In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a list of the toughest bosses in the Soulsborne series, which includes games known for their challenging difficulty and gameplay. FromSoftware, the studio behind these games, has gained a reputation for creating punishing titles that test players to their limits. Fans have dubbed this brand of difficulty "Soulsborne," encompassing not just the Souls series and Bloodborne but also newer titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring.

1. Malenia, Blade of Miquella

Malenia, Blade of Miquella, is widely considered to be the toughest boss in the entire Soulsborne series. Before the fight begins, she boasts that she has never been defeated. While this might seem like an arrogant statement to experienced Soulsborne players, it serves as a warning of just how formidable she is. Malenia is incredibly fast, precise, and aggressive, and she has the ability to steal life with every hit she lands on the player. This means that even a single mistake can fully heal her.

Malenia's second phase is even more challenging than the first, as she introduces new attacks that strike fear into the hearts of players. These include a scarlet rot effect, copies of herself, and a massive AOE that takes a long time to dissipate. No matter how players try to evade or prepare for the fight, Malenia always manages to send them to their doom. With every mistake players make, Malenia reveals just how terrifyingly strong she is.

2. Orphan of Kos

The Orphan of Kos is widely considered one of the most challenging bosses in both Bloodborne and the entire Soulsborne series. Known for being extremely aggressive, the Orphan charges at players as soon as they approach and unleashes a relentless assault with attacks that deal massive amounts of damage.

During the boss's second phase, it becomes even more unpredictable, as it jumps around the arena and uses lightning attacks in combination with quick, powerful strikes that get up close and personal. In a game that typically rewards players for being aggressive, the Orphan of Kos stands out as the ultimate example of this style. The only way to defeat this boss is to be equally aggressive while also paying close attention to its moves and attacks.

3. Isshin the Sword Saint

Isshin, the Sword Saint, is the final boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and is considered one of the most challenging bosses in the Soulsborne series due to his aggressive and precise attacks, lightning-fast speed, long combos, and large AOE's. The fight against Isshin is a true test of a player's skill and pushes them to their limits, with three incredibly long phases.

While the first phase is relatively easy, the next two become significantly harder as Isshin becomes faster, more unpredictable, and gains a second weapon that can deliver devastating AOE attacks. In the final phase, he also adds a lightning buff to all of his attacks, making them even more deadly. The entire fight is by far the longest in the game, and players must be close to flawless in their approach to have a chance of defeating this formidable sword saint.

4. Darkeater Midir

Darkeater Midir is considered one of the most challenging dragon bosses in the Soulsborne series, thanks to its impressive health bar and powerful AOE attacks, which range from fire blasts to dragon slashes. Midir's strength is unmatched and can send players back to the bonfire in just a few hits, regardless of their build.

Midir's encounter is designed to punish players who think they can simply tank every attack or defeat the boss by keeping their distance. Although Midir's strength and attack pattern are balanced and not excessively difficult or unfair, the fight remains incredibly challenging and is one of the bosses that is easier said than done. Despite this, some players may find hope in the fact that the fight is balanced and achievable with the right approach.

5. Sister Friede & Father Ariandel

Sister Friede and Father Ariandel, the final bosses in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC in Dark Souls 3, offer one of the toughest challenges in the Soulsborne series. This boss fight is unique in that it combines various difficult aspects of the Souls series. Sister Friede moves quickly around the map and can deliver a series of fast combos that cause a frostbite effect on players. Father Ariandel joins in the encounter at the start of the second phase, and his aggressive fire attacks have a large AOE that can pose a threat to players.

After defeating Ariandel, Friede enters her third phase, during which she adds a blackflame buff to her weapon and becomes even faster and more aggressive. Throughout the entire encounter, she periodically heals herself, which could cause players to panic if they are running low on flasks.

6. Demon of Hatred

The Demon of Hatred is known to be a boss that many players struggle with due to its highly aggressive nature and the numerous AOE attacks that it employs, which are incredibly challenging to avoid. Unlike other bosses in Sekiro that require precise timing and counters, the Demon of Hatred demands a different approach, forcing players to be aggressive and carefully observe its patterns to succeed.

Essentially, the encounter is reminiscent of a Bloodborne-style boss fight, but with the added challenge of having to adapt to a different gameplay style to emerge victorious.

7. Nameless King & King of the Storm

Considered by many as one of the most spectacular fights in the Soulsborne series, the boss battle takes place in a vast cloudy arena where the boss enters on a giant undead wyvern. Dealing with the King of the Storm alone is already difficult as it flies around and spews fire at players, while the Nameless King adds to the challenge with his lightning attacks, which he coordinates with the wyvern.

