In classic FromSoftware fashion, the Lands Between of Elden Ring are infested with many enemies that can easily make your game a living hell.
- Once again, dogs are incredibly annoying pests that will likely cause a not insignificant number of deaths in a soulslike. Extremely fast, prone to hit between your attacks, then run away to do it all over again. While they are able to be handled one-on-one, they're almost never encountered on their own. It doesn't matter how fragile they are when there are two or three of them staggering their attacks in order to stunlock you into oblivion. And unlike previous games, they continue to be present with ever-increasing HP and damage all the way until the end of the game, including dogs that can inflict status effects like Bleed or Scarlet Rot on top of the normal stunlocking Death by a Thousand Cuts.
- Bleed dogs in particular have a bite combo that, due to a bug at launch, hit you for every frame you spend inside the hitbox, resulting in your health bar instantly evaporating no matter how much Vigor you had or how heavy your armor was if even one hit connects. Even if you blocked it with a shield that had 100% Physical block and 100 Guard Boost, you would still die instantly due to having the Bleed proc repeatedly, so the best course of action was to bait out the combo and punish them when they were done, or just kill them before they even had a chance to start. Much easier said than done when there's more than one of them, and though they thankfully don't show up in very many locations, the few locations they do show up in have a lot of them. Thankfully, the bug was fixed in Patch 1.04; now they can "only" kill you about as fast as any other kind of dog (though still faster than most, due to the Bleed buildup).
- Runebears are one of the most feared and hated enemies in the early game, and for good reason. They are effectively a Boss in Mook's Clothing in most areas, with only one getting a proper boss health bar. They are absurdly aggressive with their attack patterns, and their swings and bites have a wider hitbox than they visually appear to, which can lead to things like being damaged while standing behind or underneath them or slightly mistiming a dodge and taking full damage. They are also terrifyingly fast and tanky. Even a mid-to-lategame player will have their hands full when fighting one of them. But they're not just in the early game and, like other enemies, their stats scale based on area. Worst of all? Even when you're victorious, the loot is awful, so it's almost never worth the effort of fighting them.
- Knight enemies are, as per tradition, some of the toughest regular enemies in the game. Some examples include:
- Banished Knights, first found in Stormveil Castle. Your first encounter with one is treated as almost a mini-boss, and from there they continue to be treated as Elite Mooks across the game yet also appear frequently enough to be a major threat to progressing. They come equipped with different weapons, such as halberds and swords, each one possessing Weapon Arts that involve essentially twirling their weapon, creating a small wind gust that not only hurts you, but they then follow-up with powerful attacks. The ones with shields are also very defensive and prone to shield bashing, and still hit very hard regardless, especially when they appear alongside others to create a Sadistic Choice in terms of engagement. It feels as though the game encourages you to sneak around them more than engage them in straight up combat, helped by the fact they have very large predictable patrol patterns and don't aggro nearly as easily as the other castle enemies.
- Banished Knights reappear in Castle Sol, where they not only hit like trucks, but are also ghosts, and therefore have the ability to Teleport Spam. This means that cheesing them with a bow or magic from a safe spot is completely off the table, since there are no safe spots, they will simply teleport to wherever you are. In addition to being much stronger than their Stormveil counterparts due to being scaled up for the area, they also move quite fast, being able to close the distance in a half a second after engaging. Not only that, but their wind attacks all inflict Frostbite, upgrading their status from "truck" to "train" once it procs. The boss of the area, Commander Niall, immediately summmons two of these Knights to assist him upon entering his arena, and if you let them live long enough, he will even buff them up! But the worst thing of all about them is that there are exactly two Knights in the entire castle wearing the very fashionable unaltered Banished Knight chestpiece, and they are the only two enemies in the entire game that drop it. They are also more powerful and aggressive than even the other ghostly Knights around the castle, so if your character's fashion demands this chestpiece, you are in for a lot of painful farming.
