Soulsborne Final Bosses Ranked Worst to Best (Including Elden Ring) 

A few of you have rightfully pointed out that some games don’t have a clear final boss. For example, in bloodborne, Mergo’s Wet Nurse is the last required boss, and Moon Presence technically would be the final main story boss. I should have more clearly established why I chose the bosses I did, and maybe even added a few or changed the candidates. So I hear you, I’ll try to be more clear in the future!

The most striking thing about the final boss of Dark Souls 3 was that there was no presentation. No introduction. You just get there, you see a huge space dotted with swords, spears and axes of other champions and legends. And a silhouette sitting near the campfire, in such a familiar pose to all Dark Souls players, resting by the campfire. He sits quietly and waits for a new unhappy soul to either take his place, and will also guard the flame while it slowly fades, or will be able to find another way out. And the sun is slowly closing in on the familiar sign of darkness, marking the end of cycles and the complete devastation of the world.

I love how we all collectively forgot moon presence is the true final boss of Bloodborne because Gehrman is just so awesome.

I feel radagon could easily be #2 if they fleshed out his fight instead of switching to Elden beast

Isshin the Sword Saint is a masterpiece. He is one of the greatest final bosses of all time, it is the culmination of your entire journey and tests you on everything you’ve learned. It’s an amazing climax, it’s no picnic either, he’s possibly the hardest final boss too because of how much you have to learn and hone your skills in order to beat him, but that’s what makes the victory all the more rewarding. I love his moveset because it’s challenging but also feels consistent and fair

Every single game has you fighting bosses who are degraded or close to death, but in Sekiro, you actually fought a legend - a literal GOD who's named "Sword Saint" - in his prime, equipped with everything that he's got to throw at you. That's what makes him the best FromSoftware final boss - the awe of fighting this legend is unparalleled!!

Fun fact: Isshin's spear is actually Gyoubu's spear, given to him by Isshin after his old spear was broken. And Isshin got it after the defeat of General Tamura (the guy in the intro Isshin was fighting).

Soul of cinder really felt like the culmination of all 3 dark souls games to me. Its practically a fight against yourself. When you walk into the arena you see the soul of cinder sitting at the bonfire as you would surrounded by weapons of those who presumably linked the fire before you in the very same spot you linked the fire the first time. Dark souls is a game about cycles and linking the fire over and over again. It seemed fitting to me that since the age of fire/gods started with gwyn that his identity would live on in the soul of cinder. The series ending the same way it ended the first time is truly fitting for the series if you ask me. If you didn't know in an interview the head of DS3 development said the age of dark ending was the true ending of the game in his mind. This is especially meaningful that killing the sould of cinder and remnants of gwyn would end the series mainline story and finally ending the age of fire. Also imo I really appreciate how the soul of cinder really feels like a battle that is deciding the fate of the world even if it is a decaying one and on the brink of death. Few games leave you with a true finale and sense of completeness that the soul of cinder does. All that goes without saying that the fight is superb mechanically and imo not too easy by any means as even to this day occasionally will give me a somewhat difficult time every now and again(on high ng+ at least).

Soul of Cinder will always be my favourite Souls boss. The leadup, the entire setting with the mediveal apocalypse and the dying sun in the backdrop as the fire fades, the beautyful OST and his complete presentation. Him basically being you from Dark Souls 1, sitting at a bonfire at the end of the world, using every single tool in battle that you yourself could've gathered up throughout the game... it's just insanely symbolic and cinematic, without feeling as edgy as the Abyss Watchers for instance. I remember my first DS3 playthrough with a super-unpotimized build with no infusions and only partially upgraded estus. I stayed up for 3 AM to finally beat him and when I succeeded I felt an extreme amount of hype and sadness at the same time because the adventure was over.

My list 1 - Sword Saint Isshin 2 - Radagon / Elden Beast 3 - Soul of Cinder 4 - Gehrman the first hunter 5 - Gwyn Lord of Cinder 6 - False King Allant 7 - Nashandra that is if we are using this list , if we are using the ,, true ,, final boss list it would go like this 1 - Sword Saint Isshin 2 - Radagon / Elden Beast 3 - Soul of Cinder 4 - Gwyn Lord of Cinder 5 - Moon Presence 6 - Aldia , scholar of the first sin 7 - True King Allant

Defeated isshin literally yesterday for the fart time and what I like more about it is that it feels like a perfect conclusion to your journey since it tests everything you should have learnt in the game: he has a sword, a spear, a gun that resembles the sunken valley and lighting attacks from genichiro and divine dragon.