After players defeat the wyvern, the Nameless King becomes an entirely different challenge. He moves gracefully around the arena, unleashing long-range lightning strikes with a wide area of effect. The entire fight is incredibly tense, and players must be precise with their timing for both dodging and attacking as even one misstep can determine the outcome of the battle.

8. The Owl Father

The Owl Father is a boss in Sekiro that requires a special quest to be completed in order to face him. He is known for his relentless attacks and combos that can quickly take out players if they aren't careful. What sets him apart from other bosses in Sekiro is his ability to summon an owl that joins the fight in the second phase. This owl can fly around the arena and unleash powerful AOE explosions, as well as briefly become invisible, adding to the difficulty of the fight.

Overall, the Owl Father encounter is one that requires a great deal of patience and careful maneuvering in order to succeed.

9. Fume Knight

The dual-wielding knight is considered one of the toughest bosses in the Soulsborne series, mainly because of its fast movements and high-damage attacks. What sets it apart from other bosses is its ability to heal during the fight, which players can prevent by collecting Smelter Wedges. The importance of this task cannot be overstated, as the boss healing itself can easily result in defeat after multiple attempts.

Notably, a difficulty statistic released sometime after Dark Souls 2's release showed that the Fume Knight had a 93% failure rate across all platforms, further cementing its status as one of the hardest bosses in the entire series.

10. Ludwig, the Accursed

Ludwig, the Accursed, is a boss that is known for its aggressiveness and requires players to be on their toes constantly to avoid his wide sweeping attacks, high jumps, and dangerous charges that have the potential to knock players out in a single hit. His unyielding nature and relentless attacks don't give players any time to catch their breath and regroup.

When he enters his second phase, he wields a massive great sword that has a large area of effect attack capable of instantly taking down players who are attempting to keep their distance. His reputation as one of the toughest bosses is well-deserved as he forces players to match his level of aggression if they hope to have any chance of defeating him.

>>> Read more: List Of All Souls Games On PC And Console, Ranked

FromSoftware has created a brand new genre by itself, with the success of Dark Souls. Since then, many companies have tried to emulate the formula, to various degrees of success. However, nothing can beat the Souls sequels and spinoff created by FromSoft themselves.

In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase a list of all Souls Games on PC and Console, Ranked.

1. Elden Ring

Elden Ring is basically Dark Souls 4, or Dark Souls but now you can sneak, jump, and ride a steed around the open world areas. You start by creating a character and choosing a class to determine your starting gear and stats (e.g. Astrologer to be a spellcasting sorcerer, or Samurai to be a katana-weilding DEX melee build). You progress through the game by traveling around the map and finding items/gear to upgrade your equipment setup and defeating enemies to gain 'runes" that you can spend to level up or buy items from shops.

'Sites of grace' are the bonfire equivalents in Elden Ring, and most of the time they visually display a path of light that indicate the direction you need to go to progress the main story through the locations of major bosses. There are plenty of these grace sites littered everywhere in the open world and within dungeons so it is easy to fast travel to where you want to go immediately.

Elden Ring is an open-world game and there are various mini-dungeons/secrets hidden away in every corner of the map. It is to your advantage to seek out these locations to find rare materials and unique weaponry that may or may not change your play style altogether. The open world feels like there is always something waiting for you to discover, such as powerful enemies that drop unique weapon arts (ashes of war) or an NPC standing around waiting to offer you a quest. With the introduction of a day/night cycle, there are even some bosses that only spawn at nighttime in specific locations waiting to ambush you but offer unique drops as well.

Elden Ring, while imperfect, is the best implementation of an open-world action RPG that I've ever played. It feels like the culmination of every iteration of FromSoft's 'Souls' games into one truly amazing experience filled with intrigue, struggle, and eventual triumph.

2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

In Sekiro, you play a shinobi, a ninja, whose young master was kidnapped. The young master has a special heritage, that's why he matters so much to your enemy. To rescue him, you have to sneak and fight your way through historical Japan. Across your journey, you visit very different parts of the country. On the whole, the game is a mix of stealth and combat. That doesn't sound all that interesting at first, and yet Sekiro has, hands down, the best game design I have ever seen in a video game.

In many locations, it is up to the player whether to simply sneak past an enemy, sneak past an enemy, and then attack the enemy from behind, or seek direct combat. If you choose to play dirty and attack your enemies from behind, it not only gives you an advantage in combat, but it also fits nicely with the shinobi theme. If you choose direct combat, which is sometimes inevitable, the game thrives on the fact that you have to break through your opponents' cover in order to hit them with a death blow. This in turn leads to some really nice "finish" animations.

