Bosses

The Lands Between holds well over two hundred boss encounters once you count every catacomb guardian, evergaol prisoner and roaming dragon, yet the critical path to an ending runs through only about a dozen of them. That gap is the whole design of Elden Ring: the mandatory fights set the pace, and everything else is there for runes, Remembrances, weapons, summons and the satisfaction of clearing a corner of the map.

This page is organised the way most players actually need it. First comes the mandatory boss order with the level our individual guides recommend for each fight. Then a short section on how boss encounters work: shardbearers and Great Runes, Remembrances, summons, stance breaks and New Game Plus. The middle of the guide is a region-by-region checklist of all 73 bosses covered on our wiki, each with its location, type, recommended level and headline reward. The end covers the ten hardest fights, the optional bosses whose rewards justify the detour, every dragon, and the evergaol prisoners. Each boss name links to a full guide with attack breakdowns, counters and cheese strategies.

Main boss order: the fights you cannot skip

Two Great Runes open the gate to Leyndell, so the early game is flexible: Godrick is the natural first shardbearer, and any one of Rennala, Radahn or Rykard covers the second. From the capital onwards the order is fixed. The levels below are the ones our boss pages suggest, and they assume a weapon upgraded in step with your character.

1. Soldier of Godrick, Cave of Knowledge. The tutorial fight, and a safe place to learn dodging and guard counters before anything is at stake.
2. Margit, the Fell Omen, gates of Stormveil Castle. Around level 25. Margit's Shackle and a spirit summon flatten the difficulty spike; the reward is a Talisman Pouch and 12,000 Runes.
3. Godrick the Grafted, deep in Stormveil. The first shardbearer, weaker than Margit for most builds and vulnerable to poison and bleed from range. Drops Godrick's Great Rune and the Remembrance of the Grafted.
4. Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, Academy of Raya Lucaria. Level 40. The gentlest second Great Rune, and beating her unlocks stat respecs.
5. Starscourge Radahn, Redmane Castle. Level 70. Optional for the ending but required to open Nokron and Ranni's story. A single application of scarlet rot takes close to half his health.
6. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, Volcano Manor. Optional shardbearer; pick up the Serpent-Hunter in the arena and the fight becomes a puzzle rather than a wall.
7. Draconic Tree Sentinel, Capital Outskirts. Technically optional, but it guards the direct road into Leyndell and folds quickly to poison and bleed.
8. Godfrey, First Elden Lord (Golden Shade), Erdtree Sanctuary. A phantom warm-up for the real thing later.
9. Morgott, the Omen King, Leyndell, Royal Capital. Mandatory two-phase fight; holy damage everywhere, so bring holy resistance. Drops Morgott's Great Rune.
10. Fire Giant, Mountaintops of the Giants. Level 110 at minimum. Left heel in phase one, the eye in his chest in phase two, slash and bleed throughout. 180,000 Runes and the Remembrance of the Fire Giant.
11. Godskin Duo, Crumbling Farum Azula. Level 90 or higher. Damage both evenly, lean on bleed and frost, and expect 170,000 Runes plus the Black Flame Tornado Ash of War.
12. Maliketh, the Black Blade, Farum Azula. The Beast Clergyman's true form; his Remembrance buys Maliketh's Black Blade. Burning the Erdtree afterwards locks you out of Bolt of Gransax, so collect it first.
13. Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing, Leyndell, Ashen Capital. The lowest health pool of any boss, offset by spells that punish greed.
14. Godfrey, First Elden Lord and Hoarah Loux, Ashen Capital. Survive the axe, then keep rolling through the wrestling phase. 80,000 Runes and a Talisman Pouch.
15. Radagon of the Golden Order and the Elden Beast, inside the Erdtree. Level 125 to 130. Holy talismans and armour for Radagon, patience and a mount-free sprint for the Beast.

Our Best Boss Order guide expands this into a 26-stop route that also picks up the fights tied to endings, and the Progression Route and Where To Go After Stormveil pages fill in the travel between them. If you want every ending available at the end of a single run, the Endings guide lists which optional bosses each one depends on.

How boss fights work

Shardbearers, Great Runes and Remembrances

Seven demigods carry a Great Rune, and each drop must be activated at its Divine Tower before it can be equipped at a Site of Grace and switched on with a Rune Arc. The blessings range from Godrick's flat boost to every attribute to more specialised effects, and only one can be active at a time. Our Great Runes Locations Guide covers all seven and the three Mending Runes that alter the ending, and Rune Arcs explains where to farm the consumable that powers them.

Major bosses also leave a Remembrance. Fifteen exist, and each can be swallowed for runes or handed to Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold for one of two rewards: a weapon, spell, talisman or tool tied to the boss. Walking Mausoleums duplicate a Remembrance once each, so you can take both rewards without a second playthrough. The full list is on our Remembrance page.

