Prima Teama Collab: Who are the Hardest Bosses in Elden Ring?

In a rare moment of universal gaming acclaim, the entire Prima Teama has been playing Elden Ring non-stop, as our massive volume of guides may indicate. And doing the usual trend searching searching, we saw that a lot of players are looking for “The Hardest Boss in Elden Ring.” That’s hard to say, right? It’s the same with tier lists; there isn’t a right answer (though sometimes there are definitely wrong ones) as Soulslikes can be very individualized experiences. So it’s been a while, but we found the perfect chance for the first Prima Teama Collab of 2022!

I asked Jesse, Aidan and myself which bosses stood out in terns of raw difficulty. Which boss, above all others you’ve slain, made you want to turn off the game and sob into your least favorite unsolicited E3 t-shirt? Which boss had you considering pouring an entire can of Gamer Fuel into a pint of ice cream and eating the whole thing without a spoon? These are questions you can never assume the answer to. So, yeah, here are our hardest bosses in Elden Ring. Oh right – if you consider bosses or images of bosses spoilers – Spoiler Warning?

Jesse Vitelli (Author Page!)

Boss fights in Elden ring can be brutal and relentless. In fact, depending on your build and playstyle you can hit a wall at almost any point. For me as a pure Dexterity build, the boss that was the most difficult was Maliketh the Black Blade. Found at the tail end of Elden Ring, Maliketh put me at a hard stop for almost a week and a half.

The first phase is doable, pretty consistently. Dodge the quick strikes and rock slings, move in for a few swift hits, and then bow out. However, as soon as phase two begins, it goes from a fight against a Beast Clergymen into Maliketh and the fight changes dramatically.

Maliketh is incredibly fast, like it would kill me almost instantly as phase two began. It floats through the air raining down red waves of energy from its sword. It can also explode in a bladed frenzy bursting down your health almost instantly. The biggest hurdle with this fight though is the camera. Trying to keep your eyes on where Maliketh is at any given time is challenging because the camera will constantly lock off of the target once it’s out of your sight.

Using a combination of different Spirit Summons to find the right fit, learning to use the pillars in the arena to my advantage, and sheer determination, I finally bested this fight. But at what cost?

Aidan O’Brien (Author Page!)

The fun aspect of Elden Ring is everyone has a boss they will struggle against that other players think is easy. At the same time, everyone also has a boss they will absolutely style on that their friends will all hate. I’m pretty confident that Dragonlord Placidusax is neither of those and is just a ridiculously tough fight that will make everyone want to pull their hair out.

Dragonlord Placidusax manages to happily fit into two different categories of Soulsborne bosses in that he is extremely large and extremely fast. Dragonlord Placidusax is actually so fast that he can instantly teleport his rather ample mass around the arena and slap you about the face with a multitude of lightning-based attacks, tail wags, laser beams and an area of effect attack that will instantly kill you if it lands.

And Dragonlord Placidusax is not just big, he is so big that the game needs to load you into a whole new arena just to fight him. This double-headed zombie dragon is the stuff of nightmares, a perfectly impossible test of all the skills you will have developed while struggling your way through Elden Ring. But it’s all dialed up to 11. The good thing is that killing the beast feels like conquering death itself, mainly because Placidusax will have killed you a few dozen times before you manage to get one over on him.

Lucas White (Author Page!)

I’m still working my way through Elden Ring, unlike Jesse and Aidan who have seen the other side. So keep that in mind here! But so far, I think it’s safe to say the Baleful Shadow taught me how to get better at this here videogame. It wasn’t just having Spirit Ashes blocked off for this fight, although I love using those. This walking Berserk reference, or at least his glowing red alter ego, really showed me what the ground tastes like.

Not only is Baleful Shadow fast and relentless, it has a specific cadence to its moves that are really hard to read when to dodge. It isn’t just the animation though, it’s also the range! This thing does not tolerate retreating, and will stuff nearly every attempt to heal up. Rolling backwards is also a bad idea, so I learned quickly that some fights need you to roll into an attack instead of away.

Fighting Baleful Shadow also really drove in the kind of patience you need for these games. Even understanding that in theory, I still went for hits I shouldn’t have. This fight taught me one hit is good, more is great and a big hit is simply a bonus. When everything finally clicked in I was able to dispatch this foe pretty handily, but that was only after learning more in one bout than I had dozens of hours beforehand. By the time I had to scrap with Actual Blaidd, I was way more prepared.

Related: How to Level Up Fast in Elden Ring

See? We’re pretty all over the place. Jesse mostly fought with the camera in one of Elden Ring’s “unconventional” boss encounters. Aiden seemed to have hit a wall of pure videogame monster beef, caught off guard by a fight that sounds like unreasonable brute strength. And for myself, still playing my first run, found one of those “skill check” sorts in the middle of a game-spanning questline that beat the Eldenloving crap out of me until I learned to play better. Will I also be sad when the other two bosses eat my lunch? Probably.

I’m sure there are bosses you’d consider even worse than all three of ours together, reader. Or maybe you have some sick strats that make them look easy. Or you just have a different story and want to share! Let us know which boss gave you the most trouble.