Dark Souls II - Bosses
Boss encounters of Dark Souls II in rough order of progression, including the three Crown expansions and the Scholar of the First Sin additions. Four bosses guard Great Souls and open the way to Drangleic Castle, several are optional, and all of them drop souls that can be traded to Straid of Olaphi...
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of 31 entries
· updated 2026-09-15
| Name | Type | Description | Location | Phases | Difficulty | Rewards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Last Giant | Main Boss | A chained, ancient giant who tears his own arm off and beats the player with it in the second phase. | Forest of Fallen Giants | 2 | Low (tutorial boss) | Giant's Kinship Soul of the Last Giant |
| The Pursuer | Main Boss | An armoured knight who hunts the player across the game and can be beaten early on a rooftop or later in the Lost Bastille. | Forest of Fallen Giants and the Lost Bastille | 1 | Moderate (parry-dependent) | Soul of the Pursuer Ring of Blades (from Straid) |
| Dragonrider | Main Boss | A halberd-wielding knight on a circular platform with breakaway edges. | Heide's Tower of Flame | 1 | Low | Soul of the Dragonrider Dragonrider Halberd and Bow (from Straid) |
| Old Dragonslayer | Optional Boss | A deliberate callback to Ornstein from the first game, fought in a narrow cathedral with lightning-infused spear lunges and a leaping slam. | Cathedral of Blue | 1 | Moderate | Soul of the Old Dragonslayer Old Dragonslayer armour set (from Maughlin) |
| Flexile Sentry | Main Boss | A two-headed, two-bodied creature that attacks from both ends, fought in a flooding arena where the water level slowly rises and shortens the safe floor. | No-man's Wharf | 1 | Moderate | Soul of the Flexile Sentry Flexile Sentry weapons (from Ornifex) |
| Ruin Sentinels | Main Boss | Three armoured sentinels fought on a narrow ledge, one at a time at first and then in pairs. | Lost Bastille | 2 | Moderate to high | Soul of the Ruin Sentinels |
| Lost Sinner | Great Soul Boss | A blinded swordswoman in a flooded cell, one of the four Great Soul bosses. | Sinners' Rise | 1 | High | Lost Sinner's Soul Primordial Bonfire |
| Belfry Gargoyles | Optional Boss | A rotating pack fight: two gargoyles at first, with more waking as the fight goes on. | Belfry Luna | 1 | High | Soul of the Belfry Gargoyles Gargoyle Bident (from Ornifex) |
| Skeleton Lords | Main Boss | Three skeletal casters who each summon a squad of skeletons when killed, turning a simple fight into a crowd-control problem. | Huntsman's Copse | 1 | Moderate | Soul of the Skeleton Lords |
| Executioner's Chariot | Optional Boss | A horse-drawn chariot that runs laps through a corridor while skeletal drivers attack from alcoves. | Undead Purgatory | 2 | Moderate | Soul of the Executioner's Chariot |
| Covetous Demon | Main Boss | A bloated, rolling demon that swallows the player and strips their equipment. | Earthen Peak | 1 | Low | Soul of the Covetous Demon |
| Mytha, the Baneful Queen | Great Soul Boss | A decapitated queen who fights in a poison pool. | Earthen Peak | 2 | High (before the windmill is burned) | Old Iron King's Soul path Soul of Mytha |
| Smelter Demon | Optional Boss | A living furnace with a fire-infused blade whose third phase sets its own body alight and adds fire damage to every attack. | Iron Keep | 2 | High | Smelter Demon Soul Smelter Sword (from Ornifex) |
| Old Iron King | Great Soul Boss | A massive molten giant rising out of a lava pool, fought on a narrow platform with a fatal pit on one side. | Iron Keep | 1 | Moderate | Old Iron King's Soul |
| Scorpioness Najka | Main Boss | A scorpion-woman hybrid who burrows and emerges behind the player, mixing poison tail stabs with soul arrows. | Shaded Woods | 1 | Moderate | Soul of Scorpioness Najka |
