History ThatOneBoss / DarkSouls

* The first phase of Executioner's Chariot can be extremely frustrating for some. Playing solo, the respawning skeletons don't hit very hard, but they just love to pin you up against a wall and stunlock you, making it very difficult to escape and proceed down the corridor with the extremely small safe zones the arena gives you. Playing online, the chariot's trample seems to gain a very frustrating case of HitboxDissonance. Occasionally you will be at the back of one of the cubby holes, with your partner slightly further forward, and you will get trampled while your partner is fine.

[[caption-width-right:324:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ornstein-that-one-boss_7929.jpg [[MercyMode Easy Mode]]? [[AvertedTrope Pffftt]]! [[NintendoHard What's that]]? [[note]][[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Yes, he can impale you with his massive spear]][[/note]]]]

As you progress through the many difficult dungeons in Videogame/DarkSouls and [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsII its sequel]], you'd be often thinking that at the end of each of them, you'd be rewarded with not-so-difficult pushovers, becoming a textbook case of HardLevelsEasyBosses? ''[[AvertedTrope Not]] [[NintendoHard for]] [[ThatOneBoss these guys]].'' '''Unmarked spoilers ahead.'''

* The Ruin Sentinels. Similar to [[DarkSouls Ornstein and Smough]], but it's a trio. It doesn't help that the battle starts with you falling (and taking a small amount of damage in the process) and a Ruined Sentinel spawns right next to you, ready to attack.
* The Royal Rat Authority is a FlunkyBoss the size and speed of [[VideoGame/DarkSouls The Great Grey Wolf Sif]], whose mooks can inflict toxic on you. He also suffers from HitboxDissonance, so some attacks will have problems connecting. Yours, that is. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Not his.]]

* Remember when [[Videogame/DarkSouls the Capra Demon]] used to slaughter you within seconds of entering the fog gate due to the annoying attack dogs that made a perfect job at distracting you? The Flexile Sentry in NewGamePlus gains two nasty minions that will keep you on the edge with toxic buildup. And this is at a point where you ''should'' be ready for anything after the FinalBoss.

* The Royal Rat Vanguard [[FridgeBrilliance will make you realize that those rats are using every advantage the game provides to the enemies against you.]] First, you have to kill a high number of poisonous rats before the boss actually appears, who looks exactly like any rat except for his Mohawk, and that he inflicts [[TakenForGranite petrification]]. Second, all the rats are smaller than you, [[HitboxDissonance so most of your attacks won't hurt them;]] you will need a weapon that hits the ground like a club. Third, there are statues all over the arena that cannot be destroyed, and every time you hit one your weapon will bounce off, leaving you completely exposed.

* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). Even worse, if you go too far into the boss room, you'll get swarmed by Giant Skeletons, adding to the smaller ones in case you haven't already killed them off.
** Not so bad if you're using a weapon that deals holy damage, like [[HolyBurnsEvil Astora's Straight sword or Grant.]] Those respawning skeletons getting you down? Bring in a weapon that does holy damage and watch the skeletons you put down stay down.

* Velstadt, the Royal Aegis. While his attacks are easily telegraphed, what makes him dangerous is his serious case of HitBoxDissonance; you'll be getting clipped for massive damage even if you rolled out of the way. He also has a crazy habit of mixing up his attacks; sometimes he'll string his attacks together, [[DefensiveFeintTrap sometimes he won't]], something which can throw your roll timing off if you think he's going into a attack animation. And once you damage him down to 60% percent. He'll begin to channel [[BlackMagic Dark Magic and start using Hexes]].

* Velstadt, the Royal Aegis. While his attacks are easily telegraphed, what makes him dangerous is his serious case of HitBoxDissonance; you'll be getting clipped for massive damage even if you rolled out of the way. He also has a crazy habit of mixing up his attacks; sometimes he'll string his attacks together, [[DefensiveFeintTrap sometimes he won't]], something which can throw your roll timing off if you think he's going into a attack animation. And once you damage him down to 60% percent. He'll begin to channel [[BlackMagic Dark Magic and start using Hexes]].

