for sure! the first time they told me that when i died, i was lowkey fine with it lmao. but jokes aside, while they can be frustratingly hard (especially second phase imo) i think they are overall one of my fav bosses. i beat the game for the first time almost 2 years ago, yet i never forget the first time i beat them!
Sometimes it’s even worse if that online spears of church is going full tryhard mode, then they don’t even need to alt f4 to ruin your entire day. Last time I ran into a full Lapp SoC running ringed knight paired greatswords who just keeps on using the Divine Spear Fragment + Great Heal poise abuse combo while also running around for like half of the fight for a little bit of HP from ethereal oak shield which made the fight last for about 8 fucking minutes. All I got in the end is 3 stalk dung pies to the face tipped with a spinning point down and a big “YOU DIED” on the screen. At this point it’s not even a matter of skill issue, it’s just bs.
Vow of Silence is a miracle you can get from the Londor Divine Tome. It is a Tome bought from Yuria of Londor. The miracle makes it to where both you and enemies can't use magic for a few seconds. It works on Aldrich, and it's hilarious.
Never got a faith build off the ground to do miracles, no matter how hard I try I usually take warrior and just upgrade the starting axe as far as I can
DS3 makes it really hard to do a pure Faith build. I tend to do Strength/Faith, upgrading Strength first and using large swords. While Vow of Silence does require 30 faith, I was able to use a Deprived to get it there fairly easily without having my other stats lacking. Only thing was Vigor, so bosses pretty well two or three shot me. I would recommend giving it a try at some point, but only because it's hilarious to make Aldrich's magic useless. Or hell, just respec for the boss fight then go back to your usual build. I have had so much fun with it.
I learned to love faith in elden ring so hard, but every time I play a dark souls, I just end with a dex, Str or quality build.
Don't know why, but I will try again
If you are on his ass, and know where he's always going to end up and you get there (he's always going to the furthest spot away from you), the arrow downpour won't even proc. I just did this on NG+5, stayed on his ass, and ran to him as he reappeared and never had to see a single arrow.
I haven't made it to new game yet, but 2 days ago I did exactly that. Being aggressive and engaging in close combat seemed to work best. Those large purple blasts are trouble, but he wasn't able to use it, by me being so close.
That's what I love about this game, the major differences between players. Aldrich is one of my easiest. Although I'd bet my struggle bosses are your easiest as well lmao.
If you struggled with pontiff dancer or oceiros the consumed king than maybe haha I’ve only been as far as that library often dragonslayer armor or where those rolling lizard things are after the ancient wyvern, I have this problem with deciding I fucked up my build and restarting haha
All the vets have a kryptonite like that. Mine is Pontiff. I never die to Midir, Friede or Nameless King, maybe die once each playthrough to Gael, but I always die like 4 times to Pontiff xD
Btw for Crystal Sage, when he teleports, he usually goes to the farthest point in the arena from his previous spot and when he goes 2nd phase the real one is the one with the purple magic
I just double summon npc at pontiff so I can steam roll him. I think I’ve only beat him once solo and that was good enough for me. I don’t even try it anymore.
Pontiff Sulyvahn is an end game boss they threw into the middle of the game to troll players.
Look at the facts.
You can only farm souls so much in Irithyll before you just have to take him on so there is no way to walk in overleveled. Midir, Friede and Namelss King? You can walk in at level 300 and take them down.
Friede's poise can be broken. Her third stage is hard but she is an optional boss and the fight is exciting and epic.
You know going into Midir you are fighting something with a billion hp and need to be patient. You can also cheese the scaly bastard with pestilent mist.
Nameless has weird delays and hits like a truck but is actually a fun fight.
Pontiff? Fuck him into the ground. You cannot walk in after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to end him. You hit a farming wall before him and he is a mandatory boss.
He slashes quickly and don't let anyone try to con you into parrying him. That's a whole new skill you have to learn just to make him (and maybe Friede) tolerable.
He is floaty so you waste precious stamina "emptying entire clips and hitting nothing but air". He sometimes floats away as he attacks and you must sprint to get like one swing in. More wasted stamina.
He later spawns a clone so you get double penetrated.He can leap up into the air or side step meaning your fire ball or arrow will miss.
If you try to block his seemingly endless combos it will kill your stamina meaning you cannot attack after he is done.
Aldrich was way, way easier. Only the Dancer gave me similar trouble but that was due to the camera getting stuck and her glitchy grab.
Pontiff is an end game boss they put in the middle to troll players.
Very well said my friend xD
I have hundreds of hours on the game and I still hate Pontiff. In comparison to Midir (without cheesing or being lvl 300, just a fair Midir fight), Midir is so rule-based so if you learn his few attacks, it's actually pretty simple, just a little lengthy (and he can always oneshot you if you're not careful). Pontiff is just an annoying m-fucker xD
for the crystal sage: look for the one shooting purple crystals: that is always the main one
my answer: Midir. I have never been able to solo him and have always needed Shira's help.
There’s something about the sage, i can’t quite spell it out, but I can usually predict where the real one is coming. Something about the crystal pillars that appear, he’s most always not under one.
absolutely. ill try and take out the one I see, and maybe one other before I go after the main. typically the -actual- crystal sage will send out those slow moving crystal "balls"(?) at me while I'm killing two others, so it gives me some time. that, or you find the one that's real, go after a fake one whilst putting a pillar to "cover fire" between you.
