Elden Ring Bosses Guide, Complete List and How do They Work

Godrick the Golden is one of the many Elden Ring bosses. He has many arms and wields a golden axe.

Elden Ring Bosses Guide

Want to know how to beat the Elden Ring bosses? The most defining moments in any of the best Soulslike games are the tough boss fights. They can be tricky for several reasons: some are hard to hit consistently, others can squash you with just one attack. Elden Ring is also an open-world game, so as you’d expect, there are plenty of formidable foes with big health bars waiting to be discovered.

So far, we’ve managed to find out which bosses are in several regions. Since any region can have up to 19 bosses, keeping track of which ones you’ve beaten can be tough.

In this guide, you’ll find a list of all of the Elden Ring bosses we know of so far, where you can find them, which ones are mandatory, and what items they drop when you beat them. It’s worth noting that, generally speaking, as you hunt them down, dungeon bosses are not as hard to kill as the major bosses. However, there are exceptions, so upgrading the Flash of Wondrous Physick with Elden Ring crystal tears can make all the difference.

Elden Ring Bosses List

To make it easy for you to see which ones you’ve beaten and which ones remain alive, we’ve listed each boss in every region, their locations, and their loot drops. You need to defeat all major bosses to complete the game, so we’ve highlighted each major boss in bold.

Here are all of the bosses in Elden Ring:

Limgrave
Stormveil Castle
Weeping Peninsula
Liurnia of the Lakes
Caelid
Dragonbarrow
Altus Plateau
Mt. Gelmir
Leyndell, Royal Capital
Forbidden Lands
Consecrated Grounds
Mountaintops of the Giants
Siofra River
Lake of Rot
Crumbling Farum Azula
Elden Throne

How Elden Ring bosses work

It’s not just the main bosses you’ll need to contend with—open world bosses are a cool new addition in Elden Ring. You might be wandering through a lake suddenly to have a dragon land on you, Skyrim-style, or be crossing a bridge and have to defeat its horseback-mounted guardian. The fights using your Elden Ring mount, Torrent, give combat a whole new dimension, a little like Sekiro’s speed and jumping turned up to 11.

You’ll also face bosses within the dungeons scattered throughout the world. The difference between most dungeon bosses and their main game counterparts feels like night and day in terms of health and difficulty. A dungeon might require you to fight a few rooms of enemies to get to a boss, whereas big bads like Godrick need you to assault a fortress and fight an entire army.

When you’re not focused on core progression, you’ll spend your time building up souls and strength through dungeons and open world bosses as a way to get stronger for the challenges the main story throws at you. This guide should help you do just that.

And if you just need to know our own estimate of how hard each boss is, we’ve given each a ? rating, with ? being the easiest, and ??? being the hardest.

Beastman of Farum Azula

The Beastman of Farum Azula is found in Limgrave in the Groveside Cave, north of the Cave of Knowledge, past the church, along a wall in the back of the nearby forest. This boss drops an amulet that boosts your maximum stamina, and a treasure chest in its domain contains the valuable Flask of Wondrous Physick, which can be customized to heal your HP and FP.

Demi-Human Chiefs

The Demi-Human Chiefs live in the Dissenter’s Cave found on the back of Limgrave’s western beach. You’ll want a torch to navigate the cave itself, so be sure to buy one from the nearby church merchant if you don’t have a light source. Once you beat this boss, you can access the dragon covenant island at the end of this cave, and it’s home to some nice spells.

The Demi-Human Chiefs are basically just overgrown basic enemies with on-screen HP bars. The smaller demi-humans that nip at your heels during this fight are the real problem. Keep your distance or watch your back while you clear out the other enemies, then focus on the chiefs themselves. Magic is incredibly powerful here, as you can thin the herd without getting in range of their melee attacks. If you stay at the front of the cave, you can occasionally fight the first chief without aggroing the second one, too.

Tree Sentinel

This armored horseman is visible the moment you exit the Cave of Knowledge, but we don’t recommend fighting him immediately. At the start of the game, it’s much safer to sneak by him or just take the long way around to avoid his line of sight. Whenever you decide to fight him, you’ll earn a shield Ash of War called Holy Ground.

The Tree Sentinel wields a halberd with long reach, and he has high mobility thanks to his mount. It’s tempting to meet him in horseback combat, but we actually recommend fighting on the ground. Most of his attacks can be comfortably blocked or dodged, and we found that fighting him on the spectral steed left us more open to attacks. Watch out for his jumping attacks, and try to stay on his right side, because he’ll pound you with his shield if you wind up on his left. Magic and other ranged attacks are very effective here since the Tree Sentinel likes to gallop away from you after attacking.

Pumpkin Head

The Pumpkin Head is found in a cave on the east side of Limgrave, east of the lake guarded by the Flying Dragon Agheel. Look for some ruins with a big pink plant in them. To reach the blocked tunnel leading to Pumpkin Head, climb up on the nearby ruin fragment and drop down to the stairs below. Once you defeat him, you’ll get his helm and meet a sorcery instructor named Sellen.

Burial Tree Watchdog

This bizarre gargoyle is the final boss of the Stormfoot Catacombs, located just northwest of the Limgrave church. A statue on the hill behind the church will point out this dungeon if you activate it. Look for a pack of torch-wielding dregs past the ruin fragments on the ground. The Burial Tree Watchdog drops a magic-type Ash of War with a powerful skill when killed, giving intelligence-based characters a big boost early on.