* The additional content adds a plethora of difficult bosses [[SarcasmMode for your enjoyment]]. To wit:

** Oh, it gets better. What's your reward for defeating Manus, The Father Of The Abyss? You have to fight fucking ''two of them''. Or, you could just run by them, but even that is difficult.
** [[spoiler:Artorias the Abysswalker]] is a likely contender for the hardest boss ''in the entire game''. To wit: his attacks have a very wide arc and range, his pattern is too aggressive to leave many opportunities for healing, his attacks themselves do very heavy damage, he's extremely fast and his stage too small to allow for much manoeuvring, and when you just barely start doing damage to him, he'll go into a supercharged state where he'll get even more aggressive and dish out even ''more'' damage. Oh, and as an added bonus, he's resistant to most elemental weapons. Watch in horror as the Quelaag's Furysword that carried you though a good portion of the game deals little more than ScratchDamage to this demonic LightningBruiser.
** The final boss of the additional content [[spoiler: Manus: Father of the Abyss]] attacks relentlessly and his arm can reach you anywhere... even behind him. While it is possible to summon [[spoiler: Grey Wolf Sif]] to aid you, [[GuideDangIt finding him at all is very difficult]]. The boss also has a huge amount of health coupled with insane resistance to elements, and his most of his attacks will likely break your guard in seconds. And that's not even getting started with the flurry of [[spoiler: [[CastingAShadow Abyss spells]]]] he can throw at you without a moment's notice, although they can easily be negated by a particular pendant, ''yet another'' GuideDangIt.

* The Royal Rat Vanguard [[FridgeBrilliance will make you realize that those rats are using every advantage the game provides to the enemies against you.]] [[spoiler: First, you have to kill a high number of poisonous rats before the boss actually appears, who looks exactly like any rat except for his Mohawk, and that he inflicts [[TakenForGranite petrification]]. Second, all the rats are smaller than you, [[HitboxDissonance so most of your attacks won't hurt them;]] you will need a weapon that hits the ground like a club. Third, there are statues all over the arena that cannot be destroyed, and every time you hit one your weapon will bounce off, leaving you completely exposed.]]

* The Lost Sinner has quickly become one of the most hated bosses in Dark Souls II. Not only does she have swift yet powerful, long reaching attacks, her arena is fought in the dark, meaning your lock-on range is terribly short unless you defeat another challenging optional boss, allowing you to light up the lamps in her room. What cements her status however, is when you lower her HP to 60% in NG+,[[spoiler: two black phantom pyromancers spawn, both whom have access to some of the most powerful pyromancy spells in game.]] It's gotten to the point that both of their health and damage output were reduced in Patch 1.03 calibrations 1.04 due to how frustrating this boss was to many.

* [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder]]]] is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy mixture]] of [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Flamelurker and False King Allant]], being able to move a incredible speeds and leaving you next to no recovery window as he relentlessly tries to break your guard, which he will eventually ''even if you have the [[GameBreaker Greatshield of Artorias]]''.
** This said, he also falls into the category of AnticlimaxBoss due to his tendency to dodge at a certain attack, his rather crippling weakness to counters and the fact you can summon Solaire against him (although getting his summon sign is an example of GuideDangIt)

As you progress through the many difficult dungeons in Videogame/DarkSouls, you'd be often thinking that at the end of each of them, you'd be rewarded with not-so-difficult pushovers, becoming a textbook case of HardLevelsEasyBosses? ''[[AvertedTrope Not]] [[NintendoHard for]] [[ThatOneBoss these guys]].'' '''Unmarked spoilers ahead.'''
%%* [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder]]]] is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy mixture]] of [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Flamelurker and False King Allant]], being able to move a incredible speeds and leaving you next to no recovery window as he relentlessly tries to break your guard, which he will eventually ''even if you have the [[GameBreaker Greatshield of Artorias]]''.
%%** This said, he also falls into the category of AnticlimaxBoss due to his tendency to dodge at a certain attack, his rather crippling weakness to counters and the fact you can summon Solaire against him (although getting his summon sign is an example of GuideDangIt)