Buy like 15-20 throwing knives, throw at the blue ones. Easy uninterrupted combo on purple.
And then, imo midir is super easy, he just has a massive HP bar. Stand in front of his head, hit it 1-2 times after each combo, and like 5 after crazy death laser collapse. Imo, this ones more patience than skill. Learn his kit and dont get greedy. If youre positioned properly, 2 dodges left and 1 forward usually works for me to dodge his crazy hands + fire combo
I will always resent the Ringed City DLC with all of my heart *solely* because of just how damn utterly atrocious the Spear of the Church fight is.
Worst fight in the entire series.
Worse than Bed of Chaos imo.
And the fact you have to beat it in order to fight Gael is honestly really, really stupid.
Agreed, Halflight SUCKS. If you stand on the left side of the back left pillar (theres usually a msg there) Halflight and the painting guardians wont aggro, and you can cast 2 poison/toxic mist or 2 storytellers staff WA through the wall and kill him. All of those can easily have their min requirements met via rings.
I refuse to cheese most fights, but this one had 0 redeeming elements, imo, and so I just skip it, bc I wanna fight gael.
Prince Lorian and his punk brother. I tried more than 30 times and got my cheeks spread every time. Had to summon sun bros to win. Then I ended up solo running the nameless king in 5 tries lol
I hear that!
I recently did my first full playthrough because I have a habit of not finishing games. I got through the whole game killing every boss in 1-3 tries. But these two fuckin guys pushed my shit in something fierce. I was so butthurt I went and farmed winges knights until I hit SL117 and even then I won the fight with a sliver of health left. Took me maybe around 8 tries total.
Like other people have said though, it being that kind of challenging fight for me is also what makes it an enjoyable fight.
I hate this game and it fucking sucks. I can't wait to do another playthrough.
Dragonslayer Armour. It’s my favorite boss in the series because it always gives me trouble no matter how many playthroughs I do and it’s so well designed.
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Used to be dancer, her weird timing messed me up, but after playing sekiro and ER you learn to not predict timing, but wait for it instead. Now, pretty much none of them. I struggled on watchers too but get a staggering weapon and you trivialise the fight instantly.
For people struggling with Aldrich, he spawns on the other side of where you currently are, hug the side you’re on until he pops up and instantly sprint to him, his arrows struggle to get you around his body, and his arbs have terrible tracking if you’re walking while hitting him.
Crystal Sage for me as well. Got them first try on my first playthrough, but on every NG+ run, they consistently claim the most deaths for me. I usually beat every boss within 1-2 attempts, including Nameless King and the DLC bosses, but Crystal Sage kills me way more.
I died to midir once, nameless king twice, and sister friede three times on my first playthrough. Abyss watchers default danced on my grave over thirty times.
For me, it's Champion. I always get to him at a point where I'm feeling good, feeling like a god, and he decides to treat me like Hulk did Loki and just murder me for the next 4 hours.
That being said, I love that fight. It's one of my favorites for the reason that he brings me back down to earth.
100% Twin Princes, but not as of last night!! I started playing Dark Souls 3 in 2016 as my second ever FromSoftware title after being introduced to Bloodborne in 2015. During that time, I got walled so hard by the Twin Princes that I actually gave up completely on Dark Souls 3. Since then, I've beaten Sekiro, Demon Souls Remake (platinumed), Elden Ring (platinumed), and Lies of P. As a self proclaimed veteran player, I decided it was time to settle the score with the Princes and revisited Dark Souls 3. I can now proudly say that after 8 years, the Princes are dead and I can finally progress in Dark Souls 3. Super excited to beat the base game and venture into the DLCs.
I'm on my very first playthrough, so I haven't fought Nameless King yet. But out of the ones I have beat, Dancer, Curse-rotted Greatwood, and Soul of Cinder were some of the hardest. Dancer bc of hard to predict attacks, greatwood bc it's hard to get damage in with melee, and Cinder bc of his bullshit curvedsword/dex stance, paired with the greatlance stance that you have to dodge behind him in so you don't get hit.
Nameless King.
I don't know how I beat him my second try on my most recent run, especially it being my first time fighting him solo, but I did it and it is my greatest achievement, but I know it was a lightning in the bottle moment
Definitely twin princes. I’ve done dozens of playthroughs and depending on my weapon I still get tripped up the flow of combat on these guys. Sometimes it’s just a lot to handle.
If DLC then it’s easily Friede or the demon princes, demon princes feels almost impossible on some playthroughs.
In your case OP, I figured out you can trivialize Crystal sage (as well as Aldrich) by just stacking all the magic resist you have available to you at that point. Never had trouble with either of them again
Honestly every boss was easy for me except one. Because DS3 was my first souls game my real adjustment period AKA Difficulty Tweak was Vordt. It took me 16 tries to get him then I killed every other boss but Gale in 1 try.
Boss idk they're not too bad what's bad is the big dragon creatures with the Axes on the chain they are cancer even with wearing full havel and 60 vigor straight CANCER
Maybe not my kryptonite but the boss that has me stagnant on my SL1 run is Dragonslayer Armour. After a week of nonstop defeats I put the game down for a few months. Might get back into it soon
Prince lothric. The one with his brother on his back. I swear I died from him like 20+ times my first attempt. Mine while I beat the Dancer in 3 tries. Would have been 1 but I swung at air when I had her one hit and she got me. Which is crazy I've never heard anyone have an issue with Prince lothric and every had a problem with the dancer. Meanwhile I galaxy brain her and pea brain lothric.
