Four really tough early game minibosses 8-O

[Charlemagne]

Anyone else finds these harder than many main bosses... And they appear in the early game, in Liurnia and Limgrave. One in Caelid. I usually have to come back to deal with them when I'm very high level with real strong spirit ashes.
Watchdog with 4 imps- Impaler's Catacomb, Limgrave
Giant Bear- Deathbore Cave, Limgrave
Summoning Snail- Roads End, Liurnia
Twin Pumpkins- Caelid Ruins, Caelid

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

No.

Strike damage annihilates watchdogs and imps.
Crystal darts short circuits constructs making them attack closest thing.

Bears are easy to kill if you stick close under their left arm
and avoid standing in front of them.

White patches of light reveal snail location. You don't need to kill stuff he summons.

Pumpkins can be problem because it is gank fight in close quarters
but attacking their sides and backs will do the job.

Abusing AoWs like Stormcaller or Lion's Claw also helps.

[Duchess Thy Strength]

Idk what rule they followed when they listed the Sites of Grace, but imo it primarily has to do with the difficulty of the region. The order is:
Limgrave,
Stormveil,
Liurnia,
Raya Lucaria,
Altus,
Volcano,
Leyndell,
Caelid,
etc.

Haven't checked the hp of the enemies, but I think the Gargoyle and the Erdtee Avatar in Caelid are much harder to kill than the others in the mentioned regions. Maybe because it is closer to Limgrave, I went there pretty early in my first blind playthrough and I found it particularly difficult.

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Originally posted by Duchess Thy Strength:

I think the Gargoyle and the Erdtee Avatar in Caelid are much harder to kill than the others in the mentioned regions.

Northern part of Caelid is called Dragonbarrow and it is high level area
with difficulty comparable with areas after Morgott.

[Despiser]

Wait till you get to the snowfields. One there sticks to you like glue ignoring your summons and not giving you a chance to gulp a flask. Was harder for me than Melania

[Sabaithal]

Oh you haven't run into a revenant yet? Oh boy.

[Charlemagne]

What I meant is that these are tough in the early game when you are low level, poorly armed, with weak spirit ashes etc. They seem out of place for the level you usually are when exploring those dungeons. Of course when I come back level 80 with an uber sword, tear mimic, 1000 hp etc. etc. I just walk over them.
I think what makes them tough is being multiple opponents. Imps alone are annoying but not difficult. 4 imps in a tiny dark room with a watchdog can really pummel you. Same with the pumpkins, if you try to attack one the other is on your back.
Someone said you only have to kill the snail not the summons. The snail can't be attacked until you bring down the summons, and then only for two or three blows. The first time it is in a known corner but after that the corner where it can appear is random, meaning you have to run around. And the summons are those flying angel things, tough for low level character.
The bear of course is another thing. I'd rather face Radahn than one of those bears. I think I've only killed 3 or 4 in all my games, I usually avoid them at all costs.

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

The snail can't be attacked until you bring down the summons, and then only for two or three blows. The first time it is in a known corner but after that the corner where it can appear is random, meaning you have to run around. And the summons are those flying angel things, tough for low level character.

It seems you're mixing Spiritcaller Cave at Mountaintops of the Giants,
end game area, with Road's End in Liurnia.

You can kill snail in in Road's End without killing summons
if you locate him by bright white light he emits, even though he is invisible.

[Phirestar]

My issue with some of the early-game bosses that you fight out in the open world - specifically the Tree Sentinel and Agheel - along with certain optional dungeon bosses like Leonine in Castle Morne is the fact that they give so few runes in relation to how difficult they are to take on at that stage. Unless you’re taking them on immediately after leaving the tutorial cave, or within the first couple hours of your playthrough, by the time you’ve leveled up enough to take them on with appropriate equipment and stats, they’ll only be giving enough runes for you to maybe level up once.

For instance, I took on Leonine as my second boss fight (excluding Soldier of Godrick) after killing the Erdtree Burial Watchdogs that has the imps in the fight. I was level 16 when I reached the backside of Castle Morne in order to fight him, and I’m confident that is extremely under-leveled. I used spirit ash, firebombs, sorceries, and guard counters to stagger him, and with all of that combined it still took 8 or 9 tries. With the runes I received at that point, level 16, I had to use a rune item in order to have enough to reach level 18. He gave enough for one full level and part of another.

