History ThatOneBoss / DarkSouls

* The Deacons of the Deep are easy on a first playthrough (especially for Strength builds), but on NG+, they become much more aggressive and love to launch their attacks one after another, and it's incredibly easy to get boxed in by them and become impossible to dodge their attacks. They're also a pain for magic builds in general, since it's extremely hard to target them with spells so anyone used to cheesing bosses with magic will be in for a surprise.

* For as early as she appears in the roster, Quelaag is very likely to be this. She can be as early as the fourth boss you face, and she stands as a test of whether you've really mastered the game's mechanics or not. Often enough, she simply runs over to you to do several attacks with her sword, which does fire damage, typically a type that is never completely blocked by any shield, though you can be in good shape if you barely managed to sneak out the Dragon Crest Shield from the Undead Dragon earlier. However, one of her common attacks is for the spider to start spitting huge globules of lava, which sit in the arena for a good several minutes and become another obstacle for you to keep away from. But by far her most dangerous attack, which isn't very well telegraphed and can be confused for the said lava spit, is a burning shockwave around her, much like the Force miracle, that can one-shot you even at full HP if you're standing beside her. As a result, anytime she stops and seems safe to run up to in order to start getting in hits could lead to this attack and seeing "You Died" in the next second after. Thankfully, even if you're not online, you can summon Maneater Mildred just outside her arena if you defeated her phantom earlier.

* Gravelord Nito becomes this if you lack any sort of useful divine weapon. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and unless they are killed with divine weaponry, 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 with divine weapons. One of the most common hints left by other players outside his room is "Need Divine" for a good reason. To add insult to injury, you have to take a pretty big drop to get to Nito's arena, meaning you'll be taking a big chunk of unavoidable fall damage just before the fight starts.
* 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 while you're helpless to do anything about it. Its bizarre anatomy (three [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin big centipedes]] stuck together on a pair of legs?), obscene range, and tendency to jump around make it hard for you to get your bearings and not immediately obvious where you're supposed to aim at. 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.
* 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. It's also despised for being full of FakeDifficulty in a game that usually avoids the trope, primarily because you can't actually damage it with your weapons in order to kill it – you have to run to and destroy three weak points, avoiding virtually-unpredictable and difficult-to-dodge attacks that instakill you by sweeping you into a bottomless pit. They 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 '''single shred of mercy''' this fight has in it is that the weak points don't regenerate if you die, meaning you don't have to start the entire fight from the beginning when you inevitably plummet to your doom. How annoying is this fight? Both Miyazaki and the developers ''apologized'' for this boss after release, saying that it was rushed and wasn't playtested properly.

* Pontiff Sulyvahn. Two incredibly strong elemental swords that he likes to spin around with wild abandon? Check. Summoning a shadow clone when he reaches half his health that he likes to combo his obscenely powerful attacks with? Double check. Fast, agile, and extremely aggressive, allowing scant opportunities for healing? Triple check. Extending the reach of his swords with magic, purposefully delaying his sword strikes to punish quick dodge rolls off the floor, and having little to no tells on his sword lunges and backhanded sword strikes that he tends to use immediately after you attempt to punish his moves? Check and mate. The only small concession is that he's vulnerable to parrying, but if you can't get the tricky parry timing down, be prepared for a hell of a fight as he will mercilessly punish any player mistake. Heavy fire and magic resistances are pretty much mandatory.

* Aldrich, Devourer of Gods is basically much Gwyndolin on steroids [[spoiler:which is rather fitting considering he ''ate'' Gwyndolin and is using his body as a puppet to fight you with]]. Many of his magic attacks are unblockable and do insane amounts of damage, even considering that he's a late-game boss. In particular, his most cruel ability is launching a barrage of magical balls at you before blowing you away with a dark magic shockwave when you get try to dodge the balls by getting close to him. He loves to teleport around the arena when you get close, casting homing magic missiles with excellent tracking whenever he leaves or appears. Oh, he also has a Soul Spear that can go through the pillars, so don't even try to hide. And that's phase one! In phase two he sets himself on fire alongside the ground around him, gains increased damage and can launch a rain of arrows which follows you around the arena for at least 15 seconds and will kill you almost instantly if you get caught in it. If you're not cheesing his attacks with Vow of Silence ([[GuideDangIt or don't know that the miracle can stop several of his attacks]]), get ready for pain.