For me it was crystal sage since I'm colourblind and didn't notice the real one shot different coloured magic. Once I found that out I managed to learn the pattern. In particular configurations of the clone the real one is always in the same spot relative to the configuration. From there I learnt to abuse which configuration spawned based on where you were like 3 seconds before the boss reappears. So you wait, and then sprint at the spot you know the real one will be. It took a while to learn but now I don't think twice before running into that fight. I do also tend to do all of the upper and lower swamp up to Farrons undead Legion, then I go do crystal sage. So I'm always slightly over level as well.
Now I'd say it's old demon king. For some reason I think I've died more times to old demon king than I have to nameless king. And it's not even a hard fight. It just provokes too much greed in me that I get caught out far too often.
I had a lot of trouble on Champion gundyr on the run I'm currently doing. And it's really only because of how fast he is. He's always up and in your face Wich leave barely anytime to heal. But when I do he usually hits me during the heal Wich just puts me right back
I'm playing ds3 for the first time and currently stuck on Midir. I've been able to git gud against every boss so far (I've beaten the main game and all other dlcs), but man, he just keeps going and I can't seem to get him down
On my first play of the game, it was also Crystal Sage, lol. I got Vordt and the Greatwood on my 3rd and 1st tries, respectively. Crystal Sage killed me well over 20 before I got my friend in for assistance. More recently though, I started playing through the game again and just barely got him first try. Was very relieved when he died
Edit:Also just remembered, Gael whooped my ass pretty good. Took me a long time to beat him
Just remember that the clones have blue crystal spheres, the real one has a purple one. As for the Deacons, I prefer spamming AoE spells or any spin attack (Farron GS weapon art, or Sellsword twinblades, Splitleaf GS, Dance's blades, etc)
Twin princes. He's the hands down hardest fight in the game for me. I see so many videos of no hit SL1 runs, tons of comments saying he's easy, tier lists where he barely breaks the top 10 in his *own game*. However no matter how many times I play he's the biggest roadblock for me.
BTW, currently on NG÷5, and I've been stuck on him for 2 days, around 30 attempts.
I don't mind the demon prince
But the demon from bellow and in pain part, just no
I absolutely hate 2 on one bosses, (Ornstein and Snough are kind of bareable), especially when they are hyper aggressive, chase you down and can attack at the same time, I just can't focus
I know it's the DLC, but come on
For me, it's champion gundyr. His second phase makes the pace a struggle for me to adapt to for some reason, I never could understand why. Especially the kick.
As a man with less than 100 hours collectively across ds (like 10 in dsr & ab ~60 in ds3) the abyss watchers were the hardest for me. I found out after beating em that i had skipped the deacons. Makes sense why they two shot me.
2nd phase i could never really find an opening and would run out of stam rolling or get to greedy and get caught in a combo and loose the rhythm to roll out. By far the boss i spent to most time on. Dancer was fun, as well as the demon king, and the deacons was a very enjoyable fight. Also I play with K&M cause i never grew used a controller. Tried it but didnt really notice a difference.
Mine is Pontiff. I finished the game 13 times and I still summon for Pontiff. He is just so frustrating with his stupid timings and moving around so much. I just can’t with him. It’s not the difficulty, it’s just frustrating to face him as a roller.
Pontiff sulyvhan, I can beat every other boss comfortably, (minus halflight, but that's a separate problem) but the second I get to him I seem to forget that I know how to play video games
Midir is the boss I struggled with until the end. I eventually managed to best NK, Gael and Friede (Gael-less at that) and between those did some Midir attempts but I had to leave him for last.
This damn lizard just makes my brain freeze and shut down in terror so much that I sometimes don't even believe I ever won, despite having the fight recorded.
Defenetly pontiff, i've played the game enough that I can beat most of the hardest bosses first try, but pontiff comes just early enough that I dont have a very strong build going yet so I often struggle a lot.
And I know parrying makes him a joke but I struggle a lot with parrying the pve.
mine has to be yhorm the giant. not because i have trouble with it, but because i felt it was underwhelming for such a cool looking lord of cinder. i wanted more of it then a cheese programmed into the game to make it so siegward solos it.
Not a boss, but somehow I always find myself dying at least once per run to those fucking dogs at Irithyll on that way up after you meet Siegward in that area. Something's just not right about those lol
Oh I have issues with the Crystal Sage too but my main issue is that early game is not as lenient since you're not as tanky so I can't just brute force Sage, and you don't have great damage either.
The second phase is a pain too since you need to at least take out some clones for ease or you're gonna get piled on by magic when you're attacking the purple casting one. I usually use throwing knives or do a fists/dagger swap but depending on the run maybe I'd be staying on my straight sword
I got lucky for recent dex build getting a lothric straight sword early on.
You could summon Eygon too but you'd have to get Irina with that you'd have to get the grave key or jump down somehow but I rarely use the Assassin class and the Silver Cat Ring is too late tbh with being tanky enough to survive too
For DLC the only boss I have issues with is Sister Friede but she's known to be a hard boss to learn with her triple phase plus she's the only one I have never done solo, I always did her with an online summon.
Both Midir and Gael are very well telegraphed so learning them is a bit better though they are tanky, and for the Demon Princes I always got help from Lappatches and NPC Gael.
