Elden Ring: 10 Bosses That Are Only Hard The First Time You Face Them

Highlights

• Soldier of Godrick, Spirit-Caller Snail, and Commander O’Neil offer unique encounters in Elden Ring, challenging players with different mechanics.
• Ancestor Spirit, Flying Dragon Agheel, and Rennala provide exciting and varied boss fights for players to experience and conquer.
• Lichdragon Fortissax, Crystalian Duos, Grafted Scion, and Mimic Tear showcase the diverse range of boss battles in Elden Ring.

Elden Ring fans are excitedly awaiting the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, set to release in June 2024. FromSoftware is no stranger to incredibly large-scale expansions, and Shadow of the Erdtree is set to be their most ambitious to date.

They are also infamous for their extremely challenging boss fights, establishing the Soulslike genre that has become so popular, and no doubt players will have more of these intense battles to look forward to. However, there are some notable outliers that only really pose a challenge to players on their very first encounter in the Lands Between.

1 Soldier Of Godrick

Forgiving Tutorial Boss

• Location: Stranded Graveyard
• Runes: 400
• Drops: Runes only
• HP: 384

As the tutorial boss of Elden Ring, it is completely understandable that the relatively forgiving Soldier of Godrick makes this list. In fact, the humble Soldier of Godrick wouldn’t pose much of a challenge to longtime Souls fans, even on the first encounter. Found in the appropriately dubbed “Cave of Knowledge,” the Soldier of Godrick is an optional tutorial boss to familiarize players with the mechanics. Souls veterans might ignore him completely.

For players who are entirely new to Soulslike games, however, the Soldier of Godrick acts as the first challenging encounter, and it’s completely understandable for new players to fall to his blade. Even then, the Soldier of Godrick is forgiving enough that most players should be able to make it past him after their first tussle.

2 Spirit-Caller Snail

Summons Challenging Enemies But Otherwise Easy To Kill

• Location: Road’s End Catacombs
• Runes: 3000
• Drops: Glintstone Sorcerer Ashes
• HP: 1722

A fight against a snail doesn’t sound like a challenging one under any circumstances, but the Spirit-Caller Snail (notably the one in the Road’s End Catacombs) can catch players out on the first attempt. This is predominantly because the Spirit-Caller Snail summons spirits to fight on its behalf and defend it.

In the Road’s End Catacombs, it summons Crucible Knights, notoriously challenging enemies. Sometimes, players can do a whole fight trying to kill a never-ending tide of Crucible Knights before realizing that they actually just need to kill a snail. Once players have this knowledge, the Spirit-Caller Snail is incredibly easy to kill.

3 Commander O’Neil

Easy To Pick Apart When Fighting On Torrent

• Location: Swamp of Aeonia
• Runes: 12,000
• Drops: Commander’s Standard, Unalloyed Gold Needle
• HP: 9210

Caelid is a terrifying location in Elden Ring, and players would be right to fear most enemies encountered there. Commander O’Neil isn’t one of them. Found in the Swamp of Aeonia, Commander O’Neil can catch players out the first time they face him, particularly if they try to face him on foot, risking scarlet rot buildup. Casters can also get overwhelmed by his multiple summons.

In reality, though, his fight proves to be quite simple. He’s incredibly slow, so utilizing hit-and-run tactics with Torrent puts players at a huge advantage, while casters just need to ensure they take out his summons first, also from horseback. Players only need to die to him once to get Commander O’Neil’s fight down. Don’t underestimate his Castle Sol counterpart, Commander Niall, though. Now that’s a scary boss!

4 Ancestor Spirit

Slow Telegraphed Moves Make For A Pleasant Dance-Like Fight

• Location: Siofra River
• Runes: 13,000
• Drops: Ancestral Follower Ashes
• HP: 4393

The Ancestor Spirit is an optional boss that can be encountered in the Siofra River Well after lighting all the beacons in the area and interacting with the great big ominous deer carcass. While this fight can be a challenging one, especially if players are quite under-leveled for it, the Ancestor Spirit fight is more like a dance than a fight.

Each of the moves is well-telegraphed, relatively slow, and predictable once players have been through the motions once or twice. The Ancestor Spirit does have a souped-up version called the Regal Ancestor Spirit found in Nokron, which might take more than one attempt thanks to a few added moves, but it ultimately behaves much the same as the original.

5 Flying Dragon Agheel

Low-Level Dragon Is Easy To Beat With NPC Help

• Location: Dragon-Burnt Ruins
• Runes: 5000
• Drops: Dragon Heart
• HP: 3200

Flying Dragon Agheel is invariably intimidating to new players, as it is the first dragon that players are likely to encounter, and everyone knows how powerful dragons are. Fortunately, as it’s hanging around in the starter area, Limgrave, players are a pretty decent match for Agheel, even at somewhat low levels.