%%* The additional content adds a plethora of difficult bosses [[SarcasmMode for your enjoyment]]. To wit:
%%** The Sanctuary Guardian. The thing is [[LightningBruiser very fast, strong]], and has [[ShockAndAwe devastating lightning attacks]] [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything that has an area of effect when shot in the water pond you're fighting in]]. Also it has [[ConfusionFu '''A LOT''' of different attacks, and they're tricky to read]]. There are also no cheap tricks or shortcuts to exploit in the arena, which is a huge open area. Oh, and [[BeefGate you need to fight it]] to access the rest of the DownloadableContent. ''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck Hurray...]]''
%%** [[spoiler:Artorias the Abysswalker]] is a likely contender for the hardest boss ''in the entire game''. To wit: his attacks have a very wide arc and range, his pattern is too aggressive to leave many opportunities for healing, his attacks themselves do very heavy damage, he's extremely fast and his stage too small to allow for much manoeuvring, and when you just barely start doing damage to him, he'll go into a supercharged state where he'll get even more aggressive and dish out even ''more'' damage. Oh, and as an added bonus, he's resistant to most elemental weapons. Watch in horror as the Quelaag's Furysword that carried you though a good portion of the game deals little more than ScratchDamage to this demonic LightningBruiser.
%%** The final boss of the additional content [[spoiler: Manus: Father of the Abyss]] attacks relentlessly and his arm can reach you anywhere... even behind him. While it is possible to summon [[spoiler: Grey Wolf Sif]] to aid you, [[GuideDangIt finding him at all is very difficult]]. The boss also has a huge amount of health coupled with insane resistance to elements, and his most of his attacks will likely break your guard in seconds. And that's not even getting started with the flurry of [[spoiler: [[CastingAShadow Abyss spells]]]] he can throw at you without a moment's notice, although they can easily be negated by a particular pendant, ''yet another'' GuideDangIt.

** The Bed of Chaos. If there was one endgame boss that is absolutely hated by players just for how mind-boggingly frustrating the strategy to defeat it is, it's this monster. Trying to get the full access to its core requires you to destroy two weak spots that become increasingly difficult to reach with the chaos that piles up throughout the boss fight (read: tree arms swinging around wildly, crumbling floor, fire scythes digging their way to you, and straight-up Firestorm pyromancies).

[[caption-width-right:324:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ornstein-that-one-boss_7929.jpg [[MercyMode Easy Mode]]? [[AvertedTrope Pffftt]]! [[NintendoHard What's that]]? [[note]][[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Yes, he can impale you with is his massive spear]][[/note]]]]

* The Demon Firesage. While it's mostly just a [[PaletteSwap reskin]] of the [[BonusBoss Stray Demon]], the room it's in is cluttered with numerous wooden branches and roots which litter the entire floor and can make your movement awkward. Some of these roots you can walk over, some of these you can't. Some of these roots you can break, some of these you can't. No indication as to which are which. This all being in a boss fight that's heavily reliant on your ability to dodge and get around the boss who can kill you ''very'' quickly if you're stuck in place.
* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, with a small strip of rock near the entrance. The Centipede Demon has several alarmingly powerful attacks with excellent reach, meaning it can hit you from a good distance away, while you're helpless to do anything about it. Worse, you get the Orange Charred Ring, which you need to walk on lava, after you defeat the Centipede Demon. You can get it early, however, if you don't mind trying to cut the Centipede Demon's tail... which is often over the lava lake.
* The Bed of Chaos. If there was one endgame boss that is absolutely hated by players just for how mind-boggingly frustrating the strategy to defeat it is, it's this monster. Trying to get the full access to its core requires you to destroy two weak spots that become increasingly difficult to reach with the chaos that piles up throughout the boss fight (read: tree arms swinging around wildly, crumbling floor, fire scythes digging their way to you, and straight-up Firestorm pyromancies).

* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, with a small strip of rock near the entrance. The Centipede Demon has several alarmingly powerful attacks with excellent reach, meaning it can hit you from a good distance away, while you're helpless to do anything about it. Worse, you get the Orange Charred Ring, which you need to walk on lava, after you defeat the Centipede Demon. You can get it early, however, if you don't mind trying to cut the Centipede Demon's tail...which is often over the lava lake.