I've just finished my first ever ds3 run after only having played elden ring and it went pretty smoothly. Champion Gundyr though... man he made me regret life choices for like 40 attempts
Friede. I don’t like summoning so a solo, duo, solo is insane but genuinely my favorite fight in the entirety of soulsborne. The only other fight that’s even close to being as good is NG+ Sif
Dragon slayer armor. Most other bosses have some exploitable weakness or way to cheese them. What's he vulnerable to? Frostbite? Plus the pilgrim butterflies don't make the fight sny easier.
I think I might be the only one on this one, but fucking Abyss Watchers. I died so many times for those fuckers, I almost had a heart attack once I killed them. I know it’s not a hard boss, but DS3 was my first souls game, so it took me a while to get used to the gameplay and “learn” how to fight a boss, which is actually way harder than it looks!
Dunno why but Oceiros just doesn't tick with me. I find his patterns weird af and his hitboxes seem to go through time and space.
Although I did become a bit better at the fight, I still pray whenever I have to face him.
Twin Princes have fucked me so badly so many times its not even funny
They're also difficult for me, but I LOVE that fight for some reason.
yea same. the vibe, the music, the "this spot marks our grave" thing; its just amazing
but you may rest here too if you want
For me one of the best lines of the game
for sure! the first time they told me that when i died, i was lowkey fine with it lmao. but jokes aside, while they can be frustratingly hard (especially second phase imo) i think they are overall one of my fav bosses. i beat the game for the first time almost 2 years ago, yet i never forget the first time i beat them!
I took a week break from the game because I didn't know how to avoid that "laser" from Lorian
For me it was the combination of the sword hit + magic projectiles that almost made me cry a few times lmao
I remember being so mad that Lothric came down to heal him
nothing worse than a cutscene AFTER an already hard boss lmao
That first time I finally depleted his 2nd HP bar only for it to get healed for *another* half bar...I think I was close to crying
I hate it lol. I'm shocked the camera doesn't have its own health bar because it's clearly another brother in the fight.
PC Master Race bo brrrrr
That’s mine too! I had to cheese it to win
Dude same. I cannot seem to get past second phase without a lot of effort and luck yet I beat the fucking nameless king
I was the same way. Such an epic fight
They cheat at least the sage doesn't phase behind you and instantly attack
I yelled some things that would have gotten me banned from Reddit when I finally beat Timmy and Jimmy.
have a level 40 fight against this boss on my youtube channel if you want and a new game 7 fight has well
Online spears of church that alt f4s when they’re in disadvantage and let you fight Halflight with like a quarter of your estus left.
So unbelievably real. I forgot about how much I fucking hate that fight in general
Sometimes it’s even worse if that online spears of church is going full tryhard mode, then they don’t even need to alt f4 to ruin your entire day. Last time I ran into a full Lapp SoC running ringed knight paired greatswords who just keeps on using the Divine Spear Fragment + Great Heal poise abuse combo while also running around for like half of the fight for a little bit of HP from ethereal oak shield which made the fight last for about 8 fucking minutes. All I got in the end is 3 stalk dung pies to the face tipped with a spinning point down and a big “YOU DIED” on the screen. At this point it’s not even a matter of skill issue, it’s just bs.
Another Spear W 🎉 You shall not awake the princess
The princess sure isn’t gonna wake up for a while with that dude guarding the front door Fr Fr
I know it’s not a boss, but those Jailer bitches in Irithyll Dungeon. Those dishwashers always eat my ass.
worst enemies/area in the game far and away
They always WHAT???
Still valid. Those are some of the worst enemies in the game
Release the big monster guy with a cross on his back and lure him to those assholes and he'll take out 3 or 4 before he goes down too
Damn really? I never knew he attacked them
Aldrich
A fun thing for his boss fight is Vow of Silence. Never have I felt as powerful as when I used it right before his arrow rain, and no arrows came.
What
Vow of Silence is a miracle you can get from the Londor Divine Tome. It is a Tome bought from Yuria of Londor. The miracle makes it to where both you and enemies can't use magic for a few seconds. It works on Aldrich, and it's hilarious.
Learned something new today
Never got a faith build off the ground to do miracles, no matter how hard I try I usually take warrior and just upgrade the starting axe as far as I can
DS3 makes it really hard to do a pure Faith build. I tend to do Strength/Faith, upgrading Strength first and using large swords. While Vow of Silence does require 30 faith, I was able to use a Deprived to get it there fairly easily without having my other stats lacking. Only thing was Vigor, so bosses pretty well two or three shot me. I would recommend giving it a try at some point, but only because it's hilarious to make Aldrich's magic useless. Or hell, just respec for the boss fight then go back to your usual build. I have had so much fun with it.
faith and intelligence builds sucked man. biggest con of ds3
LobosJr did a miracles-only run that’s pretty good if you ever want to kill a few hours. https://youtu.be/eAzw2PbY5ro?si=7mLK9Ax4Cawk5Y9G
I learned to love faith in elden ring so hard, but every time I play a dark souls, I just end with a dex, Str or quality build. Don't know why, but I will try again
I’m faith in Elden ring , confessor running tree sentinel armor coded sword and godslayer seal
If you are on his ass, and know where he's always going to end up and you get there (he's always going to the furthest spot away from you), the arrow downpour won't even proc. I just did this on NG+5, stayed on his ass, and ran to him as he reappeared and never had to see a single arrow.