If anything is going to catch players out on their first encounter with Agheel, it would probably be their deadly fire breath, which they can spew over most of the battlefield. While players can’t target the head for more damage on Torrent, it is advisable to fight Agheel on horseback to escape the flames. To make the second attempt even easier than the first, players can also summon the nearby NPC, Yura, if players talk to them after dying to Agheel at least once.

6 Rennala, Queen Of The Full Moon

Acts Like A Tutorial Boss For Magical Enemies

• Location: Raya Lucaria Academy
• Runes: 30,000
• Drops: Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen, Great Rune of the Unborn
• HP: 3493 (phase 1), 4097 (phase 2)

Despite being one of the shardbearers, Rennala isn’t a required boss for completing Elden Ring. However, she is well worth fighting, given that it allows players to unlock the popular Age of Stars ending and also unlocks the option for Rennala to “remake” and respec a player’s Tarnished. Challenging Rennala is often the natural next goal after reaching Liurnia of the Lakes. Still quite early game, she isn’t too much of a challenge, acting almost like a tutorial boss for spell-slinging enemies.

However, new players might be overwhelmed when they first reach her second phase and she starts to summon terrifying opponents. It shouldn’t take players too many restarts to work out that she staggers easily in this second phase, though. Things are admittedly harder for spellcasters, thanks to Rennala’s significant damage negation, but the Lone Wolf Ashes can do the job of stun-locking her just as well as any melee fighter. Still, having to redo her first phase even once is punishment enough!

7 Lichdragon Fortissax

Spectacular Fight Is Deceptively Simple

• Location: Deeproot Depths
• Runes: 90,000
• Drops: Remembrance of the Lichdragon
• HP: 12,903

Players looking to complete Fia’s questline and achieve the Age of the Duskborn ending will need to contend with Lichdragon Fortissax, a relatively hidden boss. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), for a boss that is both a lich and a dragon, Fortissax doesn’t present as much of a challenge as people might expect.

Of course, it doesn’t detract from how impressive Fortissax’s fight looks, and the sheer spectacle of it can panic players. On the first try, players are likely to do surprisingly well against him but still die to his fire, lightning, or death areas of effect. While this sounds intimidating, he’s quite easy to read and most high-level players will only need one attempt to nail Fortissax’s boss fight.

8 Crystalian Duos

Uniquely High Poise Results In An Easier Fight Than It First Seems

• Location: Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel, Academy Crystal Cave, Altus Tunnel
• Runes: 3000, 3300, 9000
• Drops: Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell Bearing (1), Crystal Release, Somberstone Miner’s Bell Bearing (2)
• HP: 1595, 1595 each, 1892 each

Crystalians are a strange, inorganic but sentient race in the world of The Lands Between. They start to become a common regular enemy later in the game, particularly in the Consecrated Snowfield, but players are likely to first encounter them as boss enemies, often in pairs. The main threat to players facing the Crystalian Duos is their own panic. This is likely to start to rise in players as their first attacks will appear to do no damage.

This is a little deceptive, however. The Crystalians have incredibly high poise and will take little to no damage until their stance is broken. Once this happens, they will start to lose health rapidly. As soon as players realize this, often by dying to them once, the fights become a lot easier.

9 Grafted Scion

First Boss Can Be Fought Again At Much Higher Levels

• Location: Chapel of Anticipation
• Runes: 3200
• Drops: Ornamental Straight Sword, Golden Beast Crest Shield
• HP: 2596

Grafted Scions are horrific, many-limbed spider-like monstrosities that are fought at a few notable locations in the game. However, the Grafted Scion in the Chapel of Anticipation represents a formidable challenge for new players at the start of the game. That’s because players must face off against this monster at the very start of the game, not being expected to win by any means.

Dying at this point simply progresses the game as intended. Players can face this same Grafted Scion again. This will either happen when players revisit the Chapel of Anticipation via the Four Belfries waygate or if they start a New Game+ run. At either of these points, players are likely to be highly over-leveled to fight a Grafted Scion, making short work of it on their second encounter.

10 Mimic Tear

Simple Trick Makes It Easy To Defeat This Unique Boss

• Location: Nokron, Eternal City, Hidden Path to the Haligtree
• Runes: 10,000, 50,000
• Drops: Larval Tear, Silver Tear Mask, Blackflame Monk Amon Ashes
• HP: Tarnished HP

The Mimic Tear is a fascinating optional boss that can be fought in Nokron and the Hidden Path to the Haligtree. As its name suggests, the Mimic Tear will duplicate the equipment and statistics of the Tarnished at the beginning of combat. This can make it a formidable opponent with any number of skills available to it depending on the player’s build.

Once players know about the Mimic Tear and its unique fighting style, however, there is a very easy and notorious workaround to make the fight instantly winnable. All players need to do is unequip their armor and weapons before entering the mist door, reequipping them once the fight begins. This forces the Mimic Tear to fight with bare fists and without armor.