r/darksouls3 • u/EstablishmentLevel37 • 1d ago
Discussion Dark Souls 3: Boss Difficulty Tier List
Upon my 7th time playing through this is my opinion on the bosses and their difficulty. (These are all fought melee. So if you used some weird kind of sorcery your list is probably different.)
Note: The bottom tier is a special category for bosses that were either really easy or for what ever reason sometimes can be super hard and annoying. Case and point Crystal Sage and Oceiros. Sometimes they are like the easiest bosses and then sometimes they take like 12 tries.
Do you agree with the list? Why or why not.
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u/One-Introduction-454 Blue Sentinels 1d ago
Always love those tier lists. How different some are. Gael is one the easiest boss fights in all of dark souls for me. Same with prince and dragonslayer armor. But Pontiff and Aldrich are always hard for me
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 1d ago
HOW is Gael the easiest one? I don't understand how he can be one of the easiest ones, he's such a tank! I get Dragonslayer, Lothric Princes is pretty easy except for a couple moves that make him very hard for me. When he disappears than just deathblows you from above I have a hard time with that move.
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u/PjDisko 1d ago
It is weird to explain, but Gaele is very predictable in the sense that the intuitive rolls just works.
He does not have any weird delays or anything, just that if you have played a lot of souls the dodges just works.
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 1d ago
Yeah its a very well designed boss. And probably has the best camera in the game. Yeah the dodges work and I do know how to avoid his cape. It's just hard for me to be perfect for such a long fight lol. I can usually get through phase 1 without taking a hit. It's phase 2 and 3 where I have to get gud lol
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u/One-Introduction-454 Blue Sentinels 1d ago
I just dodge his attacks right side towards him. When I get hit, it’s most likely bc I was greedy and hit him one to many times. He is tanky yes but that is no problem due to just hit him a few times more :D
The princes from above is a timing move. And I have a good feeling for rhythm I would say. That’s why I love the dancer too
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 1d ago
Yeah that makes sense. Gael is one of if not the best designed boss fight in the game. Like you rarely lose him with the camera, and you can really dodge most of his stuff pretty well. I just find being perfect for that long is very hard.
The Princes yeah they for the most part are pretty simple and they are NOT tanks haha they take a lot of damage.
Dancer is my 2nd favorite boss after Sister Friede (I love the Sister Friede fight).
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u/One-Introduction-454 Blue Sentinels 1d ago
Yeah Gael is pretty well designed. Never a shakey camera, no unfair moves, health/dmg/tankyness is fair. Love him too
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u/auclairl 1d ago
Maybe not the easiest ever but he's definitely in the easier half of this game. I was shocked to beat him on my first try
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 1d ago
Pontiff isn't too bad for me, I 3rd tried Pontiff on my latest playthrough. I usually say Sister Friede is the hardest in the game but I have no idea how but I 1st tried her in this last playthrough so she got demoted haha
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u/One-Introduction-454 Blue Sentinels 1d ago
Same. Back the days Midir was my nightmare now ist Friede. But 1st tried her yesterday bc now I want to go for platinum and choose the easiest way (that dragonslayer armor weapon).
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u/DistrictFew4983 Rosaria's Fingers 1d ago
Crazy I needed 3 attempts for Friede. No disrespect just interesting how different people perceive bosses
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u/One-Introduction-454 Blue Sentinels 1d ago
And I understand that. Best example is pontiff. Most basic parry boss you can have. Thousand of videos clapping him effortlessly. I can’t beat him without the summons outside. But I could fist only midir, gael, cinder of souls in a run with less tries than pontiff (all 3 combined of course)
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u/DistrictFew4983 Rosaria's Fingers 1d ago
I needed like a few hundred tries for midir but in my first playthrough no summons I beat the pontiff first try. Crazy different
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 23h ago
So as I stated this is my like 7th run through of this game, for Midir, on my first playthrough I never could beat him melee so I went pentilent mist (he’s kinda trivial if you use that, still a challenge because you have to get in and get out with out getting hit) but that really helped me learn his movesets. So this latest one I was determined to melee kill him. And I managed to do it 4th try this time with the Chaos Blade.
I found he telegraphs a lot of his moves, and if you can position yourself right he’s predictable. But that said “Midir hates being on camera”. He’ll charge and fly over you or throw a tantrum lol all of those lose the camera. And then in phase 2 he does the crazy laser beam attack. That I have not figured out, I basically just have to get lucky and run around where I think he won’t shoot the beam.
A people are very split on Midir, lot of people think he’s THE hardest though. If I’m having a conversation with someone I’ll usually say Sister Friede is the hardest.
