Elden Ring Boss Order: How to Defeat Every Mandatory and Optional Boss in the Lands Between

I still remember the first time I stepped out of the Stranded Graveyard into Limgrave. The sight of the golden Erdtree was breathtaking, but then I ran straight into the Tree Sentinel and got absolutely pulverized. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the Lands Between, you are not alone. With 165 true bosses in the base game and another 83 tucked away in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, navigating this masterpiece is a massive undertaking.

Over my many playthroughs, I have tested dozens of builds, dug deep into the game’s hidden files, and analyzed the underlying math that governs how these bosses scale. Whether you are running a classic strength build or trying out the bleeding helicopter meta (which uses the Spinning Strikes Ash of War on a Grave Scythe), I am here to guide you through the optimal route. I will show you how to break the game’s posture mechanics, maximize your runes, and take down every major boss in a clean, logical order.

The Mathematics of Pain: Boss Scaling and Multiplayer Matchmaking

Before we jump into the optimal route, we need to talk about how the game’s engine actually scales boss encounters behind the scenes. This is crucial if you want to know what you are getting into when you summon a buddy or jump into New Game Plus.

When you start a new journey in NG+, the game does not just arbitrarily boost health. It scales boss parameters based on the specific region they inhabit, using a designated internal effect code. The formula is: Boss HP = ((Base HP x Map Multiplier) x Co-Op Modifier) x NG Factor.

Here are the regional difficulty multipliers the engine applies to boss health pools in the base game:

Once you push past your first playthrough and enter subsequent New Game Plus runs, the game scales these numbers even further:

If you prefer playing with friends, you need to watch out for the multiplayer health multiplier. In vanilla cooperative play, summoning one cooperator adds 60% to the boss’s base health pool, while summoning two cooperators adds 130%. If you are playing with the popular community-made Seamless Co-Op mod, the health scaling is calculated per player. For x total players (where x is greater than 1), the health modifier percentage per player (y) is: y = ((100 – 9.3) + 87(x – 1) + 9.3x^2) / x. This explains why bosses feel like massive damage sponges when you have a full squad of four or five people.

To keep co-op matching fair, the game uses strict formulas to calculate who you can connect with based on your Rune Level and weapon upgrades. If you are not using a multiplayer password, here is how the matchmaking limits are calculated from the host’s perspective:

• Cooperative Lower Limit: Host Level x 0.9, minus 10 levels
• Cooperative Upper Limit: Host Level x 1.1, plus 10 levels
• PVP Lower Limit: Host Level x 0.9
• PVP Upper Limit: Host Level x 1.1, plus 20 levels

The game also tracks the highest level weapon you have ever achieved:

Knowing these ranges has saved me from accidentally pushing my weapons too high and locking myself out of active co-op zones early in my runs.

Breaking Their Posture: The Hidden Stance Meter

If you want to feel like an absolute master in combat, you need to understand how stance damage actually works. Every boss has an invisible stance bar. Deplete it to zero, and you will hear that satisfying chime that lets you run in for a devastating critical hit.

Stance damage is determined entirely by your weapon class and the type of attack you use, completely independent of your raw stats. Here is a breakdown of the base stance damage dealt by different weapon types when used one-handed:

If you choose to two-hand your weapon, your light attacks deal 30% more stance damage, and your heavy attacks and guard counters get a 10% boost.

But here is the catch: if you stop attacking, the boss’s stance bar will rapidly regenerate. The delay before regeneration begins is calculated as: D = 5.0 + 0.077 x (S – 65), where S is the boss’s maximum stance threshold. Here is how that maps out for specific bosses:

Once that delay timer runs out, the boss recovers their stance at a blazing rate of 13 stance points per second.

My favorite pro-tip for managing this: any form of damage resets the recovery delay timer. If you are fighting Malenia and she jumps away, throw a single throwing dagger at the five-second mark. Even though the dagger deals negligible stance damage, it completely resets her 6.15-second delay, keeping her built-up posture damage locked in place. Just keep in mind that if you summon a co-op partner or NPC helper, the boss gets a massive defensive buff, taking 40% less stance damage from all attacks. Spirit Ashes, fortunately, do not apply this penalty.

The Ultimate Leveling and Progression Route

When planning out a run, I always look at the economic efficiency of my route. I use a metric called Runes-per-Second (RPS), which measures how fast you can kill a boss relative to the runes they reward you with.