** If you're fighting her with a one-handed weapon, you can bring your torch in, and keep your lock-on distance. Better get good at rolling, though.

* Raime the Fume Knight from ''Crown of the Old Iron King''. It's telling when you find messages outside his fog wall commenting on misery and sadness ahead, because he's statitically the boss with the highest failure rate in the game. Most of his attacks come in hard and fast with his straight sword, but then occasionally he'll swing his ultra greatsword and either shave off a massive chunk of your life or utterly ruin your stamina. After he's lost about a third of his HP, [[TurnsRed he gets serious]], buffs his ultra greatsword with a dark flame and gains a new, significantly more aggressive moveset that punishes players that either can't time their dodge right or just stand there expecting to block his strikes. Additionally, if you haven't collected the Smelter Wedges throughout the DLC, Nadalia's idols will keep healing him if he's near them, and if you have Veldstadt's helm equipped, Raime will immediately enter his second phase moveset without you hitting the HP threshold.

* The questionable honor of the most hated boss 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, occasionally starting the fight with this attack, which can kill you instantly. 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. The dogs and the arena are the biggest reason why this boss is difficult, which is a relief as you meet seven of them as [[DegradedBoss respawning enemies]] on the way to Lost Izalith, with most of them tightly packed together making picking them off one by one a must. Good thing you can skip the fight via SequenceBreaking, or you can cheese it by bringing a lot of Firebombs and blowing it up past the fog gate, IF you know where the sweet spot is...

* [[DualBoss Ornstein and Smough]] is where many players either become masters or give up. They are essentially designed to be a co-op boss, and either one of them can kill a player in about two hits. It's nearly impossible for non-ranged players playing solo, as neither one will ever shift their attention, giving no windows to attack. To add insult to injury, they are also [[SequentialBoss a sequential boss]], in that if you kill one, the other gains his power and full health.

* Raime the Fume Knight from Crown of the Old Iron King. It's pretty telling when you find messages outside his fog wall commenting on misery and sadness ahead, because he's statitically the boss with the highest failure rate in the whole game. Most of his attacks come in hard and fast with his straight sword, but then occasionally he'll swing his ultra greatsword and either shave off a massive chunk of your life or utterly ruin your stamina. After he's lost about a third of his HP, he gets serious, buffs his ultra greatsword with a dark flame and gains a new, significantly more aggressive moveset that punishes players that either can't time their dodge right or just stand there expecting to block his strikes. Additionally, if you haven't collected the Smelter Wedges throughout the DLC, Nadalia's idols will keep healing him if he's near them, and if you have Veldstadt's helm equipped, Raime will immediately enter his second phase moveset without you hitting the HP threshold.

* ''The Crown of the Old Iron King'' gives us the Fume Knight, better known as Raime, the traitor who clashed with Velstadt. It's pretty telling when you find messages outside his fog wall commenting on misery and sadness ahead. Either way, better hope you have 4 Smelter Wedges, else the four idols of Nadalia will be constantly healing the Fume Knight all during the battle. Got that dealt with? Well then you gotta take on Raime himself, and he's NO pushover, proving why he's the final boss of this DLC. Most of his attacks come in hard and fast with his straight sword, but then occasionally he'll swing his ultra greatsword and either smash off a massive chunk of your life or utterly ruin your stamina. The first half of the battle isn't TOO bad if you can keep up with his swings and get in hits when there's a moment of breath, but don't expect him to give you much. After he's lost about half his HP, [[TurnsRed he gets serious and buffs his ultra greatsword with a dark flame and gains a new, significantly more aggressive moveset]] that whips this gigantic sword, which looks like a massive ''slab of stone'' covered in dark fire, around very quickly. At this point, any hit is going to hurt like hell if not kill you outright. For those brave enough or who find the second phase easier, try wearing the Velstadt Helm and you'll skip right to the second phase as soon as he enters the arena. All that can be said is good luck!
* Each of the DLC has an optional side-boss that requires you to go through a long trek through a gauntlet of enemies and traps, designed to diminish your resources before the actual boss fight. While {{YMMV}}, many can agree that the WORST of this is the fight with Lud and Zallen in ''The Crown of the Ivory King'' DLC. While basically a rematch against Aava, but with two cats this time instead of one, the sheer difficulty is in actually ''GETTING THERE'', as you must trek across an ENORMOUS frozen wasteland that blasts a blizzard and obscures your vision, all the while frozen reindeer stomp in to ruin your day. Even once you get there, you have to deal with Lud for a bit before Zallen enters the fray. While this is, again, a rematch against bosses sharing Aava's moveset, it wasn't as if that fight were a cakewalk to begin with. To make matters worse, Zallen joins the fight sooner the more phantoms you have, making things get hectic VERY quickly. Even when one cat falls, the remaining one will let out a roar that buffs their attack power and grants them HP regeneration for a few moments, prolonging the fight even further. Needless to say, while the reward of a bunch of souls and two boss souls for items is worth it to some, many don't feel that the items gained from the souls in question are all that worth the headache.