I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this video

With you mentioning top 5 cutscenes for Gerhman, I think it would be neat for you to rank cutscenes in the soul series. Either all cutscenes or just boss cutscenes would be cool

Only thing wrong about elden beast was especially if you are melee build player you will end up chasing him for entire huge arena during half of the fight. And once he starts doing elden stars with other attacks you just cant see a thing. Other than that transformation between radagon and elden beast was really great for me. Music becomes more chill and like in gwyn you feel that you fight with a great thing and its a final boss. I really enjoy during the fight but it could be so much better. Wasted potential for me. But Radagon... oh what a fight it was.

Gehrman has always had a special place in my heart, from the fight to the lore to the arena... I still think ishin is a better final boss overall but I personally would have him at #2 instead... other than that w list

I just love how the final bosses are a test of how well you know the story. My god is it satisfying to walk into that arena and fist pump knowing the significance of the encounter. All that hard work uncovering the mystery of the world is worth,, it in my eyes, for that one moment.

7. King Allant 6. Aldia 5. Gwyn 4. Emma/ Isshin Ashina 3. Soul of Cinder 2. Genichiro/ Sword Saint Isshin 1. Radagon/ Elden Beast I still haven’t played Bloodbourne 🫤

False king is not the final boss. You can fight him as your second archdemon. True king is the final boss. Aldia Comes after nashandra if you choose a certain path. The other version of isshin and Moon presence too. These are final bosses But not included

Personally think Isshin is the best boss in any game period. So good

Great video really, Can't disagree with the lineup honestly. Isshin is definitely the ultimate challenge in all these and fairly the most difficult out of them but can't help to say that Soul of Cinder is probably the only fitting level headed 1 v 1

I think Moon Prescence, Wet Nurse and Emma/Isshin Ashina deserve to be ranked as well. As for the list, agree with Sword Saint being the best final boss they've ever done, it's the only last boss they've done that is perfect mechanically, aesthetically, and challenge-wise. Isshin is also just a great character with some of the best interactions and dialogue in the game. Finally, Radagon/Elden Beast is a great boss that is underrated.

In soulsborne games you know fight will be majestic when you see white flowers all around the ground

lightning in sekiro is the biggest high risk high reward scenario, if you master it the boss is getting folded in 4 tries, if you take that hit youre getting blitzed into oblivion

Isshin is on a whole other level, no magic no weapons, only skill!

Yoooo. Another banger nightwalk. Also, do you think you'll be doing any content regarding Hi-Fi Rush? It's a Non-Stop banger with incredible boss quality. And with your music background I'd love to know your insights on it all.

I'm really excited for the Elden Ring dlc. Also do you have a video for best final bosses in souls games dlc? If not could you do that please?

Gehrmann will forever be the greatest boss fight in my heart. The first time killing Mergo's wet nurse and seeing that "Nightmare Slain" was already so hype, then returning to the hunters dream and seeing everything on fire and hearing "Gehrmann is waiting for you" made my jaw drop. When I refused to sacrifice myself I was expecting something badass but nothing could prepare me for "Gehrmann joins the hunt" and him pulling a big ass scythe to fight me. I was just in awe looking at my screen. The way he slow walks towards you in that scythe phase was just another level of that hype. After killing him I was never so happy in my life as I wanted to beat him without looking up how to do it and then when I became first hunter myself I was like "damn the cycle repeats." Bloodborne my favorite game of all time 100%

A cool video to see would be your favorite weapon in every Soulsborne game

Gehrman is unmatched in my opinion. No amount of epic magic or challenge can match the emotional weight.

Great list and reasonings. Isshin is still amazing to this day and I like how his third phase being more or less a victory lap is so satisfying, and I truly appreciate Soul of Cinder as a love letter to all the DS fans. I will say, I'm actually glad to find someone who can appreciate the Elden Beast for trying something different and it was a really great spectacle of a fight to finish Elden Ring on.

gherman's ost only has 1 paragraph lyrics(in latin) but it is more than enough to make me chill to the bone.