* The Bed of Chaos. If there was one endgame boss that is absolutely hated by players just for how mind-boggingly frustrating the strategy to defeat it is, it's this monster. To defeat it, you have to destroy two weak points, reach its core, and then hit the core once to kill it. However, after hitting the first weak point, the floor starts crumbling away, forcing you to stay within reach of the Bed of Chaos' massively powerful arms. Do you have heavy armor and a shield with massive stability? You can block one or two hits of the arms. Are you a SquishyWizard, FragileSpeedster, or any light-to-medium build? The arms will either instakill you or sweep you directly into a pit. And that's before you take out the second weak point, and start having to contend with the massively powerful pyromancy the boss will unleash on you...

* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, and since you need to cut its arm to get the Orange Charred Ring, you'll be spending most of the time waiting for the boss to come at the very entrance. And even then, it will pester you with long range arm thrusts, denying you the chance to get close to it while it's still walking on lava and can even [[StuffBlowingUp send out bombs]] all over the field in case you're right under its feet (it's either that or it stomps you to death).

* The Bed of Chaos. If there was one endgame boss that is absolutely hated by players just for how mind-boggingly frustrating the strategy to defeat it is, it's this monster. Trying to get the full access to its core requires you to destroy two orbs that become difficult to reach with the chaos that piles up throughout the boss fight (read: tree arms swinging around wildly, crumbling floor, fire scythes digging their way to you, and ''fire pillars'' emerging out of nowhere).

** To clarify -- the Capra Demon and its dogs will often kill you so quickly that you find your dropped souls and humanity ''outside the room you fight him in''. Whether you make it to the stairway on the left side of the room or not is essentially down to luck.
** The worst part is the narrow alleyway you fight it in, which plays to its strengths. Later on you fight a long sequence of Capra Demons, but in a bigger space where you can actually use proper tactics.
** That said, the boss becomes very easy if you have the [[DiscOneNuke Drake Sword]] or a decently upgraded weapon, as the dogs are fairly weak and killing them allows you to focus on dodging its melee attacks, most of which are highly telegraphed and easy to dodge with a bit of practice.

** Fighting [[OneWingedAngel Giant Ornstein]] is more challenging than fighting [[ShockAndAwe Lightning Smough]] since Giant Ornstein has a different attack pattern from his original self while Lightning Smough is just a somewhat stronger version of his previous self. However, taking out Ornstein before Smough is easier said than done; Ornstein zips around the arena and prefers hit and run tactics, while Smough is a textbook MightyGlacier.
* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a problem of finding a way to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks. It gets worse in NewGamePlus since the Kings get a considerable health boost making it that much harder to kill them quickly. Oh, and just to make the fight even harder, the Four Kings do ''no physical damage at all''. It's all magic damage in varying flavors, and finding equipment to resist magic damage can serve as a GuideDangIt.
** To clarify how worse - it's calculated that the Four Kings has a HP of ''over 16,000'' in NG+, possibly the highest among bosses. Many DS players, even after reaching NG++ with accumulated experience, concur on the fact that the Four Kings boss battle, not O&S, is the deadliest and scariest fight, DLC notwithstanding.
** This boss fight ''does'' have a summon sign for it, though that summon sign is just about the single most useless preset one in the game. It's Witch Beatrice's summon sign, and finding it requires that you summoned her for the [[BreatherBoss Moonlight Butterfly]] boss fight, which is both very easy and technically optional. Furthermore, said summon sign is hidden in an alcove guarded by a Darkwraith. In addition, if you summon her, she tends to get stuck at the top of the stairs firing Soul Arrows at a ghost that she can't actually hurt, but insists on attacking nonetheless. Finally, if you overcome all that and get her to the fight, you find that she does pitiful damage to the Four Kings, and isn't particularly effective as a meatshield.

* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito or [[DeaderThanDead kill them permanently]] with Divine weapons. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). Even worse, if you go too far into the boss room, you'll get swarmed by Giant Skeletons, adding to the smaller ones in case you haven't already killed them off.
* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, and since you need to cut its arm to get the Orange Charred Ring, you'll be spending most of the time waiting for the boss to come at the very entrance. And even then, it will pester you with long range arm thrusts, denying you the chance to get close to it while it's still walking on lava. You can summon Solaire for the fight, which helps considerably given he too can walk on lava, but the Centipede Demon quickly drains his health with its relentless attacks, and can even [[StuffBlowingUp send out bombs]] all over the field in case you're right under its feet (it's either that or it stomps you to death).