Highly mobile or mechanics-heavy bosses like the tutorial Grafted Scion or the Royal Revenant in the Kingsrealm Ruins are terrible return-on-investment targets. They jump around constantly, deal high damage, and yield very low RPS. Clearing out a few camps or fighting standard dungeon bosses consistently ranks higher than their field counterparts.

To keep your leveling organic and smooth, structure your journey through these stages:

• Stage 1 (Limgrave Overworld and Coastal Cave) — Level 1 to 15, +0 to +2 standard: Hunt down the Demi-Human Chiefs, the Erdtree Burial Watchdog in Stormfoot Catacombs, and the Beastman of Farum Azula in Groveside Cave. Avoid the overworld Tree Sentinel and the tutorial Grafted Scion for now.
• Stage 2 (Weeping Peninsula and Southern Mines) — Level 15 to 25, +3 standard: Take down the Stonedigger Troll in the Limgrave Tunnels, clear out Castle Morne to defeat the Leonine Misbegotten, and pay a visit to Murkwater Cave to fight Patches. If you spare Patches, he becomes an incredibly useful merchant.
• Stage 3 (Stormveil Castle and Liurnia of the Lakes) — Level 25 to 40, +4 to +6 standard (+1 to +2 somber): Tackle Margit, the Fell Omen and Godrick the Grafted to secure your first Great Rune. Afterward, head into Raya Lucaria Academy to take down the Red Wolf of Radagon.
• Stage 4 (Altus Plateau, Mt. Gelmir, and Caelid) — Level 40 to 70, +7 to +12 standard (+3 to +5 somber): Defeat the Godskin Noble in Volcano Manor, obtain the Serpent-Hunter spear, and bring down Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. If you feel up for a challenge, head to Redmane Castle in Caelid to trigger the Radahn Festival and fight Starscourge Radahn.
• Stage 5 (Leyndell and Mountaintops of the Giants) — Level 70 to 100, +13 to +20 standard (+6 to +8 somber): Defeat the Draconic Tree Sentinel guarding the capital’s northeast gate, follow the grand branches to defeat the Golden Shade of Godfrey, and then defeat Morgott, the Omen King at the Elden Throne. Afterward, cross the Forbidden Lands to climb the Mountaintops and face the massive Fire Giant.
• Stage 6 (Crumbling Farum Azula and Secret Zones) — Level 100+, +25 standard (+10 somber): Progress through the floating ruins of Farum Azula to beat the Godskin Duo and Maliketh, the Black Blade. This will also unlock the path to the Haligtree, where you can challenge Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

The Critical Path: Walkthrough of the Mandatory Story Bosses

To finish the game and reach any of the endings, you need to defeat a minimum of 12 mandatory bosses. While the early game is incredibly flexible, allowing you to choose which two Shardbearers you want to defeat to gain access to Leyndell, the path becomes completely fixed once you defeat Morgott, the Omen King.

Margit, the Fell Omen

• Location: Stormhill, Castleward Tunnel
• Base HP: 4,174
• Max Stance: 80 poise (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 0% physical, 0% magic, 0% fire, 0% lightning, 40% holy

Margit is the ultimate gatekeeper, designed to teach you how to delay your rolls and manage your stamina. He uses slow, sweeping staff strikes paired with fast-summoned holy daggers.

To make this fight a breeze, head to Murkwater Cave in the ravine of Limgrave and find Patches. Beat him down until he surrenders, spare his life, and then open his shop menu to purchase Margit’s Shackle for 5,000 runes. You can activate this item twice during his first phase to slam Margit to the ground, giving you massive windows for fully charged heavy attacks. When he reaches 60% health, he summons a giant holy Kirkhammer and starts phase two.

His big hammer jump is your best opening: roll directly forward under his jump, turn around, and hit him with a heavy jump attack to quickly break his stance.

Godrick the Grafted

• Location: Stormveil Castle, Throne Room Plaza
• Base HP: 6,080
• Max Stance: 105 poise (8.08-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 40% holy

Godrick is a multi-limbed powerhouse, but he is actually much slower than he looks. He relies heavily on area-of-effect wind storms and heavy ground-shattering axe slams. Stick to standard physical, slash, or pierce weapons to beat Godrick, because he is highly resistant to holy damage.

When he begins his wind-up for his storm gusts, run away to bait his leaping follow-up, then roll directly behind him as he lands to execute a charged heavy attack. In phase two, he cuts off his arm and grafts a fire-breathing dragon head in its place. The moment he starts sweeping the arena with fire, run diagonally forward to his left side, and you will be completely safe from the flames and can easily stagger him for a critical strike.