I’ve literally never had more trouble but enjoyed a boss more than isshin he’s probably my single favorite part of any game I’ve ever played

The fight against Gehrman felt very much like the final fight of metal gear solid 3, snake vs the boss in the flower field

I adore Gehrman I love fighting him every time and hes one of my fave soulsborne bosses and my fave bb boss I even refuse to parry him

At the start of the video i tried to guess the ranking and i nailed it Do you know why? Cause this man is always right And also beacuse "plin plin plon" and "HESITATION IS DEFEAT" cannot be beaten by a cosmic slug and three old men (now that i think of it every single final boss in souls is either an old man or a slug, except of Nashandra, but nobody even remembers her)

now you need to do a top dlc bosses video

Thought I'd add, soul of cinder in sl1 is simultaneously one of the most fair and frustrating bosses I've ever fought. Every attack was nice and telegraphed (aside from a couple moves in the lance phase), but the whole fight lasted so long and you could survive only 2 hits at most. I wasn't perfectly optimized, but it was incredibly satisfying while making me want to bash my head in the wall, which to be fair imo is exactly what a fight should be in sl1 and fighting it like that definitely elevated my opinion of the boss.

Gwyn is one of my favorite bosses in so many different ways. From the presentation of a crumbling, shell of a lord, to the fact that he is the only boss in DS1 that you can parry, it kind of spells that it's supposed to be easy to be him, and expose the fact that the undead 'destiny' is entirely false because the world is already dying, though mechanically he suffers just because of that fact that he is rather easy in a game that's literally spawned a whole genre of gaming, as well as the metric of difficulty for everything else, i.e. "the dark souls of _______"

I LOVE ISSHIN SO MUCH AAAAAH

What made Gwyn so great was how understated it all was. His family is gone, his knights are dead and his kingdom is now in ashes. The only thing Gwyn has is to defend his age of fire to the very end resulting in Gwyn turning completely hollow by rekindling the fire over and over.

Radagon is a fantastic fight. Idc what anyone says. With that being said, the second phase agaisnt the Elden Beast suffers greatly from not having torrent. The fight was clearly meant with him in mind.

My first souls game was dark souls 3 so it’s crazy to see how slow paced the games before that were. I don’t think I could of gotten into that I love the fast pace of elden ring or Sekiro

Say what you want about Radagon/Elden Beast, but Elden Beasts OST is so amazing. It really fits the mythical and out of this world feel that the Beast gives

the difficulty curve part was ripped straight from videogamedunkey

Im hopefully getting dsr and sekiro for my birthday in a few weeks. I recently finished ds3. Elden ring has done a complete 180 on what games I like

I would say that Sekiro actually does have a pretty big difficulty jump when you hit guardian ape.

Thank god for not saying "Elden Beast shit, worst Boss in history lmaooo" its may be more flawed, but the grand spectacle this Boss makes is that whats make this Boss much more memorable than the others at least for me

I was wondering it's not a FromSoft game but it's a Soulborne type game, will u b ranking Lies of P bosses?

You remind me of the band Korn for some reason but every time I watch your videos I think of Korn

Before watching this I took 10 minutes to rank them on my own just to compare it to your version. Except Elden ring and DS3 being switched around we had the exact same list. I don’t really like SoC and I really enjoy the difficulty of ERs finale.

Do one with optional bosses. Man that would be a treat. Melania would be my number 1

i fought Gael before the Soul of Cinder .. so i beat Soul of Cinder on my first try.. hardly remember him

Haven't beaten all final bosses, but Isshin has to be my favorite boss ever!

Sort of weird that the Moon Presence wasn’t on the list? Ha still thanks for the video 😊

