My Dark Souls 3 MAIN Storyline tierlist

I've made a tierlist after my first playthrough of Dark Souls 3 regarding boss difficulty; I'm going to give an explanation of each boss. The ones I haven't included are because I didn't encounter them in my first journey playthrough.

NOTE* Once I've completed my second journey I'll go beat the missing bosses (not including DLC) and make a new tierlist)

The tierlist

Top Tier - Dancer, Sister Friede, Nameless & Pontiff

Dancer of the Boreal Valley

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Dancer of the Boreal Valley is, in my opinion, one of the top 3 most difficult bosses in the game as I've encountered. On par with Pontiff, Dancer is an extremely difficult adversary and most likely one of the first reason a new player may quit the game. It may take several attempts, or you may get it on the first go, but with an erratic moveset, super long range, that grab that usually oneshots you and a second phase I'd definitely consider them to be a top tier difficulty boss.

Summary
- Surprisingly long range
- Grab that usually oneshots
- two phases
- extremely difficult considering the area
- spin move

Sister Friede

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Sister Friede holds a special place in my heart as the boss that almost broke my controller and my sanity. Her first phase, after a little practise, is nothing special but, if you're like me, you may use an estus or two or five during the first phase. If you happen to make a mistake with timing, roll etc. you're always greatly punished.

Her second phase, with father, is a little obnoxious but, compared to the first phase, a breeze. Largely AOE (Area of Effect) heavy both father and sister will use juxtaposing ice and fire effects to cuck your movement. Father is much slower than friede and much easier to hit so I tend to focus father in this situation. Similar to the first phase, if you happen to mess up a roll or lack stamina you will be greatly punished. This phase is almost entirely about spacing.

Her third phase is extremely cringe. Blackflame Friede is beyond obnoxious combining the absolute worst of the first and second phase to make an abomination of a boss-fight. Think Ornstein and Smough but 3 phases long and a tad more obnoxious.

Summary
- LONG Boss fight(s) (3 phases)
- Stealth
- Frostbite
- AOE
- Fire
- Agile
- Overall cringe.

Nameless

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Nameless is a boss I'd consider more cheese than hard but it's how cheese they are that makes the boss difficult; the combination of lightning with the aerial combat and being slightly out of range pretty much all the time makes the boss fight, overall, irritating to say the least.

Summary
- Aerial
- Lightning
- Dragon Bird Thing
- Sword go brr

Pontiff

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Pontiff is definitely the most obnoxious boss on this list. Pontiff is the dark souls equivalent of the big bully who used to pick on you as a kid. He is aggressive, oppressive and a menace at the very least with several different, randomly occuring, sword attacks that play heavily into your personal space. Pontiff can be hard countered by parries but even then the boss is a colossal pain.

The boss is even worse if you're like me and never learned the correct timing for parries

Summary
- Extremely Oppressive
- Two Forms
- Fire Sword
- Soul Sword
- Extremely Fast
- Counterable with Parries
- Aerial Attacks in 2nd Form

This concludes the top tier for my boss difficulty tier list!

Below is my overall rating for each bosses difficulty out of 10:

Dancer: 8.5/10
Friede: 9/10
Nameless: 8/10
Pontiff: 8.5/10

Second Tier ("Cheese") - Aldritch, Devourer of Gods

What is the "Cheese" tier

As a general gaming term, "Cheese" refers to strategies, items, characters or movesets that are low-effort and generally guarantee a free win; in the case of Aldritch, Devourer of Gods I call the boss cheese simply due to the spell spam gimmick.

The boss, per se, isn't hard, slow moving, easily dodgeable melee attacks, massive hitbox and predictable moveset, but it's the spell spam that make this boss "cheese".

Aldritch, Devourer of Gods

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As mentioned previously in the little snippet of text above Aldritchs moveset is heavily reliant on spamming spells: one straight beam, several smaller wisps that dart towards you and arrows. Of these three spells I'd say the arrow is considerably worse than the other two although wisps are obnoxious and constricting at times.

The boss is less difficult and more infuriating; I found myself being zoned out due to the arrow spell oneshotting me if I was too close meleeing their slug-like body.

Overall I wouldn't say the boss was hard, definitely not top tier material, but definitely did enough to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

Summary
- Three spells
- Arrows are a pain if not managed appropriately
- Melee attacks are extremely slow
- Massive hitbox
- Cheese or be cheesed

Overall difficulty

Aldritch, Devourer of Gods: 7/10

Third Tier "Skill Matchup" - Soul of Cinder, Old Demon, Abyss Watchers, Lothric

What is "Skill Matchup"?