In later areas, it seems like the rune drops are a bit better, but Limgrave was a huge struggle due to how difficult it was to progress my character. It felt like it took hours of time just to put a couple of points into my main damage stat. I had to squeeze every ounce of value out of anything and everything I found in the world - be it consumables, crafting materials, upgrade materials, weapons and other tools - in order to begin building motion and eventually momentum. I probably spent the first 10 hours wandering Limgrave in search of things that were weak enough for me to kill with starting stats, without having to resort to grinding basic enemies for 20-ish rune drops over and over.

The sense of challenge vs payout is much less consistent in Elden Ring compared to prior games, likely because there’s so many more enemies and bosses in the world to kill and the developers have to spread rune drops more thinly. I remember I made a point about this saying that it probably makes Elden Ring a lot less welcoming for newer players who aren’t as good at gauging whether they’re strong enough to kill a boss yet or not. In a game like DS1, for instance, there’s no mistaking your ability to defeat the Asylum Demon, since you cannot go anywhere else or progress until you do. And when you do, you’re also give loads of souls - enough for at least 7 levels, I believe.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Sc0rpiTr0n:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

The snail can't be attacked until you bring down the summons, and then only for two or three blows. The first time it is in a known corner but after that the corner where it can appear is random, meaning you have to run around. And the summons are those flying angel things, tough for low level character.

It seems you're mixing Spiritcaller Cave at Mountaintops of the Giants,
end game area, with Road's End in Liurnia.

You can kill snail in in Road's End without killing summons
if you locate him by bright white light he emits, even though he is invisible.

Hmm... IIRC the snails at Spiritcaller are always visible, you just have to find them in their corners. Now TBH I haven't tried striking at the corner when the snail isn't visible at Road's End. I'm under the impression that once he goes invisible again I can't hit him anymore. If this can be done it is a wonderful tactic and I would remove Road's End from my list

[Old Captain Yon]

That crucible knight in a gaol was something else my first playthrough, yeah. It is not that the bosses are strong, it is just that you are weak (and inexperienced so you don't know what is weak to what)

[vamirez]

Hug the bear - don't be afraid of it. Circle closely.

The snail should be left out of this list as it is super mega easy once you know what's going on.

The other two fights are skill checks to deal with multiple enemies. You can learn boss patterns. These situations are about general skill.

[drunk driver]

Bell Bearing Hunter in Caelid was one of the biggest roadblocks ive encountered, his range and damage are insane.

[Noop]

The bosses are incredibly easy you just dont understand the mechanics and refuse to use them for your advantage. 2nd post allready explains it and you still ignore it, nobody can help you man.

[Moonfear]

they are not hard, they are just tedious with lots of artifical difficulty

Watchdog with 4 imps- Impaler's Catacomb, Limgrave
- crystal dart, summon and kiting, bow, spell, anything (artifical difficulty by adding 4 ads, deal with them and its not even boss fight)

Giant Bear- Deathbore Cave, Limgrave
- as every rune bear in game, it just normal mob with boss bar, left side, enjoy extremely wonky hitboxes (fromsoft TM)

Summoning Snail- Roads End, Liurnia
- rush snail, problem solved, it will despawn his summons

Twin Pumpkins- Caelid Ruins, Caelid
- caelid is not early game location from my point :) in general it boring kiting simulator, small area to make it acualy at least somehow difficult

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Anyone else finds these harder than many main bosses... And they appear in the early game, in Liurnia and Limgrave. One in Caelid. I usually have to come back to deal with them when I'm very high level with real strong spirit ashes.

Lets see your picks:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Watchdog with 4 imps- Impaler's Catacomb, Limgrave

No, it is just easy

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Giant Bear- Deathbore Cave, Limgrave

No it is just a giant bear, like any other bear, there are worst bears on the DLC

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Summoning Snail- Roads End, Liurnia

No, it is extra easy tbh...

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Twin Pumpkins- Caelid Ruins, Caelid

No, it is not hard and they made it even easier (before them both would start attacking you at the same time, now they take a time and you can at least reduce one of them to 50% health or kill it before the other reaches you ... btw, they still dont really attack both at the same time like they used to so From nerfed this bossfight quite hard.

Originally posted by Charlemagne: