[LowlySmokeGuy]

It kinda makes sense tho, after arriving in Firelink one of the options is to go to the graveyard and the Catacombs but since the enemies are too high level at the time and immortal it makes sense to do that area later, after defeating the Gargoyles you find Andre and the passage to Darkroot, defeat the Butterfly and obtain the divine ember, which can be used to make divine weapons that are perfect against the enemies at the Catacombs.

So what do you do after beating Pinwheel? You can't continue to Tomb of Giants or warp yet, so do you just walk back to Firelink? That seems like an inefficient path to me.

 

[Szadek]

Best is hard to pick, since BB and 3 have so many awesome one.
My usual picks are Lady Maria and Nameless King ( still need to play 3's dlc ).

Worst for me would be Ancient Dragon, but like half of the boss from DS2 also make a good case for themself+ a few boss fights from the first game.

 

[Steel]

So what do you do after beating Pinwheel? You can't continue to Tomb of Giants or warp yet, so do you just walk back to Firelink? That seems like an inefficient path to me.

That's the path I take for the rite of kindling. Pinwheel is still pathetically easy if you go that route, though. I wouldn't say pinwheel is a boss I hate. I simply nothing Pinwheel. Actually, I was a bit relieved the first time I beat him after getting savaged by the catacombs.

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

So what do you do after beating Pinwheel? You can't continue to Tomb of Giants or warp yet, so do you just walk back to Firelink? That seems like an inefficient path to me.

You can use a homeward bone to make it back out. The nearest bonfire isn't far.

I think a neat way to improve Dark Souls would be to make it so that you can't kindle bonfires at all until you get the rite of kindling from Pinwheel, and even then only allow you to get ten estus max from each bonfire. Then rebalance the Catacombs to be slightly more reasonable for low-level characters (but still harder than the "normal" paths. I think that would create interesting incentive to try going after Pinwheel with a low-level character - as it is, most players aren't going to fight him until lategame, where he ends up totally outclassed.

I'm still not sure if the intent behind Pinwheel was for him to be a boss you'd fight early on or if he was just always supposed to be a joke.

 

[IC5]

You can use a homeward bone to make it back out. The nearest bonfire isn't far.

I think a neat way to improve Dark Souls would be to make it so that you can't kindle bonfires at all until you get the rite of kindling from Pinwheel, and even then only allow you to get ten estus max from each bonfire. Then rebalance the Catacombs to be slightly more reasonable for low-level characters (but still harder than the "normal" paths. I think that would create interesting incentive to try going after Pinwheel with a low-level character - as it is, most players aren't going to fight him until lategame, where he ends up totally outclassed.

I'm still not sure if the intent behind Pinwheel was for him to be a boss you'd fight early on or if he was just always supposed to be a joke.

Once you learn some item locations and realize some things about the game, the catacombs cam be reasonable, right away.

 

[ajb1888]

Best: Lady Maria! The music, the lore, the 3rd phase. Incredibly epic! Gherman is up there too!

Worst: covetous demon.... Pinwheel is close though.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Although BB is my favourite Souls game, Artorias takes the cake as best Souls boss for me. Closely followed by Manus.

Man, Dark Souls had some quality DLC.

Worst one? Ancient Dragon. That fight was bullshit.

 

[silva1991]

So what do you do after beating Pinwheel? You can't continue to Tomb of Giants or warp yet, so do you just walk back to Firelink? That seems like an inefficient path to me.

I remember beating Pinwheel once and I actually went to the last bonefire in ToG early in the game before warping. I thought I was screwed, but I wasn't. It was just very very very hard for me to crawl my way back lol.

God i love that game.

 

[Martinski43]

Best: Lady Maria and Abyss Watchers

Worst: Well alot of DS2 bosses fits in here, like the boss where you fight a group of priests (?) in a small room. Prowling Magus and Congregation is the name of it.

 

[Vanadium]

The stupid tree and that fire guy I killed from hitting his arm in Dark Souls.


Also I hated Fume Knight in DS2, but he's not really bad, just a pain in the ass.