As you progress through the many difficult dungeons in Videogame/DarkSouls, you'd be often thinking that at the end of each of them, you'd be rewarded with not-so-difficult pushovers, becoming a textbook case of HardLevelsEasyBosses? ''[[AvertedTrope Not]] [[NintendoHard for]] [[ThatOneBoss these guys]].''
* [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder]]]] is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy mixture]] of [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Flamelurker and False King Allant]], being able to move a incredible speeds and leaving you next to no recovery window as he relentlessly tries to break your guard.
* The questionable honor of the most hated boss however goes to one of the first bosses of the game, the Capra Demon. The boss itself wields [[DualWielding two]] [[{{BFS}} very large machetes]] and loves to slam both of them down on any unfortunate player that thinks they have a chance of blocking its attacks. The [[GoddamnBats two attack dogs]] [[FlunkyBoss that accompany it]] make the fight all but impossible until they're disposed of, and the brutal speed at which the boss charges at you with powerful attacks as soon as the battle begins, combined with the very small area you have to maneuver in mean many players will stare at the "You Died" screen ''mere seconds'' after starting the fight.

* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a problem of finding a way to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks. It gets worse in NewGamePlus since the Kings get a considerable health boost making it that much harder to kill them quickly. Oh, and just to make the fight even harder, the Four Kings do ''no physical damage at all''. It's all magic damage in varying flavors.
* The additional content adds a plethora of difficult bosses [[SarcasmMode for your enjoyment]]:
** The Sanctuary Guardian. The thing is [[LightningBruiser very fast, strong]], and has [[ShockAndAwe devastating lightning attacks]] [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything that has an area of effect when shot in the water pond you're fighting in]]. Also it has [[ConfusionFu '''A LOT''' of different attacks, and they're tricky to read]].
** [[spoiler:Artorias the Abysswalker]] is a likely contender for the hardest boss ''in the entire game''. His attacks have a very wide arc and range, his pattern is too aggressive to leave many opportunities for healing, his attacks themselves do very heavy damage, he's extremely fast and his stage too small to allow for much maneuvering, and when you just barely start doing damage to him, he'll go into a supercharged state where he'll get even more aggressive and dish out even ''more'' damage.
** The final boss of the additional content [[spoiler: Manus: Father of the Abyss]] attacks relentlessly and his arm can reach you anywhere... even behind him. The boss also has a huge amount of health coupled with insane resistance to elements, and his most of his attacks will likely break your guard in seconds. And that's not even getting started with the flurry of [[spoiler: [[CastingAShadow Abyss spells]]]] he can throw at you without a moment's notice.
* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). Even worse, if you go too far into the boss room, you'll get swarmed by Giant Skeletons, adding to the smaller ones in case you haven't already killed them off.
* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, and since you need to cut its arm to get the Orange Charred Ring, you'll be spending most of the time waiting for the boss to come at the very entrance. And even then, it will pester you with long range arm thrusts, denying you the chance to get close to it while it's still walking on lava and can even [[StuffBlowingUp send out bombs]] all over the field in case you're right under its feet (it's either that or it stomps you to death).

* [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder]]]] is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy mixture]] of [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Flamelurker and False King Allant]], being able to move a incredible speeds and leaving you next to no recovery window as he relentlessly tries to break your guard, which he will eventually ''even if you have the [[GameBreaker Greatshield of Artorias]]''.
** This said, he also falls into the category of AnticlimaxBoss due to his tendency to dodge at a certain attack, his rather crippling weakness to counters and the fact you can summon Solaire against him (although getting his summon sign is an example of GuideDangIt)

** To clarify -- the Capra Demon and his dogs will often kill you so quickly that you find your dropped souls and humanity ''outside the room you fight him in''. Whether you make it to the stairway on the left side of the room or not is essentially down to luck.
** The worst part is the narrow alleyway you fight him in, which plays to his strengths. Later on you fight a long sequence of Capra Demons, but in a bigger space where you can actually use proper tactics.
** That said, he becomes very easy if you have the [[DiscOneNuke Drake Sword]] or a decently upgraded weapon, as the dogs are fairly weak and killing them allows you to focus on dodging his melee attacks, most of which are highly telegraphed and easy to dodge with a bit of practice.