- Appearing only as regular enemies in the mid-late to late game, Cleanrot Knights are encountered as boss enemies in the early to mid-game, and for good reason. First of all, they all come equipped with Cleanrot Rapiers in their offhand, which despite being intended as a sidearm is quite a powerful weapon (a rare example of a rapier that scales primarily with Strength, should you obtain it), yet is still the least threatening thing about them. Their main hand weapons are what you really need to watch out for, which will be either a Cleanrot Spear or a Halo Scythe. Spear-wielders can block your attacks and generate a Field of Blades out of holy magic, but their most dangerous attack is when their entire spear starts glowing and they charge at you, following it up with a sword thrust, which is a grab attack that deals high damage with the physical strikes and then instantly inflicts Scarlet Rot should it connect. Scythe-wielders are less dangerous, but way more annoying, as they prefer to stay at range and constantly fling discs of holy magic that fly in a weird arc that is sometimes difficult to dodge, though if you get close, their scythes cause the always-deadly Bleed status. Both versions also pack a Zombie Puke Attack that causes Scarlet Rot, but they thankfully don't use it very often. The ones in the Aeonia Swamp aren't that bad as they're heavily nerfed (only about on par with a Cuckoo or Redmane Knight stats-wise) and you have Torrent to bypass or hit-and-run- them, but the ones at the Snowfield and Haligtree are the strongest generic knight-type enemies in the game (except the even rarer Haligtree Knights), capable of killing even endgame builds in a few hits and having more HP than most early game bosses. Your saving grace is that you almost never encounter more than one or two at a time, whereas other knight-type enemies tend to come in groups of either other knights or weaker soldier-type enemies.
- Leyndell Knights have the third highest stats of any generic knight enemies (after the aforementioned Haligtree-variant Cleanrot and Haligtree Knights) and throw in lightning incantations in the already-lethal Lordsworn Knight moveset. Unsurprisingly, Leyndell is rife with them and they are often accompanied by Leyndell Soldiers (who are the second strongest generic version of Soldiers and are prone to throwing Spark Ariomatics on top of their usual attacks). They're also the only knights that use the greatbow in any notable numbers, often sniping you with lightning arrows that can stagger and knock you down while having to fend off the other knights.
- Bladed Warhawks in Stormveil Castle deserve special mention. On top of being flying enemies, they hit surprisingly hard with their bladed talons and their beak on a very quick succession, the latter can stunlock you. They are also very fast, making them hard to hit. On a certain section of the castle, they can throw explosive barrels at you (thankfully only once) and on another section, there is another variant of these birds which has an additional fire breath attack with all the aforementioned tricks. Have fun.
- Revenants. These centipede-like Humanoid Abomination creatures fight like a combination of the Skeletal Beasts from Dark Souls and the Scourge Beasts from Bloodborne, being highly aggressive beast like humanoids who start showing up around Liurnia and remain a bane for the player the entire rest of the game. They are fast, incredibly strong, hit very hard and have deceptively high mobility, to the point of being able to lock a player down with a constant stream of attacks that will easily kill you from full HP. Even worse, they can Teleport Spam and spit an acid-like poison that remains for a few seconds after being fired, making it very difficult to escape from them. Revive Kills Zombie is in effect here, and they will be heavily damaged by healing spells, but good luck getting one off while it's in the middle of delivering the E. Honda Hundred Hand Slap to your face, and you're completely up the creek if you don't have any Faith investment to speak of. They also tend to be accompanied by Wraith Callers that constantly harass you with their ranged attacks while you're trying to fight. There is a section of Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree that is affectionately known as "Revenant hell", where you can encounter up to five of these nasty things back-to-back as you explore the area, and it's only made tolerable by permitting use of Spirit Ashes in there.
- Giant Crayfish are extremely nasty. Unlike their cousins they're very fast for their size and much less predictable while hitting every bit as hard as their counterparts, and with several times the HP to boot. Add in a difficult-to-avoid hard hitting ranged attack and an incredibly lethal grab attack and you've got a recipe for an enemy that's harder than many bosses. Mercifully most of them are optional and don't drop much noteworthy loot, so there's not much incentive to fight them.
- Mostly appearing in the Caria Manor, and sporadically in later levels, Fingercreepers not only tend to hide and attack players without a keen eyes a la mimics, but also hit hard and hit fast, and often in succession, with very little breathing room for for healing or offense. In addition, the ones in Caria Manor also possess a heat-seeking spell that, without a well-timed dodged, will leave the player vulnerable to their attacks. The one saving-grace is that they very weak to fire damage... With the exception of the massive fingercreeper at the Mountaintops of the Giants, which happens to be the most dangerous of its kind, which it demonstrates by ambushing the other demonic spider Giant Crow with an OHKO. Not only is it immune to flinching from fire, but the reward for defeating it is poor, and it respawns, though thankfully it's avoidable, but even with that weakness they are still a force to be reckoned with.