Flip Side: Artorius. Abyss Watchers.

Edit: Lothric and his brother partly because the music is wicked good.

 

[Pixieking]

Worst - -Capra Demon, Bed of Chaos, Micolash

I'd go with these three.

Simply, none of them are fun, mostly because they're a chore to get through: Capra due to camera, Chaos because of cheap deaths, Micolash due to having to chase him so much. I don't mind dying in Souls games, but dying due to camera, unlucky insta-kill, or because I mistimed an attack after chasing around a maze for 10 minutes is just bad design. The very worst of videogames, distilled into three bosses and their arenas.

 

[Rektash]

My out of order top 5:

- Orphan of Kos (Mechanically speaking this is the best fight in the Souls series)
- Ludwig the Accursed (Incredible presentation and a very fun fight)
- Sister Friede (Similar to Ludwig: Well presented and very fun three stage rodeo. My favorite bossfight in dks 3)
- Smough & Ornstein (An absolute classic)
- Gherman (While I do think this fight is a little bit too easy overall it makes up for it with its amazing presentation and the fact that it's easily the most emotional fight in the Souls series.)


My out of order bottom 5:

- Pinwheel (Yeah, right...)
- Ancient Dragon (Who designed this and thought this was a good idea?)
- Royal Rat Vanguard (how is this even a boss?)
- Crystal Sag....ZZZzzzzz
- Bed of Chaos (Quite possible the worst boss in the Souls franchise)

 

[hydrophilic attack]

It kinda makes sense tho, after arriving in Firelink one of the options is to go to the graveyard and the Catacombs but since the enemies are too high level at the time and immortal it makes sense to do that area later, after defeating the Gargoyles you find Andre and the passage to Darkroot, defeat the Butterfly and obtain the divine ember, which can be used to make divine weapons that are perfect against the enemies at the Catacombs.

Yup. Plus, the game draws your attention towards the Catacombs after the Gargoyles by having the cleric expedition leave at that point. There is also an encounter with Patches in the catacombs that you can only get if you go there early. And the Rite of Kindling is a very useful prize early on.

 

[roflwaffles]

Honestly, I think Nameless King and Soul of Cinder are a bit overrated, IMO of course.

Nameless King is a fine fight but the King of Storms phase is a snorefest and a battle with the camera which drags the experience down. The Nameless King himself is tough but I find the fight a bit repetitive.

Soul of Cinder's first phase is interesting but I find the second "Gwyn" phase boring, I think it's mainly because I haven't finished DS1 and I don't have nostalgia for it. Also, he kind of just appears and it feels very video-gamey instead of organically part of the story for the final boss, although I'm sure others disagree. Nice music though.

This may be heresy but I think Gael, Demon Prince, Champion Gundyr, and Twin Princes are all superior boss experiences in the same game. I would also put Abyss Watchers there but the difficulty isn't there - it's just a fun boss.

 

[Calamari41]

Worst: Covetous Demon probably. Literally a blob of shit.

This post got me thinking. I love Dark Souls 2 as much as all of the other games, but many of the bosses could have just as easily been normal enemies and nobody would have blinked.

Dragonrider, Ruin Sentinels, Skeleton Lords, Covetous Demon, Royal Rat Authority and Vanguard, Prowling Magus and Congregation, Dragonriders again... honestly, if you entered their rooms and there was no fog gate and no health bar showed up, I don't think people would think anything of it beyond them just being tough, unique enemies.

 

[K' Dash]

3 games and they couldn't do a boss as Epic as Executioner Smough and Dragon Slayer Ornstein.

 

[YoRHa No.2 Type B]

Friede & Maria

 

[kromeo]

I hated Allant so much I eventually resorted to cheating and poison clouded him to death, only boss I never beat fairly

The fight in the series that actually killed me more times than any boss was black phantom Scirvir, his instant cast one shot magic was bs (I know there's a cheap way to beat him but I didn't realise until after)

 

[test_account]

Currently playing through Dark Souls 1 again and i feel that Lord Nito is kinda bullshit with those ~10 skeletons constantly spawning. Just did coop and had 4 skeletons attacking me at once, died fast. I'm sure its possible to cheese Lord Nito with some fire or sorcery spells, but melee is harder.