* The questionable honor of the most hated boss 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, occasionally starting the fight with this attack, which can kill you instantly. 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. The dogs and the arena are the biggest reason why this boss is difficult, which is a relief as you meet seven of them as [[DegradedBoss respawning enemies]] on the way to Lost Izalith, with most of them tightly packed together making picking them off one by one a must. Good thing you can skip the fight via SequenceBreaking...

* Elana, the Squalid Queen, by herself, is not too bad. She's pretty hard compared to the base game bosses, but not compared to other DLC bosses. Then she summons [[ThatOneBoss Velstadt]]. Yes, Elana ''summons another boss'', one that's already considered particularly difficult (as seen above), as backup. Have fun with that while fighting her solo.

* Elana, the Squalid Queen, by herself, is not too bad. She's pretty hard compared to the base game bosses, but not compared to other DLC bosses. Then she summons [[ThatOneBoss Velstadt]]. Yes, Elana '''summons another boss''', one that's already considered particularly difficult (as seen above), as backup. Have fun with that while fighting her solo.

** This gets even worse if you decide to kill Ornstein second for the Leo Ring. When Smough absorbs Ornstein, he just gains more health and stronger attacks. Ornstein, on the other hand, gains all of this, bloats up to Smough's proportions which enhances the range on his attacks, and, as a result of his new size, adopts a completely different moveset, including the incredibly powerful Lightning Impale shown in the picture above, which will almost certainly one-shot you if it hits.

* The Smelter Demon (pictured) is a good candidate for a ''Dark Souls'' player's worst nightmare of the year. In addition to its metric ton of health, its [[Videogame/SoulCalibur Nightmare-esque]] {{BFS}} with immense range, speed, and damage, and its indifference to most physical damage, it's also the first boss to basically force players to either get a damn good shield, or else outright master the new, harsher dodge timings. As a cherry on top of the flaming, spiked iron cake, it has two traits that specifically punish [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome most players' preferred boss strategies]]. One; shortly into the fight it bursts into flames, slowly chewing through the health of players who like to stay close to punish its openings. And two; it frequently performs a large, telegraphed SwordPlant. [[DefensiveFeintTrap It looks like an easily-exploitable opening]]. [[ZigZaggedTrope Sometimes it genuinely is]]. [[SphereOfDestruction Other times, it isn't]]. It doesn't help that a glitch can trap you against the wall, making you easy pickings. The fight is technically optional, but the only alternative is trudging through the whole of the [[ThatOneLevel Iron Keep]] ''[[MarathonLevel using one bonfire,]]'' so it's [[MortonsFork really a case of pick your poison.]] An oft-overlooked exploit is using Lucatiel of Mirrah (summonable nearby) as a distraction, while loading the Smelter Demon with poison throwing knives. While it by no means makes the fight trivial, it makes it significantly easier and keeps the Demon's focus away from the player.