Red Wolf of Radagon

• Location: Raya Lucaria Academy, Debate Parlor
• Base HP: 2,204
• Max Stance: 80 poise (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 40% holy

The Red Wolf is a pure glass cannon with a very low health pool but incredible speed, jumping across the arena while summoning homing glintstone blades and diving with a red magic sword. Use fast weapons like straight swords or claws here — slower colossal weapons struggle to catch him during his brief recovery frames.

Keep your distance while his glintstone blades are active, and dodge-roll perpendicularly to avoid them. The moment he executes his leaping sword slam, roll forward past his jaws and land a quick physical combo.

Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

• Location: Raya Lucaria Academy, Grand Library
• Base HP: 3,493 (Phase 1) and 4,097 (Phase 2)
• Max Stance: 0 poise (Phase 1) and 80 poise (Phase 2, 6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: -10% physical, 80% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 20% holy

In phase one, Rennala floats inside a glowing golden protective barrier. Search the library floor for the three juvenile scholars surrounded by glowing bubbles — hit all three and her barrier shatters, dropping her to the floor for a massive damage window.

Phase two takes you to a dream-like water arena where she casts powerful spells. Rennala has an astronomical 80% magic negation, so magic builds are severely penalized. If you are a caster, use physical-dealing sorceries like Rock Sling. At the very start of phase two, run straight at her and roll diagonally forward to slip past her opening Comet Azur beam, close the gap, and stun her with high-stagger physical weapons.

Godfrey, First Elden Lord (Golden Shade)

• Location: Leyndell Royal Capital, Erdtree Sanctuary
• Base HP: 7,099
• Max Stance: 120 poise (9.23-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 0% lightning, 40% holy

This golden apparition fights aggressively with long-reaching axe swings and ground stomps that send out massive cones of shattered rock. He is completely immune to all status effects and boasts 40% holy damage negation. Your best bet is lightning damage, as he has a flat 0% lightning negation. When he uses his ground stomp, jump directly over the shockwave to land a powerful heavy jump attack.

Morgott, the Omen King

• Location: Leyndell Royal Capital, Elden Throne
• Base HP: 10,399
• Max Stance: 80 poise (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 0% standard physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 40% holy

Morgott is the true identity of Margit, and he uses a much faster, deadlier version of his previous moveset. He summons massive showers of holy swords, imbues his cursed sword with bloodflame, and dashes across the arena with incredible speed. He is highly vulnerable to slash damage, so a quick bleed-inducing weapon like the Uchigatana can tear through his health pool. Wait for his delayed overhead sword slam, roll past his side, and punish him during his long recovery window.

Fire Giant

• Location: Flame Peak, Mountaintops of the Giants
• Base HP: 43,263
• Max Stance: 120 poise (9.23-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 0% physical, 0% magic, 50% fire, 0% lightning, 20% holy

In phase one, target the red splint wrapped around his left ankle. Attack it consistently until it shatters, exposing his injured leg and dealing massive posture damage that drops him to the snow. Watch out for his giant bronze dish — roll directly through the snow wave just as it is about to hit you.

In phase two, he rips his own leg off and rolls onto his back, using the massive mouth on his chest to rain fireballs down on the arena. Stay behind him and focus your attacks on his hind quarters.

Godskin Duo

• Location: Crumbling Farum Azula, Dragon Temple
• Base HP: 26,350 (shared pool)
• Max Stance: 80 poise each (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 20% holy

You must face both the Godskin Apostle and the Godskin Noble simultaneously, sharing a massive unified health pool. If you kill one, the other will eventually cast a spell to revive their fallen partner.

To make this fight incredibly simple, use Sleep Pots. Both Godskin enemies have an extremely low resistance to sleep. Throw one at the Noble to put him to sleep while you focus entirely on a one-on-one duel with the Apostle. Repeat this process to keep the arena under your control.

Maliketh, the Black Blade

• Location: Crumbling Farum Azula, Beside the Great Bridge
• Base HP: 10,620 (shared with Beast Clergyman)
• Max Stance: 80 poise (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 0% standard physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 40% holy

Maliketh begins as the Beast Clergyman, hurling fast stone projectiles and clawing at you with physical attacks. At 50% health, he draws his black blade and begins leaping across floating stone pillars while firing red waves of energy that reduce your maximum HP. Stay close to the pillars to break his line of sight. When he leaps into the air for his sweeping sword slam, roll directly toward him to end up beneath his legs, letting you attack him safely from behind as he lands.

Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing

• Location: Leyndell Ashen Capital, Erdtree Sanctuary
• Base HP: 6,240
• Max Stance: 80 poise (6.15-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 20% holy

Gideon will use a wide array of powerful spells he has observed throughout your journey. The absolute best way to handle him: when you first enter his arena, he will begin a lengthy monologue. Do not wait for him to finish. Run straight up to him and hit him with your strongest, high-stagger physical weapon. Because he has the low poise of a standard NPC, you can easily stagger-lock him into oblivion before he can even cast his first spell.

Godfrey, First Elden Lord and Hoarah Loux, Warrior

• Location: Leyndell Ashen Capital, Erdtree Sanctuary
• Base HP: 21,900 (Phase 1: 13,140 | Phase 2: 8,760)
• Max Stance: 120 poise (9.23-second recovery delay)
• Elemental Negations: 0% standard physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 40% holy

In phase one, Godfrey uses massive ground stomps that send shockwaves across the arena — jump directly over these to land heavy jump attacks. At 50% health, he discards his axe and fights bare-handed as Hoarah Loux, Warrior, chasing you down relentlessly and attempting to grab you for massive wrestling slams. When you see him raise both arms high to slam the ground, run away immediately to escape the massive shockwave blast.

Radagon of the Golden Order and Elden Beast

• Location: Leyndell Ashen Capital, Inside the Erdtree
• Base HP: 13,399 (Radagon) and 22,137 (Elden Beast)
• Max Stance: 120 poise (Radagon) and 150 poise (Elden Beast)
• Elemental Negations: Radagon: 10% physical, 20% magic, 20% fire, 20% lightning, 80% holy. Elden Beast: 10% physical, 40% magic, 40% fire, 40% lightning, 40% holy.

Radagon uses slow, delayed hammer swings that send out cracks of golden holy energy. He is extremely resistant to holy damage (80% negation) but highly vulnerable to fire. Bring fire-infused physical weapons or fire incantations to melt his health pool.

Once Radagon falls, you are immediately transported to face the Elden Beast, a massive cosmic dragon. Its 40% negation to all magic and elemental damage types means physical strike, slash, or pierce attacks are your absolute best option. Stay close to its belly and target its glowing purple spot to deal heavy critical damage.

Conquering the Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion

If you have purchased the massive expansion, you have access to a completely new realm with some of the most challenging bosses in the entire Souls franchise. To handle the high difficulty, make sure you collect Scadutree Fragments to boost your damage output and defense.

Divine Beast Dancing Lion

• Location: Belurat, Tower Settlement (Stagefront Site of Grace)
• Base HP: 22,000
• Weaknesses: Fire damage, bleed, frostbite

The Dancing Lion is a wild, multi-segmented beast that moves with strange, jerky cadences that make its hitboxes hard to read. In its second phase, it cycles between ice, lightning, and wind elements — stay aggressive. It is incredibly weak to fire damage, so using fire incantations like Messmer’s Flame can let you burst through its health pool before its elemental phases overwhelm you.

Rellana, Twin Moon Knight

• Location: Castle Ensis, Moongazing Grounds
• Base HP: 29,723
• Weaknesses: Pierce physical, lightning, bleed

Rellana is a Carian princess who chose to stand at Messmer’s side. She wields dual light greatswords infused with magic and fire, putting out relentless physical combos. She has a massive 40% negation to slash and magic, but a flat 0% negation to lightning and pierce. Because her arena has a large pool of water in the center, staying in the water will further reduce her fire resistance while boosting your lightning damage. When she casts her signature Twin Moons spell, jump three times in rhythm to completely avoid the massive, room-clearing shockwaves.

Messmer the Impaler

• Location: Shadow Keep, Dark Chamber
• Base HP: 38,981
• Weaknesses: Slash physical, bleed, frostbite

Messmer is Marika’s cursed son, locked away in the Land of Shadow to lead her crusade. He uses a long-reaching spear and fast fire attacks. Stay as close to him as possible — his spear’s reach makes engaging him from mid-range incredibly dangerous. In phase two, he transforms into the Abyssal Serpent, diving at you with multiple giant snake heads. Roll through these bites and attack his head when it slams onto the ground for massive stagger damage.