The ranking we didn't even realize we wanted

Fair points that I can understand, however I'd rank these somewhat differently: 7 - True King Allant 6 - Nashandra/Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin 5 - The Moon Presence 4 - Gwyn, Lord of Cinder 3 - Radagon/Elden Beast 2 - Genichiro Way of Tomoe/Isshin, The Sword Saint 1 - Soul of Cinder TKA is literal lore fodder, so he's obvious, if we use FKA then he'd at best get 5th. Nashandra is a decent boss, not offensive in any way, just underwhelming, while Aldia is another lore fodder boss, but he's just amazing throughout the entirety of DS2 and he's actually pretty fun to fight. Included both as they are the final bosses of DS2 and SotFS respectively. The Moon Presence is more lore fodder, but he's actually decently fun, just not as fun or cool as Gehrman was. Gwyn is Gwyn, I really don't need to explain myself. If you think I'm wrong, then I apologize. Plin Plin Plon Radagon is a great fight, amazing theme, (imo) underwhelming arena. He's really well balanced and while most of us forgot about him until we walked into the room, he is very important to the lore and is the starting catalyst of the plot. Not on the other hand, Elden Beast is not fun at all. If you're not playing a UGS build for example, then having to run up to him and dodge all of his attacks just to get one hit in and have him run away is, in my opinion, not fun. Now on the bright side, I do like his boss music and do like his melee attacks and one shot move, but his arena is not really my style. It feels like they just tried way too hard with this boss by mashing together an eldrich being with the standard FS final boss fight, and it didn't really work imo. If I were harsher, he could easily drop to 4th, as Elden Beast is just a (mostly negative) mixed bag. Genichiro is trying to save Ashina from destruction, and tries to gain more power over the course of the game. He kidnaps your master, bathes in the divine water (iirc), removes his armor to use his master's (Tomoe) techniques and goes out of his way to find the second Mortal Blade. Despite all of this, he still loses. His dream is broken, Ashina will die, and all his efforts will be for naught. That is, unless he gives up his life to bring back the greatest warrior in Ashina, Isshin the Sword Saint. Isshin is an extremely fun yet difficult boss fight thanks to his aggression level and how combat works in Sekiro. His boss arena looks amazing, but I for the life of me cannot remember his boss theme. He is significant to the lore and is built up to be this great warrior and the actual fight with him lives up to expectations. Soul of Cinder. Soul of Cinder is a perfect boss, and is not only to me the best final boss in a FS game, but the best fight in the whole series. He has 5 movesets for his 1st phase that overlap buffs onto one another and keep you on your toes. (example, can use Power Within and switch to Spear mode and can easily one shot you) His 2nd phase is amazing as well, he summons he strength of the first Lord of Cinder, Gwyn, and attacks you once again. In this phase, he switches up Gwyn's moveset by making all his attacks unparryable, adding in 3 seperate lightning attacks that have similair yet distinct tells, and the infamous Wombo Combo. The Boss Music for both phases are the cream of the crop and are just amazing. His arena is by far the best, with many broken swords, ash, flowers, and the First Flame being located in the room. This technically happens before the fight, but walking up the stairs to see the Darksign in the sky rise with you is just amazing visually. In the lore, he's the amalgamation of everyone who has ever linked the First Flame and you are given examples of this with him summoning the power of Gwyn, using the DS1 Ninja Flips, and casting Soul Stream, Bountiful Sunlight, and Power Within. This boss is not just the culmination of DS3, not just the Trilogy and your experiences, but is the culmination of the lore of the entire Trilogy and everyone's experiences, from the Giant Dads of DS1, to the Hex users of DS2, to the Parry Gods of DS3, this boss is about everyone's journeys. That's why I believe that SoC is the best final boss in any FS game. This is all just my opinion, and I really wanna hear how you guys compare your lists, and if you agree or disagree with me on any points.

HESITATION IS DEFEAT!!!!

Isshin the first time I faced him I felt as if someone presented me with Mount Everest and told me: "Climb it or you're dead". I felt... just miserable. Isshin was so much powerful than me and overcoming him felt impossible. I was just a shinobi, where he was "The Sword Saint", the best swordsman to ever lived in that era, IN HIS PRIME.

Thank you for going easy on Nash, I tend to agree with you :)

This is actually the exact same as my ranking.

HESITATION IS DEFEAT!

In my oppinion i would Just swap Gwyn with German, Gwyn's theme is Just one of my favorites, and i took too much time to realize The truth about The flame, that makes all of his sins much more havier for me. And that ost is Just so good, hits hard when she comes back in soul of cinder. Really good vídeo by The way, is amazing to see and hear about other players experiences (Sorry about any error, i'm Brazilian)

What is the music in the beginning of the video?

My list 7. Nashandra 6. Allant 5. Gwyn 4. Soul of Cinder 3. Gehrman 2. Radagon/elden 1. Isshin.

I agree with literally everything and every argument said in this video

The silver knights introduced me to partying. Gwyn me me master it

a second phase with buffed radagon would've made him an easy top 2 boss , still nothing tops Isshin

Imo gwyn is DS1 was a probably meant to be this way but I was surprised to find put he was the finale boss. Like he was minda lame and basic which makes sense for lore reasons but definitly left me wanting more at the end of the day. Like I didn't realize he was the finale boss at first just kinda seemed like a random hermit trying to kill you and then when I defeated him I didn't realize that was the end of the game until the credits started to roll.