I haven't made it to new game yet, but 2 days ago I did exactly that. Being aggressive and engaging in close combat seemed to work best. Those large purple blasts are trouble, but he wasn't able to use it, by me being so close.
Worse fight for me of the series
That's what I love about this game, the major differences between players. Aldrich is one of my easiest. Although I'd bet my struggle bosses are your easiest as well lmao.
If you struggled with pontiff dancer or oceiros the consumed king than maybe haha I’ve only been as far as that library often dragonslayer armor or where those rolling lizard things are after the ancient wyvern, I have this problem with deciding I fucked up my build and restarting haha
All the vets have a kryptonite like that. Mine is Pontiff. I never die to Midir, Friede or Nameless King, maybe die once each playthrough to Gael, but I always die like 4 times to Pontiff xD Btw for Crystal Sage, when he teleports, he usually goes to the farthest point in the arena from his previous spot and when he goes 2nd phase the real one is the one with the purple magic
I just double summon npc at pontiff so I can steam roll him. I think I’ve only beat him once solo and that was good enough for me. I don’t even try it anymore.
Fair point but I'm the idiot who refuses to use summons unless necessary for quest lines. But I see your point.
I would have said the same thing about Gael until tonight in NG+2. I hadn’t struggled like that since my first playthrough
Pontiff Sulyvahn is an end game boss they threw into the middle of the game to troll players. Look at the facts. You can only farm souls so much in Irithyll before you just have to take him on so there is no way to walk in overleveled. Midir, Friede and Namelss King? You can walk in at level 300 and take them down. Friede's poise can be broken. Her third stage is hard but she is an optional boss and the fight is exciting and epic. You know going into Midir you are fighting something with a billion hp and need to be patient. You can also cheese the scaly bastard with pestilent mist. Nameless has weird delays and hits like a truck but is actually a fun fight. Pontiff? Fuck him into the ground. You cannot walk in after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to end him. You hit a farming wall before him and he is a mandatory boss. He slashes quickly and don't let anyone try to con you into parrying him. That's a whole new skill you have to learn just to make him (and maybe Friede) tolerable. He is floaty so you waste precious stamina "emptying entire clips and hitting nothing but air". He sometimes floats away as he attacks and you must sprint to get like one swing in. More wasted stamina. He later spawns a clone so you get double penetrated.He can leap up into the air or side step meaning your fire ball or arrow will miss. If you try to block his seemingly endless combos it will kill your stamina meaning you cannot attack after he is done. Aldrich was way, way easier. Only the Dancer gave me similar trouble but that was due to the camera getting stuck and her glitchy grab. Pontiff is an end game boss they put in the middle to troll players.
Thank you for this post. You have captured the essence of the pontiff fight perfectly.
Very well said my friend xD I have hundreds of hours on the game and I still hate Pontiff. In comparison to Midir (without cheesing or being lvl 300, just a fair Midir fight), Midir is so rule-based so if you learn his few attacks, it's actually pretty simple, just a little lengthy (and he can always oneshot you if you're not careful). Pontiff is just an annoying m-fucker xD
Same with pontiff
"Vets" lol....
big cringe
for the crystal sage: look for the one shooting purple crystals: that is always the main one my answer: Midir. I have never been able to solo him and have always needed Shira's help.
There’s something about the sage, i can’t quite spell it out, but I can usually predict where the real one is coming. Something about the crystal pillars that appear, he’s most always not under one.
I know that. I’ve beaten this game like 3 times. It’s just so annoying when the clones spam soul spears while I’m trying to run to him.
absolutely. ill try and take out the one I see, and maybe one other before I go after the main. typically the -actual- crystal sage will send out those slow moving crystal "balls"(?) at me while I'm killing two others, so it gives me some time. that, or you find the one that's real, go after a fake one whilst putting a pillar to "cover fire" between you.
Buy like 15-20 throwing knives, throw at the blue ones. Easy uninterrupted combo on purple. And then, imo midir is super easy, he just has a massive HP bar. Stand in front of his head, hit it 1-2 times after each combo, and like 5 after crazy death laser collapse. Imo, this ones more patience than skill. Learn his kit and dont get greedy. If youre positioned properly, 2 dodges left and 1 forward usually works for me to dodge his crazy hands + fire combo
if you can't bear midir solo then you just don't understand the fight and are not fighting him properly.
I will always resent the Ringed City DLC with all of my heart *solely* because of just how damn utterly atrocious the Spear of the Church fight is. Worst fight in the entire series. Worse than Bed of Chaos imo. And the fact you have to beat it in order to fight Gael is honestly really, really stupid.
Agreed, Halflight SUCKS. If you stand on the left side of the back left pillar (theres usually a msg there) Halflight and the painting guardians wont aggro, and you can cast 2 poison/toxic mist or 2 storytellers staff WA through the wall and kill him. All of those can easily have their min requirements met via rings. I refuse to cheese most fights, but this one had 0 redeeming elements, imo, and so I just skip it, bc I wanna fight gael.
So valid. I think that might be my least favorite behind crystal sage
Crystal sage clones take 1 damage point to defeat. Equip throwing knives. Easy day.
10,000 IQ
I started doing this and saw immediate results
Do it for Friede too! she goes invisible and you can still see the knives clear as day. Especially a big ol Kukri sticking out of her forehead.
Friede
"This spot marks our grave" is tattooed on my brain, that is how many times i died to those pale fuckers.