* Pontiff Sulyvahn (pictured) is pretty much Raime the Fume Knight, Darklurker, and Martyr Logarius from ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' rolled up into a single package of pain incarnate. Two incredibly strong elemental swords that he likes to spin around with wild abandon? Check. Summoning a shadow clone when he reaches half his health that he likes to combo his obscenely powerful attacks with? Double check. Fast, agile, and extremely aggressive, allowing scant opportunities for healing? Triple check. Extending the reach of his swords with magic, purposefully delaying his sword strikes to punish quick dodge rolls off the floor, and having little to no tells on his sword lunges and backhanded sword strikes that he tends to use immediately after you attempt to punish his moves? Check and mate. The only small concession is that he's vulnerable to parrying, but if you can't get the tricky parry timing down, be prepared for a hell of a fight as he will mercilessly punish any player mistake. Heavy fire and magic resistances are pretty much mandatory.

->'''[[VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII Lothric]]''': "This spot marks our grave. [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown You may rest here too, if you like."]]

* Holy Knight Hodrick, the very first NPC encounter in the game and one of the toughest to boot. Encountered at the Dilapidated Bridge bonfire in the Undead Settlement, Hodrick is [[ArtificialBrilliance ridiculously good at parrying]], and will almost always succeed when he tries, setting you up for a ripe riposte. If you try circumventing this by attacking him while he two-hands his Claymore, he'll just hyper-armor his way through your attacks and slaughter you. Finally, if you somehow whittle down his monstrous health and his supply of Estus, he'll cast Warmth to start healing himself again. [[spoiler: The secret encounter with him as part of Sirris' questline is largely the same, except you have half the healing and you have to make sure Sirris lives through it - if she dies, you have to try again]].

* Aldrich, Devourer of Gods is basically much Gwyndolin on steroids [[spoiler: which is rather fitting considering it ''absorbed'' Gwyndolin]]. Many of his magic attacks are unblockable and do insane amounts of damage, even considering that he's a late-game boss. In particular, his most cruel ability is launching a barrage of magical balls at you before blowing you away with a dark magic shockwave when you get try to dodge the balls by getting close to him. He loves to teleport around the arena when you get close, casting homing magic missiles with excellent tracking whenever he leaves or appears. Oh, he also has a Soul Spear that can go through the pillars, so don't even try to hide. And that's phase one! In phase two he sets himself on fire alongside the ground around him, gains increased damage and can launch a rain of arrows which follows you around the arena for at least 15 seconds and will kill you almost instantly if you get caught in it. If you're not cheesing his attacks with Vow of Silence ([[GuideDangIt or don't know that the miracle can stop several of his attacks]]), get ready for pain.

As you progress through the many difficult dungeons in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsII its]] [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII sequels]], it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that at the end of each of them, you'd be rewarded with not-so-difficult pushovers, becoming a textbook case of HardLevelsEasyBosses, [[TemptingFate right?]] Heh, well, [[AvertedTrope that's certainly]] ''[[NintendoHard not]]'' [[NintendoHard the case for]] [[ThatOneBoss these guys]]. '''Unmarked spoilers ahead.'''

Also see the Bloodborne page [[ThatOneBoss/{{Bloodborne}} here.]]

%%NOTE TO TROPERS: DO NOT add any boss that falls under the Final Boss or Bonus Boss category. This applies to bosses that take a lot of time to find (and are hard as hell to beat) and DLC bosses; the latter are clearly designed to be harder than the vanilla game. Please read the trope article in its entirety before considering which boss qualifies.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ornstein-that-one-boss_7929.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Easy Mode? Pffftt! What's that?]]

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[[caption-width-right:292:Standard result of a fight against the Smelter Demon.]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI It's good to be the Pope.]]]]

* [[WolfpackBoss The Four Kings]]. The battle is essentially a damage race to kill each King as quickly as possible before the others spawn while surviving/avoiding their highly damaging magic-based attacks, which is easier said than done because of their HitboxDissonance, and the arena – a pitch-black, infinite, entirely featureless void with absolutely nothing to provide a frame of reference – is extremely disorienting. 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, so that 100% physical block shield that's carried you through the entire game now does nothing.

* 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+, 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 due to how frustrating this boss was to many; ''Scholar of the First Sin'' also makes it so that you no longer have to face the optional boss in the PvP area just to light up the oil lamps in her arena.