Beyond the shardbearers, Remembrances also drop from the Regal Ancestor Spirit, Astel, Lichdragon Fortissax, the Fire Giant, Dragonlord Placidusax, Maliketh, Hoarah Loux and the Elden Beast. Placidusax's, for instance, buys the Dragon King's Cragblade or the Placidusax's Ruin incantation, and the Elden Remembrance offers Marika's Hammer or the Sacred Relic Sword.

Summons, stance breaks and status effects

Almost every boss arena allows Spirit Ashes, and a summon changes a fight more than any single stat. The bell that enables them comes from Renna early in Limgrave, upgrades run through Roderika, and the basics are in How To Summon Spirits. A few fights refuse summons altogether: evergaol prisoners and field bosses such as Wormface must be fought alone, though co-op players can still be called in most of the game, as How To Summon Friends explains.

Every boss has a hidden stance meter. Heavy attacks, jumping attacks and stagger-heavy Ashes of War drain it, and when it empties the boss drops to a knee for a critical hit; even a boss you cannot parry, such as Lichdragon Fortissax, still opens up this way. How To Stagger And Break Poise and How To Perform A Critical Hit cover the timing. Status effects are the other equaliser: scarlet rot on Radahn, bleed and frost on Malenia and the Godskin Duo, poison and bleed on the Draconic Tree Sentinel, fire on the Beastman of Farum Azula. Each boss page lists what its target is weak to.

Repeat encounters and New Game Plus

Several bosses are templates reused across the map. The Bell Bearing Hunter appears four times with the same moveset and rising health, the Lion Guardian holds eight posts, and the Ulcerated Tree Spirit waits at the bottom of six dungeons. Their drops change with the location, which is why our pages for them list every instance. Once the credits roll, New Game Plus resets every boss with more health and bigger rune payouts while you keep your gear, which is the intended way to collect the second Remembrance reward from bosses you have already beaten.

Every boss by region

The tables follow the order most players see the map: Limgrave first, then Liurnia, Caelid, the Altus Plateau, the capital, the underground, the frozen north, Farum Azula and the Haligtree. Bosses that repeat in several places sit in their own table at the end. Types are as our pages describe them: mandatory fights block progression, legacy and dungeon bosses guard an area, field bosses roam the open world, and evergaol bosses are locked in the ring-shaped prisons opened from outside.

Limgrave, the Weeping Peninsula and the Roundtable Hold

Two more Limgrave fights sit in the recurring table below: the Tibia Mariner at Summonwater Village and the Deathbird that only shows at night. Fringefolk Hero's Grave next to the starting cave hides an Ulcerated Tree Spirit and the Dragon Communion Seal, and is worth a return trip once you have a Stonesword Key.

Liurnia of the Lakes

Adula is the odd one out: the first meeting at the Three Sisters cannot be won outright, and the dragon only dies on the Moonlight Altar after Ranni's questline has opened the way. Alecto is the single most valuable optional fight in the region because Black Knife Tiche ranks near the top of our Spirit Ashes tier list.

Caelid and Dragonbarrow

Radahn only appears once the festival is running, which How To Activate Radahn Festival walks through, and killing him is what drops the stars on Limgrave and opens Nokron. Greyoll deserves special mention: the sleeping dragon never fights back, so a patient early character can bleed her out for the biggest rune windfall in the opening hours.

Altus Plateau and Mt. Gelmir

The Ancient Hero of Zamor in Sainted Hero's Grave is the plateau's hero's grave boss and appears in the recurring table below; his drop there is the Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff Spirit Ash.

Leyndell, the Capital Outskirts and the Ashen Capital

Mohg the Omen guards the passage to the Three Fingers, so the Frenzied Flame ending runs through his arena; his shackle item stuns him twice and the route is in our Three Fingers guide. Everything in the capital that can be looted, Bolt of Gransax above all, should be collected before the Fire Giant falls and the city turns to ash.

Siofra, Ainsel, Nokron, Nokstella, Deeproot Depths and Mohgwyn Palace

The underground is where the endings branch. Astel stands between you and the Age of Stars, Fortissax between you and the Age of the Duskborn, and Mohg guards the path that later leads into Shadow of the Erdtree. Reaching Mohgwyn Palace at all means either finishing White Mask Varre's questline or finding the teleporter in the Consecrated Snowfield, both covered in How to Reach Mohgwyn Palace.

Mountaintops of the Giants and the Consecrated Snowfield

The north also holds the highest-level instances of the recurring bosses: the Death Rite Bird that drops the Death Ritual Spear, the Putrid Avatars under the snowfield's Minor Erdtree, and the Ancient Hero of Zamor in the Giant-Conquering Hero's Grave, who carries the Zamor Curved Sword.

Crumbling Farum Azula

Maliketh, the Black Blade closes the area and has no separate page on our wiki yet; his Remembrance trade, the colossal Maliketh's Black Blade, is covered under weapons. Placidusax is the one optional fight here, and his two-headed lightning combos make him the sixth hardest boss in our ranking.

Miquella's Haligtree and the Erdtree

Recurring bosses that appear in several regions

Every Minor Erdtree guardian, Putrid or otherwise, drops one or two Crystal Tears, which is the main reason to fight them. The evergaols and catacombs that host so many of these repeats are mapped in All Evergaol Locations and All Catacomb Locations.