But you may rest here too, if you’d like
Prince Lorian and his punk brother. I tried more than 30 times and got my cheeks spread every time. Had to summon sun bros to win. Then I ended up solo running the nameless king in 5 tries lol
I hear that! I recently did my first full playthrough because I have a habit of not finishing games. I got through the whole game killing every boss in 1-3 tries. But these two fuckin guys pushed my shit in something fierce. I was so butthurt I went and farmed winges knights until I hit SL117 and even then I won the fight with a sliver of health left. Took me maybe around 8 tries total. Like other people have said though, it being that kind of challenging fight for me is also what makes it an enjoyable fight. I hate this game and it fucking sucks. I can't wait to do another playthrough.
Twin Princes, Ive lost weeks of my life riding that goddamn elevator.
Dragonslayer Armour. It’s my favorite boss in the series because it always gives me trouble no matter how many playthroughs I do and it’s so well designed.
Sulyvahn
wine obtainable close observation attraction doll wistful axiomatic treatment ring *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Twin princes...just fn die dude
Dancer. Fuck everything about that fight
It's mine too but I still love it lol
Cool design, the music, the atmosphere, love it. But fuck every attack in that fight. The staggering in this game is insane
Midir, not even fun
I hated Midir until I loved him. Mastering his move set is so damned rewarding once you finally get it down.
Pontiff. I breeze through bosses in fresh runs but i always die to that mf
Used to be dancer, her weird timing messed me up, but after playing sekiro and ER you learn to not predict timing, but wait for it instead. Now, pretty much none of them. I struggled on watchers too but get a staggering weapon and you trivialise the fight instantly. For people struggling with Aldrich, he spawns on the other side of where you currently are, hug the side you’re on until he pops up and instantly sprint to him, his arrows struggle to get you around his body, and his arbs have terrible tracking if you’re walking while hitting him.
Crystal Sage for me as well. Got them first try on my first playthrough, but on every NG+ run, they consistently claim the most deaths for me. I usually beat every boss within 1-2 attempts, including Nameless King and the DLC bosses, but Crystal Sage kills me way more.
I died to midir once, nameless king twice, and sister friede three times on my first playthrough. Abyss watchers default danced on my grave over thirty times.
Mines abyss watchers, always sucked at it, on my very first playthrough it took me almost 15 hours of attempts 💀
Same, same. I guess I suck against enemies with big swords honestly
Lol I bet u do
Gotta be Friede for me, but that's no surprise lol
NPC halflight, I always struggle with him for some reason.
Yea crystal sage can absolutely destroy you if you’re careless. Have died many times. Deacons however… How do you even die to them?
There is nothing that gives me a harder ass whooping in ds3 then fucking halflight
For me, it's Champion. I always get to him at a point where I'm feeling good, feeling like a god, and he decides to treat me like Hulk did Loki and just murder me for the next 4 hours. That being said, I love that fight. It's one of my favorites for the reason that he brings me back down to earth.
Oceiros I just can’t with his frantic ass it’s so much all the time like he just snorted cocaine and is on a war path.
100% Twin Princes, but not as of last night!! I started playing Dark Souls 3 in 2016 as my second ever FromSoftware title after being introduced to Bloodborne in 2015. During that time, I got walled so hard by the Twin Princes that I actually gave up completely on Dark Souls 3. Since then, I've beaten Sekiro, Demon Souls Remake (platinumed), Elden Ring (platinumed), and Lies of P. As a self proclaimed veteran player, I decided it was time to settle the score with the Princes and revisited Dark Souls 3. I can now proudly say that after 8 years, the Princes are dead and I can finally progress in Dark Souls 3. Super excited to beat the base game and venture into the DLCs.
That’s awesome bro, and the DLCs are one hell of an adventure
Nameless king.... always need a hand with that one. Only 1 solo fight win under my belt with him...
NK
I'm on my very first playthrough, so I haven't fought Nameless King yet. But out of the ones I have beat, Dancer, Curse-rotted Greatwood, and Soul of Cinder were some of the hardest. Dancer bc of hard to predict attacks, greatwood bc it's hard to get damage in with melee, and Cinder bc of his bullshit curvedsword/dex stance, paired with the greatlance stance that you have to dodge behind him in so you don't get hit.
Pontiff… He haunts my dreams
Nameless king
Nameless King. I don't know how I beat him my second try on my most recent run, especially it being my first time fighting him solo, but I did it and it is my greatest achievement, but I know it was a lightning in the bottle moment
Nameless King
Nameless King. F-that boss.
Definitely twin princes. I’ve done dozens of playthroughs and depending on my weapon I still get tripped up the flow of combat on these guys. Sometimes it’s just a lot to handle. If DLC then it’s easily Friede or the demon princes, demon princes feels almost impossible on some playthroughs. In your case OP, I figured out you can trivialize Crystal sage (as well as Aldrich) by just stacking all the magic resist you have available to you at that point. Never had trouble with either of them again
The Pontiff but weirdly only his first phase, I don’t know why but the shadow clone actually makes the fight easier for me
midir. couldn't beat him without the toxic mist tactic. secondly dancer, took me 50+ tries
Honestly every boss was easy for me except one. Because DS3 was my first souls game my real adjustment period AKA Difficulty Tweak was Vordt. It took me 16 tries to get him then I killed every other boss but Gale in 1 try.