The Burial Tree Watchdog moves and attacks in strange bursts. It loves to float up to the ceiling and spam a plunging attack, and your best bet is to back and roll away during this move. Wait for its plunge to begin, and then roll, otherwise its attack will likely track you. Hitting it with melee will often provoke a near-360-degree sword swing, and it can also breathe fire at you from range. That said, its melee attacks are harder to dodge than its spells, so magic is a good matchup. Surprisingly, pyromancies are pretty effective too.

Grave Warden

The final boss of the Murkwater Catacombs, the Grave Warden is located on the east side of Limgrave, at the end of the northern offshoot of Agheel Lake. It’s guarded by skeletons and slimes which can easily be bypassed. This boss drops the Storm Blade Ash of War, which is mighty handy for less magic-inclined Tarnished.

The Grave Warden pummels you with close-range hammer swings and long-range sweeping attacks. All types of magic are effective on him, but he closes gaps quickly, so you’ll need to stay on your toes. There’s no real magic bullet for this boss: look out for his big chain attacks, block or dodge his hammer barrages (which usually come in hits of three), and sneak in damage when you can. When you get him to low health, he’ll enter a buffed state which seems to enhance his attacks, so just be extra careful in the second half of the fight.

Stonedigger Troll

This boss is basically a tougher version of the fleshy giants found all over Limgrave. It’s the final boss of the Limgrave Tunnels, which are accessed via the northwestern tip of Agheel Lake. You’ll need to take two lifts downward to reach this boss; drop off the second one halfway through its descent to reach a hidden platform. This leads to a forked path with a third lift on the left. You can take this down or drop down the rocks running clockwise around the mine shaft.

Bloodhound Knight Darriwil

Bloodhound Knight Darriwil is found in the Forlorn Evergaol, which is accessed through the teleport plate in Stormhill north of Limgrave’s starting area. Once you use the plate, you can’t leave until you beat Darriwil or die, so go in prepared.

This boss moves and attacks quickly, has long range thanks to a massive sword which causes hemorrhaging, and will often disappear before quickly getting close to you. He has a basic four-hit rush combo that usually ends in a leaping attack, and this gives you a nice opening to deal damage. If you see him dragging the ground with his sword, dodge to the right at the absolute last second to avoid a tracking upswing. If he drags his claws, dodge straight backwards to stay out of range. Magic is tough to use in this fight because Darriwil is so aggressive, and you’ll probably want a trusty shield no matter what you’re using. That said, you can sneak in some magic damage right as Darriwil phases into the arena.

Flying Dragon Agheel

This dragon will descend upon Lake Agheel when you get close to the middle of the lake. When you defeat it, you’ll receive its heart, which you can trade for a powerful incantation at the island accessed via the Demi-Human Chiefs’ cave.

Agheel feels like a Monster Hunter boss, simply put. It has heavily telegraphed tail, claw, and breath attacks which hit hard, and it has a ton of health and high defense. You’re going to want to be mounted on your spectral steed, Torrent, for this entire fight. It’s a nightmare to fight Agheel on foot simply because his fire breath attacks are almost impossible to outrun without Torrent. Gallop away if he so much as twitches, and to avoid aerial plunge and breath attacks, canter counter-clockwise if Agheel flies up into the air. His sweeping claw attacks can reliably be dodged by retreating and double-jumping with Torrent. Agheel’s head takes extra damage and he’s weak to lightning, but hitting his wing tips and legs is also effective. This fight will take a while, but as long as you stay on your horse and play cautiously, Agheel goes down fairly easily.

Margit the Fell Omen

The final boss of the Elden Ring network test, and the introductory boss of Stormveil Castle, Margit the Fell Omen is a fast-moving spell swordsman with an incredible variety of attacks. Bring a shield, bring a buddy, summon a phantom – use whatever you have.

Margit will often throw lightning daggers at you if you retreat to heal or cast magic, so be wary at range. Once you lower his health a bit, he’ll summon a lightning hammer for a big leap attack. If you dodge this move right before he hits the ground, you can get in some free damage. After performing this move, Margit will begin summoning a variety of magic weapons and perform new attacks.

How many bosses are required in Elden Ring?

You’ll find them in the Legacy Dungeons, and they’ll give you Great Runes when you defeat them. As for the optional bosses in Elden Ring, you will encounter about 74 of them in various places throughout the world. They are optional because, although you don’t have to fight them, it helps.

Who is the last boss in Elden Ring?

Boss fight #2: Elden Beast. Immediately after killing Radagon of the Golden Order, a cutscene will play. This will showcase the Elden Beast, the real final boss of Elden Ring.

How many endings in Elden Ring?

As for the conclusion, currently, we know of four different endings in Elden Ring. The way it works is that, after defeating the Elden Beast, you’ll find yourself on a floating platform with a Site of Grace.

Where is the first boss in Elden Ring?

Godfrey is the first required boss in Leyndell. He’s a big golden brute with a giant axe. Luckily, his attacks, while powerful, are somewhat typical for a boss. A good way to start off the fight is with a summon.