Not sure what i would say is the best boss fight. I do particularly remember Tower Knight from Demon's Souls though, the first big boss i encountered in the Souls games. But there are a lot of great boss fights, thats for sure

 

[jviggy43]

Currently playing through Dark Souls 1 again and i feel that Lord Nito is kinda bullshit with those ~10 skeletons constantly spawning. Just did coop and had 4 skeletons attacking me at once, died fast. I'm sure its possible to cheese Lord Nito with some fire or sorcery spells, but melee is harder.

Not sure what i would say is the best boss fight. I do particularly remember Tower Knight from Demon's Souls though, the first big boss i encountered in the Souls games. But there are a lot of great boss fights, thats for sure

This is true of like 90% of the bosses in this series.

 

[tiebreaker]

I really like Blood Starved Beast. She is plain insane, and the music also adds tension to the battle.

 

[GermanZepp]

I didnt fight any DLC boss in souls saga. The battle that i remember the most was Flamelurker, let me tell you i was hopeless, the running to get there the falling even thru the shorcut with the cat ring.

After beat him dying dozens of times learn that you could use some stealth ring and magic to get behind him and dont trigger the fight, then you use poison cloud to slooooowly kill him.

Sure, i was a newbe back then.

The worst?

hmmmmm, maybe some from DS2 i think those are less inspired, but a dont remember well.

 

[test_account]

This is true of like 90% of the bosses in this series.

To a certain degree, thats true, but i feel that most bosses can be learned with melee. Having to deal with so many extra enemies just makes it a lot harder. Its not just about avoiding one big enemy.

 

[Fisty]

Demons Souls has the best boss fights, but unfortunately most of them can be cheesed pretty bad. False King tore me up 3 or 4 times before I figured out you can just stand at the entrance and shoot arrows over the stairs until he's dead

 

[zma1013]

Best: Ludwig from Bloodborne. The design, the animation, the attacks, the mid-fight cinematic, the 2nd phase transformation, the music, the god damned wonderful music! Add to that he was pretty tough which meant endless opportunities to replay him because so many people needed help. I was Ludwig the Holyslayer after co-op helping probably over a hundred times or more.

Worst: Yep, it's Bed of Chaos. It's a shame it's so bad because I really like the visual design and lore of the boss but fighting it is terrible. The most fun part is sliding down the ramp, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

[autoduelist]

Conceptually, I think Old Monk is brilliant in Demon's. Far from my favorite in practice, though.

Maybe 4 Kings? Realllllly hard to pick.

 

[Lulubop]

Damn, no real love for the Twin Princes?

Easily my favorite in the series. Music, atmosphere, lore, character designs, arena, moveset. GOAT

Worst, prob some gank squad shit in 2.

 

[gaugebozo]

I can't even believe people are not saying thw worst fight was Micolash. Not only was the fight boring, it was fucking annoying! He spams the same phrases and runs from you. WTF!?

I'm going to stick to Dark souls, I haven't played Demons, and Bloodborne felt different enough to leave separate.
Best boss: Artorias. Absolutely amazing lore (so good he gives two other bosses--sif and abyss watchers--amazing lore), such a great intro, great moveset, perfect challenge level where it tests all of your abilities without feeling cheap.
Runners up: Pontiff (love his moveset, the ratchet in difficulty, and his fucking evil lore), Gael (still haven't beaten him!), Asylum Demon (for the introduction to the game. We made it, dawg!)

Worst: Micolash. Eat a million dicks.
Runners up: all the boring gimmicks. Rats, Covetous, Yhorm, Bed of Chaos, Rom.

 

[pa22word]

Currently playing through Dark Souls 1 again and i feel that Lord Nito is kinda bullshit with those ~10 skeletons constantly spawning. Just did coop and had 4 skeletons attacking me at once, died fast. I'm sure its possible to cheese Lord Nito with some fire or sorcery spells, but melee is harder.