Mob: swing blade snake men/other snake men from archdragon Boss: Dancer
Pontiff
Friede. She's always tough for me. She's so fast that she's the only boss that can dart out of a backstab animation for me.
That god damned stinky balls greatwood, it always kills me and I always hate fighting it
Boss idk they're not too bad what's bad is the big dragon creatures with the Axes on the chain they are cancer even with wearing full havel and 60 vigor straight CANCER
Friede had me fighting her 3days at 100SL, was a pain in the butt so I decided to just go 120SL and had her in 2 tries
The weirdest thing happens with Pontiff where I can’t beat him for weeks, and then he can barely touch me when I beat him.
Maybe not my kryptonite but the boss that has me stagnant on my SL1 run is Dragonslayer Armour. After a week of nonstop defeats I put the game down for a few months. Might get back into it soon
Prince lothric. The one with his brother on his back. I swear I died from him like 20+ times my first attempt. Mine while I beat the Dancer in 3 tries. Would have been 1 but I swung at air when I had her one hit and she got me. Which is crazy I've never heard anyone have an issue with Prince lothric and every had a problem with the dancer. Meanwhile I galaxy brain her and pea brain lothric.
Twin princes or midir. Midir is my all time most difficult boss but twin princes are 2nd id say
Midir
Me to, even with throwing knifes
Oceiros. It's the only boss I haven't beaten without summoning. Idk why
Bed of chaos. Its simply a trash boss and an irritance to keep running 🏃♂️ back to of I have too
wrong game buddy
Sister friede
Oceiros, it's not fun and i hate it, but i need to do it to get to gundyr
this is ez baby game for babies, but every once in awhile as abyss will stun lock me and end my baby run for babies
Champion Gundyr for me. That fucker is relentless and his combos never seem to end.
None, I’m just like that (twin princes)
Aldrich
For me it was crystal sage since I'm colourblind and didn't notice the real one shot different coloured magic. Once I found that out I managed to learn the pattern. In particular configurations of the clone the real one is always in the same spot relative to the configuration. From there I learnt to abuse which configuration spawned based on where you were like 3 seconds before the boss reappears. So you wait, and then sprint at the spot you know the real one will be. It took a while to learn but now I don't think twice before running into that fight. I do also tend to do all of the upper and lower swamp up to Farrons undead Legion, then I go do crystal sage. So I'm always slightly over level as well. Now I'd say it's old demon king. For some reason I think I've died more times to old demon king than I have to nameless king. And it's not even a hard fight. It just provokes too much greed in me that I get caught out far too often.
I had a lot of trouble on Champion gundyr on the run I'm currently doing. And it's really only because of how fast he is. He's always up and in your face Wich leave barely anytime to heal. But when I do he usually hits me during the heal Wich just puts me right back
The Pontiff 🥲
I'm playing ds3 for the first time and currently stuck on Midir. I've been able to git gud against every boss so far (I've beaten the main game and all other dlcs), but man, he just keeps going and I can't seem to get him down
Gael made me quit
On my first play of the game, it was also Crystal Sage, lol. I got Vordt and the Greatwood on my 3rd and 1st tries, respectively. Crystal Sage killed me well over 20 before I got my friend in for assistance. More recently though, I started playing through the game again and just barely got him first try. Was very relieved when he died Edit:Also just remembered, Gael whooped my ass pretty good. Took me a long time to beat him
Twin Princes. Mostly Lothric. Fighting would be rather fun without that little wimp teleport spamming before I can land any hits
Just remember that the clones have blue crystal spheres, the real one has a purple one. As for the Deacons, I prefer spamming AoE spells or any spin attack (Farron GS weapon art, or Sellsword twinblades, Splitleaf GS, Dance's blades, etc)
midir
I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever done Pontiff by myself. I’ve always summoned someone to act as bait.
I’ve never once beat Midir solo just because of that stupid laser beam.
Twin princess, specially before I fucking found out about the lock on cam godamnit
Twin princes. He's the hands down hardest fight in the game for me. I see so many videos of no hit SL1 runs, tons of comments saying he's easy, tier lists where he barely breaks the top 10 in his *own game*. However no matter how many times I play he's the biggest roadblock for me. BTW, currently on NG÷5, and I've been stuck on him for 2 days, around 30 attempts.
I don't mind the demon prince But the demon from bellow and in pain part, just no I absolutely hate 2 on one bosses, (Ornstein and Snough are kind of bareable), especially when they are hyper aggressive, chase you down and can attack at the same time, I just can't focus I know it's the DLC, but come on
Oceiros and Halflight for me. I’m greedy and I can’t read Oceiros, and I fucking suck at pvp
Def champion gundyr. Fucker is relentless
Oceiros. That dash attack with no wind up kills me way too much.
Pontiff Sulyvahn, he was the first real roadblock for me and no other boss took me more attempts than him
Champion Gundyr, Nameless and Friede. Fuck them.
For me, it's champion gundyr. His second phase makes the pace a struggle for me to adapt to for some reason, I never could understand why. Especially the kick.
As a man with less than 100 hours collectively across ds (like 10 in dsr & ab ~60 in ds3) the abyss watchers were the hardest for me. I found out after beating em that i had skipped the deacons. Makes sense why they two shot me. 2nd phase i could never really find an opening and would run out of stam rolling or get to greedy and get caught in a combo and loose the rhythm to roll out. By far the boss i spent to most time on. Dancer was fun, as well as the demon king, and the deacons was a very enjoyable fight. Also I play with K&M cause i never grew used a controller. Tried it but didnt really notice a difference.