Defeating opponents is often a painful learning process because you have to learn how they move and when it is best to parry. Yet you are more engaged than frustrated in the process. If you die, there is the option to be revived. However, you lose half of your money and half of your experience points.

The level design is awesome because you can move horizontally and vertically, i.e. you can swing from rock to rock or climb trees with the help of your grabbling hook.

3. Dark Souls III

Personally, Dark Souls 3 has the best story and second best level design in the series after the original one. The game really doubles down on weapon and armor variety that leaves you satisfied. Anyone can find a playstyle that suits them better. The compact level design pushes players into various events in each area that needs you to carefully dissect otherwise seemingly impossible challenges.

The gameplay revolves around more dodging and favors an offensive playstyle as enemies are much more aggressive and fast compared to previous titles. The base game is well-crafted and executed but I can't say the same for the DLCs. DLCs feel like they don't want you to engage in combat and just run through everything. The game encourages you to react strategically and use your brain but DLC pushes you so much that after dying in some areas, you don't want to kill those 40 enemies that take 15 mins to go through again. They clearly went overboard here. It was fun for me to kill them all in the first run and then I sprinted past them. So be wary about this.

But the good part about the DLC is that the bosses are particularly well done and does the game favor greatly. Extremely hard bosses that require strict management and knowledge of the game's mechanics that make you fully use everything to get past. Almost every major encounter in the DLCs is memorable, so in the end, the downsides are forgivable.

Possibly the best PVP mechanics of the series here. Multiple factions attacking and defending each other, it's total chaos that always ends up as an exhilarating experience through and through. Absolutely brilliant soundtrack as icing on the cake. Definitely recommended and a must-play of the souls genre.

4. Bloodborne

The aesthetic is what mainly defines Bloodborne as its own separate thing within the Souls series. You don't get to see such beautiful, detailed and immersive victorian-fantasy worlds like Yharnam every day. Add From Software's expertly crafted passive storytelling and a bit of Lovecraftian inspiration, and you have yourself a game universe that is just a delight to get soaked in. It is impressive how Bloodborne, being a single game, has a lore that is just as compelling as the entire Dark Souls series as a whole.

In the gameplay department, Bloodborne is a faster-paced version of Dark Souls, with less emphasis on defending and more on being aggressive. Parrying was made easier than ever thanks to the inclusion of guns, and this is one of the things I love the most about Bloodborne. It's going to be hard to go back to the other Souls games and not be able to parry anything. However, this doesn't make the game any easier. Bloodborne is just as difficult as any other Souls game. Another great thing about combat is being able to regain health if you hit an enemy immediately after taking damage, which creates this very clever risk-reward dynamic at all times.

The amount of art and creativity that went into every aspect of Bloodborne's design is both admirable and delightful. Bloodborne won't win any awards on the technical aspect, but the levels still look fantastic, they have a lot of detail everywhere. I was initially worried that all of the game's areas would look too similar given the victorian setting, but fortunately, this isn't a problem. The soundtrack is also good, probably my favorite in the Souls series, along with Dark Souls 3.

5. Dark Souls

Dark Souls is easily one of the best ARPGs ever created in the last 20 years. A beautiful, varied and interconnected world, a good sense of risk and reward, well-designed levels, and boss fights. It feels very long and you will probably want to take a break for a while, but at the same time you'll want more and you'll just want to go ahead and try to kill the bad guy that made you rage over and over again. Some argue that the second half of the game suffers from a lack of time and a kind of rushed feeling to areas like Lost Izalith and The Tomb of the Giants.

For a true Dark Souls experience, you are gonna want to pick a build early. The starting classes help, giving you more points in a certain category, like Strength, Dexterity, or Vitality depending on your starting class. You will want to use levels from souls to help form your build.

The real part of Dark Souls is the Bosses. They are what the game is known for, and the game would be wildly different without them. Without spoiling too much, some of the bosses in this game have become my all-time favorites. 3 of the 4 DLC bosses and the boss at the end of Anor Londo are the true contenders.

6. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Compared to Dark Souls 1, this game is much more consistent in its quality, with lower highs but higher lows. There's nothing in DS2 that's awful on the level of Lost Izalith, but there's also nothing nearly as good as the Painted World outside of the DLC. However, with the DLC included for free in the SotFS edition, the game is elevated to much greater heights. Sinh, Fume Knight, and Ivory King are among the best bosses in all of Dark Souls, better than almost every fight from DS1 and a good chunk of the DS3 boss pool as well. They also contextualize the story of the game in a way that makes the game far more personal -- it's much easier to be invested in the world of DS2 compared to DS1 and 3 where the stories feel like a backdrop rather than motivation.

