Malenia, Blade of Miquella is considered one of the hardest bosses in gaming, and for good reason. Her nearly unavoidable attacks, multiple phases, and high damage make her incredibly difficult even after many attempts. Even with the ability to create summons and get other players to help you, it will prove to be a significant challenge inElden Ring.
However, she is far from being the most difficult boss, as many games will give you far fewer tools against much harder-hitting enemies that can lead to more than one broken controller. These bosses prove to be both a significant challenge and a reliable source of bragging rights if you manage to beat them.
The final boss of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Isshin, the Sword Saint, is technically part of the Genichiro, Way of Tomoe fight. This is because he appears immediately after, crawling out of his mouth in true From Software fashion. This fight not only has more phases than any other boss in the game, but also tests you on every skill you learned throughout the journey.
Ironically, his final phase is the easiest, as you can rely on using Lightning Reversal to punish his lightning attacks, but reaching that point is an absolute gauntlet of pain. Without plenty of healing items and perfect counters throughout the entire fight, you will end up starting completely over again and again, without summonsto help you win.
An optional boss introduced in the free Grimm Troupe update for Hollow Knight, Grimm is the leader of the carnival that comes into Dirtmouth. You fight Troupe Master Grimm before fighting his dream form, which requires more patience and skill than any other boss in Hollow Knight, as his attacks require frame-perfect jumps and dodges.
You will already be familiar with some of these, as they are somewhat reused from his previous boss fight, but scaled up through each of his four phases. Each attack is also far quicker, giving you very little time to react to each move set, which can easily whittle down your health if you’re not careful. This also gives you almost no time to heal during the fight.
An optional boss in God of War Ragnarök only available after you beat the game, Gna is the new valkyrie queen and still loyal to Odin, prompting you to challenge her in the crucible of Muspelheim. You need to have maxed every piece of gear you own and have the best runic attacks equipped if you want to have a hope of beating her, especially on Give Me God of War difficulty.
Gna’s biggest challenge is her absolutely massive health pool, which will only slowly tick away as she uses nearly unavoidable moves that can and will one-shot you. It’s a trick of pacing, where you need to keep up a constantly grinding onslaught where one mistake will have you reloading the save and questioning if you really need that trophy.
The hardest boss in all of Undertale, and only available if you are attempting the genocide run, Sans is the skeleton prankster you meet early on, and secretly hides his immense power beneath that blue hoodie. His first phase is one of the hardest in the game, and child’s play compared to his other phases.
During the genocide run, you’ll also be fighting upgraded versions of every boss, which means if you want to reach Sans with as many items as possible, you will have to beat them without healing. He will also target you in the menus, meaning you will have to time your button presses just to be able to attack or use an item.
The final boss of The Old Hunters DLC for Bloodborne, the Orphan of Kos is rather unintimidating at first glance, resembling a withered husk barely taller than you. However, he has deadly attacks at long range and up close that make your typical strategies in Bloodborne much harder to pull off without being punished.
Whilehis first phaseisn’t especially difficult, the challenge ramps up significantly after he reaches half health, becoming far more aggressive with his melee attacks and summoning lightning that targets the entire arena. You’ll be lucky to get a single hit while spamming Blood Vials just to stay alive.
The final boss of The Delicious Last Course DLC, Chef Saltbaker is easily one of the hardest bosses in all of Cuphead, even compared to Dr Kahl’s Robot, King Dice, and The Devil. Being one of the most cinematic and animated boss arenas also adds to the difficulty, as you need to pay much closer attention to everything on the very busy screen.
The hardest part of this boss fight is the mind-boggling amount of projectiles you’ll have to avoid, making it very easy to lose all your lives across the four phases. Ideally, you can invite a friend to help you take on the chef, which can at least give you additional lives if you can manage to parry each other’s ghosts.
Crack Shot is the best weapon to use in this boss fight.
The final boss of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, Promised Consort Radahn proves to be an even harder fight than Malenia, even after he was madeless deadly in an update. You will want at least rune level 180 to begin this fight, as you can be one-shot as early as entering the arena.
You will also want to grab Miquella’s Great Rune from the Scadutree Avatar, which helps you avoid an attack in Radahn’s second phase, where his attacks get even stronger. What makes this boss fight especially difficult is that he has over 20 unique moves, at multiple ranges, that make it extremely difficult to predict and avoid, and most of which kill you in one combo.
A member of Expedition 0 and once a friend of Verso and Clea, Simon has been corrupted and trapped at the bottom of the canvas, far below the monolith. Simon is an optional boss that requires your team to be heavily optimized and at least level 85 or higher to even begin to have a chance of beating him.
The nevrons in the area before Simon is a great spot for farming experience.
During his multiple phases, if you have any dead party members, he will erase them from the canvas so that you are not able to revive them for the rest of the fight. Even if you are able to successfully parry his dozens of attacks for minutes on end, his final phase deletes your main party from the fight, forcing you to use your reserve team if you are not already using them.