Bayle the Dread

• Location: Jagged Peak Summit, Crater
• Base HP: 41,612
• Weaknesses: Pierce physical

Bayle is the ancient dragon who challenged Placidusax. He deals heavy fire and lightning damage. Because he is missing his left leg, he has a heavily hunched posture, making his head extremely accessible. His head and left leg stump take 50% bonus damage. Use the Dragon-Hunter’s Great Katana, which deals a massive 30% bonus damage against him. Stay near his injured leg, roll through his tail swipes, and use pierce attacks to conquer the summit.

Promised Consort Radahn

• Location: Enir-Ilim, Gate of Divinity
• Base HP: 46,134
• Weaknesses: Pierce physical, scarlet rot (Phase 1)

Widely considered the most brutal boss in the entire game, Promised Consort Radahn is a true test of your skills. Following the massive Patch 1.14 balance update, FromSoftware toned down his difficulty — his opening aggression has been reduced, his attack hitboxes are cleaner, and the visual clutter in his second phase has been significantly improved for better combat clarity.

My favorite strategy to trivialize his aggressive physical combos: equip a massive shield like the Fingerprint Stone Shield, slot the Greatshield Talisman, and use a bleed-inducing thrusting weapon like the Sword Lance. This lets you poke him safely while maintaining your guard.

Complete Regional Checklist of Optional Bosses

Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula

• Ancient Hero of Zamor: Weeping Evergaol. Drops Radagon’s Scarseal.
• Bloodhound Knight Darriwil: Forlorn Hound Evergaol. Drops the Bloodhound’s Fang.
• Crucible Knight: Stormhill Evergaol. Drops the Aspects of the Crucible: Tail incantation.
• Demi-Human Chiefs: Coastal Cave. Drops tailoring tools.
• Flying Dragon Agheel: Patrols the waters of Agheel Lake. Drops a Dragon Heart.
• Leonine Misbegotten: Rear graveyard of Castle Morne. Drops the Grafted Blade Greatsword.
• Grave Warden Duelist: Murkwater Catacombs. Drops the Banished Knight Engvall ashes.
• Patches: Murkwater Cave. Drops his armor set if killed, or becomes a merchant if spared.

Liurnia of the Lakes

• Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader: Ringleader’s Evergaol. Drops the Black Knife Tiche spirit ashes.
• Glintstone Dragon Smarag: Patrols the shallows southwest of the Crystalline Woods. Drops a Dragon Heart.
• Magma Wyrm Makar: Peak of the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. Drops the Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword.
• Royal Knight Loretta: Guards the pool promenade of Caria Manor. Drops the Loretta’s Greatbow sorcery.
• Omenkiller: Center of the Village of the Albinaurics. Drops the Crucible Knot Talisman.
• Bols, Carian Knight: Cuckoo’s Evergaol. Drops the Greatblade Phalanx sorcery.

Caelid and Dragonbarrow

• Decaying Ekzykes: Patrols the main highway in southern Caelid. Drops a Dragon Heart.
• Commander O’Neil: Center of the Aeonia Swamp. Drops the Commander’s Standard halberd.
• Flying Dragon Greyll: Guards the great northeast bridge of Dragonbarrow. Drops a Dragon Heart.
• Fallingstar Beast: Bottom of the Sellia Crystal Tunnel. Drops upgrade materials.
• Black Blade Kindred: Guards the grand stairs of the Bestial Sanctum. Drops gargoyle weapons.

Altus Plateau and Mt. Gelmir

• Elemer of the Briar: Main keep of The Shaded Castle. Drops the Marais Executioner’s Sword.
• Godefroy the Grafted: Golden Lineage Evergaol. Drops the Godfrey Icon talisman.
• Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast: Peak of Mt. Gelmir near the ninth campsite. Drops a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone.
• Demi-Human Queen Maggie: Hermit Village of Mt. Gelmir. Drops a Memory Stone.

Underground and Secret Zones

• Astel, Naturalborn of the Void: Past the Grand Cloister inside the Lake of Rot. Drops the Remembrance of the Naturalborn.
• Lichdragon Fortissax: Within Fia’s Deathbed Dream in the Deeproot Depths. Drops the Remembrance of the Lichdragon.
• Dragonlord Placidusax: Hidden arena beneath the elevator of Crumbling Farum Azula. Drops the Remembrance of the Dragonlord.
• Mimic Tear: Behind the Stonesword Key fog door in Nokron, Eternal City. Drops the Mimic Tear ashes.
• Ancestor Spirit: Hallowhorn Grounds of the Siofra River. Drops the Ancestral Follower ashes.