Combat is Dark Souls combat, I don't feel I need to explain much more than that. It lends itself more to larger groups of enemies, and magic is greatly improved, but it's still Dark Souls, and it's just as good as any other Dark Souls game -- faster than DS1 as your attack options are better, but slower than DS3 because multiple enemy encounters require patience and picking a good time to attack -- the Dual Pursuers in NG+ play more like Ornstein and Smough than as a generic combat encounter. PvP is also great, but my experience is too limited to comment on it in depth here.

The game is, unfortunately, ugly -- much less creative enemy designs than DS1 and 3, with most of the new enemies being fairly standard humanoid enemies or bland looking 'fantasy monster' -- Ogres, those weird mushroom things, and the long-armed green enemies in No Man's Wharf are all forgettable enemy designs, a far cry from the unique appearance of the basilisks, the unnatural bodies of the mimics, and the horrifying bug/human hybrids in the depths of Blighttown. Boss design suffers from a similar lack of quality -- there are no fights as visually striking as Sif, Gaping Dragon, or Gravelord Nito. The most creative boss design is the Executioner's Chariot, an optional boss that culminates in a fight against a pretty generic horse enemy with dodgy hitboxes.

7. Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls is the prototype for Dark Souls, with the familiar Souls combat (light/heavy attack, block, dodge...etc). Similar to Dark Souls, every action has a heavy, realistic feel to it, so your sword swings and shield blocks will have lifelike responses. These groundbreaking controls are complemented by beautiful visuals, stunning level design and extremely creative boss battles. For instance, one of the early levels will have you running through a castle timing your runs with the intervals of a dragon swooping down and breathing fire over your path. Scenes like this are so grandiose and epic in scale and really immerse you in the fantasy genre.

The most crippling flaw of Demon's Soul is a lack of a compelling story. This game is truly gameplay oriented, meaning you will be going from level to level without really feeling like you've accomplished much for any characters or made a significant progression throughout a long winding engaging story, unlike games like Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls. But Demon's Soul is a game you definitely need to experience to fall in love with. It is a game of absolutely monumental scale and you really deserve to see it for yourself.

The boss battles are also not that hard - they are very "primitive" and much easier than Dark Souls and if you have played DS1, you should have no problem speedrunning this one.

>>> Read more: Top 5 Best Resident Evil Games To Play In 2022

Dark Souls 3 is one of the most challenging videogames ever created – the maps are big and filled with traps, with vicious enemies ready to chew your head off. Furthermore, there are barely any tutorials incorporated inside the game, as you are expected to learn the ropes by yourself. Because of that, during their first playthrough, there are a lot of essential things that can be missed.

This article will reveal the top 10 things that people often missed when playing Dark Souls 3!

Fight the Dancer Early

It might seem off but you can trigger the Dancer of the Boreal Valley fight right after the first area of the game, which opens you up for the second branch of the story way earlier than expected – best for speedrunning. After receiving Emma’s Lothric Banner, just kill her - this event will cause the Dancer to drop down from the ceiling.

All the bosses in Dark Souls are tough – the dancer is not an exception. Fighting her when you are just starting out (especially if you are a new player) is a terrible idea. However, if you are a returning player, killing her is not an impossible task.

Removing the Carthus Sandworm

People who enter the Smouldering Lake usually just avoid the worm because of its size, speed, damage and lastly, appearance. The thing is like a tower filled with spikes that are constantly moving! The worm might seems un-killable, but there are actually a lot of ways to dispose of it. Firstly, you can bait the Giant Avelyn to shoot it, which is the best and fastest way since you are constantly getting shot at. The worm is also vulnerable to ranged attacks like arrows or magic. To characters specialized in close combat, you can bait out the worm’s lightning attack then slash away. Killing the beast net you 6,000 souls, the Lightning Stake Miracle, and an Undead Bone Shard.

How to use the Undead Bone Shard

Burning the Undead Bone Shards might seem like common sense, however, a lot of people have missed this playing through the beginning of the game. Only by burning those Shards would the power of your Estus Flask be unlocked – some casual players would simply pick up those items without knowing. Each Burned Shards would increase the amount of healing that Estus Flask provided each time.

How to cure hollowing

If you die when holding a dark sigil in your inventory, you would accumulate something called “hollowing”. After 15 times, your character appearance will become “hollow” with wrinkled skins and bones just like an undead. This is a nod to previous games, as the change in appearance does not affect your combat abilities. You can either use the Untrue Dark Ring to mask your appearance or cure it by giving the Fire Keeper a Fire Keeper Soul. Using Purging stones, visiting the Purging Monument and talking to Velka also reverse your hollowing.