* The Moonlight Butterfly is an absolute cakewalk if you have some good ranged options, or can find Beatrice's summon sign (which admittedly isn't easy.) If you come with neither of these, however, get ready for an obnoxious boss who can only be hit in short intervals when it comes within melee range, and who's attacks are entirely magic-based and thus punch right through most armor and shields.

* Gravelord Nito becomes this if you lack any sort of useful divine weapon. He's not that powerful by himself, and most of his attacks are telegraphed. However, [[FlunkyBoss several smaller skeletons accompany him]], and unless they are killed with divine weaponry, 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 with divine weapons. One of the most common hints left by other players outside his room is "Need Divine" for a good reason.

* [[NamesToRunAwayFrom The Hellkite Dragon]] that guards the bridge between the Undead Burg and Undead Parish has a nasty habit of roasting the entire bridge in a 1 hit K.O move that is near impossible to dodge, usually just after knocking you over with a fire blast. And if you do decide to take him down, you have to continually dodge that 1 hit kill fire breath of his and bait him to land on the bridge to actually deal damage. Forget ranged attacks: at lower than 50% health, he starts ''regenerating'' at a rate that will almost certainly outpace your ranged attacks, and is tough to overcome even with melee. Fortunately, killing him is completely optional, and you don't even get anything other than 10,000 souls for doing so, which at the level you're likely to be at if you do kill him, isn't all that much. At the very least you won't have to put up with him again that playthrough.

* The Royal Rat Authority is a FlunkyBoss the size and speed of 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]].

* The first phase of Executioner's Chariot can be extremely frustrating for some, if you decide not to cheese it with ranged attacks. 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 cubbyholes, with your partner slightly further forward, and you will get trampled while your partner is fine.

* While not technically a "boss", the Stray Demon above the Wolf of Farron bonfire has acres of health and will almost certainly oneshot you if it hits you with any of its attacks. If it manages to get you in its grab attack, it also has a nasty habit of ''throwing you off the bridge'', which is instant death.

** This gets even worse if you decide to kill Ornstein second for the Leo Ring. When Smough absorbs Ornstein, he just gains more health and stronger attacks. Ornstein, on the other hand, gains all of this and a completely different moveset, including the incredibly powerful Lightning Impale shown in the picture above, which will almost certainly one-shot you if it hits.

* The boss directly after [[ThatOneLevel Blighttown]], Chaos Witch Quelaag, is this for sorcery-based builds that normally trivialise most bosses. Her magic resistance is very high, so you will run out of soul arrow before she even reaches half health, forcing you to rely on physical damage.

* Your journey to [[ThatOneLevel Lost Izalith]] is filled to the brim with bosses that will make you want to RageQuit. To wit:
** The Ceaseless Discharge. If you're not [[AntiClimaxBoss cheesing the boss around]], then you'll find that he has nothing but powerful moves at his disposal, and his arm flail greatly suffers from HitboxDissonance, often nailing you when you ''think'' you dodged it. Straying too far from him will also prompt him to punish you with a fire blast that's unblockable by all but the mightiest fire-resistant shields.
** The Demon Firesage. While it's mostly just a [[PaletteSwap reskin]] of the [[BonusBoss Stray Demon]] (already a highly souped-up version of the [[WarmUpBoss Asylum 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. Oh, and [[NonIndicativeName its name is completely misleading]], as its attacks are physical and magical, ''not'' fire-based, so coming in expecting to guard against its explosions with fire protection will leave you in a world of hurt.
** 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 while you're helpless to do anything about it. Its bizarre anatomy (three [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin big centipedes]] stuck together on a pair of legs?), obscene range, and tendency to jump around make it hard for you to get your bearings and not immediately obvious where you're supposed to aim at. 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.
** 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. It's also despised for being full of FakeDifficulty in a game that usually avoids the trope, primarily because you can't actually damage it with your weapons in order to kill it – you have to run to and destroy three weak points, avoiding virtually-unpredictable and difficult-to-dodge attacks that instakill you by sweeping you into a bottomless pit. They 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 '''single shred of mercy''' this fight has in it is that the weak points don't regenerate if you die, meaning you don't have to start the entire fight from the beginning when you inevitably plummet to your doom. How annoying is this fight? Both Miyazaki and the developers ''apologized'' for this boss after release, saying that it was rushed and wasn't playtested properly.