** Fighting [[OneWingedAngel Giant Ornstein]] is more challenging than fighting [[ShockAndAwe Lightning Smough]] since Giant Ornstein has a different attack pattern from his original self while Lightning Smough is just a somewhat stronger version of his previous self. However, taking out Ornstein before Smough is easier said than done; Ornstein zips around the arena and prefers hit and run tactics, while Smough is a textbook MightyGlacier.
* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a problem of finding a way to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks. It gets worse in NewGamePlus since the Kings get a considerable health boost making it that much harder to kill them quickly. Oh, and just to make the fight even harder, the Four Kings do ''no physical damage at all''. It's all magic damage in varying flavors, and finding equipment to resist magic damage can serve as a GuideDangIt.
** To clarify how worse - it's calculated that the Four Kings has a HP of ''over 16,000'' in NG+, possibly the highest among bosses. Many DS players, even after reaching NG++ with accumulated experience, concur on the fact that the Four Kings boss battle, not O&S, is the deadliest and scariest fight, DLC notwithstanding.
** This boss fight ''does'' have a summon sign for it, though that summon sign is just about the single most useless preset one in the game. It's Witch Beatrice's summon sign, and finding it requires that you summoned her for the [[BreatherBoss Moonlight Butterfly]] boss fight, which is both very easy and technically optional. Furthermore, said summon sign is hidden in an alcove guarded by a Darkwraith. In addition, if you summon her, she tends to get stuck at the top of the stairs firing Soul Arrows at a ghost that she can't actually hurt, but insists on attacking nonetheless. Finally, if you overcome all that and get her to the fight, you find that she does pitiful damage to the Four Kings, and isn't particularly effective as a meatshield.
* The additional content adds a plethora of difficult bosses [[SarcasmMode for your enjoyment]]. To wit:
** The Sanctuary Guardian. The thing is [[LightningBruiser very fast, strong]], and has [[ShockAndAwe devastating lightning attacks]] [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything that has an area of effect when shot in the water pond you're fighting in]]. Also it has [[ConfusionFu '''A LOT''' of different attacks, and they're tricky to read]]. There are also no cheap tricks or shortcuts to exploit in the arena, which is a huge open area. Oh, and [[BeefGate you need to fight it]] to access the rest of the DownloadableContent. ''[[ThisIsGonnaSuck Hurray...]]''
** [[spoiler:Artorias the Abysswalker]] is a likely contender for the hardest boss ''in the entire game''. To wit: his attacks have a very wide arc and range, his pattern is too aggressive to leave many opportunities for healing, his attacks themselves do very heavy damage, he's extremely fast and his stage too small to allow for much manoeuvring, and when you just barely start doing damage to him, he'll go into a supercharged state where he'll get even more aggressive and dish out even ''more'' damage. Oh, and as an added bonus, he's resistant to most elemental weapons. Watch in horror as the Quelaag's Furysword that carried you though a good portion of the game deals little more than ScratchDamage to this demonic LightningBruiser.
** The final boss of the additional content [[spoiler: Manus: Father of the Abyss]] attacks relentlessly and his arm can reach you anywhere... even behind him. While it is possible to summon [[spoiler: Grey Wolf Sif]] to aid you, [[GuideDangIt finding him at all is very difficult]]. The boss also has a huge amount of health coupled with insane resistance to elements, and his most of his attacks will likely break your guard in seconds. And that's not even getting started with the flurry of [[spoiler: [[CastingAShadow Abyss spells]]]] he can throw at you without a moment's notice, although they can easily be negated by a particular pendant, ''yet another'' GuideDangIt.
* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito or [[DeaderThanDead kill them permanently]] with Divine weapons. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). Even worse, if you go too far into the boss room, you'll get swarmed by Giant Skeletons, adding to the smaller ones in case you haven't already killed them off.
* The Centipede Demon. You're fighting it in a room full of lava, and since you need to cut its arm to get the Orange Charred Ring, you'll be spending most of the time waiting for the boss to come at the very entrance. And even then, it will pester you with long range arm thrusts, denying you the chance to get close to it while it's still walking on lava. You can summon Solaire for the fight, which helps considerably given he too can walk on lava, but the Centipede Demon quickly drains his health with its relentless attacks, and can even [[StuffBlowingUp send out bombs]] all over the field in case you're right under its feet (it's either that or it stomps you to death).