- Giant Crows take a lot of firepower to bring down, have a large stature that makes their hitboxes sometimes tricky to hit, and have very hard-hitting attacks like a deadly peck that punishes you as you try to roll away. You first see them in Caelid and they're enough of a pain to dissuade you from fighting them head-on. They also have a stronger version in the blood swamp at Mohgwyn's Palace that is smart enough to fake a stagger to attack players trying to get a free hit on them. You may be able to see one from the Site of Grace at the local Peninsula of Power Leveling that can be goaded off a cliff for easy runes, but if you want to actually explore the area and face the Nameless White Mask invasions, you'll have to figure out how to fend off or navigate around the others. Oh, and there's bleed dogs in the vicinity just to give you another threat to handle.
- Kindred of Rot are pure evil, especially if you ended up in the Sellia Tunnel at an early level thanks to the trick chest in Dragon Burnt Ruins. On top of hitting very fast, and very hard, with very small and specific dodging windows; they also have an incredibly long reach with their spears. Not too bad. Except they also love spamming the Pest Threads incantation that shoots out 22 needle-like projectiles at you, that can curve around your shield, hit you on the complete opposite side of the cave when trying to escape or on a ladder, and, they shoot it off frequently enough to where it's almost impossible to get a hit in, or you have just enough time to block only to tank a hit from a spear because they got behind you.
- Flame Chariots. Often found in encampments of otherwise-manageable enemies and knights, these giant contraptions are surprisingly quick, can blast you with volleys of flame from a distance and are very resistant to damage except for the driver on the back. Trying to get in and hit the driver is very risky, however, as the Flame Chariot can turn around very quickly and start unleashing its even-deadlier close-range flame sprays, sometimes while spinning around wildly, leaving you very little room to maneuver. A merchant's note indicates they have a weakness in their exhaust port atop their head, but it also admits that this port is very difficult to reach.
- Iron Virgins have quickly gained notoriety as one of the toughest enemies in the game, boasting incredible health pools and, depending on their weapon, insanely long range with attacks that go through obstacles/walls and hit again on the return trip, or incredibly dangerous multi-hit attacks and fast bullrushes. They do have a weak point, but it only opens up after they stagger (difficult to accomplish) or during their infamous grab attack. The game also does not shy away with peppering these enemies in the worst places, even regularly dropping them in pairs (though funnily enough, given how easy it is to trick them into hitting nearby friendlies, multiple Iron Virgins are sometimes easier to deal with than attacking them one-on-one). The game practically encourages you to just ignore or evade them, when possible.
- In a far-off corner of Caelid, on a small ledge accessed by precarious platforming across tree roots and small platforms, lies a special Golem enemy, resting near an artist spirit. If you get too close, it awakens, and unlike its Golem cousins it will barrage you with magic lasers, and attacking its ankles will not cause it to stagger like the others. It doesn't drop anything unique, only giving out a small handful of Runes on defeat. Many players don't bother fighting, as the platforming to get down there is tedious enough, and you can collect the artist spirit's reward without ever awakening the Golem.
- Skeletons wearing black hoods, which wield either Glaives or Executioner's Greataxes, are inexplicably far stronger and tankier than any other kind of skeleton (with the obvious exception of the giant skeletons summoned by late-game Tibia Mariners), with nigh-unbreakable poise. Even the skeleton knights in armour with swords and shields are somehow less tough. Admittedly, said armour is about as decayed as they are, but it should still provide better protection than some rotten old cloak with a hood. The elite Skeletal Beastmen in Crumbling Farum Azula take the cake, being far tougher than their peers and gaining a fire breath attack to force you out of melee range!
- Ancestral Followers with bows are, while thankfully rare, some of the most reviled enemies in the game. They're difficult to spot due to being spectral enemies who only come into view when you're nearby, and fire homing Dwelling Arrows that deal enough damage to one-shot even mid-game players and travel so fast they might as well be hitscan. They can single-handedly make traversing the Siofra River and the above-ground Uhl Palace Ruins almost unbearable as they snipe you again and again from hundreds of feet away.
- Singing Bats have more health than regular Giant Bats, are just as agile, and love to spam poison powder at you if you're at anything less than point-blank range with them. Exacerbating the issue is their grab attack which has a long range and does absurd damage for a regular enemy, leading to a lot of cheap deaths. They're almost guaranteed to be backed up by several Giant Bats as well, giving them all the more freedom to send wave after wave of poison your way.
- Ant-riding Swordstresses are a nasty take on the horseback knights. The ants themselves are agile enough to dodge projectiles, can spit acid and love to run circles around you while the Swordstress strikes at you from range with their whips. And should you defeat the ant, the Swordstress itself if still a very agile enemy that continues to whip you from afar.
- Perfumers. Do you remember how good the fireworks prosthetic was in Sekiro? To the point that most players never used anything else? Well, that's basically what their main attack is, only instead of stunning you it just hurts a lot, and then hurts a lot again once it actually detonates, and it covers a large enough area that you can't really roll through or jump over it to get at them without taking at least some damage. They're pretty squishy once you actually can land a hit, but good luck getting close enough. They can also put up a bubble shield around themselves and every other enemy in the vicinity that reduces all damage they take to Scratch Damage until you shatter it. There are also the Depraved Perfumers, who can't put up the bubble shield but are far more aggressive with their attacks, can heal themselves seemingly as many times as they want, and huff Bloodboil Aromatic to buff their attack power. Shaded Castle is absolutely lousy with them.
- Pages. Very often they will ambush you with their Estoc, surprisingly high poise for their equipment to get in combos with it against most weapons and has surprising reach, and worst of all is their crossbow which fires highly-damaging Perfumer's Bolts. They also come in an Elite Mook variety called High Pages which are far tankier and wield Pulley Crossbows, which are this game's version of the Avelyn, letting them rapid-fire the same highly-damaging bolts in volleys of three. Both versions also love to hang out with the above mentioned Perfumers.
- The Omens, especially the horned variant, have a ton of health, immense poise and an attack pattern that rarely leaves them vulnerable for more than a second at a time, making them extremely frustrating to face in melee combat. Some of them can also use magic attacks in case you thought you can whittle them down at range. They can be harder than many major bosses, especially if encountered in pairs, and they also guard various junctions in the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. The only saving grace is that they are especially vulnerable to the Shadow Bait incantation, which creates a shadowy figure they'll focus all their attacks on for a few seconds and let you sneak past.
- Albinauric archers appear sparsely in the Consecrated Snowfield, but are deadly where they are found. They have an astounding sight range and can shoot you from outside your lock-on range, and the snowy climate makes it difficult to see them from afar before they attack. They also are never alone — multiple arrows from different directions makes it very hard to approach them. One variant is also a wolf-rider so it has amazing mobility to go with the ability to fire barrages of arrows. And since this is a bonus side-area, these arrows hurt, and they have unusually high health to boot. You'll have to maneuver around two to three of them all sniping you from the rooftops of Ordina if you want to access the Bonus Dungeon.
- The Oracle Envoys at Miquella's Haligtree are incredibly annoying to deal with compared to their Leyndell appearance. They are far more numerous and tend be grouped together, you are on rather slender and uneven terrain where one wrong step means instant death, many times they will be on platforms you can't immediately reach (which will be a massive pain for anyone without a ranged attack of some kind), and you also will have to deal with Scarlet Rot spitting ants and Miranda Sprouts. This area also has Giant Oracle Envoys, which are so big that they can't flinch from quick hits like the other two variants. One in particular will blast a barrage of homing bubbles at you at range near some incredibly annoying ants, meaning you have to juggle between dodging from behind and in front while being mindful of having enough Flask charges and other goods to deal with potential scarlet rot buildup.
- The Wormfaces, if you cannot weave past their surprisingly poor aggro range. Even the lesser ones have a metric ton of health, spew clouds of Death Blight in alarmingly multiple ways, and drop virtually nothing of worth, on top of looking hella creepy and having a disgusting grab attack.