* The Pursuer in the Forest of Fallen Giants can be a pain to deal with if you decide to fight him early on. Obscene defense, little room to dodge, and high damage. The ballistas, the only way to reliably hurt him, can easily be broken while you're trying to ready them.

* Despite being an AntiClimaxBoss, the Old Iron King strikes fear into the heart of anyone who doesn't spam lightning miracles at him and are forced to fight him head-on. Punches that can drain your entire stamina bar if you block and flatten you to the ground? Check. Fire breath that also screws with your stamina management? Check. ''A conspicuously small boss arena which he can abuse to knock you into a random crack of lava pool''? Check! It's to the point that many posters on message boards claim that they've died to the Old Iron King's boss arena more than they have to the Old Iron King himself! NG+ (or a patch rework) added a new ability to punish those that liked to snipe from the corner -- a red-hot beam of magma that pierces ''through'' the wall and can knock the player backward [[RunningGag into the nearby lava]].

* While the Looking Glass Knight doesn't seem too bad on it's own, it has a gimmick that arguably slips it toward this. Unless you interrupt it's summon ability in some way (whether it be staggering it, breaking it's shield, or killing it), it can summon other players (with said players doing everything they can to cheap you to death, on top of you having to worry about the knight itself). Worse, the player summon happens much earlier than an [=NPC=] summon.
* [[PantheraAwesome Aava, the King's Pet,]] is what you get when you combine Lightning Bruiser with Confusion Fu. She appears in the Crown of the Ivory King DLC; at close range, her claw-swipe can hit you [[InstantDeathRadius no matter where you're standing in relation to her,]] and she can immediately follow it up with a combo. It can take off most of your health bar in a single hit no matter how tanky you are, meaning even if you're lucky enough to somehow survive the first swipe, the second one WILL kill you if you don't dodge out of the way. But that's not the worst part--the worst part is that at mid range, you're subjected to [[AIRoulette AI Roulette]]; is she going to pounce at you? Is she going to just run up to you and claw you? Is she going to [[GetBackHereBoss run to the opposite side of the arena and pummel you with projectiles?]] Nobody knows! Oh, speaking of that projectile attack, it has absolutely insane tracking, being nearly impossible to dodge unless you chase after her and get behind her. And then she can just run off and do it again on the other side. To make matters worse, she has insane resistance to all non-physical forms of damage, leaving mages in an even worse position--miracles, hexes, pyromancies, sorceries, she resists it all! Even trying to poison her is useless; the mighty [[GameBreaker Dark Fog]] will only poison her for a scant few seconds, not even breaking a hundred hit points of damage (out of thousands). So, since almost every attack she can use can two-shot you at best, and you REALLY want extra damage output on her, you'd be desperately tempted to use the NPC allies that lie in wait directly outside the boss arena. Good idea, right? [[HopeSpot Wrong.]] If you summon the NPC allies, her defense gains a huge multiplier, potentially halving your damage output, which the NPC allies don't make up for, and this multiplier will remain even after she inevitably kills them, meaning [[FromBadToWorse you have to survive her brutal onslaught for even longer.]] Looks like you'll have to solo, buddy. Good luck!

* [[PantheraAwesome Aava, the King's Pet,]] is what you get when you combine Lightning Bruiser with Confusion Fu. She appears in the Crown of the Ivory King DLC; at close range, her claw-swipe can hit you [[InstantDeathRadius no matter where you're standing in relation to her,]] and she can immediately follow it up with a combo. It can take off most of your health bar in a single hit no matter how tanky you are, meaning even if you're lucky enough to somehow survive the first swipe, the second one WILL kill you if you don't dodge out of the way. But that's not the worst part--the worst part is that at mid range, you're subjected to [[AIRoulette]]; is she going to pounce at you? Is she going to just run up to you and claw you? Is she going to [[GetBackHereBoss run to the opposite side of the arena and pummel you with projectiles?]] Nobody knows! Oh, speaking of that projectile attack, it has absolutely insane tracking, being nearly impossible to dodge unless you chase after her and get behind her. And then she can just run off and do it again on the other side. To make matters worse, she has insane resistance to all non-physical forms of damage, leaving mages in an even worse position--miracles, hexes, pyromancies, sorceries, she resists it all! Even trying to poison her is useless; the mighty [[Gamebreaker Dark Fog]] will only poison her for a scant few seconds, not even breaking a hundred hit points of damage (out of thousands). So, since almost every attack she can use can two-shot you at best, and you REALLY want extra damage output on her, you'd be desperately tempted to use the NPC allies that lie in wait directly outside the boss arena. Good idea, right? [[HopeSpot Wrong.]] If you summon the NPC allies, her defense gains a huge multiplier, potentially halving your damage output, which the NPC allies don't make up for, and this multiplier will remain even after she inevitably kills them, meaning [[FromBadToWorse you have to survive her brutal onslaught for even longer.]] Looks like you'll have to solo, buddy. Good luck!

