The Dark Souls series' tagline is "Prepare to die" for a very good reason- even the first bosses are designed to easily beat players who haven't gotten a hang of the basic mechanics and to demonstrate just how difficult the game as a whole will be.
- Dark Souls, the Spiritual Successor, has a few more examples.
- The Asylum Demon's the first boss in the game. He's also the first enemy that fights back, drops in out of nowhere AND when you meet him it's a No-Gear Level as you've yet to recover your starting equipment. Once you actually take him on with your weapon he's not that bad, but his appearance serves as a wake-up call by itself. Not to mention that if you've already played Demon's Souls you won't be expecting to have to fight him to continue, but you do.
- The Bell Gargoyles are generally considered the first point where a player needs to get good or go home. At your still-relatively low level even taking on one Gargoyle can be a challenge, with its long reach, flying attacks and blindingly-fast tail whips. Then when you get it to half health, a second one appears, and they start blowing fire at you while they shamelessly double-team you. You have to be able to time your attacks to take advantage of openings while dodging threats from multiple angles at once or kiting furiously to keep from being overwhelmed. On the other hand, if you take advantage of your recent meeting with Solaire and summon him to help, the scales tip considerably in your favour (and if you rescued Lautrec and call on his aid as well, the three of you can easily massacre the gargoyles).
- The Capra Demon takes the real crown. He hits hard, he's in an enclosed space and he has backup. If you haven't figured out dodging, blocking or using Aural Decoy to distract his pets you'll go down in a few seconds from a combination of poison damage and his twin colossal machetes.
- The DLC from the Prepare To Die edition opens with the Sanctuary Guardian, who's fast, durable, has a varied move set, inflicts poison damage, shoots lightning, and just does not let up. This introduces you to the boss style for the rest of the new areas, because Black Dragon Kalameet is further along and the storyline bosses aren't much slower or weaker.
- The Gaping Dragon is likely to be the first boss you encounter who doesn't have any form of cheese or easy out. Sure you can call on Solaire and Lautrec as you did for the gargoyles, but this time they're not going to be able to carry you and WILL die if the fight goes on too long. His attacks hit hard and have a wide area of effect, and he even has an attack that can cover the majority of the arena which lowers your equipment durability. If you haven't learned to read your enemies and dodge, or you've not bothered improving upon your gear, you're in for a rough time. Also, if you didn't kill the Channeler on your way through the area, he'll buff the boss and make it even stronger.
- Dark Souls II has the Ruin Sentinels. The bosses up until now aren't pushovers - hell, you've refought Ornstein at this point - but all of them are individuals that can be taken out pretty easily by summoning NPC phantoms and using them as meat shields. The Ruin Sentinels are a trio of fast, dangerous bosses you need to pray that you get to fight one at a time. Summoned NPCs to help? Yeah, they'll aggro all three, sometimes by accidentally knocking you off a ledge. Want to fight them solo? Better get good at reading attacks and crowd management, or you're going to spend a lot of time jogging back from the bonfire.
- Credit also has to go to The Pursuer (at least in the vanilla game), as he's probably the first real hard boss you'll encounter...especially if you run into him in his boss fight: on top of pretty much having to fight a floating Lightning Bruiser in tight quarters, his boss arena has an area where you could potentially fall to your death (he on the other hand, can fly if he goes out of the arena). This is made even harder by the fact that you don't get NPC summons before his fight; unless you can find someone to help you, you're fighting him all on your own...which means you have to get good at reading tells, and to be aware of your environment. And even if by some odd stroke of luck you find someone to play with you, you have to coordinate with each other well so that you don't get hit by the ballista bolts provided to you in his arena. Take heed, that he can, and will destroy your ballistas too.
- Dark Souls III
- Compared to the traditional Warm-Up Boss the other games in the franchise usually give you, Iudex Gundyr isn't a huge, lumbering behemoth with easily-telegraphed attacks, he's a fast, agile and relentlessly-aggressive warrior with massive reach thanks to his halberd who can take even series veterans off-guard. And when you get him to half HP, the Pus of Man begins to spill from his body, which is enough to put the wind up anyone.
- Abyss Watchers have a reputation for this, Vordt, Greatwood, Crystal Sage (unless you’re a sorcerer) and Deacons are all comparatively easy bosses. Then you face the Abyss Watchers. Suddenly a warrior is dashing towards you at breakneck speeds with his Greatsword and Dagger combos, demanding your dodges and attack timings be on point. Then another one shows up! Now you have to manage two aggressive bosses at once! Then another shows up.. which luckily helps you, but if you can’t get the Abyss Watcher HP bar down to zero on time, another will show up who’s hostile. Then you finally slay the Abyss Watchers… only for Phase 2 to begin. Enjoy all of the prior sword combos and dashes again, but now with lingering fire Area of Effect after effects to demand your dodge timings and directions are absolutely on point.
- Pontiff Sulyvahn, a mid game boss, serves as yet another wake up call. A dual sword wielder with seemingly endless combos, lots of off times heavy attacks or lightning fast jab attacks to mix up, quick gap closers, and what feels like very scant openings to punish him in. Then his second phase spawns a shadow Pontiff to deal with, and this is considered the easier phase! If you aren’t good at parrying his attacks (an already difficult mechanic that many players will not use), Pontiff absolutely demands you get good at dodging into attacks and finding openings that aren’t immediately obvious to attack him during. Or else you will die. A lot.