Most likely self-explanatory but in case you are unaware I'll elaborate for you.

Bosses in this tier are what I consider you, the player, to be equal ground on; unlike the bosses in the top tier, who are a 'David vs Goliath esque situation, the bosses within this tier are on even ground; gladiatorial combat.

Soul of Cinder

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Soul of Cinder is, at first glance, a difficult boss. The moment you walk in you're most likely pushed onto the back foot by a wide variety of attacks, movements and abilities but under that facade is a boss that can easily be beaten by taking a step back and analysing.

Unlike the other bosses above them in this list, excluding Aldritch of course the cringe mage pr*ck, Cinders movements are much slower, much more noticeable and give you way more time to prepare. Whenever they change between sword, staff or otherwise, you still have plenty of time to realise, react and retaliate.

From the moment you step up to the plate you're already more than equipped to handle them. You've defied the odds already. You are unstoppable.

Summary
- Large variety in moveset
- Magic is a little rough
- Sword isn't too bad
- Even fight if you're prepared

Old Demon

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Old Demon King is without a reasonable doubt the easiest boss in this tier. Their movements are incredibly slow, their fire attacks are largely slow AOE or instant within a small radius and their melee attacks are very predictable. In saying that, if unprepared, his damage will take you by surprise and put you on the back foot. Being hit by his swinging or slamming club attacks is reasonable enough, it'll inevitably happen a few times if you're not already in tune with the souls franchise but there's only so much room for error. His fire attacks are usually pretty easy to avoid by learning what animation means which move and react accordingly.

The only thing that will catch you off guard, and personally thought this was a cool detail my first encounter, is that once low enough the demon king will effectively speaking nuke himself and your health bar.

Summary
- Slow moving
- Mid - High Damage for level
- Melee attacks are slow but high damage
- Fire is slow but massive AOE
- Self-destruct is effective and will catch you off guard if unprepared.

Abyss Watchers

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Undoubtedly my favourite boss fight of the entire game. This is the definition of a skill match-up; even with the two phases the entire boss-fight feels like you and they are on even ground. I imagined the Abyss Watchers as a player with a hyper aggressive playstyle forcing me to adapt to their movements.

If I had to compare them to another boss I'd say they're like a nerfed Pontiff BUT nerfed just enough to be perfectly balanced in design.

Summary
- Extremely Agile Movements
- Easily knocked off balance (low poise)
- Two Phases
- Aggressive moveset
- Damage is perfect for level.

Prince Lothric

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The Princes was an extremely enjoyable skill-based boss fight. The first phase is easy enough; you learn the princes movements coupled with his teleporting and, if that were that, it'd be much lower in the tier but, luckily for us, little brother decides to do us a favour and stick around bringing the fight to an amazing climax. Two brothers with two different ideas of combat combined together to teleport, cast and slash their way through you.

Overall the boss fight is clearly a skill match-up; if you don't learn the moveset you don't win. You can't be lazy with the fight but you don't have to hyper-focus like some of the bosses higher on the list.

Summary
- Two phases
- Magic Abilities
- Teleportation
- Fire Swords
- He sometimes stands (which was lowkey scary)

This concludes the third tier! Here is their ratings overall

Lord of Cinder: 7/10
Old Demon King: 6/10
Abyss Watcher: 7/10
Prince Lothric: 6.5/10

Fourth Tier "Easy" - Wolnir and co.

What is the Fourth Tier

Super self-explanatory; the fourth tier is exclusively for bosses I found to be easy and usually ones that would be completed on the first or second try. There are quite a few.

High Lord Wolnir

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High Lord Wolnir was an extremely cool boss; the animations were amazing, the stage was incredible and his design was insanely cool. Shame the boss was super easy though. The golden bracelets around his wrist just scream "vital weak point" which lore-wise i still dont understand why and his moves are extremely lacking. He has a sword that probably won't hit you since he doesn't seem to aim near his hands, sometimes he slams his hands down but that will probably miss you too. The only "attack" that might accidentally kill you is when he crawls up the hill and the gas near his chest shreds your health bar like cheese on a grater.

In all honesty I would've put Wolnir a tier lower if everything else wasn't so cool; a super wasted opportunity in my opinion.

Summary
- Moves slowly
- Summons skeletons (which are lowkey harder than he is)
- Has a sword sometimes
- Bracelets are super obvious
- Sometimes slams his hands down
- Gas near his chest will kill you

Yhorm the Giant

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If you are unaware of the gimmick behind this boss than this may seem like a huge shock to you; Yhorm has the highest health bar in the game how could he possibly be this low on the list. The answer is a gimmick weapon called Storm Ruler[darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com]. It shreds his healthbar down into thirds and makes the boss an absolute breeze. Keeping that in mind the boss is still harder than other ones on this list with his large swings, huge healthbar and the time it takes to charge storm ruler.