** This boss fight ''does'' have a summon sign for it, though that summon sign is just about the single most useless preset one in the game. It requires having used this particular summon in a previous BonusBoss whom is fairly out of the way, it's hidden around a corner in which several EliteMooks are waiting, the summon itself is SquishyWizard Witch Beatrice, she has a chance of not even joining you for the fight if you forget to kill the ghost inside the fog gate since she's [[NoSell unable to damage it]] but [[ShootingSuperman will insist on standing there shooting it regardless]], New Londo Ruins doesn't have a bonfire, so you'd have to trek through all the way from the start while already human, and all of this is even before you get to the boss, whom she does pitiful damage against.

** This boss fight ''does'' have a summon sign for it, though that summon sign is just about the single most useless preset one in the game. It requires having used this particular summon in a previous BonusBoss whom is fairly out of the way, it's hidden around a corner in which several EliteMooks are waiting, the summon itself is SquishyWizard Witch Beatrice, she has a chance of not even joining you for the fight if you forget to kill the ghost inside the fog gate since she's [[NoSell unable to damage it]], New Londo Ruins doesn't have a bonfire, so you'd have to trek through all the way from the start while already human, and all of this is even before you get to the boss, whom she does pitiful damage against.

* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a problem of finding a way to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks. It gets worse in NewGamePlus since the Kings get a considerable health boost making it that much harder to kill them quickly.
** To clarify how worse - it's calculated that the Four Kings has a HP of ''over 16,000'' in NG+, possibly the highest among bosses. Many DS players, even after reaching NG++ with accumulated experience, concur on the fact that the Four Kings boss battle, not O&S, is the deadliest and scariest fight, DLC notwithstanding.

** This said, he also falls into the category of AnticlimaxBoss due to his tendency to dodge at a certain attack, his rather cryppling weakness to counters and the fact you can summon Solaire against him (although getting his summon sign is an example of GuideDangIt)

* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito or [[DeaderThanDead kill them permanently]] with Divine weapons. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). Even worse, you fight him in a series of hallways, and if you go too far down the hallways, you'll get swarmed by Giant Skeletons.

* [[spoiler: [[FinalBoss Gwyn]]]] is an [[JustForFun/XMeetsY unholy mixture]] of [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls Flamelurker and False King Allant]], being able to move a incredible speeds and leaving you next to no recovery window as he relentlessly tries to break your guard, which he will eventually ''even if you have the [[GameBreaker Greatshield of Artorias]]''.
** This said, Gwyn also falls into the category of AnticlimaxBoss due to his tendency to dodge at a certain attack, his rather cryppling weakness to counters and the fact you can summon Solaire against him (although getting his summon sign is an example of GuideDangIt)

** Fighting [[OneWingedAngel Giant Ornstein]] is more challenging than fighting [[ShockAndAwe Lightning Smough]] since Giant Ornstein has a different attack pattern from his original self while Lightning Smough is just a somewhat stronger version of his previous self.

** [[spoiler: Artorias the Abysswalker]] is a likely contender for the hardest boss ''in the entire game''. To wit: his attacks have a very wide arc and range, his pattern is too aggressive to leave many opportunities for healing, his attacks themselves do very heavy damage, he's extremely fast and his stage too small to allow for much manoeuvring, and when you just barely start doing damage to him, he'll go into a supercharged state where he'll get even more aggressive and dish out even ''more'' damage. Oh, and as an added bonus, he's resistant to most elemental weapons. Watch in horror as the Queelag's Furysword that carried you though a good portion of the game deals little more than ScratchDamage to this demonic LightningBruiser.

* Gravelord Nito. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and they respawn constantly until you defeat Nito or [[DeaderThanDead kill them permanently]] with Divine weapons. While you're busy trying to clear them off, Nito himself will start unleashing [[FieldOfBlades gravelord miracles]] at you or even try to take advantage of the situation by swinging his [[SinisterScimitar sword]] at you ([[BadBoss even knocking off some of his minions in the process]]). And, if you're going further into the tomb, be prepared to be assaulted by [[GiantMook Giant Skeletons]], which amp the chaos even further.