Not sure what i would say is the best boss fight. I do particularly remember Tower Knight from Demon's Souls though, the first big boss i encountered in the Souls games. But there are a lot of great boss fights, thats for sure

Nito is painless bro just hit and run while ignoring the skeletons. His health bar is really low so at that point in the game you can just sit back and trade hits with him. Other than his grab (which has a huge wind up) there's nothing in his arsenal that does enough damage to be dangerous.

Also try using a weapon with a sweeping attack if the skeletons are still cheesing in hits and annoying you. They have little poise so even a crap longsword will work to stun them and smack nito at the same time.

 

[gaugebozo]

I've never died to Nito. Divine weapons mess those skeletons up, then he's easy on his own.

 

[Jawbreaker]

I can't even believe people are not saying thw worst fight was Micolash. Not only was the fight boring, it was fucking annoying! He spams the same phrases and runs from you. WTF!?

I'm going to stick to Dark souls, I haven't played Demons, and Bloodborne felt different enough to leave separate.
Best boss: Artorias. Absolutely amazing lore (so good he gives two other bosses--sif and abyss watchers--amazing lore), such a great intro, great moveset, perfect challenge level where it tests all of your abilities without feeling cheap.
Runners up: Pontiff (love his moveset, the ratchet in difficulty, and his fucking evil lore), Gael (still haven't beaten him!), Asylum Demon (for the introduction to the game. We made it, dawg!)

Worst: Micolash. Eat a million dicks.
Runners up: all the boring gimmicks. Rats, Covetous, Yhorm, Bed of Chaos, Rom.

I love that fight. It's a subversion of your usual encounters with aggressive enemies that chase after you, and instead has a dude with a cage on his head mocking you and running away.

 

[vocab]

People remember bed of chaos, but they dont remember centipede demon cause its ass. Dumb fight, in a dumb room.

My vote for worst: Lud & Zallen, the King's Pets. A rehash of Aava, the King's Pet. IT'S THE SAME FIGHT BUT TWO OF THEM WOW.
My vote for best: Nameless king, Maneater, Midir

 

[pa22word]

I love that fight. It's a subversion of your usual encounters with aggressive enemies that chase after you, and instead has a dude with a cage on his head mocking you and running away.

It's thematically interesting for sure, but on repeat playthroughs it can get rather tedious. I wouldn't ever call it a bad fight or even close to the bottom of the barrel fights in the series though. To each their own I guess

 

[Breads]

I refuse to chose between Burnt Ivory King, Sir Alonne, and Fume Knight.

Fume Knight was the funner fight, Sir Alonne had atmosphere for days, and Burnt Ivory King was so god damn cool the first time around.

Worst definitely goes to Dirty Colossus with Leech Monger at a close second.

 

[pa22word]

People remember bed of chaos, but they dont remember centipede demon cause its ass. Dumb fight, in a dumb room.

My vote for worst: Lud & Zallen, the King's Pets. A rehash of Aava, the King's Pet. IT'S THE SAME FIGHT BUT TWO OF THEM WOW.
My vote for best: Nameless king, Maneater, Midir

Nameless king is soooo fucking good. I've probably spent 6 hours of my life mauling him for other players in coop, and I generally never do coop in the Souls series. I just love the fight that much.

The first time I fought him we went down to the wire, and actually ended up killing each other. His death animation was shorter than mine though, so I was credited with the W. Honestly fuck the dlc, if the series as it is had ended precisely that way for me I would have been utterly content. Awesome end moment for a brilliant series. The DLC being kind of boring anyways is just a sour note on top of that, but I digress.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

Tower Knight was so god damn awesome.

 

[DoubleTake]

Orphan of Kos is by far the best fight in my opinion. No boss in the series has a phase as heart pumping and relentless as its second, and I feel he's the best animated boss From has ever made. He also represents the point at which all of BB's fuckery starts.

If I ever need to explain to someone what Bloodborne is all about, i'll show them Orphan's intro cutscene and the fight. Perfect encapsulation of the game.

Worst? Gank Squad. Never before have I been so upset by a boss fight. Absolute trash.