I will include DLC too because we all know Gael is the true final DS3 boss. You can't go wrong with either Sword Saint, Gael, Gehrman/Moon Presence or Raadagon/Elden Beast at the top spot. But my ranking for top 4 if I was forced would be : 1) Isshin Sword Swaint 2) Gael 3) Gehrman/Moon Presence 4) Radagon/Elden Beast

Isshin is my number 1 as well

People still say that Sekiro is superior for being a "curated experience" but like...I don't care ? Elden ring let me experiment, discover, reflect on strategies, be creative, do what I want, do my own mistake, have a different experience each time I try a new build... All those things simply don't exist in a pure action non rpg game like Sekiro and honestly I'd trade the rigid and 100% reaction speed based experience of sekiro for a free and based on my choice experience any day.

"Icon after icon." **shows Radagon** Well played.

Seeing myself in someone elses video is downright spooky lol.

I would’ve really loved if they just made radagon and elden beast separate fights I was way under leveled in vigor so the entire last third of of the game was a nightmare for me I was being one hit by like half the bosses also I absolutely agree sword saint ishin is the best boss fight of all time

I just don't understand gywns parry thing it's like I am fighting those undead minion soldiers in undead burg with a little bit of fire , disappointed cause you even get 20 estus overkill kill him in just 5 parry . For a final boss .

well i dont consider sekiro typical souls game ( well it is but its diffrent at its fundamentals aswell so i skipped that ) My top 1 must be radagon and EB. OST absolutely best from all of those, arena is long awaited erdtree insides. Cutscene is poroly most dope af aswell when radagon grabs hammer. Fight with radagon feels satysfying like u fight with someone almsot equal so u need to have patience and aware of not when to dodge but also WHERE to dodge. Simialr with Elden Beast, arena dope OST calmer but feels godlike too which fits the boss background. EB also makes u need to use all of the new mechanics added in ER to dodge his attacks ( a bit like ishin just without the parries but it goes for every souls game except sekiro ) u need run jump dodge, position urself properly. The only con is that after completion of the game u rather want get over him as quick as possible to complete game for x time and his running miles away might be annoying but i dont rate replayability of those ;p

Gherman isn't just the best final boss, he the best boss in the series imo

Thumbs up for using og Demon's Souls. No one seems to do that anymore.

The major question is why cant you get gerhmans out fit?

Is False Kings Allant the final boss? Im not remember that... maybe I saw the wrong game XD I think the list should be a little longer, I missed Aldia and Moon Presence in that list (except Sekiro, because I don't consider it a Soulsgame) because by then Radagon and Elden beast are in it

Good dunkey reference

imo gwyn is the worst final boss, the runback is just so annoying and gwyn as a boss is pretty similar to nashandra boss fight wise (in the sense that its not super interesting), but damn his ost, lore, arena, atmosphere, design is so good, really shows that from has no bad final boss.

What about Aldia and moon presence?

Great ranking, but why didn't you include moon presence?

12:17 also made me laugh. 😂

Do a worst boss weapons or worst run back video

What’s the first song you used in the beginning?!

My list 1. Isshin, the Sword Saint 2. Soul of Cinder 3. False King Allant 4. Gwyn, Lord of Cinder 5. Radagon + Elden Beast 6. Gehrman, the First Hunter 7. Nashandra

The only thing i would change from your list is that i would put Gherman at number one :p

Nasandra is even worse if you happen to have already finished the sunken king dlc, where in you fight a copy of her for some reason. That made the boss even more sub par since I knew most of her attacks.

oh my god what's the music in the bg at the very start of the video i have heard that so many times but i can't remember edit : fayes theme

For me its: Nashandra < Elden Beast < Gwyn < Soul of Cinder < Gehrman < Isshin Haven't played Demon Souls yet but I would probably rank it between Nashandra and Elden Beast or above Elden Beast.

I feel like leaving Aldia out is a crime, he's not a great boss from a fight persepctive but his character is one of the best in the series

i like the tyler1 clip

what's that song in intro part?

How is Allant a final boss? You can beat him as your 2nd archdemon.

ER DLC has just been accounced :D

I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure False King Allant doesn't count as a final boss, he is the final boss of his Archstone, but can't you face the final bosses of the other Archstones before him? Technically the real final boss of Demon's Souls is True King Allant and we all know he should easily be last on this list.

I dont see usually people defending Elden Beast as a final boss, but I like it a lot. More than Radagon even because of the lore and the ost

I ain't even watched yet and I know who's winning