The ten hardest bosses

Difficulty is personal, but some fights break more runs than others. This is the order from our Hardest Bosses ranking, hardest first, with the single most useful tip from each boss page.

1. Malenia, Blade of Miquella. She heals on every hit she lands, so the fight is about denying her contact. Frost and bleed build up fast on her, and level 120 is the floor, not the target.
2. Maliketh, the Black Blade. Destined Death shrinks your maximum health with each hit; the Blasphemous Claw parries his phase-two attacks and turns the fight around.
3. Radagon of the Golden Order and the Elden Beast. Two full health bars back to back with no rest, holy damage throughout, and a second boss that runs away from melee.
4. Mohg, Lord of Blood. His blood curse triggers three times regardless of what you do; the Purifying Crystal Tear in your flask cancels it, and Mohg's Shackle interrupts his first phase twice.
5. Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. Teleports, a grab that kills at low Vigor, and meteor showers; melee and ranged players need different strategies, and the page gives both.
6. Dragonlord Placidusax. Tracking lightning combos with short punish windows. Hit and leave, every time.
7. Godfrey, First Elden Lord. The axe phase is fair; the Hoarah Loux grab phase punishes anyone who stops rolling.
8. Godskin Duo. A shared health pool means killing one only summons it back. Spread damage, use bleed and frost, and sleep pots if you have them.
9. Crucible Knight, specifically the pair with Ordovis in Auriza Hero's Grave. A tiny arena and two opponents who punish every heal; the payoff is Ordovis's Greatsword and the Crucible Axe set.
10. Margit, the Fell Omen. Not hard in the abstract, but the first real skill check in the game arrives when most characters are still under level 25.

Optional bosses worth the detour

Close to a hundred optional bosses are scattered across the map, and many of them guard the items that define a build. These are the ones our Best Optional Bosses guide and the individual pages single out, ordered roughly by when you can reach them.

Two bosses our roundups praise do not have their own pages yet. The Spiritcaller Snail in Road's End Catacombs and Spiritcaller's Cave drops the Glintstone Sorcerer Ashes or the Black Flame Ritual and Godskin Swaddling Cloth depending on where you kill it, and Commander Niall on the roof of Castle Sol guards the Veteran's Prosthesis and half of the Haligtree Medallion.

Every dragon and what it drops

Dragons are worth tracking separately because each kill yields a Dragon Heart, and Dragon Hearts are the currency at the Church and Cathedral of Dragon Communion for the incantations that let you breathe fire, rot and lightning yourself. Head hits stagger them, Torrent keeps you level with their attacks, and the Dragon Greatclaw, Dragon Halberd and Dragon King's Cragblade all deal bonus damage to them.

Evergaol prisoners

Evergaols are the stone rings you activate from the outside to be pulled into a duel. Summons are blocked inside, the prisoner fights alone, and losing simply ejects you. Our All Evergaol Locations guide maps all eleven; the ones with dedicated boss pages are the Crucible Knight at Stormhill, Ancient Hero of Zamor at the Weeping Evergaol, Adan at Malefactor's, Bols at Cuckoo's, the Alabaster Lord at the Royal Grave, Alecto at the Ringleader's and Godefroy at the Golden Lineage. Bloodhound Knight Darriwil in the Forlorn Hound Evergaol, who drops Bloodhound's Fang, is covered in the evergaols guide and in Bloodhound's Fang Builds.

Elden Ring bosses FAQ

How many bosses are in Elden Ring, and how many are required?

Counting every dungeon and field encounter, the base game passes two hundred. Only about a dozen are mandatory: two shardbearers of your choice, then the fixed chain from Godfrey's shade through Morgott, the Fire Giant, the Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Gideon, Godfrey and Radagon with the Elden Beast.

Who are the shardbearers?

Godrick, Rennala, Radahn, Rykard, Morgott, Malenia and Mohg. Each holds one of the seven Great Runes. Any two of them unlock Leyndell, and Morgott is the only one you must defeat to finish the game.

What is the hardest boss?

Malenia, by our ranking and by the community's. Her lifesteal punishes every mistake and Waterfowl Dance has ended more runs than any other single attack in the game. Maliketh, then Radagon and the Elden Beast, follow her.

Can I use Spirit Ashes against every boss?

No. Summoning is blocked inside evergaols and against a handful of field bosses, and it is never available while you are in someone else's world in co-op. Everywhere else the summon icon on the left of the screen tells you whether the arena allows it.

What do I do with a Remembrance?

Take it to Enia at the Roundtable Hold and trade it for one of two boss-specific rewards, or consume it for runes if neither reward suits your build. A Walking Mausoleum can copy it once so you can claim both rewards.

Do bosses come back in New Game Plus?

Yes. Every boss returns with more health and higher rune drops, and you keep your weapons, levels and Remembrance items, so a second journey is the intended way to pick up the rewards you skipped.