Yhorm also has an amazing design that lowkey shocked me on my first encounter. I, out loud, muttered "♥♥♥♥ hes big".

Summary
- BIG
- Massive healthbar
- Cucked by Storm Ruler
- Cool Design
- Massive cleaver attacks

Curse-Rotted Greatwood

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As one of the first bosses you encounter in this game the Curse-Rotted Greatwood can seem a bit jarring to say the least but, once encountering other bosses further down the line, you realise how easy the boss actually is. Despite having a decently large attack area the chances of you being hit are slim. Their grab is easily avoidable and shouldn't kill you even if it does reach and the sap that they drop is mildly inconvenient at best. Their design is interesting at least; not cool but interesting.

Summary
- Decently large attack range
- Quite a breeze
- Releases Sap
- Can grab you
- Technically has more than one phase (arm spawning)
- Moves are slow and sluggish so easily avoidable

Vordt of the Boreal Valley

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Vordt of the Boreal Valley is one of those characters that could've been used as a mini-boss later in the game and I totally would've understood. As a first boss, especially if you're new to the souls series, it can be mildly difficult as they charge, have a large attack radius and can inflict frostbite. This boss was clearly designed to be on this tier so I'm glad it fits as well as it does.

Summary
- Decently fast despite size
- Large Swing Radius
- Decent variety of moves
- Inflicts frostbite
- Can charge

Crystal Sage

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Speaking of recycling bosses into minibosses later in the game, Crystal Sage was a moderately difficult mage-caster boss with 3 spells, cloning, teleportation and such. This boss reminds me of pinwheel.

Summary
- Teleports
- Clones
- Ice? magic
- Very few spells
- Big Hat

Dragonslayer Armour

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There are several mini-bosses throughout the game that are harder than the Dragonslayer Armour but, to its credit, their damage is much higher. The moveset is stagnant remaining the same set of slamming, shield bashing etc. The most annoying part of the fight is occasionally the flying dragon thing I apologise I'm not super familiar with the lore yet so I don't know their name will occasionally shoot stuff at you that you have to tank or dodge. Design is decently cool though.

Summary
- Cool Design
- Standard Hammer moveset
- Feels like an encounter for loot
- Dragon

That concludes tier four time to summarise!

Overall:
Wolnir: 5.5/10
Yhorm: 5/10
Greatwood: 5/10
Vordt: 5.5/10
Crystal Sage: 5/10
Armour: 5/10

Fifth Tier "Shouldn't be a Boss" - Deacon of the Deep

What does this mean?

The fifth tier is exclusive for bosses that I believe shouldn't be bosses. At this current point in time the only boss in this tier is Deacon of the Deep. I will elaborate.

Deacons of the Deep

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To call Deacons of the Deep a mediocre boss fight would be an understatement.

The act of getting to Deacons was harder, and more time consuming, than the actual boss fight itself. Each of them is easily dealt with and avoided; If they collapsed on you quicker, more aggressively or did more damage I may consider putting them higher on the list but simply being able to walk around them and hit whichever is glowing was beyond disappointing. As long as you don't get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers this boss fight isn't even worthy being called a boss fight.

Summary
- Lots of Deacons
- Sometimes try to hit you
- Rarely succeed in hitting you
- Sometimes cast spells
- Mostly just walk around slowly

Rating time!

Overall:
Deacons of the Deep: 3/10

Closing Notes

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I hope you enjoyed my guide! I'm looking to update it soon enough if I don't transition over to Dark Souls 1.

Feel free to comment what you think the hardest boss is or what you'd change on the tier list!

Anyway, have a lovely day

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[Soviet Machine]

aldritch ez, dragonslayer goes up, abyss watchers down, lorian goes up, pontiff goes down

[sherlock]

Friede is fine. Much like the copy paste keys were overused when copying Malenia from Sekiro they were a little overused when taking parts of Maria's moveset from Bloodborne and putting it in a Souls game. She's borderline too fast but that's the only issue.
I just don't see Aldritch being above easy. If you just run at it it's a joke.

[Inflammatus]

Blackflame Friede is not cringe. Your opinion is cringe. Absolutely best fight in the game

[Cha8lie]

no way the dragon slayer armour is 5/10 ive died more times on it than ones with a 3/10 and 4/10 the dragon slayer armour is definitly a 7 or 8/10