10. Celestial Emissaries – Bloodborne
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
Author’s Note: For this ranking, we factored in everything from difficulty to design to the actual gameplay mechanics of the fight. While lore is important, we did not weigh it nearly as heavily as the other areas.
While Bloodborne perhaps has some of the best bosses in the entire series, it also gave players the Celestial Emissaries and Living Failures. We decided on the little blue guys for the number 10 spot, as they barely put up a fight and output a very small amount of damage. Mob bosses have always been fairly disappointing since the player usually can just decimate everyone in front of them with no issue.
Even when the fight shifts to phase two and the main Emissary enlarges, this only makes the encounter easier since you won’t lose your target in a crowd. They lack a real diverse pool of attacks and any observant player can easily go through this entire fight without being hit. Bonus points if you hit the main enemy with a Shaman Bone Blade and make all of its friends hostile so they do the work for you.
9. Dragon God – Demon’s Souls
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
For a boss named Dragon God, one would think that this fight is going to be filled with epic and cheer-worthy moments. Well, you’d be wrong. Your weapons do literally nothing to this giant mythical beast and you’re forced to try and activate a handful of ballistas scattered about the wall. Even though this is thematic for the boss itself, its actual mechanics undermine the enjoyment of this fight.
Gimmick battles rarely work in the Soulsborne series, and Dragon God is no exception to this rule. After all, your entire fight is just baiting this reptile into attacking the rubble so you can reach the designated area. Well, at least the cutscenes are cool, right?
8. Royal Rat Authority – Dark Souls II
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
While the actual boss of this fight is nothing special, one will have to survive the swarm of poisonous rats that come flooding out in the beginning. These little guys attack extremely fast, so if you don’t kill them quick enough it will be game over. It’s an annoying way to start out a fight, especially since you could be fighting the larger rat while under the effects of being Toxic.
As for the actual boss itself, the giant rat is nothing special and has a fairly predictable move set. It feels like this was From Software’s attempt at another Sif, but it just failed spectacularly.
7. Red Dragon – Demon’s Souls
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
Welcome to From Software’s arrow simulator. In order to defeat this fly menace, players will need to try and time their shots so they hit the Red Dragon when it passes by. The fight is not only laughably easy but take can take forever depending on your aim and the fact that the Red Dragon’s flight pattern is rather lengthy.
There’s nothing special, engaging, or even remotely fun about this boss fight. Not to mention it’s nearly impossible to be hit by the flame attack, so the only thing you’re in danger of with this fight is falling asleep.
6. Dragonrider – Dark Souls II
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
The Dragonrider is a case of an awesome visual design going to complete waste, as you’ll end up killing this boss within a minute if you’re clever. While the boss fight itself is incredibly straightforward, it’s possible to just bait the Dragonrider into attacking you by the ledge so that when he turns the big lug just falls to his death.
Even if you don’t use the environment to kill him, this boss fight is still not terribly difficult thanks to his slow move set. While the actual design for this knight is visually awesome, he just doesn’t bring anything to the table that makes him a memorable battle.
5. Ancient Wyvern – Dark Souls III
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
The problem with the Ancient Wyvern fight in Dark Souls III is that it never truly feels like a boss fight despite being billed as one. The arena itself looks cool, but once you begin the battle it quickly becomes apparent that this is a case of just traversing through the enemy-filled ruins so you can stab the giant beast in the face. Yes, plunge attacking a dragon is cool, but the entire fight is easy and completely underwhelming – especially for a late game boss.
Compounding the issue further is that you don’t need to fight the snake people to progress, so players can just sprint by them like a madman. It really requires no skill outside of being able to dodge attacks, and is perhaps the worst boss in all of Dark Souls III.
4. Covetous Demon – Dark Souls II
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
There is no aspect of the Covetous Demon that is enjoyable. The battle is just bland, easy, and not terribly memorable in any way. This big fat demon spends most of the fight just lazily flopping around with attacks that are easily avoidable if you’re even remotely paying attention. What’s more frustrating about this boss is that there’s a cool idea buried underneath this bloated monstrosity.
The Covetous Demon has the ability to eat you and de-equip all your gear, which is really cool in theory. Yet, he barely ever uses this attack and when he does, you’ll have to be standing still directly in front of him for it to hit. Sorry big guy, you just aren’t worth the time it takes to kill you.
3. Prowling Magnus and Congregation – Dark Souls II
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
Mob fights have yet to really ever work in this series, and the Prowling Magnus is the best example of why. Not only are all of the enemies incredibly weak and easy to kill, but the main leader of them is somehow even more of a pushover. This group lacks any sense of coordination and the only way players could really die is by getting trapped in the pews.
Despite having a cool design and some interesting lore behind it, this congregation is incredibly forgettable. They never feel threatening or even put up much of a fight when you are close to them. Couple on their bland move sets that offer nothing of note, and you have one of the worst bosses in all of Dark Souls II.
2. Pinwheel – Dark Souls
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
Pinwheel is the butt of many jokes within the Dark Souls community, and for good reason. Not only is this boss laughably easy to kill, but he’s probably the quickest boss to kill in the entire series. It will take me longer to write this segment than it would for a player to meet Pinwheel, watch his cutscene, and then kill him. Most players don’t even know Pinwheel’s move set because the poor guy is dead before he even has a chance to attack.
He also has a really bland arena that’s not visually interesting and pretty much boils down to a long dark room. While Pinwheel is memorable, it’s for all the wrong reasons, as he still stands as one of the quickest bosses to kill in all of Soulsborne.
1. The Bed of Chaos – Dark Souls
The 10 Worst Soulsborne Bosses Ranked
As if it could be any other boss. The Bed of Chaos is undoubtedly the worst boss in this entire lineup as it is nothing short of just frustrating. While fighting a giant tree is cool, the battle shifts to a platformer when The Bed of Chaos begins to crumble the floor. Dark Souls isn’t exactly known for its solid jumping mechanics, so why From Software decided to force a poorly designed platforming area is beyond us.
This gets even worse because The Bed of Chaos can just shove you into the massive holes it creates, making it even trickier to competently navigate the arena. If you manage to do this, then you’ll need to destroy to sections of the tree before killing what’s hiding out inside it. This is a gimmick fight and one that fails miserably at trying to be awe inspiring or different. Oh, did we mention when you die you have run forever to get back to this fight? The Bed of Chaos not only stands out as the worst boss in this franchise, but perhaps one of the worst in all of modern gaming.
Despite having dozens of memorable foes, even the Soulsborne series has some truly horrid boss battles. From bad mechanics to terrible A.I. to just poorly designed encounters, there is no doubt these bosses will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. At least The Ringed City DLC has to be better than this, right?