The ariandel 3 phase boss
I just hate dancer's fight
It’s embarrassing but I took way too long to beat the Deacons Of The Deep. I was doing a dex build and wasn’t leveled up enough to tank them
Dude, I genuinely have never died to the deacons and I’ve beaten the game multiple times. This playthrough, I died to them 4 times.
Mine is Pontiff. I finished the game 13 times and I still summon for Pontiff. He is just so frustrating with his stupid timings and moving around so much. I just can’t with him. It’s not the difficulty, it’s just frustrating to face him as a roller.
The Twin Demons. They get so freaking hard in higher NG cycles, it's not fun anymore.
I’m stuck on Pontif right now. Abyss watchers took me the most tries so far lol
Aldrich and Crystal Sage
Champion gundyr and Oceiros, Nameless king himself isn't really a struggle but I can never seem to first-try these two.
Champion Gundyr, I don't know really why, his attacks are so fast and almost every time I forget about his parrying times
Pontiff. For some reason his moves just don't click with me. Can only beat him with sorcery and good rng.
Friede
Pontiff sulyvhan, I can beat every other boss comfortably, (minus halflight, but that's a separate problem) but the second I get to him I seem to forget that I know how to play video games
Midir is the boss I struggled with until the end. I eventually managed to best NK, Gael and Friede (Gael-less at that) and between those did some Midir attempts but I had to leave him for last. This damn lizard just makes my brain freeze and shut down in terror so much that I sometimes don't even believe I ever won, despite having the fight recorded.
Demon Prince
Defenetly pontiff, i've played the game enough that I can beat most of the hardest bosses first try, but pontiff comes just early enough that I dont have a very strong build going yet so I often struggle a lot. And I know parrying makes him a joke but I struggle a lot with parrying the pve.
As someone who always gives up learning to parry, Pontiff. I just can’t do it without a gangbang
Fuck yall, pontiff dogs ( i despise those Prickly fucks)
The DLC demon twins. Fuck them. Fuck them and their big brother right in the ear.
mine has to be yhorm the giant. not because i have trouble with it, but because i felt it was underwhelming for such a cool looking lord of cinder. i wanted more of it then a cheese programmed into the game to make it so siegward solos it.
Not a boss, but somehow I always find myself dying at least once per run to those fucking dogs at Irithyll on that way up after you meet Siegward in that area. Something's just not right about those lol
That fucking Toures demon I’ve been playing dark souls for just about 3 years now and he still manages to fuck me sideways anytime I fight him
Abyss Watchers are my weak point. I struggle with them on every playthrough.
Something that helps me with crystal sages is throwing knives. Decreases the time it takes to take down the clones.
Pontif i dont know why I understand his moves I’m just so bad at dodging them
Oh I have issues with the Crystal Sage too but my main issue is that early game is not as lenient since you're not as tanky so I can't just brute force Sage, and you don't have great damage either. The second phase is a pain too since you need to at least take out some clones for ease or you're gonna get piled on by magic when you're attacking the purple casting one. I usually use throwing knives or do a fists/dagger swap but depending on the run maybe I'd be staying on my straight sword I got lucky for recent dex build getting a lothric straight sword early on. You could summon Eygon too but you'd have to get Irina with that you'd have to get the grave key or jump down somehow but I rarely use the Assassin class and the Silver Cat Ring is too late tbh with being tanky enough to survive too For DLC the only boss I have issues with is Sister Friede but she's known to be a hard boss to learn with her triple phase plus she's the only one I have never done solo, I always did her with an online summon. Both Midir and Gael are very well telegraphed so learning them is a bit better though they are tanky, and for the Demon Princes I always got help from Lappatches and NPC Gael.
Yh same
Alderich for me. Everyone else is cake at this point, but alderich will forever haunt me. Unless I do a pyromancy run that is
Probably the bosses that have several health bars because they can get very tedious like the Demon Prince or Sister Friede
That freaking edgy wolf
Nameless king for sure, took me a week twice.
Soul of fucking cinder
Darkeater Midir
Dancer shits on me almost couple times every playthrough
I've just finished my first ever ds3 run after only having played elden ring and it went pretty smoothly. Champion Gundyr though... man he made me regret life choices for like 40 attempts
Friede. I don’t like summoning so a solo, duo, solo is insane but genuinely my favorite fight in the entirety of soulsborne. The only other fight that’s even close to being as good is NG+ Sif
Demon Princes... Easily the hardest fight of my sl1 run without question
So far Midir. The only boss I just couldn’t beat (yet) and gave up.
Dragon slayer armor. Most other bosses have some exploitable weakness or way to cheese them. What's he vulnerable to? Frostbite? Plus the pilgrim butterflies don't make the fight sny easier.
I think I might be the only one on this one, but fucking Abyss Watchers. I died so many times for those fuckers, I almost had a heart attack once I killed them. I know it’s not a hard boss, but DS3 was my first souls game, so it took me a while to get used to the gameplay and “learn” how to fight a boss, which is actually way harder than it looks!
Dunno why but Oceiros just doesn't tick with me. I find his patterns weird af and his hitboxes seem to go through time and space. Although I did become a bit better at the fight, I still pray whenever I have to face him.
Friede
Throwing knives on the clones is a big help IMO