| Royal Rat Authority | Optional Boss | A giant rat supported by four smaller rats that inflict toxic. | Doors of Pharros | 1 | Moderate to high | Soul of the Royal Rat Authority |
| The Duke's Dear Freja | Great Soul Boss | A two-headed spider that fires soul beams from its heads and summons smaller spiders from the caves. | Brightstone Cove Tseldora | 2 | High | Great Soul Soul of the Duke's Dear Freja |
| Royal Rat Vanguard | Optional Boss | A swarm of rats led by one larger rat with a mohawk. | Grave of Saints | 1 | Low to moderate | Soul of the Royal Rat Vanguard |
| The Rotten | Great Soul Boss | A heap of corpses welded into a body, swinging a cleaver and vomiting poison. | Black Gulch | 2 | Moderate to high | Great Soul Soul of the Rotten |
| Looking Glass Knight | Main Boss | A mirror-armoured knight who summons player phantoms out of his shield, which makes the fight genuinely different online and offline. | Drangleic Castle | 1 | High | Soul of the Looking Glass Knight Mirror Knight set (from Maughlin) |
| Demon of Song | Main Boss | A frog-like creature hidden inside a human-faced shell that must be broken before the body can be damaged. | Shrine of Amana | 2 | Moderate | Soul of the Demon of Song |
| Velstadt, the Royal Aegis | Main Boss | King Vendrick's armoured guardian, a slow greathammer boss who buffs himself with dark in the second phase. | Undead Crypt | 2 | High | King's Ring Soul of Velstadt |
| Ancient Dragon | Optional Boss | An enormous dragon fought on a rooftop platform, with fire breath that covers most of the arena and a stomp that can knock the player off the edge. | Dragon Shrine | 1 | Very high | Giant's Soul Soul of the Ancient Dragon |
| Giant Lord | Main Boss | The giant commander fought inside a memory, in an arena littered with broken pillars and ballistae. | Memory of Jeigh | 1 | Moderate | Giant's Soul Soul of the Giant Lord |
| Throne Watcher and Throne Defender | Main Boss | A paired boss fight against a greatsword knight and a greatshield guardian who revive each other if not killed close together. | Throne of Want | 1 | High | Soul of the Throne Watcher Soul of the Throne Defender |
| Nashandra | Final Boss | The queen of Drangleic in her true form as a fragment of Manus, fighting with dark orbs, a scythe and curses that reduce maximum health. | Throne of Want | 2 | High | Soul of Nashandra Ending choice at the Throne of Want |
| Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin | Optional Final Boss | The added Scholar of the First Sin boss, a burning tree-like entity who appears after Nashandra if the player has followed his storyline through the three Crown expansions and the Ancient Dragon. | Throne of Want | 1 | Very high | Scholar of the First Sin ending Soul of Aldia |
| Fume Knight | DLC Boss | Raime, the Fume Knight, dual-wields a straight sword and an ultra greatsword and is widely considered the hardest boss in the game. | Brume Tower (Crown of the Old Iron King) | 2 | Extreme | Fume Knight Soul Fume Ultra Greatsword and Fume Sword (from Ornifex) |
| Sir Alonne | DLC Boss | A samurai swordsman who fights with a katana and a fast gap-closing lunge, in a duel that is almost entirely about reading his iaido draw. | Memory of the Old Iron King (Crown of the Old Iron King) | 1 | Very high | Sir Alonne's Soul Blacksteel Katana upgrade materials |
| Burnt Ivory King | DLC Boss | A king who rises out of a chaos portal with a burning greatsword, after a preamble where the player and allied Loyce Knights fight off his knights. | Eleum Loyce (Crown of the Ivory King) | 2 | Extreme | Burnt Ivory King Soul Ivory King Ultra Greatsword (from Ornifex) |
| Darklurker | Optional Boss | A hidden boss reached only by joining the Pilgrims of Dark and clearing all three Dark Chasms. | Dark Chasm of Old | 2 | Extreme | Darklurker Soul Pilgrims of Dark covenant completion |
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