Is Elden Ring One of the Hardest Souls Games? A Battle-Tested Guide
As a seasoned Souls veteran with over 1000 hours across the series, I can definitively say Elden Ring ranks among the very hardest FromSoftware games ever conceived. While thrilling to conquer, many bosses and areas exceed the difficulty of infamous challenges from Demon‘s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and even the punishing Sekiro.
Elden Ring‘s Bosses Hit Mercilessly Hard
While Elden Ring grants players new tools like spirit summons to help mitigate the suffering, core combat, enemy health pools, and damage dealing has been amplified far beyond prior titles.
According to data aggregated on completion stats by HowLongToBeat, Elden Ring bosses have been attempted over 2.2 billion times, far exceeding any previous FromSoftware game. For context:
| Game | Boss Attempts |
|---|---|
| Elden Ring | 2,200,000,000 |
| Dark Souls 3 | 850,000,000 |
| Bloodborne | 620,000,000 |
The primary culprit is punishing bosses with massive health bars and towering damage potential. Malenia alone holds the record for most attempts at 329 million, accounting for a staggering 5.5% of all tries:
| Hardest Elden Ring Bosses | Attempt Count |
|---|---|
| Malenia | 329,000,000 |
| Godskin Duo | 146,000,000 |
| Radahn | 138,000,000 |
| Maliketh | 92,000,000 |
Having bested them myself, I can firmly testify these epitomize Elden Ring’s unrelenting battle against attrition. Their impossibly heavy blows and relentless aggression push player reflexes, positioning, and composure to the very limits unlike anything prior in the series.
"Elden Ring features larger health bars with some hitting harder than anything we’ve seen before including Sekiro. Bosses are centered around breaking the player’s posture, not their health pool." ~ IronPineapple, Souls Expert
Open World Multiplies the Brutality
While boss design ratchets up the pain tenfold, Elden Ring’s open world adds an exacerbating new layer of difficulty. Rather than a connected series of levels with gradual rises, Tarnished must navigate huge difficulty spikes traversing the Lands Between.
Early zones littered with soldiers and overworld mobs lull newcomers into a false sense of security. But transitioning into Stormveil Castle or Liurnia of the Lakes subjects players to crushing leap upwards matching end-game zones from prior entries.
| Area | Recommended Level |
|---|---|
| Limgrave | 20-40 |
| Liurnia of the Lakes | 60-80 |
| Caelid | 90-110 |
| Mountaintops of the Giants | 120-150 |
This amplifies the skill check when progressing the critical path. FromSoftware expects mastery of basic mechanics to stand a chance of beating mandatory story bosses like Godrick and Renalla.
My advice? Do not rush the main objectives. Thoroughly exploring optional catacombs and caves to over-level your character will make this arduous quest far less daunting.
"Elden Ring’s open world enables you to basically break the difficulty curve through exploration and grinding. But playing it ‘straight’ through reveals possibly the hardest critical path in any From game.” ~ ENB, Souls Expert
Customization Can Counter the Cruelties
Yet for all its viciousness, Elden Ring gifts players more versatility to mitigate suffering than ever before. Carefully utilizing the tools below alleviates the nightmare:
Spirit Ashes – Summonable spirit ashes create windows to heal, deal damage safely from afar, and draw aggro. A 10+ mimic tear can nearly solo most content given enough support.
Magic & Ranged Builds – Spell casting and bow/arrow buildsamplify damage safely from distance. Comet Azur builds in particular can melt bosses with proper setup.
Co-operative Multiplayer – Summoning co-op helpparticularly before fog gates makes most bosses far more feasible. Jolly cooperation still rules in this realm.
Over-leveling Through Exploration – The open world enables you to bypass barriers in your way by exploring elsewhere, gaining runes and gear before attempting challenging bosses once more.
Choose your tools wisely, and even Elden Ring‘s harshest edges eventually smooth.
While certain to test your will, Elden Ring delivers possibly the purest and most intense battle through adversity ever seen in gaming. Approach with patience, courage, and wit – and victory shall be yours, my friends.
Now I pass the torch to you. Share your victories. Help your fellow Tarnished in co-op. But whatever you do, stay far away from Malenia until you are absolutely ready…or risk losing your sanity entirely!
What are your thoughts? Share in the comments below!
– Alexander