* [[PantheraAwesome Aava, the King's Pet,]] is what you get when you combine Lightning Bruiser with Confusion Fu. She appears in the Crown of the Ivory King DLC; at close range, her claw-swipe can hit you [[InstantDeathRadius no matter where you're standing in relation to her,]] and she can immediately follow it up with a combo. It can take off most of your health bar in a single hit no matter how tanky you are, meaning even if you're lucky enough to somehow survive the first swipe, the second one WILL kill you if you don't dodge out of the way. But that's not the worst part--the worst part is that at mid range, you're subjected to [[AIRoulette]]; is she going to pounce at you? Is she going to just run up to you and claw you? Is she going to [[GetBackHereBoss run to the opposite side of the arena and pummel you with projectiles?]] Nobody knows! Oh, speaking of that projectile attack, it has absolutely insane tracking, being nearly impossible to dodge unless you chase after her and get behind her. And then she can just run off and do it again on the other side. To make matters worse, she has insane resistance to all non-physical forms of damage, leaving mages in an even worse position--miracles, hexes, pyromancies, sorceries, she resists it all! Even trying to poison her is useless; the mighty [[Gamebreaker Dark Fog]] will only poison her for a scant few seconds, not even breaking a hundred hit points of damage (out of thousands). So, since almost every attack she can use can two-shot you at best, and you REALLY want extra damage output on her, you'd be desperately tempted to use the NPC allies that lie in wait directly outside the boss arena. Good idea, right? [[HopeSpot Wrong.]] If you summon the NPC allies, her defense gains a huge multiplier, potentially halving your damage output, which the NPCs don't make up for, and this multiplier will remain even after she inevitably kills them, meaning [[FromBadToWorse you have to survive her brutal onslaught for even longer.]] Looks like you'll have to solo, buddy. Good luck!

* Going through the game with low [[OneStatToRuleThemAll adaptability]] is a challenge at the best of times, but if you're about to tackle the Crown of the Ivory King DLC with low adaptability, you might as well turn back and respec immediately. You see, [[PantheraAwesome Aava, the King's Pet,]] is what you get when you combine Lightning Bruiser with Confusion Fu. At close range, her claw-swipe can hit you [[InstantDeathRadius no matter where you're standing in relation to it,]] and she can immediately follow it up with a combo. It can take off most of your health bar in a single hit no matter how tanky you are, meaning even if you're lucky enough to somehow survive the first swipe, the second one WILL kill you if you don't dodge out of the way. But that's not the worst part, oh no--the worst part is that at mid range, you're subjected to [[AIRoulette]]; is she going to pounce at you? Is she going to just run up to you and claw you? Is she going to [[GetBackHereBoss run to the opposite side of the arena and pummel you with projectiles?]] Nobody knows! Oh, speaking of that projectile attack, it has absolutely insane tracking--the only way to truly GUARANTEE that you don't get hit is to chase after her, using up your precious stamina, and get behind her so that the projectiles won't be able to fire at you. And then she can just run off and do it again on the other side. And since almost every attack she can use can two-shot you at best, you'd be desperately tempted to use the NPC allies that lie in wait directly outside. Good idea, right? [[HopeSpot Wrong.]] If you summon the NPC allies, her defense gains a huge multiplier, potentially halving your damage output, which the NPCs don't make up for, and this multiplier will remain even after she inevitably kills them, meaning [[FromBadToWorse you have to survive her brutal onslaught for even longer.]] Good luck.