Biggest Bosses In The Dark Souls Trilogy, Estimated

Highlights

• The size and spectacle of Dark Souls bosses make for an exciting and satisfying challenge.
• FromSoftware’s creative artstyle enhances the epic battles against massive bosses.
• Players must strategize and endure against towering foes to achieve victory in the trilogy.

The scale and spectacle of bosses in the Dark Souls series is often what draws people to it. While some are more interested in grounded duels between tragic knights, others would rather slay a dragon that completely dwarfs their own character. Fortunately, this trilogy has a lot more in store for players than simply dragons.

The famously creative artstyle that FromSoftware employs makes stumbling into any boss encounter an exciting prospect, but when players find themselves utterly overwhelmed by the boss in terms of physical stature, the journey toward victory can become even more breathlessly satisfying.

Demon Prince (Dark Souls 3)

The Merged Behemoth Of The Dreg Heap

• Found in Dreg Heap (Ringed City DLC).
• Drops Soul of the Demon Prince.
• Two-phase boss (first phase has two health bars).

Coming late in Dark Souls 3, being an encounter that players only have in the Ringed City DLC, the Demon Prince and its split first phase are notable for being a battle of endurance.

There is a lot of health to get through, and a lot of damage to avoid — something that can be made even more difficult by the size and speed of the monsters, making them difficult to ever focus on at once and working against the player’s efforts.

Gaping Dragon (Dark Souls)

First Dragon Boss Of The Trilogy

• Found in the Depths.
• Drops Blightown Key, Twin Humanities, and Homeward Bone.
• Cutting off its tail gives the Dragon King Greataxe.

One of the iconic moments of Dark Souls is seeing the tiny face of the Gaping Dragon appear at the edge of the arena, only for it to fully emerge and reveal its horrific true form.

It’s not only intimidating due to the body horror aspect of its design, however — it’s also enormous. This creates a puzzle where the player must figure out where to position themselves to be safe from it while attacking.

Yhorm The Giant (Dark Souls 3)

The Titanic Lord Of Cinder

In the introduction cinematic of Dark Souls 3, players are introduced to the various Lords of Cinder that they’ll be tasked with hunting down. Yhorm the Giant is a name that speaks for itself and sets certain expectations.

While players might be surprised to discover he’s not even the largest boss in Dark Souls 3, his imposing stature and near-invulnerability (without the use of the Storm Ruler sword) might help to reinforce his daunting reputation.

Curse-Rotted Greatwood (Dark Souls 3)

Accursed Environmental Hazard

• Found in the Undead Settlement.
• Drops Soul of the Rotted Greatwood and Transposing Kiln.
• Optional boss.

While not often regarded as a favorite boss at all by the wider Souls community, it’s an important part of the game due to how it allows players access to crafting boss weapons.

The presentation, however — having an ancient and withered tree come to life and attack the player — is a very compelling and memorable sight, even if it does just come down to hitting the obvious weak spots around its cursed body.

Ancient Wyvern (Dark Souls 3)

An Imposing Puzzle Boss

• Found in Archdragon Peak.
• Drops Dragon Head Stone.
• Can be defeated regularly as well as through a plunging attack.

While Ancient Wyvern again falls into the category of forgettable bosses by many fans’ accounts due to the fight’s gimmick, the player does have some versatility in how they approach this initially imposing enemy.

They can handle it the way they handle any enemy in Dark Souls 3 — through straightforward combat that will last quite a while — or they can navigate the tricky puzzle of the level, running past aggressive enemies to land a plunging attack for an instant victory.

Ancient Dragon (Dark Souls 2)

Giant Endgame Challenge

• Found in Dragon Shrine.
• Drops Petrified Dragon Bone and Soul of a Giant.
• Also drops Ashen Mist Heart if you haven’t spoken to it first.

The Ancient Dragon is an important part of the climax of Dark Souls 2. As players approach, they have to first navigate the Aerie before the shrine, as Dragons fly all around — before getting through the myriad of powerful knights leading up to the peak.

Once there, the Ancient Dragon won’t even attack, simply speaking to the player in its strange way. However, once they instigate combat, it offers one of the trickier challenges of the game due to the sheer size of this colossal foe.

Darkeater Midir (Dark Souls 3)

The Trilogy’s Final Colossal Challenge

• Found in The Ringed City.
• Drops Soul of Darkeater Midir and Spears of the Church.
• Must be “defeated” on the bridge of the main path to unlock its proper boss fight.

Midir has often been cited as one of the hardest bosses in the Dark Souls trilogy. Players will immediately notice not only his incredibly large health bar, but also his myriad of damaging attack combos — including a chaotic laser show that has the potential to one-shot players.

This is all compounded by the sheer size of Midir — especially with his wingspan extended. It’s intimidating, and that can impact the morale of players descending into his enormous arena. A true battle of endurance, this boss will test players to their limits as one of the ultimate Dark Souls challenges.

High Lord Wolnir (Dark Souls 3)

Claustrophobic Battle Against Undead Giant

• Found in Catacombs of Carthus.
• Drops Soul of High Lord Wolnir.
• Defeated by destroying golden bracelets.

While the darkness surrounding High Lord Wolnir obscures his true size (the fight is primarily against his arms and torso), the size of his hands compared to the player should give some sort of indication as to his true stature.

Still, none of it matters too much when his hands are all that the player needs to keep their eyes on — though this is confused somewhat when Wolnir uses those hands to summon skeletons and a giant sword. Not too challenging, even as far as gimmick boss fights go in the series, but High Lord Wolnir makes up for that shortcoming by delivering an incredible spectacle as players must send him careening down into the Abyss.

Bed Of Chaos (Dark Souls)

The Infamous Puzzle Boss

• Found in Lost Izalith.
• Drops Lord’s Soul and Humanity.
• Progress saves after death.

Much has been said about the design behind the Bed of Chaos, generally disliked as it is by the Souls community. However, what often goes unsaid is how absolutely enormous of a creature it is.

That makes sense, however, when considering how the Bed of Chaos essentially functions as a level in itself. Players have to traverse its arena from one side to the other, destroying protective barriers as the arena itself crumbles — and all this isn’t taking into account the Bed of Chaos’ roots that extend far below the arena.

Ceaseless Discharge (Dark Souls)

Tragic Boss Blocking The Entrance To Demon Ruins

• Found in Demon Ruins.
• Drops Humanity and Homeward Bone.
• Can be easily defeated by ignoring it and returning to the arena entrance.

As a boss, Ceaseless Discharge is generally thought to be pretty forgettable — beyond the fact that it needs to be defeated for the subsequent area to be explored.

The creature itself, however, is absolutely gigantic. Even though the boss fight itself only involves its upper half, Ceaseless Discharge fully dominates your field of view, and looking down at how far it extends reveals its true size, as you can see it towering out of the molten lava far below.