Consuming all Souls by using the Shrine Handmaid

It is possible to accumulate hundreds of thousands of souls in the form of items inside your inventory, which you could then convert to soul points by eating the items one by one. However, there is a way to convert them all to soul points quickly: by selling soul items to the handmaid. You are not losing anything in the exchange since the maid buys souls with equal value. This action would save you a lot of time using those items over and over.

Get to the roof of firelink shrine

You can get to the roof of Firelink Shrine without having to obtain the tower key. Firstly, go to the upper part of the shrine, with a tree outside leaning against the roof. It might be hard, but you would have to jump and use it as a ramp to access. This might sound easy, but it is actually really difficult in practice. However, if you managed to do it, you would be able to access an assortment of rewards, including the Sunlight Armor of Solaire.

The mound-makers covenant.

The easiest to miss covenant. Before fighting the Curse Rotted Greatwood, you have to turn right at the burning tree in the Undead Settlement, break some barrels, then circle around the right side of the building next to the bridge. A ladder would appear in front of you – climb it and walk across the rooftop to a monster who’s carrying a giant cage.

Approach the cage and get inside it – your character will be teleported to a secret area in which Holy Knight Hodrick would give you the Mound-Maker covenant. Players who join the Mound Makers would become mad phantom upon entering others’ worlds.

Befriend the lonely giant on the top of the undead settlement

At one of the largest area in the undead settlement, you would see numerous spears pierce the ground everywhere – and that is the sign of what to come. On the top of the tower nearby, there is a friendly giant that throws huge spears at everything that moves. Talk to the guy and he would give you a white branch – which prevents you from taking damage from his spears. With this ability, you would gain a new ally and your journey in the Undead Settlement would become much easier.

Remove the maggots with your torch.

There are a lot of terrible enemies in Dark Souls 3, and Corpse-Grubs are the most annoying of them all. They are giant blobs of wiggling maggots that spawn in the Cathedral of the Deep and the Smouldering Lake. These guys are not that dangerous by themselves – the effect that caused by their attacks is. With just a swing of their arm, the player character would be cover from head to toe with maggots – which slowly buildup bleed damage until you are dead. There is only one way to shake those creatures off: with fire. Whipping out your torch would scatter them away from your body. This little trick would ensure that your journey through the Cathedral would be maggot-free.

Interacts with the Fire Keeper

Your one and only companion throughout the game, speaking with the Fire Keeper would reveal more about the world of Dark Souls 3 and its lore – most importantly, she is the only one who can level up your character. Adventuring in an unforgiving game like Dark Souls require you to be at your best to progress and that is why the Fire Keeper would be your best friend.

How to communicate with the Fire Keeper without talking? Just stand in front of her and make gestures. After that, she would respond in various ways like bowing, twirling or cradling her face, which is all infinitely cute. FromSoft did a good job in providing you with a way to communicate with your closest ally and companion.

After a long search, we have completed a list of best game deals for PS4. This is a mix of tactical, hyper-violent, and fancy boys titles that you might or might not like. But whatever the case, let's have a look at the best PS4 deals right now.

Coming in the first place we have the game Devil May Cry 5, where the boy-bands meet the demons. Now you could save off five pounds buying the game at the price point of £34.99 on Currys. And when you are on Currys, why not check out also the bundle of Fortnite Deep Freeze for the lowered price of just £16.99.

Big AAA titles

Next, coming from ShopTo we have the game Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition with the tag of £16.85, guaranteed to be cheaper than anywhere else.

Moreover, on PlayStation Store right now you could also get Hotline Miami. It is an ultra-violent shooter game just like in those films of Tarantino. And it has a lowered price of just £4.99. So go for it now!

On the same theme of ultra-violent, we also have Mortal Kombat XL. The fighting beat-em-up game will only cost you £16.99 on eBay, a better deal than anywhere else.

In the same time, the action adventure with Norse-theme Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in accordance with Argos has the lowered price of .£17.99

With ShopTo, we could also save a little bit of money on the pack of Dark Souls 3 and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with the price of £24.99.

Or on the other hands, just to base and get Dark Souls 3 for £12.85. And for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the cheapest place we have found it is ShopTo with the price for Game Of the Year edition at £14.99.

Casual games

If you are a fan of the point-&-click genre - then head over to The Game Collection to get the game Yesterday Origins for under £5.

Another amazing deal is for £21 you could grab  Space Hulk: Tactics ( a turn-based, Warhammer theme game) on Amazon.

At last, pay £19.99 on Amazon to enjoy Vampyr the blood-sucker evil.

Happy hunting for game deals guys, and don't forget to bring your hard drive.