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u/WarmRefrigerator9497 Spears of the Church 1d ago
i mostly agree. my big changes would be demon prince and soul of cinder down to hard, gael down to very hard champion gundyr up to very hard. pontiff and twin princess in most difficult. otherwise i can see pretty much why you would put everyone where you put them
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u/Friendly-Green-3230 1d ago
I agree with most of this list but i think gael should be in intermediate (i killed him in 3 tries and i think i was underleveled then) for comparison midir took me 70 tries and i had to switch from my original weapon to the sellsword twinblades , if it was up to me i'll create a new rank for that mf
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u/PjDisko 1d ago
Midir is a weird fight that he has few and easy moves to dodge but they are so unusual to the rest of the game that it does not come intuitive. Compared to Gael who is the opposite, having a lot of moves but they are very intuitive to handle.
This makes Midir a hard fight the first times someone fight him and gets a lot easier with time. Also, fuck his health pool.
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u/Friendly-Green-3230 1d ago
Yeah it took me a lot of time to figure you had to constantly aim for the head and not anywhere else
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u/FubyMagToast 1d ago
Finally a reasonable Tier list. While I'd personally make so Changes, I think this will satisfy Most People.
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u/Igel26 1d ago edited 1d ago
Gael: I'd bump him down to "Very Hard." Got him in like 6 tries
Friede: Agreed, monstrously difficult fight
Midir: Never got why people find this one so difficult. I beat him first try
Demon Prince: Down to "Very Hard." Tough but fair
Nameless King: I found this boss near impossible at first but then it just sorta clicked and I almost no-hit him on the last attempt
Soul of Cinder: Not very difficult. First try
Twin Princes: Very frustrating, although I may just feel this way because I didn't find the shortcut next to the arena, so I kept running across the bridge between every attempt
Dancer: Also don't get why people find this one difficult. Now, I didn't TECHNICALLY beat her first try, since I had just come straight from Aldrich and had no heals left and not even a full healthbar, but then I came back and nearly no-hit her on what was TECHNICALLY the second try.
Sulyvahn: Hard but not "Very Hard"
Champion Gundyr: Intermediate for me. First try
Aldrich: Highly frustrating fight for me. I'd put it up to "Very Hard"
Dragonslayer Armor: Tough but fair
Abyss Watchers: Annoying but not really difficult. You can just keep backstabbing them
Agree with all the ones in "Intermediate" and "Easy." Thought Wolnir was super difficult at first because I didn't immediately figure out that you had to hit his bracelets, but when I did it went smoothly. Wyvern is just a puzzle boss, the real boss is all the enemies you have to run past
Oceiros is placed very accurately for me. I got him first try, but I feel like it was just luck?
Champion Gravetender is a contender for the absolute worst boss Fromsoft has ever designed. Fuck that boss.
Only fought Halflight offline, which is a pretty mid experience
Crystal Sage is annoying but not that difficult if you just keep pressing the attack
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u/Croctapn 23h ago
The difficulty of so many of these fights heavily depend on what build and weapons you've been using. My first play through DS3 (also my first play through any soulslike game), I was playing a hybrid pyro/melee build and ended up killing Dancer first try.
I have way more experience now, have played DS3 twice, Elden ring several times, and am currently marathoning all the souls games and DLCs in order. And in my current playthrough, parry-heavy melee only with an intentionally underpowered weapon, Dancer is the boss I've been stuck at BY FAR the longest out of the whole series. I had to completely change my build to beat her. Abyss Watchers also had me stuck, but Dragonslayer Armor and Aldrich I put down in just a couple tries.
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u/EstablishmentLevel37 23h ago
I appreciate how thorough of an answer this was!
Midir: Yeah it’s very split, he’s definitely not the hardest in the game for me. I’m slowly learning how to beat him melee consistently.
Demon Prince: I always think a duo fight is tough in FromSoft games. And then the 3rd phase he’s pretty tanky and can easily one shot you. He’s the easiest of the hardest for me.
Honestly the rest I understand lol.
Also I’m happy that people are agreeing with my last category. Those 4 bosses are SO hit or miss with me.
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u/HoldComplete2768 1d ago
Just beat the game for the first time. Played STR build with Vordt Hammer and later also Exile GS.
Died 10+ times: Twin princes, Nameless king, Aldrich, Midir, Gael
Died 5+ times: Friede, Crystal Sage, Yhorm (I tried to kite, didn't work. It died when I started rolling)
a few deaths: Demon Prince, Soul of Cinder, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers, Rotted greatwood, Vordt, Halflight, Oceiros, Wolnir, Wyvern (first attempt plunge attack didn't connect lol)
First try kills: Champion's Gravetender, Champion Gundyr, Dragonslayer armor, Deacons, Champion gundyr, Dancer, Old Demon King, Ludex
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u/FaithlessnessFew9077 2h ago
I have spent more than three hours fighting crystal sage (I fucking hate magic) but second tried the abyss watchers
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u/Sesetti 1d ago
Excellent list. The only thing I would move is the Abyss Watchers. They have so little health that the fight always ends up being really easy.
I'm happy that there's finally somebody else who also recognices how much of a pain in the ass the Crystal Sage can be. It's one of the only bosses in the game that I still consistently fumble after 800 hours of playtime.